ORIGIN - Hellfire

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Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

[owl pellets are nasty, man]

Huma was fond of sleeping curled up next to Aerie or playing with the shiny things Momma might find (but they weren't food, as she kept forgetting -- Momma brought food separately), but sometimes a little bird just needed to wander. However, she wasn't very big or very strong, and so leaving the safety of her densite was... generally a poor idea. Not that she was really cognizant of that just yet. She was toddling along through the ferns, trying to follow a flash of movement she'd seen earlier.

The red mouse was far too fast for her to catch, but seemed to almost be having fun with this little game. The owlet was too small to pose a threat to him, after all, and so the little mouse was happy to dart back and forth just outside her view and then skitter away when she got closer. He'd probably get more anxious than silly later, but for now he was teasing her.

A stop was put to this game when she felt the pressure in the base of her throat reminiscent of a pellet coming up. Huma coughed, hacking up the packed mess of bones and fur and undigestible material onto the ground. Now that this particular space had been desecrated, she was bored of it, and flapped her little wings fruitlessly. Not that she could fly, of course, but the stretching of them was still fun! The gray ball of down and awkward angles hopped over to a bush and started trying to climb into it. Maybe she'd take a nap...

@comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet jogged happily through the peaceful forest of Eridanus. Her belly was full, and her mind was filled with possibilities of what she could do. That was when she spotted something rather unusual in the forest, an owl chick. It was chasing a red mouse, but its legs were not suited for running on the ground, and the mouse would run away, just barely out of their reach. She crouched behind the bushes and trees, following the chick's progress with the mouse.

Comet was about to reveal herself when she watched the chick start choking or something and was going to rush to help when all it coughed up was a pellet of pure bones, fur, and other things. Disgusting. She wrinkled her nose at the horrible scent. She left the owl to trying to climb the bush, and ran over to catch that annoying mouse for her. A gift. Catching it, but just barely, she trotted back over to the owl. "Hello! I brought a mouse for you." she tossed up the mouse onto the bush, as she was too short herself to get on.

@Huma

Huma startled when Comet appeared, hissing at the wolf and shifting into the bush where she could not be eaten (hopefully). Ah, right -- this was why she didn't stay on the ground. It all made sense now. But then she noticed the mouse, and turned her head to Comet... well, owlishly, staring at her wide-eyed and confused. Why had she gone to the trouble? Huma certainly didn't understand it, but... well, why pass down free food?

She choked down the mouse whole. It was a process that would look much less uncomfortable when she was bigger, but she didn't exactly have muscles in her throat so the awkward bobbing back-and-forth motion of her head was required before she finally got it down. Stared at Comet, and scraped for words. It was rude to ignore others, or something like that. "Thank!" she screeched, a sharp and short noise meant to attract attention. An attempt at politeness, at least. Not a great one, though.

@comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet couldn't quite understand why the owl suddenly felt so defensive and hissed at her. Perhaps it was because she was a wolf, and they were a bird. Wolves eat birds. It had taken some time for her to figure that out, actually. She had adventured so much, and never really did understand why so many she met were afraid of her. Comet hoped that the chick would know that she was no threat when she tossed up the mouse.

It looked like the owl had finally got the idea that she wasn't a threat when it started eating the mouse. No, more like swallowing it whole. She wondered how it would fit that thing in its small body when the mouse was at least half the size of the thing. Comet started to wonder if she should help them, since it sort of looked like they were choking, but it turned out that was just how they ate. Strange.

When the chick was done choking down the mouse, it just... stared at her. "Thank!" the sharp screech hurt her ears. She could only guess whether they meant it or not, as the screech was rather piercing and didn't have much emotion as far as she could tell. "Well, um, you're welcome." Comet awkwardly returned the stare, waiting for them to do something. She certainly wasn't.

@Huma

Huma squinted, getting a scintilla of an idea that she should... probably try to make conversation. Not that words worked very well in her throat, but she pulled herself up to a more stable place on the bush and watched Comet. "Fuzz," she observed, her voice still sharp and a little shrill. Unpleasant to listen to, to say the least. Her mother called anything with fur 'fuzzy', and Comet sure did have a lot of it. It only made sense that Huma would pick up similar speech patterns as she learned how to use words!

She paused and said, "Look!" before turning her head almost all the way around and then back again. It was a party trick that had nearly given Sharp a heart attack, so she figured that Comet would get a kick out of it, too.

@comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

"Fuzz." the owl said in their sharp and hard-to-listen-to voice. It was very similar to what Sun had said to her when she met him, and she guessed it was about her fur. She didn't quite know what to say to that, and continued staring at the owl, who luckily told her to look at them.

The owl turned their head almost all the way around. Comet immediately jumped to the conclusion that perhaps the owl had broken their neck or something, so that meant action. And to first aid the owl, she would need to get to them. That meant jumping on the bush. She put energy into her legs, and jumped. Unfortunately, the bush was taller than she had expected, and she ended going half way and falling inside of the bush. "Stay right there! Your neck is broken."

@Huma

Huma let out a loud shrieking noise as the bush was thrown from under her. She jumped onto Comet's head and started trying to scramble away, but was lamenting how slow she was. Her little legs weren't exactly built for running at the best of times, and they didn't have a whole lot of strength to them anyway. "BAD FUZZ," she yelled, panic seizing her violently. Okay, okay, so maybe being polite to strangers wasn't a good idea-- even if they gave you free food!

However, the cries of a new owl were sharp and angry for a very specific purpose -- calling their mother.

@sharp

Sharp came as soon as she heard the call.

The little lizard mama was carefully watching over Aerie at their new den. Well, makeshift den-- until she could get housing sorted out with her friends, they were staying in a small underground den beneath an overhang. It was dry, and safe, and in a quiet location, but the dragon and owlet were growing swiftly. Options for more permanent locations drifted through her mind like scattered papers.

Sharp was just outside, biting away at some plants with her sharp teeth, when she heard it. Huma shrieking. Now, she never really understood both of her gemlings, but the message was clear: she needed help. A blunt head reared up, electric eyes scanning the jungle. Wait a second-- when did Huma leave? Was she asleep? Unaware? Oh caves, she really had to keep an eye on that rambunctious child. Were they hurt? Did a predator get to her?

The lizard tore through the underbrush, zeroing in on the call like an eagle on the hunt (albeit squat, clumsy and without wings). Her heart thrummed up her throat. Oh caves, oh caves, she had to be alright! Sharp wouldn't be able to live with herself if they were injured, or sick, or... or...

The moment the clearing came into view, she spun forwards and looked up to the owlet. She was atop-- goodness gracious, was that a wolf? A carnivore?! "Don't touch my fluffy!" she hissed, her spiky tail thrashing aggressively. "Don't... don't... Comet?"

The young mom's threats stilled. It was that wolf pup! The one she built a... what did she call it? A castle! The little puppy, currently half-collapsed into a bush. She didn't seem to be particularly aggressive-- in fact, Huma seemed to be doing most of the action here. She was in total disbelief (and a bit of baby-crying-induced shock)

"... Comet? W-what are you doing?" By this point, Sharp's voice was more tired than panicked, but her nervousness still shone through. "Huma, get down from there."

@Huma @Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet paused from trying to get out of the bush when she heard a familiar voice. One she heard some time ago, but she did not have a proclivity for forgetfulness. Who was it? She thought back, the voice was loud, where had she heard a loud voice before? Oh yeah! It was the lizard who had helped her build a castle! That was a good castle. She listened to Sharp's voice, since they seemed sensible most of the time, and they were good at building too.

Comet turned her head, "Oh, hey Sharp!" she wiggled out of the bush, heeding their words. "I was trying to help the owl, she turned her head almost all the way around! I think her neck is broken, so I was trying to fix it but she ran away." Now that she thought about it, crashing into a bush was not the best way to calm down the owl.

@Sharp
@Huma

Huma hissed again and hopped off of Comet to the ground, landing at an awkward angle but recovering quickly before hobbling over to Sharp. Baby birds handled falls pretty well for a reason. "Bad fuzz!" she insisted, her little wings waving as she ducked behind the lizard. Not that Sharp was exactly big enough to protect her, but whatever. "Momma," Huma whined, not bothering to address that she'd wandered off. Sharp could figure it out, she imagined.

A bumblebug caught her attention, and Huma squinted at it. Unfortunately her little threat display didn't go anywhere, so she just... turned back to her mother and waited for Sharp to resolve the situation.

@comet
@sharp

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