Auburn

Auburn: 2

Where could they be?

Auburn paused her journey to tuck into a swath of ferns, nestling into the soft greens. The moisture clinging to the leaves dribbled onto her skin, cooling her. But as it trickled over her wounds, she hissed and lapped up the droplets, quenching her thirst.

She had stayed at the old territory for a long while while her wounds recovered. The allos had moved on after some time, no doubt to torment someone else.

A few days after the cove had grown quiet, Auburn was disturbed by the sounds of a distressed raptor calling out in the twilight. The voice was male, and did not sound familiar. Had the allos returned and found him?

She abandoned her thicket and followed the calls before discovering a young male clinging to life at the side of the cove walls. Tiny pebbles cascaded down the stone walls as he tried to find a new foothold, only to slip down and release another panicked cry.

"Are you okay? Who are you?" Auburn questioned, poking her head over the edge.
"Stay back! This whole place is unstable!" he cried.

Auburn had never seen this raptor before. He was orange, with a green crest. She traced her gaze over the walls. "What happened?"

"It... It was dark out. I heard a weird noise following me, like... a hiss--- I couldn't see where I was going, and then suddenly there wasn't any ground. I grabbed onto the only ledge I could reach..." He closed his eyes tightly. Was he already accepting his fate?

Auburn limped back and forth. Despite her injury, she needed to pace to help her think. She knew these walls. She had spent a lot of her time climbing them before the allos came. She and Pyrite had even climbed all the way behind the falls...

She shook her head.
"I think I can get you down. But you have to listen to me."

He blinked open his eyes and looked at the wound on her side. Auburn was surprised by the doubt she saw there. "Don't be crazy!" he hissed. "You're going to fall and then we're both going to be stuck here."

Auburn snapped her jaws shut tight.  How dare he? She would know her way down better than he would! She bunched her muscles and dropped down the wall, working her way towards him ledge by ledge.

"No! What are you doing?!"
"Helping you! Now just follow me." When she was even with him, she looked down the wall. "There's a small space just down there. If you jump, you'll make it. Then it's an easy way down from there."

When he hesitated, she growled, curling up her lip.
"Would you rather starve to death up here? Watch-- then follow me."

She hobbled down the narrowing ledge. There was a gap between her and the next safe foothold. It would be quite a drop, but nothing a sturdy raptor couldn't handle.

She glanced at her injured flank, suddenly less confident. Suppose she couldn't make the jump now? What if they both were stuck here? She shouldn't have come down here... Perhaps there was someone else nearby to help?

No. She could do this.

"Well? Are you going to--"

She leaped. Her side grazed stone and she felt her body begin to fall. But then the ledge appeared beneath her and she rolled ungracefully before coming to a stop at the edge. She was trembling, and her side felt scraped. But she was alive!

Gathering her feet beneath her with a wince, she turned to face him. "There. Now come down."

"I'm not doing that! You almost fell!'

"But I didn't! You'll do it better than me, I promise."

Her heart lurched as he got to his feet.
"You're sure?"

She hesitated. "Well... No. But just don't overthink it. Dig your claws in the wall to slow your fall."

She watched as he paced, clearly uncertain. But what other choice did he have?

Night hit before he eventually made up his mind and sprang. Auburn could only watch as he struggled and scraped his side against the stones as well. But he made it, and stood trembling on the ledge.

"You did it!"

But there was a strange look in his eyes. Auburn noticed now just how thin he was, and she felt suddenly aware she was injured, and he was too close to her.

He studied her a moment before looking up sharply. "Do you hear that? It's back!"

Auburn was confused. "What?" But he was right. A strange hissing noise was coming from somewhere far above them. She angled her head to look up. Was it a bug? She didn't know anything to sound that way.

He was frightened, and as Auburn tried to calm him, he hissed at her. "It's coming for me again! I won't let it have me!"

He tried to climb down, but in all his eagerness to escape, he misjudged his foothold. Auburn lunged forward to try and grab him, only snaring her teeth around his shoulder. But he was torn from her and he plummeted straight down, landing with a sickening thump at the bottom.

His legs churned briefly before he went still.

Auburn climbed down, mindful of her steps now more than ever, and dropped down beside him. She gingerly sniffed him over. But he was gone, a distant look in his eyes.

The noise grew louder. Auburn tilted her head up to see a strange small creature hovering above her. A red light, small like a star, blinked at her standing over his body. A new series of noises came from it, like the rattle of prey's quills, and it suddenly darted away, lifting up and out of the cove and disappearing somewhere beyond.

What was there to have been so afraid of; afraid enough for him to leap to his death to try and get away?

She couldn't bring herself to make use of his body. She had never eaten prey that had been speaking to her just moments before. No, she decided. He deserved peace. The life of a transient was hard enough, and he spent his final moments in fear. He was to rest.

She scraped some loose earth and debris over him before returning to her thicket.

Some nights later, just before dawn, the noise returned. Its light moved separate from the stars, and now that it was lighter out, she could see it was larger and louder than a firefly. She studied it curiously from her hiding spot.

It wavered in the air, hovering about two jump heights high, if Auburn had felt the strength to confront it. As if spotting her, it froze. But as it made an even stranger noise, like a click of a sickle claw against stone, something sharp embedded itself into her back.

She hissed, turning to nip at the new pain. A tiny bead of blood welled at the surface of her skin. But a sudden exhaustion settled in and she felt her head grow heavy and stomach churn. Why did it bite her? Was this what the transient had been so afraid of? She tried to scramble to her feet, but found she couldn't move.

Before she knew what was happening, her world teetered and spun, and she fell sideways. She was asleep before her head hit the ground.

When she came to sometime later, her wound no longer stung as it had. In fact, she felt little pain at all. She felt marvelous!

Rolling to her feet, she inspected her body. There didn't appear to be any new injuries, though her muscles in her back ached from the strange flyer's bite. A strange scent wafted around her, but she couldn't quite place it. It was something she had never smelled before, and she decided she didn't like it.

Whatever it was, she deemed the cove was no longer safe. A lone raptor was too weak to face most threats, and she had somehow evaded allos and a strange bug already. She needed to find her pack again.

She had waited until the earliest sign of morning before she set out. Her strength was mysteriously renewed, and she took this opportunity to leave the cove behind.