Primal

Chapter Two

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Chapter Two

 

Some people are born with very little; some are fortunate enough to have it all. When I grew up, we didn’t have much. I had to hustle to get what I wanted...But I had that hunger for more. I didn’t always make the right choices, but I learned from my mistakes. ~Curtis Jackson

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Aeron slid through the shadows, his pointed ears twitching their way out of the confinement of his thick hair. The dark strands of his hair were pulled back now by a vine he had ripped, tying the long strands out of the way of his eye. He kneeled down, sniffing at the ground for any trace of a faint scent. He had been tracking the same pack of Fauneck for days now, and his stomach was clawing for a taste of anything at this point. If any more days passed without food, he would have had to resort to eating vegetation. The idea of shoving green strands of grass into his mouth was enough to make him gag on reflex. Tilly would catch up to him soon, and she would expect him to have something for them to eat together. Food. His stomach called out as if on cue, begging for something to fall into the empty pit.

 

Breaking into the shadows of a clearing, he finally set his eyes upon one of them. It was older in age, falling behind from the group despite the fact that its legs were hurriedly limping to catch up. It would be the perfect prey, his tongue passing against his bottom lip. It wouldn’t be a filling meal, but it would give him enough strength to take down a male Fauneck if he came across one. He pounced without a second thought, his teeth quickly pushing out of his mouth as they met its thin neck. It moved to run, but Aeron’s hands pulled back and snapped its arms in one fluid motion.

 

Soon Aeron felt the faint heartbeat fade into nonexistence, allowing his teeth to rip open the flesh. By then he had consumed most of the blood, its warmth trickling down his throat and filling his cravings. He tore the corpse apart, each bite swallowed before he even had the chance to chew. No part of his eating habits was an appealing sight, but it always tasted wonderful and gave him the energy his body needed. “It would be nice if you actually saved some for me for once, jerk.” A female voice said as the last scrap of edible material found its way to his stomach. He snapped out of his trance, glancing down at the stripped skeleton that he kneeled over.

 

“Sorry Tilly. I think there are a few of the smaller organs left somewhere in the pile. Edible organs I mean. Maybe, maybe not. I’m still sorry though.” He said, though they both knew that there was no way he meant any of those words. He was a better hunter than she was, and he needed all of the strength he could muster if they were to get any more food before the sun set. “We’re close to the rest of them though. They can’t be far ahead.” He stood up, kicking grass and branches over the tattered carcass. She nodded at him, sighing in agreement. She might have been hungry, but his hunger was always far worse. Every movement he made took more energy and focus, his body almost exactly twice her size. Tilly was so tiny that people they came across on their journey often took her for a child. They took off then, their swift movements hidden by the dark hues of the shadows.

 

Eventually they caught up to the pack, and by the end of it all their stomachs were full of their prey. Their hands were stained red, little bits of skin stuck under their long nails. Their bodies sat on the ground facing each other, trying to make some kind of small talk before they would start off again. The two of them had been hunting partners for as long as Aeron could remember, but they were both terrible at conversing with people. It didn’t matter much anyways. Whenever they finished a hunt, a pang of guilt resided in the bottom of his heart that caused him to not want to talk to anyone. Whenever he took the life of any amount of Faunecks, he was reminded of the Nocarae he came across years ago, of the Nocarae whose life he ruined. He was just protecting himself; he wasn’t trying to take away her wings. If he could only see her again, he could fix things. Everything could be right once more.

 

He stopped his train of thought, picking a sliver of meat out of his sharp teeth before his hunting teeth slid back into his gums. He glanced down at his bruised hands and sighed. Liberally smeared crimson and burgundy, they looked as if he had just been up to his forearms in someone’s bloody, gaping abdomen--which in truth he had been, but he hated giving people the right impression. “Doubting your existence again?” Tilly joked, slapping him on the back with a quick flick of her wrist. “Forget about her, she’s probably long dead. They can’t survive without their wings, you know that.” She was right. Tilly was always right. It didn’t matter if she knew what she was talking about or not; she just always made sense. Aeron knew that she had no clue about Nocarae lifespans or habits, but her words comforted him enough to shove her large, sad yellow eyes to the dusty crevices of his mind. However, it didn’t matter if she was right. Her words still stung. After all he had done, she had to still be alive. He could feel her sometimes at night, her presence not there physically but existing throughout the air in the forest. She wasn’t just a Nocarae; she was everything on the planet all at once.

 

Then in the distance, he heard a tree branch snap under the uneven footing of a stranger. His rangy, gangly body grew rigid, his limbs freezing in an unnatural crouching position, He watched Tilly disappear into the dark to retrieve whatever it was, his body unmoving from it’s sharp position. Her scent was filling the air now, and he wasn’t sure why it seemed more realistic than it usually did. The gentle scent of berry juice and tree leaves was overpowering now, his frozen body standing up suddenly.

 

She was the one in the forest now, and Tilly was about to come across her. If Tilly didn’t think about bringing her back to him, if Tilly just attacked her, the Nocarae girl would be dead and all that Aeron had done would have been for nothing. He tried to listen for signs of a struggle in the air, but all his ears were met with was the sound of birds chirping in the distance.