ORIGIN

Oh, so that's how this one wanted things to be.

Far from the largest Gembound to grace the caves, East was all too aware of his particular link in the caves' unfortunate food chain: above colorful songbirds, thieving mice, and the smallest of miscellaneous vermin; awkward bedfellows with paranoid nose-twitching rabbits; and below most anything else fanged and clawed and possessing a taste for feathered meals. That knowledge a constant companion, it'd take more than being eyed at like a convenient toothpick to rattle his slender spine. Mocking judgment and a threatening display caused saliva to gain a bitter note in his hooked beak; this flavor he did not allow to grace the words that left it, those instead kept friendly if somewhat more honeyed than before.

"Nah, I wouldn't entertain that even in my dizziest daydreams. Never been much for biting and bruising—not really my style. Now you?" He nodded at the spiked brute with a low, appreciative whistle. "Bet you've already done that and then some. Had to have been like crushing pebbles for you with those muscles, am I right?"

No need to rise to disappointingly low bait. The cocksure were ever so more willing to crow when they believed themselves to be unrivalled, a characteristic readily available for a sleuth's exploitation.