In the wake of Quentin's injuries, Mira was having a harder and harder time justifying just hiding out in their den. He couldn't hunt for her all the time, and more over, he was risking his life for her every time he went out to get food for them.

By now, she was a bit older, and while her own injury hadn't completely healed (it still hurt if she twisted her body wrong) she could walk and even flap her wings a bit. She wasn't quite able to fly yet, but she wanted to see if she could find some quillmice and hunt them like Quentin had told her about. You had to be careful of the quills, and knock them on to their back to expose their underbellies.

She did not travel too far south to be trotting on the sand dunes where flagrant danger of the massive Sandworms thrived, sticking close to the outskirts of the Cruicible where the ground was still mostly packed and hard from the harsh light.

She kept her eyes open, but trusted her magic to warn her of threats quicker, hopping about in search for something to eat. The main reason she didn't travel to far was almost certainly because she didn't want to be too far from Quentin, but today she was feeling particularly brave and stubborn.

There had to be something she could hunt nearby, right?
@GM

Mirage crept toward the warmer heartbeats, off toward cracks and outcroppings in the earth that provided shade. She was certain she could find one, but catching it would be harder. She had never taken the life of something, even if she understood it was necessary to survive. Knowing that had helped her get over her fear of sandworms somewhat... Knowing they were just hunting to survive, like everything else.

Something suddenly squeaked at her, and she turned her head toward the sound with a fluffing up of her feathers. A long, slithery creature was wiggling toward her, its heart beat as flagrantly audible in her ears as every other nearby creature's was. "O-oh! Hello! You must be like me and my friend." She blinked her large, round eyes and hopped closer. "My name is Mirage! Do you have a name?" She hadn't had a name at first, after all; she had to spend some time thinking about it after Quentin had met her.

The little snake did seem pretty small, which made her wonder how old it was. It looked almost like a baby sandworm! But the sandworms hadn't talked to her, and she couldn't imagine something that tiny becoming so big.
@Vee

V was a good name! Mirage nodded, wriggle down to sit in front of the snake as they coiled up beside her. "My friend is Quentin! He's a furry fox, with ears bigger than my head and four paws and a big fluffy tail. He's great at hunting, but he got hurt so I'm hunting today." She didn't mention it was her first time hunting, and hopefully V didn't ask. It was a little embarrassing, but... Maybe V could help her!

"There's Eyehook Vultures," Mirage noted, raising her head and staring out at the far distance where she felt their far off heartbeats pulsing like quiet pings in the sky. "Quentin thinks I'll be able to fly like them some day. But I'm still too young." She clicked her beak, and tilted her head all the way to one side.

"I think I found some quillmice, if you want to come hunting with me?" She offered, sounding a bit hopeful. She wondered about V's sister, and what a sister was, but she felt a little too shy to ask. It was different with Quentin-- he had known her since she hatched, so he would never pick on her for not knowing something. She didn't think V would either, but she still didn't want to make a bad first impression. She was supposed to be all brave and tough today, for Quen!

@Vee

"Yeah! Quentin usually takes the quills off, and then we share... But I can almost swallow a mouse whole!" She normally didn't, since they typically shared, but he was more careful about the bones, where as she just gulped it all down. The crunch was fun, but sometimes she was too hungry to care.

Mirage chuckled, a chuffing, huff sound clicking out of her beak. "Maybe when I can fly," she offered, not wanting to tell V that she had only seen wiggle-bodies dig about in the sand, not fly through the air, "we can soar the skies together!" At the very least, she could hold V in her talons (gently), right?

She was glad that the snake wasn't too hungry, but still willing to help out. That was a good friend right there! She couldn't wait to introduce V to Quentin. Privately, she figured that three mouths would mean having too catch more mice than she thought she could bring back... She only had one mouth, after all. V could help carry, but... Well, she would be worried about V accidentally getting pricked by the quills.

"That's cool!" She chirped. "I've never heard of anything like that. I hope it doesn't hurt them too badly," she added, "do they make a sad sound? Quentin says if you don't bite them right they'll cry." Which was dangerous, because then other predators might be alerted and other prey would run away.

She nodded enthusiastically though, and started to hop toward where she had sensed the quill mice hiding down in the cracks of the earth. As she got closer, she lowered to the ground, changing her movement to a slow, careful stalk where she raised one set of talons and crept forward, inch by inch. "They're right down in those cracks, there," she turned her head back toward V and whispered, feeling a weird itchiness through the feathers on her face that made her almost want to sneeze. She shut her beak tight and resisted it, doing her best to stay quiet and not alert the nearby prey.

@Vee

Mirage eyes widened as V immediately went for the crack, hopping forward with a nervous lurch in her heart. She hoped that V wouldn't get hurt--! She cringed, head shrinking down into her fluffy torso, as the quillmouse squealed. She hoped it was okay. She drew even closer as V's tail began to rattle with a noisy threatening sound that made her want to back away. She was going to be brave today, though, so she stuck as close as she dared.

"V? Do you got it? Is there anything I can do--" She chirped in a quiet, anxious voice, glancing about for signs of any predators. There hadn't been anything too close... Scorpions and the like seemed all to be hiding down in the cracks, avoiding the hot light of the Hydra.

The rattlesnake managed to pull the quillmouse free of its hiding hole, however, teeth deep in the prey's neck. She set it down as the mouse stilled, and started to apologize, but Mirage hopped even closer and reached forward to touch the side of her beak to V's cheek. "No, no, no! It's alright! You did an amazing job! We can take this back to Quentin, he'll be so impressed!"

... Ah, but she hadn't caught it. Maybe she should try to get one of her own... Two mice split between three of them would be plenty of food. "-- I'll catch the next one, no sweat." She raised her head proudly, puffing up her chest feathers.

Even as she suggested it, however, she turned her head to scan the horizon, and struggled to pick up anything among the hot, blinding light and the deep crevices of the earth. She hopped further down a ways, feeling a bit lost and uncertain. She was... Definitely nervous, to say the least, especially now that V had done such a good job...

@Vee