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+--- Thread: a little life (/showthread.php?tid=775)
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a little life - Ahjanari - Jul 05 2015
When the juvenile jaguar opened her eyes for the first time, it was completely dark. Having no knowledge yet of the outside world, the darkness did not frighten her. She did not yet know any better. What she did know was that she was suddenly feeling quite cramped, stuffed inside of her chrysalis, not that she knew what it was called. She was, luckily, not upside-down or anything like that. But she was stuck in a crouching position and her legs screamed at her to move. Inside her ruby egg, she wondered if there was anyone else like her, or not like her. Were there any other felines around? Or any creatures who were not felines? Even now, her mind was forming opinions about those who were not felines. If you were not a feline, she thought, then you were beneath her. No offense to you, of course, but that was just how it was.
In her wonderings, those about who was or was not nearby, she felt a small thrumming begin in her ribcage. At first she thought it was nothing, then she thought it was her own heart speeding up, but then she realized it was… neither of those things. It wasn’t nothing and it wasn’t her, though it was… the feeling of heartbeats? The thrumming suddenly became more distinct, though it was still thrumming. She was feeling dozens and dozens of heartbeats around her. The heartbeats of little mice and lizards and fish. Food. Ahjanari was suddenly hungry.
With a great push, shoving her back against the ruby chrysalis until it formed to the shape, and then straining some more, she broke free with a tremendous sound of shattering. The lower half of her egg remained intact, and she carefully stepped over the jagged edges as she looked around herself, body somewhere in between the size of a youngling and an adult. Her yellow-gold eyes took in her surroundings with less awe and more cold calculation. Less wonderment and more careful consideration. This was a wild place to be tamed. She would make it her own. She would discover its secrets. But first, she would find food. Carefully, with all the grace of the Cat that she was, she lightly stepped around the shattered fragments of ruby scattered around the area, and began her hunt…
RE: a little life - Timby - Jul 05 2015
Timby went to Eridanus again because he remembered it was the perfect place for snacking. It had all the grass you can eat and there were no predators around usually, last time he was there he met two friendly faces, maybe he'd meet another. He had started chowing down when he heard a loud noise somewhere in the cave. He wondered what might the sound be. It most likely was a chryislis because he remembers that sound from his own. So he went to investigate.
He walked slowly to the source of the noise. He didn't just want to jump out though because he could scare the newborn. He was only a sheep though so he probably wouldn't scare it too badly. He hid behind some shrubbery and saw it was a jaguar that had hatched and made the sound.
He remembered that this was one of his predators so it would probably chase him and he wasn't too far from birth himself so it would hurt if it caught him. He just decided to wait it out and see if it was hostile or not.
RE: a little life - Ahjanari - Jul 05 2015
Ahjanari was very quick to pick up on the scent of the sheep, especially when it made the mistake of moving towards her. She gave a triumphant grin (which was, perhaps, a bit too early) and crouched down in the ferns to stalk her prey. However, he seemed to have already seen her. He was staring right at her. But he wasn’t… running? Either he was the stupidest sheep in all of Origin Cave (not that she knew she was in a cave) or he was currently trapped in the “deer in the headlights” thing. Either seemed equally likely. As a predator, she already knew that prey animals were, by all accounts, dumb – especially compared to her. Still… if he suddenly came to his senses and started running from her, he’d make her job – catching and eating him – that much harder. So, instead of stalking towards him slowly, as her jaguar instincts wanted to do, she charged straight for him!
She gave a yowl as her legs bunched and stretched, bunched and stretched, in the motion of sprinting. She could not go nearly as fast as a Cheetah could in a sprint, but she could get the job done if she didn’t mess it up or trip over anything. Her stride was agile and beautiful – and lethal. She was closing the distance fast. If this sheep did nothing in the next few seconds, she would have her fangs in its throat and it would be her first meal…
RE: a little life - Timby - Jul 05 2015
Yep. It was hostile. He dodges the ferocious newborn trying to converse as well. Maybe he could catch her food while he was backing up dodging. That would require some excellent dodging though. Maybe it wasn't a brainless attacker and it'd calm down for a second. All he wanted was food. He didn't want to become food."Hey stop, if you'd calm down I could probably find a rat or something for you. I'm sure they taste better.
RE: a little life - Ahjanari - Jul 06 2015
So hooked on the bloodlust was Ahjanari that the sheep’s words did not even register in her brain, either because she was ignoring them, or because she couldn’t hear them at all. She leaped right for his face, just as he back-pedaled away, and missed by a long shot. Hmm… So he wasn’t as stupid as she had previously thought. He was farther away from her now, and she had lost all of her momentum in that (failed) leap, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She let out a frustrated yowl, and scrambled upright again, intent on eating this sheep right now. It was just a stupid prey animal. How hard could it be to take it down?
Harder than she had expected, apparently. She took a single running step towards him again and her front right paw got caught on a vine in the floor of the cave. Her momentum immediately came to a full-stop, and since she was stuck, she face-planted into the ground with a loud, “Oof!” Now she was just angry, and embarrassed. This was to be expected, though. She was a newly-hatched Gembound, with not yet any experience in hunting. She glared up at the sheep with slanted yellow-gold eyes, growling angrily.
RE: a little life - Timby - Jul 07 2015
Timby's dodge was actually more successful than he thought it would be. He had made her trip on a vine. He decided that this jaguar was more of a foe then a friend. Even though they were naturally enemies he found this quite fun. He wondered how long he could keep this up.
She seemed to really want to eat him. She had a really evil gleam in her eyes, that would have been intimidating even she didn't faceplant earlier. This was almost like a game of tag. He had to remember not to get cocky but he couldn't resist a taunt."Feeling tired yet?" He teased.
RE: a little life - Ahjanari - Jul 07 2015
Ahjanari sighed as she glowered up at the annoying sheep, who had somehow outwitted her. Still, though, she knew when to give up a chase, even being as young as she was (a day old). She had her instincts, and those were enough to tell her that this sheep was not worth it. As she sat up properly and began to lick her chest fur as a way of brushing off the stupid pest, she accessed her Magic again. Whether this was by accident, or on purpose was unclear to her. All she knew was that she was anxious for a meal – preferably one that didn’t talk and dodge her attacks so well – and suddenly she was once again feeling the thrum of a hundred heartbeats at once.
This would take some time getting used to, and she really had to focus to pick out one individual heartbeat amongst them all. It was a small heartbeat, and quick. Less beating, more thrumming. So it was probably quite a bit smaller than the sheep, who was still dumb even though he had evaded getting eaten. When her senses were as locked on to the nearby mouse as they could be, she shoved past the sheep, completely ignoring him and not caring if her movement had just bowled him over. Actually, scratch that. If she had just knocked him over, it would have been absolutely hilarious. But whatever. She had a mouse to catch… Quite possibly a lot of mice to catch. She was starving.
RE: a little life - Timby - Jul 07 2015
Fortunately, the jaguar lost interest in eating him. She actually wasn't as scary as he thought at first. Obviously, she was hungry or else she wouldn't be as eager to eat him. Hopefully he taught her not to eat talking gembounds. Thinking about eating actually made him hungry so he chewed on a nearby leaf. He also wondered something about the gembound, he decided to ask."Do you even know how to hunt?" He didn't know himself but he might be able to find someone to help. He would have to find where they were though and that may take some time..
RE: a little life - Ahjanari - Jul 07 2015
Ahjanari, once again, completely ignored the sheep, solely focused on catching the mouse. She knew one mouse wouldn’t be enough for her ravenous appetite, but it’s not as though she had to be anywhere. A young jaguar, just “born…” No, she had nowhere to be, except here, in this moment, starving and ready to fill her belly with mouse-meat. Mmm… Mouse-meat. She began salivating as she stalked through the tall green ferns of Eridanus, her sense of smell overcoming her Magic, so that now she was using only her natural senses. She could no longer feel the mouse’s heartbeat thrumming through her ribs, but she could definitely smell it, and soon enough, see its twitching little grey body in the grass, nibbling on a single blade.
She stopped for just a few seconds, to be sure it did not notice her, and then she silently bounded straight for it and killed it instantly by crushing it beneath her front paws. She greedily tore into it, nearly swallowing it whole, slurping up the soft grey tail with a lick of her lips. Feeling the hunger pangs subside at least a little bit was a relief, but she immediately was back on all four paws and stalking through the underbrush again. Having used her Magic twice in a short amount of time, she knew she wouldn’t be able to rely on it again for a least an hour or two, as it was tiring to use it at all.
As she prowled as silently as she could, she wondered briefly if the stupid sheep was going to keep following her around forever… He would mess up her hunting if he didn’t leave. Maybe she’d have to chase him off soon…
RE: a little life - Timby - Jul 07 2015
He could tell he was getting to the jaguar. At first she pushed him and now she just ignored him. This was sorta payback for almost eating him. She finally caught a rat, he guessed she could hunt. She devoured it just like the dog with three heads. "You were really hungry, huh?"