by Hopeflower » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:52 pm
Selena dropped the ferns she was holding and pushed them towards Hazel with one hand. "Let me know if they aren't enough," she growled.
"Rapture," Thorn growled, studying the other male thoughtfully. "An interesting name...." He paused, turning his head to look at Switchblade and Haze. "What say you three to staying here for the night? I'll wake you before the bigger predators get to moving around much so you can head out in safety, if you like."
Siri was nearing the place where the Allosaurs had appeared on the scene earlier in the day. Their scent was fading. Some of the tension left her shoulders. That was good. It looked like they were just a pair of young males wanting to seem tough by stealing from a pack of raptors. She poked her head out of the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing, her violet eyes scanning carefully. The pack's kill was little more than a few scraps of flesh and splintered bones. Swallowing her disappointment, she backed into the ferns with hardly a rustle and padded along the borders. She could pick up some prey on her way; their territory was hardly short of hunting opportunities.
Back in the cave, Silver was gently urging her young ones to go to sleep after their long day, with the help of Viridis. The two young females were becoming fast friends, a fact that was not lost on Mwuaji. He was still on sentry duty, but was dividing his attention between his job and the newcomers. The three young raptors were clearly excited to be in a new place. Silver seemed to be settling in well. They warm right up to her, he thought, more than a little bitterly. What's so different between her and me? We're both raptors who needed a pack...but she gets half the pack to like her in two minutes. I've been here how long, and Inculta, Astus, and Viridis still don't trust me. With a quiet sigh, he turned back to guarding the cave. He barely noticed when Inculta left the cave, heading for the half-boulder.
Astus, meanwhile, had indeed gone to the half-boulder. He was perched on top of it, simply watching the daylight die. Though his expression was cold and stony, beneath it he was a mess of envy, pain, and regret. If only I'd told her...if only I'd taken one of those many chances to tell Siri how much she meant to me, he thought. I guess I'm just a cowardly hatchling who can't open his mouth when he should... He let out a quiet sigh.
"I thought I might find you here, brother." Inculta leaped up the rough side of the boulder in a few quick bounds, to stand beside Astus. They were quiet for a while, with only a slight turn of the head from Astus showing that he knew his brother was there.
"Why are you here, Inculta?" Astus hardly recognized his older brother anymore; Inculta had become strangely distant from the pack recently. It was as if the dominant male no longer wanted anything to do with pack life. Or maybe he just didn't want to lead the pack anymore. It was impossible to know; Inculta never said anything about the beginning split between himself and the rest of the pack, and no one dared ask, out of fear of the answer.
"You look like you've got a lot on your mind." That was the gentlest Astus had ever heard his brother speak to him. "...I know you loved Siri," the older of the two went on hesitantly after a short pause.
"I still do," Astus muttered, looking away. Inculta paused. "She was...my everything, brother. I loved her more than I ever thought I could love another raptor. I thought...maybe...it would grow into something more." He paused and swallowed, trying to ignore the sting of pain. "My mistake was letting you come with me the day I was going to tell her how I felt. She saw you and I could tell that I'd missed my chance." He fell silent as the regret...the pain...threatened to choke him. Inculta looked down at him, not knowing what to say. "You have no idea...how much it hurt me to watch you and her falling for each other. After that day, you two wanted to spend every minute of your lives together. You asked her to join our pack. You asked her to be your mate. You asked her, when father decided it was time for the two of us to leave and start our own pack, to come with us. You were far braver than I...you even had a future, until..."
Inculta looked down at the rough stone beneath his feet. "Siri made sure those Oviraptors paid dearly," he rumbled. "I'd never seen her so angry. I was furious too...but she was the one who tore them all apart."
Astus kept his gaze trained out at the horizon, pain flickering in his eyes. He'd been out on a hunt when the Oviraptors had raided the nest, destroying all of the eggs. He knew that Inculta had been patrolling their small territory, trying to avoid such a tragedy. "And the illness," he whispered. "It almost destroyed your second chance at raising your young."
"Viridis was the only one that survived. To this day, I'm still thankful that even one of those tiny hatchlings was spared that awful death." Inculta remembered well. That strange sickness that had killed off all four of Viridis' brothers. They had coughed and coughed, and hadn't been able to keep any of their food down. They'd grown weaker and weaker, while he and Siri watched, helpless to do anything. In the end, the four had starved to death. They had been too small to fight off the illness. Siri had been heartbroken and become very protective of their surviving daughter.
"You're very lucky," Astus rumbled, "to have a daughter after all that." He'd often wondered why Viridis had been the only one not to catch the sickness. Whatever the reason, he, Siri, and Inculta had all agreed at the time; she was a very, very lucky little raptor.
"Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come."
"Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything that you're willing to practice, you can do." ~ Bob Ross
"The future is always uncertain and painful but it must be lived." ~ Unknown