ORIGIN

Standing tall with her ears perched as high as they can go, Svenna listened painfully close to the sounds that echoed through the chambers. It was all a blur of noise, the sounds echoing and bouncing off every wall and winding around the cracks and crevices. Hunting was a difficult and frustrating task when you were almost the same size as the prey. The cave rats here were large and if she wasn't careful they could, and would, take a life threatening snap at her vital extremities. Just earlier that week she got into a tussle with a rodent that left shallow claw marks down her midsection. Had those vicious jaws gotten ahold of her throat, well, it would have been game over.

There seemed to be a rustle to her left, just inside the next chamber opening. The hyena girl closed her pale rust eyes and breathed in a slow breath, trying to focus her inner heat downwards towards her paws. The magic seemed to be working, just barely. Paw pads were uncomfortably warm, when lifted they left faint outlines of char on the ground. Flexing her toes, black nails digging into the burning soil, she prepared herself to launch through the opening and onto whatever it was making the noise...

With a flick of her tail she was off, the cub entered the room almost completely silent in her stalk, and leapt towards a shadow that had only seconds to prepare for attack. It was a smaller rat which was unfortunate for Svenna, if it had been just a bit larger it wouldn't have been able to squeeze through the crack in the wall like it did to escape her ambush. Her magic slipped from her conscious, the heat quickly left her paws feeling sore and maybe a bit blistered. All was still good. Shifting her eyes to examine the rest of the room, her stout maw pointed upwards and she caught sight of a shadow perched on a higher (and reachable) ledge.

If Svenna would ever exhibit a positive emotion, it was here, a corner of her black lips twitched upwards in silent glee. It wasn't over just yet, she wouldn't have to spend another hour tracking something edible down again. Crouching down low, the spotted cub crept forward as silent and slow as her anxious body could muster.

Stepping up onto the stone incline, Svenna saw the gleam of gems surrounding the dark lump at the top of it's perch. She never ate a bird before, but it was about the right size for supper and her stomach wasn't going to be picky. It seemed the fellow was a bit of a hoarder anyway, she had no idea why one needed to collect gems and gleaming stones. It was a bit morbid, wasn't it? Weren't they the same life force that supplied magic to the gembound? The cub only assumed so, she hadn't yet witnessed someone lose their attached gem but it couldn't be a good thing. Her body was repulsed by the idea of losing her thulite collar just as it was repulsed by the idea of losing her head.

Lips curling upwards to reveal thick, pointy juvenile fangs Svenna stalked forward inch by inch. Careful of placing her paws on solid ground and not the slippery stones that were scattered about. No growl was accompanied by her approaching offense, she didn't want to wake the sleeping winged rat. But no matter her stealth, the beastie woke and of course was startled. It extended it's wings and a racket escaped it's mouth so raspy that Svenna didn't realize they were actual words.

He picked up a bone that was placed next to his roost and flung it her way. Jumping to the side Svenna narrowly avoided the assault without falling off the ledge. Normal prey would flee when being attacked but this one stuck around and she found that a bit odd. But looking at the pile of gems, perhaps it had thought she'd want the treasure. No, she wanted a meal.

Svenna leapt at him, being as careful as she could to not fall off the ledge. She aimed a paw at his center to try and smash him down to the ground but failed to make good contact. Now she was no longer quiet but a spotted flash of snarling, charred fur.

The bird's persistent squawks only fueled her blistering rage, why was food being so difficult today? The cub watched the black figure rise up, a shining gem clenched in one claw as it's noisy mouth filled the stuffy air. It beat it's wings and Svenna could have sworn she saw a flash of light come from the beast's body, but passed it off as a mere reflection of light off the held stone. The hyena yapped a snarl as the feathered meal came down to her level again to fly around her head, it's wings beating wind all around her.

Irritated, the brute girl tried her luck at swatting him down once again. This time she made successful, if only just, contact with one of his wings. The bump may have been enough to send him falling back to the ledge where Svenna would take the chance to pin him while carefully avoiding that thick knife of a beak.

Her slight clipping of his wing was enough to send the bird falling back to the ground in a fury of awkward flaps and flails as he tried to balance his flight. Right into the pile of gems and bones, Svenna's only cheer was a snarl and she launched forward to pin the dinner to the ground and bite his head clear off... only as she got mere inches away from finishing the deed, the creature's clenching and unclenching feet caught her attention. There was a gleam there, but not from something he was holding.

The bird's desperate and loud shrieks were slowly starting to make sense as words to Svenna's small vocabulary. His way of speaking was strange, very, very strange but there were words. Comprehensible words being screamed from that beak of his. One of his claws was replaced by a gem, a bright purple one at that. Leaning in close and snapping her jaws shut threateningly, Svenna meant to only spook the bird now. Showing how easily it would have been to eat him just then. It felt wrong and she wouldn't bring herself to do it.

Wrong to eat something with an attached gem just like hers. It wasn't something the girl was ready to carry around on her conscience. "Got ya," she hissed, cruelly but with a boastful amount of amusement. Her own voice was a shock, it wasn't often she said anything at all. Backing up slowly, she waited to see how the creature would react. Prepared for a fight, she knew a gem meant magic, and it was doubtful the bird wasn't pissed at being roughed up?

She had got the raven good in her cruel "prank". But it wasn't a true prank, she really had all the intentions of making the bird her meal. The hyena considered taking it back and just snapping his neck anyway out of necessity of food... and noise pollution. The gembound was making a hell of a show.

Backing up even further and plastering her wide, round ears to the back of her skull to muffle the noise, her snout curled in distaste. "Silence!" she snapped, stomping a paw in his direction for dramatic purpose. Flexing her claws into the ground, she pulled her paw back raking a tiny pile of dirt and a loud scratching noise as her nails scraped against stone. The feathered heathen was screaming something about a king, it piqued her interest but she called his bluff and dismissed it with a snort. King, though? She'd like to fight a king one day. One day when her abilities were more under control. And once a king wouldn't buffoon over her challenge (being a juvenile and all).

"I was going to eat you," she announced, her voice a low, masculine growl. "Then I saw that stone. Not today, winged rat."

Her pale red eyes wandered over his treasure of bones and gems. Svenna tilted her head in question, an eyebrow raising, but did not speak her thoughts. Why did he have all this garbage stashed up in his nest?