Note: Backdated a little bit so Red can learn to hunt fairly early. Private selfie-thread.

Red was hungry, and her last attempt at hunting had seen her nearly kill a Greater Gembound accidentally. But how was she supposed to know Lesser from Greater? Was she supposed to ask every single creature she came across if it could talk? Wouldn’t she then have to chase it again if it turned out it couldn’t talk? There had to be a better way to differentiate, but she couldn’t think of one…

She sighed and pouted before calling on her Magicka, wondering how she was supposed to do this…

Her Magic came quickly, and she found a heartbeat much quicker than hers somewhere to her left. She swung in that direction and followed the feel of the heartbeat to its owner. A mouse suddenly darted out from its hiding place in between some rocks. “Wait!” she called. “Can — can you talk?” The mouse said nothing, only disappeared into the grass up ahead. Red figured that was a good enough indication that it couldn’t understand her, but just to make everything really clear, she shouted, “I’m gonna eat you unless you say something!”

She waited… Nothing. Good. She could hunt this mouse properly.

Oh, well, this was great. She’d found out that mice — or at least this mouse — couldn’t talk, but now her Magic wasn’t working. She had no idea where the mouse was because it had disappeared into grass too thick to see it. She could hear it scrambling away, so she tried to stay behind it, but she needed to be sure that what she was hearing was actually the mouse. That time she’d almost murdered Envy had scarred her and now she never wanted to hurt anyone ever again — even on accident. So she had to be sure that this thing running through the grass was really the same creature she’d just shouted at… Come on! she thought to herself, preparing to try again.

It was almost as if Red’s annoyance her lack of Magic could be heard by her maw sit sit stone, because the next time she called for it, it came in a whoosh and flooded her senses. Unfortunately, she ended up feeling and hearing about ten different heartbeats from various prey animals around her, and she had to focus very hard to pinpoint the one mouse she knew was in the grass somewhere ahead of her. Eventually, she blocked out all the others and crouched down in the grass to begin stalking the mouse. Again, like the time she had accidentally hunted Envy the weasel, she was acting much more like a cat then a coywolf. This time, though, a strange urge overtook her.

When she was still a fair distance away so that the mouse wouldn’t bolt, she had a sudden need to stand up and try pouncing onto the prey. Following her instincts seemed like a good idea, so she raised herself slowly back to her paws and prepared to jump.

Red sat back like a meerkat on her haunches, tensed the muscles in her legs and leapt straight up into the air. She turned at the apex of her jump, looking like a diver about to pierce the water in a swimming pool, her front paws coming down hard into the ground. She had missed the mouse completely and almost lost her balance, having to quickly straighten out once her back paws landed on the ground, too. The mouse, startled, darted away, out of the grass and into the open. At least this would make it easier to chase, but she would have to catch it fast!

Unfortunately, Red was still very young and her pudgy limbs were not used to running yet. She could get a fair trot, but flat-out running seemed to elude her. With her narrowed green eyes focused on her prey so that she wouldn’t lose the tiny creature against the background of Polaris, she didn’t give much thought to moving her legs effectively. This resulted in much scrambling and slipping on the rocky, hard surface onto which she had chased the mouse up ’til this moment. Now her legs slipped and she fell sideways with an, “Oof!” onto the ground, watching in annoyance as the mouse skittered away.

Luckily for her, the mouse seemed to notice that it was no longer being chased and froze on a rock, as if hoping it would become invisible if it held still. Very slowly, Red rose to her paws, ignoring the pain in her body where she had hit the ground. She would get this stupid mouse if she died trying!

Reseda was leaving Polaris. There was nothing else here, nothing for her to stay for. The Spire was the only interesting thing in the cave and she had had her fill of simply staring at it already. This didn't at all feel like the room of bones and she was growing bored of sitting around. She needed to keep moving, explore other parts of the cave. Learn. Assimilate. Become one of the gems. Make them trust her, make them love her, then make them fear her. A ladder to success that she found, already, to be quite difficult. She had not learned enough just yet.

She heard a noise and stopped moving. Something was moving around. She looked over towards the place where the noise was coming from a spotted a canine, red fur, chasing a mouse. Reseda flicked her tongue. There was no scent of blood. The hunt wasn't going too well. But still, she did not know how to hunt the prey of the caves, only the carrion she had scavenged from the room of bones. She was hungry and didn't know how to hunt. Perhaps she could learn from this display. If the dog actually knew how to, however.

She slunk forward and felt around for her magic. Something to hide her among the stone. The magic tickled across her skin, but it did nothing. By now, she was out in the open, having expected the magic to work, believing it had. She settled down to watch the dog, unaware that she was visible.

"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


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Eventually, her skin began to itch as a background flow of magic continued to stream from her gem. Within a few seconds, her skin began to change color, matching the rocks she sat upon until she was completely hidden in shadow, even her bright green gem, that often shone with magic, was completely lost to the darkness.

"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


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Red was completely unaware of the Komodo dragon nearby, so focused on the mouse, which still seemed frozen to the rock, to notice. Had she been paying attention to her sense of smell, she would have turned to look, but she was about to make another attempt at pouncing onto the mouse, so the newcomer’s arrival went right past her. She had finally scooted close enough to the rock upon which the mouse sat, and now she moved so slowly onto her haunches that her muscles trembled at keeping her so still. She had no cover here, so one sudden movement could startle her prey away for good.

When she was good and ready, the coywolf bunched her back legs up and then she sprang up into the air and landed heavily on top of the poor mouse, who let out a pitiful squeak from the weight of Red’s paws, and then died. Red felt a surge of triumph, and then some kind of sadness filled the pit of her stomach at the thought that she had just killed something, even if it was only a mouse.

She picked it up in her mouth and huddled beside the rock, dropping it between her paws and staring down at it glumly. Her heart not really in it, she began to eat the small creature. Red was still a pup, so it was a good enough meal for her, and by the time she had finished eating she felt better about the whole thing. It was sad that other creatures had to die to satiate her, but that was just how life was, she guessed. She made a vow then never to kill anything unless she planned on eating it. And she would only eat if she was hungry. This made her feel all the way better about killing a poor little mouse, and she rose with a bounce in her step, heading towards the river to get a drink after her first successful hunt.

[Exit]

Reseda watched the kill carefully. It was stalking and being quiet until the last leap. When the claws tore into it and the jaws a moment later. But there wasn't anything else. Reseda was disappointed, for some reason, but it was fine. She had learned something, at least.

When the dog headed off towards the water, Reseda let magic exit her body and sent a copy of herself to inspect the place where the dog had killed its prey. She let her senses transfer to the copy for a moment as she inspected the place, but then, when she didn't find anything special, she went back to her body and released the spell. She stood, still camouflaged into the surroundings and headed in a different direction of the wolf. The last few moments had been so unimportant to her that she quickly forgot about the very existence of the wolf and only retained what she had learned about hunting.

*exit

"Living with myself."
Nothing but lies.


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