Fisher paused when he realized the trail must have been old.. There wasn't a cave rat in sight! He frowned and turned his head to White as she asked him what was up.

"Well, first we have to find the scent. See if you can smell a cave rat. They're a bit stinky, but your instincts should tell you it's a good scent to follow if you're hungry."

His tail wagged and he, himself, tried to catch a better trail... But now all he could smell was his own stink! Or maybe it was White's? Someone had farted-- oh, Caves, it was probably Black. A big stinky dog fart. Well great, now how was he going to find any rats????


@White

White couldn't smell shit. She looked around and she pressed her nose against the ground, but she couldn't smell anything. Briefly, she glanced up at Fisher. "What does a rat smell?" she asked.

Fisher half expected White to react to the stank but she just didn't seem to give a rat's ass.

The noodle blinked and then decided they would be better off just running off in some random direction, if only to get away from (what was probably his own, not) Black's stinky poots.

"Uh, it's hard to explain-- you know what, I think I saw a rat over there, so um, you can sniff it up and down once I catch it," he offered, before darting off in an absolutely random direction, hoping to the cave gods that he would just stumble over a damn rat.

And sure enough, after a bit of scrambling through Polaris, a rat darted out in front of them.

@White

White blinked. She hadn't actually seen a rat before, and was surprised by how... weird it looked.

"Is that a rat?!" she called out helpfully, watching it run away from Fisher.

"YEP!" Fisher barked in alarm, his fur fluffing up under his armor as he broke into a sprint after the rat. He would never be able to catch it, not in his new armor, but that was okay. His magic could still...

With a snap, the gem deep inside of the lesser gembound reacted to his pull of magic. Despite it frantically trying to flee from him, the prey creature flung back towards him. He kicked on the breaks and opened his jaws, letting the poor creature fly straight into his mouth. He bit down firmly on its torso but didn't outright kill it. He held it with his magic and whipped around to White, prancing back over to her.

The stupid rodent squirmed in his grip, but he had it by the back, and it couldn't reach around to bite at him with its nasty teeth. All in all, a victory for Fisher.

@White

The hybrid's ears flattened against her head a little. She felt the little pin-prick of water behind her eyes. "It's... it's hurt...?" she said, voice wavering. She watched the rat squirm and scream for a moment before she stepped back uncertainly, whimpering.

Fisher stared at White with absolute bewilderment, remembering when he had been a child. The first time he had hunted prey and failed, in front of a lovely doe who had been alarmed and upset by his actions. The kid was the same, the poor thing.

Carefully, he set the rat down, putting his paw over it so it couldn't get away. His magic should have been enough to make sure that happened, anyway. The rat squirmed and tried to bite him but he narrowly avoided its teeth and kept it still enough.

"White, it's alright. Look, sometimes we have to eat smaller things to grow big and strong. That's how it is. And we have to kill things to eat them."

@White

"I don't want to kill it!" the hybrid protested. The tears were beginning to spill out of her eyes and down her face, soaking the down feathers. She hobbled closer to the rat and stared at it for a moment. "What about it's friends, and it's mom and dad? What if it has little babies and stuff?"

The pink skin had turned red, harsh against the pearly white feathers. She sniffled pathetically as she watched the injured rat.

"Cave rats don't have families," Fisher retorted, feeling a bit dumbfounded. "They aren't like you or me, White. They don't talk. We don't even know if they have feelings or thoughts. They just exist to be eaten."

He shook his head and gave her a stern look. "You have to eat rats if you want to grow up to be big and tough like me and Black. Your body needs meat to get stronger. Look, we don't even have to make them suffer."

Slowly, the rat under his paws stopped squirming. Its heart rate was being artificially slowed down, which would make it fall asleep eventually. "See? It's going to sleep now, and then we can kill it. It won't hurt, and it'll be okay."

He just didn't know how to break it any more gently to the white princess. This was how the world worked-- he didn't make up the rules.

@White (she can exit now if you want)

White whined. Surely they did have families - surely they did talk to each other and think and feel things just like they did. Nothing existed just to die, right?

She backed off, whimpering and tears streaming down her face. She watched Fisher for a moment, croaking out incoherent words before she turned and ran off, crying, to the support of her father - where ever he was.

[exit]