The Nuclear Reign of Strottimar [Part 1]

Chapter 12; Filth

The woods felt unnaturally silent tonight, crawling out of its sleepy seasonal coat of cold as I stretched my limbs again in the underbrush and felt my claws digging into the dirt. Today had been long, the longest day I'd lived in a long time. Maybe even since I'd run away with red leaves in my black hair and a determination to press on. Though, I hadn't had much time to think until now.

I'd spent all evening getting a tour of the province from Solstice, getting better acquainted, until he had to leave from the streams once the moon started to rise. As much as I mocked him for being a servant in all of my freedoms, he was passionate about it. He was damn good at his post, so there he stayed. He was there at Hansen's every beck and call, and he had a pretty good loft up in the canopy, with comfortable shade and plenty to eat, unlike out in these forgiving woods that called for me each moonfall. His work came with a fair life, that, I could understand. Yet, I had comfort in my own freedom.

Smells of the forest flooded my muzzle as I heaved a great inhale before letting it out in a slow sigh. I'd let myself out in the way I was shown down through the thick of the trunk. I'd met the gate guards, who'd looked me up and down strangely, displeased, but they seemed to like Solstice so they didn't bother to comment on me then. I'd been roaming the forest quietly, having my own thoughts and enjoying my freedom in the quiet of the moon hour air.

Out of my own boredom and eagerness to get out, I began tracking down a few scents my nose led the way to. One was a fawn off in the distance, that I didn't care about. For once in a long time I wasn't that hungry. Solstice had shown me the marketplace down by the roots of the province, burrowed deep within, lit by warm lighting where you could trade anything simple for bread and sap, so there I ate at his own expense. In turn, he received my own vulnerability. The fact that I was eating out of the hand of a higher up made me feel weak, but there was no second option here today. I shook my mind of the thought and set my nose on a separate track.

Lander smell filled the territory here, it wasn't a bad one, necessarily, but it was everywhere. Something like tree sap and acorns, drying leaves in the fall. My own kind smelled the closest to the moor, or maybe the rocks by the running river. Or just plain grass, I couldn't be too sure because it was what I was used to my whole youth. Yet, my nose picked up a particularly strong smell that led to a marsh up north a little ways, where I silently stalked in the grass. This scent had a touch of herbs to it, and a bit of blood.. Peeking my head up a bit over the underbrush, I viewed a pale one, with gray wings, suddenly causing my heart to drop.

He'd been the one that I'd attacked this morning, the one I saw in the moor days earlier, my claw marks now painted his body a sore black and bruised all over. His right wing had dried over blood around the base and some of his hair had been pulled. He was quiet, picking the leaches from his wings and stretching in the moonlight, turned the opposite way from me.

I went to turn when another noise startled me still. It was his friend, from earlier as well, with the dark brown wings that looked black under the hour's dark cloak. He'd crawled from the opposite side of the underbrush from where I hid, dragging a quail with a snapped neck in his hand. His voice had a rasp to it this time, seemingly more upset than earlier as he barked at the other. "What are you doing out here? Oh-" Though I still couldn't understand their speech, I watched the bristling of the gray one's wings before he responded in a sheepish tone. "Well I might as well ask you the same!"

"I tracked your scent, I assumed you were on a hunt, I smelled the blood." said the one with the darker wings. The other fell silent, looking down at himself and dropping his wings. He relaxed his shoulders and dipped his head, almost sulking as I narrowed my eyes. The one with the darker wings softened his sharp look with a sigh. "Would you want to share this with me?" he shamefully held out his catch, the dead quail hanging by its snapped neck as he huffed. "That's alright, I'm not hungry." he leaned forward a bit to splash the murky water over his head before the other snapped off a piece of the quail's wing and began to pick the fresh meat out.