by Hopeflower » Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:18 am
Viridis wasn't sure how long she stayed where Astus had left her, teetering on the brink of consciousness. Her body was wracked with shivers, even though her throat felt as hot and dry as if she'd swallowed a mouthful of sand. Her stomach cramped and churned uneasily, unable to decide if it was demanding food or felt the urge to throw up what was in it - if there was even anything in there to throw up. She couldn't remember what she last ate, or the last time food tasted like anything other than wood. The thought of her parents crossed her mind, but she was too exhausted to feel anything but the dull ache of loss. They had as good as abandoned her long before Astus decided enough was enough. At one point she opened her eyes to see if he'd come back yet, but failing to spot him - or anything but compies, for that matter - she closed them again. Something nagging at the back of her mind kept her awake, though, something about the presence of compies...a thought she couldn't quite grasp long enough for it to fully form. It stayed with her, however, urgent enough to keep her from falling completely asleep...and she could hear the tiny creatures around her twitter and shift nervously every time she moved. They seemed to be getting closer, growing more bold as they sensed her weakness.
A low, familiar snarl jerked her awake again, just as she was dozing off. Astus chased the compies away from her with a vicious swipe of one hand, nearly eviscerating one of them with a glancing blow to its flank. It gave a squeal of pain and surprise as it was knocked sideways into two others, knocking them backwards. The pale raptor stood over Viridis protectively, baring his sharp teeth as he hissed, "You filthy lizards can't have her. She's not dead." Once he was sure they wouldn't come back, he killed the compy he'd wounded - no sense letting easy meat go to waste, when Viridis was too sick to hunt and a lone raptor's chances of making a decent kill were slim at best. As he dropped the corpse at her muzzle, Viridis finally captured her important but evasive thought; compies would attack a weakened animal if they could overpower it. After being bitten by them, the victim would simply fall asleep and not wake up again.
Something wet touched her face, and the mottled green female forced her eyes open enough to catch a glimpse of something that looked like moss. Soaking wet moss. The presence of the water made her remember her raging thirst, and she lifted her head to squeeze it out, sucking the liquid down greedily. Astus watched her closely, making sure she was alright. Following the scent of other raptors had proven useless; he had realized fairly quickly that the smell was stale. The pack, if there had been one close by, hadn't been around for several days. Perhaps hunger or thirst had killed them - perhaps they'd moved on. It didn't matter...but at least he'd found water. As he watched her start to nibble on the dead compy, Astus began to hope that maybe, somehow, everything would be alright.
"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