Rhapsody had come to the decision to show the caves to their new dependent, the bird who gave excited trills at each new find. Their familiar was so small compared to them, but infinitely precious to the gembound already.

Currently, the purple tinted bird was hopping between different trees with a sense of eager excitement to explore. Meanwhile, Rhapsody had landed on the rocky ground, gaze scanning for prey. They had been neglecting their meals lately.

Their two pairs of eyes alighted upon a lesser deer herd, and they fell still as they thought of how they could catch these swift looking deer.

Perhaps... they had might have gotten stronger, so perhaps magic would do?

They had failed, but they sensed potential behind this idea. The deer had not yet noticed them, still as they remained. Perhaps they could try again...

For a moment, they thought they had once more failed. But then, a deer was forced to ground, and Rhapsody leapt forward with long strides, eagerly pinning their prey.

The rest of the herd fled.

Rhapsody bit at their prey's neck with too sharp teeth, and the deer immediately relaxed despite how it should have been struggling, Rhapsody's venom overpowering natural instincts, turning what should have been pain into a sense of euphoria.

They let go with their mouth, not killing the deer immediately. The blood poured out more easily if the heart still beat, after all. And so their unnerving tongue lapped at the wound they had made, drinking. If the blood grew slow or their prey began to twitch to escape, they gave another bite and then fed off that new spot.

Finally, they felt sated, at least mostly. A part of them also hungered for magic, as well. Always, they were consumed by hunger for both blood and magic. But it was doubtful their random pick of deer held a stone on it.

The deer was limp, even after they stood. They had taken quite a bit of blood and used quite a bit of venom... After some consideration, they leaned down to briefly snap the deer's neck. It would have died regardless, so such was more a mercy than anything else.

With a musical hum of their voice, their familiar came flying over, landing on their shoulder and idly began to preen their fur, much to their fond amusement.

Mirrikh enjoyed hunting in Cetus, though the most interesting prey here were the variety of spiders. They were not the tastiest of prey, per say, but they were some of the largest prey Mirrikh could take on alone.

Yes, Mirrikh was a hunter, a predator, but... even though they had traits that should have made them an apex hunter, they were ever so small.

Their stonerot venom, their paralysis powder... They were meant for hunting. They had never seen a creature with more natural attributes to aid in hunting than themself.

At least, that had been the case. Until now.

Using magic to hunt was not too exceptional. It wasn't a bad quality at all. But that had not been what had caught Mirrikh's interest as they observed the figure that somewhat resembled a tall, bipedal mystfox, orb and all.

Somehow, this other hunter had made their prey relax to the point where it stopped struggling with just a bite. And that fascinated Mirrikh. Perhaps... Perhaps this was the apex predator they had been looking for?

Mirrikh hungered to know, and so they approached, flying towards the other gembound. "How did you do that?" they asked, voice louder than one would expect from a six inch fairy, and voraciously curious.

Rhapsody had not heard the footsteps of another gembound on the ground, distracted though they may have been they should have heard... But there was a voice of another here nonetheless. Their dual gaze snapped to looking around, but at first, they didn't quite see anyone.

A spell came to mind, their gem sensing spell. If there was a living being with a gemstone nearby, like a greater gembound, they would be able to sense it. At least, if the spell worked.

[ROLL]