OOC: Hello this is a selfie-thread! Rated M in case you don't wanna read about a cave deer being hunted and dying.

Fira was now four cycles old, barely an adult, and she was already thinking about things like death, and making a family with someone. That conversation with Destiny had left her completely shaken — a feeling she despised. She hated feeling so helpless. Unfortunately, even the strongest Magic could not reverse her best friend’s fate. She snorted now as she realized the irony of Destiny’s name. She hadn’t left Polaris since her talk with the platypus, and she wouldn’t ever leave Polaris again until… until Destiny no longer… needed her. They hadn’t yet made offspring, but Fira was sure they would get to that soon. She wouldn’t make Destiny wait too long.

She’d left Destiny’s side only long enough to do her business, or to hunt. They now slept side-by-side in the little den the platypus had made near the river. Fira wasn’t really all that hungry right now as she sat alone far from the river. She’d just… needed some space. And she’d needed to vent about this new turn in her life. Her only friend in the whole of the Caves was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. She… she needed to be aggressive right now. She needed to kill something — tear it to pieces and scatter its innards across the ground. She needed a release.

It was unlike Fira to be so angry. Generally, nothing much upset her. At all. But this was a friend’s imminent death. She assumed it was okay to be angry and sad about something so.. horrible. She closed her eyes, felt them sting with tears when she once again remembered Destiny’s incurable blindness. She took a deep, shaky breath and focused on her Magic. It was weak because she was distracted, but it was there. She willed it outwards, feeling for a heartbeat — something to kill… There! Not far from her was a solitary deer. She’d encountered Tunnel Runners before, so she suspected that that’s what it was, based on the fact that it was alone.

Now she just needed to stalk it, kill it, and… what? She wasn’t hungry. What would she do with the meat? She didn’t know, but she didn’t care either. She was too angry.

Fira adjusted herself to face the direction of the heartbeat before releasing the spell. She quietly rose to her paws, attempting to stay in the underbrush and remain quiet so that she would not alert the deer to her presence. Not that she would really mind if it did sense her. She would love a good chase and the moment, to be honest. She needed the physical activity. She needed to tire herself out and get this anger out of her system. And it seemed that a chase is exactly what she was going to get! The second she was close enough to the deer to see it properly, it picked up its large head from the grass it had been grazing on, stared at her, and then fled in the opposite direction!

Fira let out a loud caterwaul and gave chase, paws pounding on the ground as she picked up speed. She may have had spots, but she was no cheetah. Sure, she was fast, but not that fast. Catching up to it would take stamina and/or luck…

Catching up to the deer ended up taking little time, but now came the challenge of tackling it to the ground. Deer were dangerous creatures. Especially Tunnel Runners, which towered over all other subspecies of Cave Deer. They had powerful legs with hard hooves that could kick when you least expected it. Fira kept all of this in mind when she lunged at the Lesser Gembound, going for its side in an attempt to grab onto its flank with her claws. She managed to hold on, but she could feel her grip slipping as the creature screamed and began bucking wildly, trying to dislodge her. And all the while, it was still running. Fira’s legs dangled off the ground as she tried to use her wait to pull it down to the ground.

Despite her iffy grip on the deer, Fira managed to hold on long enough for her sheer body weight to pull it to the ground. It stumbled over its own hooves and fell over, crying out in terror. Fira was now semi-trapped underneath a heavy Tunnel Runner who was thrashing about and trying to get back up. The wind was knocked from her body and it took precious seconds to regain her composure. Luckily, the deer was still flailing about when she yanked herself out from under it. She saw the whites of its eyes, its terror — and hesitated.

She was a carnivore, yes, but she wasn’t killing this creature for food. She was killing it just to kill it. And that was wrong. But she was so angry! Her conscience tore at her, her heart pounding with the adrenaline still coursing through her veins…

The terror-filled calls of the deer seemed to push her over the edge. Instead of taking a deep breath and letting the creature live, she only seemed to get angrier. A snarl ripped its way out of her mouth, and she lunged at the poor deer, sinking her fangs hungrily into its neck. It thrashed wildly, calling out over and over as froth built up around its mouth. Its calls only made her angrier, and she bit down even harder, past fur, until she tasted blood. It trickled down the deer’s neck and Fira’s nostrils flared as she smelled it, tasted it.

After an eternity of death calls, the deer finally fell silent, stopped thrashing, and became dead weight in Fira’s jaws. She let go of the thing, fire still burning in her eyes, her gut. She grabbed at its neck again and shook her head back and forth like a dog destroying a chew-toy. Then she let its head drop to the ground again and let out a loud yowl of pain and rage and all manner of ugly emotions that were tearing her heart into pieces. She hated herself for killing a deer when she did not need the meat. She hated herself for her blood rage. But she could not take back such a thing.

She sat there, staring in disgust at the dead deer, wondering what to do with it. She wasn’t exactly strong enough to drag it anywhere. It would have to rot where it was, right out in the open. Hopefully the bugs and other Lesser Gembounds would come along and find some use for its body. She suddenly just wanted to go home and lay in the den with Destiny. But she knew her maw and chest were covered in blood. She couldn’t go home like that… She needed to clean herself up first.

She rose to her paws shakily, sighed, and turned away from the life she had just taken for no reason, intent on heading to the Crystal River to clean up — but far from Destiny’s den. She didn’t want her best friend to smell the blood. You didn’t have to see blood to know it was there. Fira had just gone hunting a day or two ago. Destiny would wonder why she had needed to do so again so soon. Fira had no idea what she would say to her… She shook her head in disgust and padded quietly away, leaving the deer carcass to the elements, blood slowly pooling around its head.

[Exit Fira]