ORIGIN

Sebastian purred happily, glad to be of use. His tail twitched--he loved helping his brother, and it had been ages since they hunted together. Since they ate together--Rift preferred plants and photosynthesis, while Sebastian could eat nothing but meat. So it made meal-times awkward, seeing as Sebastian had to hunt while Rift merely had to cast his Magic or forage.

He carefully picked his way up to stand at Rift's side, stumbling as he mis-stepped, stepping clear off a branch several times, having to catch himself quickly. Sebastian purred, licking at Rift's ear, giving him a cheeky grin at the look on Rift's face. "Still prefer plants?" he chuckled, rumbling low in his plants, before coughing. Okay, yeah, that hurt.

As he chewed, he watched Sebastian without really seeing. The reason he had stopped eating meat before was because he had grown more appreciative of the nature of life. Each time he ate, he killed another creature, an innocent creature, just to satisfy his desires. It revolted him and so he began eating the plants. But then his love for plants kicked in and he found himself unable to stomach most leaves and started photosynthesizing instead. But that simply wasn't satisfying enough. His body yearned for a proper diet.

And, really, it was all connected after all. It was the way of the world that he had to eat creatures. Perhaps after seeing such horrible death and destruction, after cycles of living off of nothing but sunlight, it really didn't matter that he was killing and eating one that could not think or speak. And it wasn't a murder, right? He was doing it only to sate his needs.

He flinched at Sebastian's words and quickly swallowed. "It isn't bad," he admitted. "But yes, fruit is sweet and plants are fresh. I prefer those over blood and meat." But he would still be incorporating meat back into his diet.

He licked his lips and began cleaning his whiskers. He gestured towards the remains of the carcass. "You can have the rest. We should probably return home soon."

The panther groomed as he waited for his brother to finish eating, licking his paws before bringing it up to wipe the feathers and blood off of his muzzle. When he was a cub it had bothered him, they were Lesser gembounds, not sapient nor sentient, but it was still killing. But he had grown used to it over his many Cycles, becoming almost numb to the death of Lessers. He still paid them the respect they deserved, didn't kill more than he needed, and didn't put his prey through any more fear or pain than he had to. His kills were swift, and often they didn't know he was there before they were dead.

But Rift, he knew, wasn't a fan of eating Gembounds, a given considering he lived off of plants and sunlight. "I understand," he grinned, knowing better than to chuckle after trying to do so a moment ago. "Honestly, I wish I could live off of those as well, but... I've tried and it didn't go well." and this time he wheezed a laugh, remembering how sick he had gotten after a few weeks, weak and malnourished and completely miserable.

"Thank you," he murmured, and ate the rest of the carcass, taking a moment to groom his muzzle clean once he was done. "Race you home?"

@Rift

It didn't take too long for Rift to finish cleaning himself up. He chuckled a bit and tried to imagine Sebastian eating plants and spitting them out with disgust. He remembered his first time trying to eat a fruit. It had tasted good, but his stomach had chucked it out less then an hour later. "You need magic to digest plants. We weren't meant to eat plants, but, well, magic always finds a way." Sometimes he wondered if he should stop, if only to preserve the natural order. He was, after all, built to be a predator. He was meant to hunt and kill. But his vegetarian diet hadn't completely ruined the ecosystem yet, so he would continue to do so, or, perhaps, switch to an omnivorous one.

As soon as Sebastian mentioned the word race, he got to his feet. "Sure!" He turned in the direction of their home and crouched on the branch, looking for the best path through the trees. Even if Sebastian went on the ground to run, he was swift in the trees and these mutations really did help to keep him stable while he was hopping from branch to branch.

"Ready? ...Go!" He called out and dove forward, grabbing branch after branch, running as fast as he could through the trees back towards their home tree.

Sebastian chuckled, shaking himself out. "Suppose I will have to learn some, then. I'd like to." and he would, although he didn't think he'd ever give up on meat, he loved it too much. But hunting was hard, he'd quickly discovered, with poor depth perception, and so until he could get the hang of it being able to consume plants would be able to supplement his meals.

To his glee, Rift agreed to a race, and gathered himself to run. Sebastian did the same, digging his claws in as he prepared to launch himself. Oh, this would be fun!

The green puma counted them off, and they took off. A branch, then two, and he was falling. The panther twisted, landing on his paws and gathered himself to start running again.