Tuck was currently doing one of his favorite things — he was licking the sap from a tree. It was sweet and sticky and delicious and he’d worked hard for it, digging into the bark with his claws and biting into it with his teeth. He was clinging to the side of the tree with his long fingernails, ignoring most everything around him as he slurped up his meal. Birds chirped in the canopy above him and around him, and it was hot and humid like usual. He’d quickly grown used to the temperature of Eridanus, and found it quite to his liking, deciding that he’d make this his permanent home.

Besides, he’d been to few other places in the cave, and none of the other areas had trees — and if they did, they weren’t in nice bright areas like this lush green forest. Yes, Tukluk would stay right here, thank you very much!

Words: 153 @Sid

Sid had been spying on the strange fuzzball for a while now, it was hard in the brighter lighting of Eridanus but still his natural coloration helped amplify the camouflage provided by the leaves and bark. The monkey seemed to have intimate knowledge of these trees, he was far better at finding sap than Sid himself was. Since he had already done the heavy lifting of breaching the wood, there was no reason the Civet couldn't help himself to the meal if something were to say, scare the creature off.

Tensing his body, he closed his bulbous eyes and allowed the words to ferment in his throat. Sid carefully focused his thoughts into his throat, allowing the air to catch and tense. Then, straining himself to whisper while forcing his thoughts to distance themselves from his body be began to speak. "You don't belong here." The words came easily enough, but if he had misjudged the distance they would become lost incomprehensible screeches near his victim.

@tukluk

Tuck’s delicious meal was interrupted by the creepiest fucking sound in the world — a scary guttural whisper that filled his ears and his mind and told him he didn’t belong here. Holy shit! He spun his head around 180° mid-lick, tongue lolling out of his mouth, and stared around himself, heart hammering in his chest. Gods, what the hell? Couldn’t he just eat in peace? He was so scared he was about to pee himself because that whisper in his brain had severely drained any sense of bravery he might have felt five minutes ago. But he still had his stupidity and his greed. This food was his and he had spent a good few minutes hacking away at this tree to get to it! He wouldn’t give it up that easily!

“Who said that?” he shouted, trying to sound very angry. Oh God, he was gonna die, wasn’t he? Shit…

Words: 152 @Sid

Pressing himself flat against the branch he was perched on, shoulders perking up, Sid continued spying. The creature seemed agitated, and scared, by the voice so at least that had worked. He wasn't willing to press his luck on simple tricks twice, this would require finesse. He was roughly the same size as his victim, but appeared to be much larger thanks to the bushy tail he had on his posterior that was nearly twice as long as his body. Tensing his legs and relaxing his claws from the bark, he prepared to leap.

If his maneuver went well, Sid would be nearly invisible against the foliage and shade that disguised him. Thanks to the dark colors granted to him by a genome tailored through generations of evolution, he was already camouflaged. He would attempt to hold himself near flat against the wood, and let the more visible rustling branches combined with the outline of his long tailed body, make himself appear to be much larger than he truly was.

@tukluk

OOC: EDITING AN ENDING

Okay, Tuck knew something was up even if he couldn’t see whatever it was that was going on. He heard and saw branches rustling nearby and instinctively reached for his Magic, trying to grow something dangerous out of his body to keep the possible predator at bay. Unfortunately, he was so scared that his Magic just refused to work, so he quickly scrambled farther up into the tree, leaving his precious sap behind. He’d tried to defend it, but had failed, and he was a coward in all honesty, so he wasn’t gonna stick around any longer if his Magic was just gonna be unhelpful.

Still, when he crawled up onto a branch higher above, he remain crouched there, watching for any sign of whatever it was that was making all that racket. All he could see was a large… something… moving around. Ugh, he couldn’t tell what it was!

He waited and waited and waited, up on his branch, and over time, he could no longer sense the presence of another Gembound nearby. Hmm. It must have given up. Well, that was good for him, because it meant he could get back to licking up the delicious sap he'd worked so hard to get! He happily crawled back down to his spot and began to feast again.

[Essentially, Exit Tuck]

Words: 150+ @Sid