Feral was twining her way down the trail of the jungle, pushing through the ferns and leaves. She was a scruffy thing--an adult, but still clearly wild. Her amber eyes gleamed with good health, her pelt beautifully thick and red-gold. She moved with the energy of a canine in the prime of her life, well-fed and rested.

She also moved with the distinctive quiet alertness that signified a predator on the hunt.

Her tongue was lolling out, but her panting was not loud. Her eyes were wide and bright, ears rotating to take in every sound. She made her way down to one of the streams, lapping up the cool, refreshing water, then trotted in the shadowed forest along its edge for a time before crossing it.

There was no scent of prey, not here. She crossed with a series of quiet splashes, pausing to shake out her coat, the spray of droplets creating a fine mist that shimmered down in rainbows.

Onward, up the opposite bank--slipping a little in the mud--and into the thick jungle beyond. She paused, now and then, to peer out into the more open areas; often she'd catch a cave deer unaware, grazing with its back to the water. Now, though, she saw nothing: only empty clearings, fields of ferns and moss.

A little farther ahead she paused again, and this time, she saw a bird: a white bird, down on the ground, its attention consumed by several rather menacing-looking dark plants that it was looking over. Spiky things, purplish, Feral briefly thought--but the dingo didn't worry herself with that.

The point was that it was prey, that it was close by, and that it was distracted.

Instantly on high alert, the dingo dropped down low, and began to prowl forward, placing each paw with immense caution as she crept toward the white raven.

((ooc -- @Diánysma ))

Dianysma was intrigued by the plant growths in Eridanus, so she had returned once again to observe the plants. Her god had informed her when she caught sight of the plant of their vessel's namesake. Belladonna. Little berries grew on this bush, and she knew not to eat them. Various other bell-shaped blooms were scattered about the plant, and she pondered which stem to cut off and just how, without poisoning herself with the toxic plant.

She wasn't even aware of the predator lurking behind her and waiting to pounce.

@Feral

Feral crept closer, trying very hard not to wag her tail. She might hit a fern, after all, and give herself away. She stayed stiff, barely moving, sometimes quivering near-motionless like a cat. Whenever the white raven seemed to turn away, to be engrossed in the plants, she took a careful step.

She knew how quickly birds could simply take flight--one moment in the grass and the next high in the air above, screaming at her from the trees.

So she crept forward, tensed, and at the last possible moment--just as she cleared the brush-line and came out into the light--she pounced.

She lunged jaws-open, aiming to snap them shut around the raven, to bite down hard. She just hoped it didn't notice her first.

And that she didn't miss.

With any luck, she'd have a fat bird dinner tonight, and that ache of hunger in her abdomen would be gone.

((ooc -- @Dianysma ))

Round: 1/5
Attempt: Lunging facefirst for the bird.
Defense: None
Injuries: None

The raven was engrossed in the plant, looking up to survey her surroundings only for a moment to inspect the plant some more. Rubies blinked once or twice as she prodded the plant with her toe. Dianysma smiled lightly before she realized, a bit too late, that something was hunting her.

In a few seconds, the pale corvid was enveloped in large fangs. She shrieked, writhing in the dingo's grip. The teeth would make it around half an inch deep, but it was enough to envelope her juvenile form in the canine's maw. There were now puncture wounds right at the base of her wings. It hurt like hell.

In reaction, she clacked her beak shut and pecked as hard at Feral's face as she could. Hopefully it wasn't futile.

It was.

Goddammit.

She barely could even lift her head, and instead, she just flailed around, shrieking incessantly.

I II III IV V
Puncture wounds at the base of her right wing.

@Feral

Success! A thrill of triumph ran through her as she felt the warm feathers fill her jaws, and she bit down, holding tight.

The dingo flattened her ears back, wincing, as the white raven screeched in her face. Instinct quickly took over; she backed up the few paces, then began to try to rapidly shake the bird back and forth, biting down hard.

Crush her.

Silence her.

Daze her.

Snap her neck.

KILL her!

Backing up for the cover of the stream, just in case something else heard the bird's cries and came running, she tried to bite down (so as not to lose her grip) and shake her hard. Most of the birds she caught fought for a moment, and then succumbed, dazed by the shaking, or broken-necked, and then she would carry them off and pick through their meat and bones at her leisure. Though usually, she did not eat with leisure.

Hopefully, this delectable little white morsel would prove no different.

((ooc -- @Dianysma ))

Round: 2/5
Attempt: Bite and shake the bird.
Defense: None
Injuries: None

The raven's mind raced, but she didn't dare call out for the aid of Belladonna. No, she could handle it. She, herself, was a god! Just weaker than her creator. Dianysma knew she could do it, that she could slaughter this mongrel and make them pay for their mistake.

This would not be her disclosure. Never!

As she was shaken and thrown about, her mind kicked into overdrive and she attempted to peck once again, but this time, much harder. But she just couldn't reach.

Oh god.

I II III IV V
Attempting to peck once more.

@Feral

The bird was still screeching, though not quite so loudly. Weakened? Tired? Dying? Feral quickly scooted back into the ferns, a blur of tawny fur, trying to hide in their shadows. Then she dropped her head, trying to use paws to stabilize the bird so she could get a better grip. This was a fast motion--a quick drop-and-step, and then she tried to adjust her jaws--carefully--to bite down as hard as she could.

She had to get the bird dead, and quickly--though she felt just the taste of something on her tongue that gave her pause.

Something... gross. Rancid. Something wrong.

Never mind that now. She would worry about it once the bird was dead; the screeching had her adrenaline flowing, the flutter of life and feather and blood in her jaws sending her heart hammering in her canine chest, thumping against her ribs.

She had to crush the life out of the little white raven. And fast. These things, she knew, could turn around in a heartbeat.

((ooc -- @Dianysma ))

Round: 3/5
Attempt: A crushing bite.
Defense: None
Injuries: None

She flinched in her flailing motions as her back touched cool stone, and paws stood upon her tail feathers and gently on her neck. Teeth went in deeper and deeper, and she began to panic a little... no, a lot more. Her toxic 'heart' glowed, and she hoped to release a plume of negative bacteria right into the Dingo's mouth. Maybe it would put a foul taste in their mouth.

All the while, she was unwilling to allow any of this to pass through the bond, holding it deep within herself. Belladonna could not know about this. She'd be just fine after all this.

Just fine.

Fuck, it was going wrong. It was going all wrong. Instead of doing what she wanted, she gave herself a glaring headache, nausea, and a big mouthful of potentially deadly diseases.

Fucking great.

I II III IV V
Puncture wounds at the base of right wing, right below neck

Feral shook the bird again, then paused, still pinning it. She bit down, again, adjusting her bite once more--then pulled her head back, licking her jaws. It wasn't fighting, now; it seemed sick. Limp, quiet, at least for the moment.

Feral thought she'd heard the crunch of tiny hollow bird bones, felt it in her teeth... but she could not be sure. Maybe it had only been her canines clinking up against the bird's gem: a stone on its breast, which was imparting its disgusting taste into her mouth.

Grimacing, licking her jaws even more, she abruptly released the white raven. Dead or not, she was realizing, rather rapidly, that it was No Good to eat. The dingo pawed roughly at her for a moment, and then tried again to taste.

Again, no, the disgusting rancid taste filled her mouth.

Poison.

With a soft growl the dingo pawed at the bird a final time, but she could not see how to eat it without ingesting the gross that it was made up of. With a sharp and irritated bark she turned, trotting off the way she'd come, vanishing into the jungles of Eridanus without even glancing back.

Someone else would have to be her dinner tonight.

((ooc -- @Dianysma ; exit Feral -- it was meant to be a fight to the death but this is too brutal poor Dia?? ))

The pale corvid lay limp for a moment, trying to process what had occurred. She felt the cruel hold upon her form loosen, and she stay in that state for a moment. She was roughly pawed, before left alone. The dingo was gone.

She'd never experienced pain like that before.

Dianysma waited until she was sure that the canine was gone, before she slowly forced herself up and hissed, "filthy carnivores." The bastard must have done something to her to prevent her from being able to defend herself. There was no way that a god was unable to defend herself. Just no way!

Bleeding out, the raven scampered back towards the nightshade bush, but this time, hiding underneath in a nook between two stones, resting and healing with the aid of her magicka.

[ exit Dia ]