Creatures

[tirgesfu]

Creatures

It was the hard smack against the rock that actually shook reality into Jinijz. He had been flying so fast and so long his mind had gone fuzzy. All his energy was in the pound of his wings. Jinijz was a flyer. His whole life he was more comfortable in the sky, could fly endlessly. The fact that he had flown through several shifts of the outer moons should not tire him. It never had before. But then he was carrying more than he ever had before. And he was fleeing.

As he hit the wall of stone he squawked unintentionally. Quickly he pulled his thin black outer lips over the small beak that let the noise through. He folded his thin black membrane wings closed for a few seconds allowing his body to drop alongside the cliff he only now noticed. The heavy bag that hung from his talons swung a bit. He pushed away from the boulders. With a snap his bat like wings opened again and the quick decent stopped.

Jinijz glided. He took a deep breath of the air tasting the difference. It was only then he swiveled his head right and left and back again to look up to the dark sky above him. He saw the tear. It was that place between the skies he must have flown through. As the council predicted the thread between the worlds ripped.

With a deliberate pull of his talons he brought his bag to the dark purple feathers of his body. His flight was ending. He would land and check the bag. The place he had ended was not as important as his cargo. Slowing his flight and allowing his tired wings to quiver, Jinijz looked for a ledge or flat ground among the mountain peaks. To his eyes the descent went on and on. He was unsure if there was a place between the rock points. The flight and the battle that caused his departure was catching up to him. Jinijz had to stop.

Just as he realized his efforts had run their course he spotted a patch of green and yellow. With the tilt of his left wing he breezed to the different light. He hovered above the grass covered spot making sure he judge the edge strong enough and secure. Slowly, carefully, his talons touched ground.

He shifted the bag tenderly allowing it to settle to his side. With great effort he calmed his beating blood and his shallow breaths. For a few seconds that’s all he did, just breath. When he body accepted the rest he hopped to the bag and with his long thin talons he untied the bag.

Inside he carefully inspected each egg. With his beak he rolled the first one gently. It was the biggest and the lightest in color, an oblong shape with a white shell and very light blue lines all around it. Next he looked at the bright yellow perfectly round egg that was half its size. With a gentle nudge of his crown he separated it from the even smaller shinny black egg with a spot on the side that was almost flat. The two pink eggs rolled away from the other but Jinijz’s quick claws brought them back.

Jinijz inspected each egg. There were no cracks, no marks, no drainage from any. Spreading them all inside his membrane wings tucked them close to his feather chest and rested.

Part two written by Fallenreaper

Muscles and sinew tensed, a slight wind ruffled yellow fur striped with thick lines running lengthwise across the body. Silted white pupils upon black eye balls took in a spectrum of red while set in hunting mode, a long eared meal just a pounce distance from her lithe, bony figure. Her thin stringy tongue flicked to taste the scent drenching the air, coarse sand paper pads studded with retractable claws as her head slowly bobbed side to side, surveying the prey below her perch. Nyr, a name self dubbed by the sound she made nightly, shrank into herself with four paws digging into the gnarled stone tree. Her hind legs spring loaded to fling herself at just the right moment.

Hunger…game had been scarce of late as it was the Waning period in her world. The Kaze trees, towering giant mushrooms of vibrant reds and yellows with tuffs of fluffy stalks growing from their caps, had held their spore bounty to this world longer than ever before. Inside Nyr and every living creature was a sense of dread, an instinct that told of the world changing. Change meant only the strong survived.

The long eared animal, black empty eyes glinted for signs of predators as he sucked through a straw like tongue his lucky find: hovering moss colored spores hidden beneath a rock. Long black digger claws lifted it, his rabbit ears poised forward and back, twisting to strain any tiny sound to betray another’s presence. Nothing, not an even a squeak. Eagerly and convinced of his safety, he sucked up the bobbing spores that dusted the air in front of him.

If Nyr had human lips, her smile would have sent a shiver down the animal’s spine. It would be quick, painless as her body leapt into the ground unsheathing all five front claws right into the scrawny back. The creature was half her size, a rabbit to her bob cat sized body with blood pooled near the inflicted wounds. An ear piercing echoed and its large front claws swiped at her foreleg, a red line with searing pain caused her to release darting back a small distance between. Her two lungs bellowed out with a yowl of torture from the wound, blood swelled at tis edges with every movement, her four large dagger teeth shot out of black lips into a snarl from the small snout. Then the maw bottom cracked and widened tipped with bone hooks, no gum tissue at all. Just exposed bone that fixed into a flexible fleshy joint. A tail, long and ridged, shows off all the bone intentions beneath the skin like a whip shifting dust behind.

Fine green hairs lengthened and rattled from her sides, making her appear wider then she truly was and each strand was sensitive to touch telling her how close something came to her fragile form. Unlike most creatures upon this world, Nyr’s body lacked the strength to up hold to physical punishment often killing her members of her species in a single well placed blow. A sound rippled though her small body. She was hungry and the animal, a Boro which was a stitched together animal of an anteater and rabbit with lightless eyes of black, was wounded ready to be put out of its misery…

---------- Post added at 09:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 AM ----------

Jinijz woke to the sound of a shrieking howl. It was laced with pain but also triumph. He quickly adjusted his eyes and scanned the area following the wails. Careful not to move at all he made a mental count of his wards, the eggs, by concentrating on the feel of each against his feathered breast. Then he focused his eyes on the noise.

Below him was a hunt almost completed. There was no question of predator and prey. The cat like creature held the advantage even if it was the one who screamed in discomfort. Jinjz watched waiting to see if the kill was clean and for sustenance, as it appeared. Jinijz knew even though he could not explain, that sometimes events are not as they appear. Or maybe it was more that he did not assign a judgment or conclusion to an action, not following a complex line of cause and effect. The only reason he watched the kill was to judge his own safety. But the cat seemed intent upon its feeding and Jinijz did not feel its attention. That was fine with Jnijz.

Just as his interest began to wander he felt a slight shake in the rock underneath him. Just a rumble just a shift but the unsteady movement of the ledge he rested on startled him. Because most of his time had always been in the skies he had never sat upon hardness that moved. He could not surmised if all the rock shifted or just the ledge he had chosen to rest upon.

He pulled the bag closer and with his beak and claws he opened it quickly and began to roll the eggs back inside. As the largest egg and the two pink ones slid easing back into his caring sack, a small shake of the ledge shifted again. Quickly Jinijz shoved the yellow one in but just as he was reaching for the last egg, the black one that was not as round or rollable as the others, jumped from the ledge. Jinjiz took hold of the top of the sack and opened his wings. He watched as the egg bounced over the edge and fell.

Ready to fly after it Jinijz eyes followed. The egg as if in slow motion flipped over once as it dropped. It landed on the same flat spot that the cat feed. Jinijz stayed still with his wings open wide. The cat might not notice it instead feasting on its kill. But as if to make that improbable the egg began to shake and crack.

[Fallenreaper]

She let the blood skim down her chin, the cooper taste warmed her throat while her jaw muscles feel the giving slack of life flee from the creature’s body and finally released. Her wound was still inflamed from the fight, not wanting it to become infected; the hurt cat gently pulls her hind leg out and began to sharply lick it clean. Her rough tongue made it sting but gripped away the dirt, clearing of bacteria that would cripple her. It was a painful necessity. Her tiny toes spread wide as she tasted the remains of animal’s struggle upon her thick fur, shifting it with short, quick strokes before turning her attention back to the mangle body. Still the animal scanned the corner of her eyes looking for any sight of sudden movement. The pupil dilated wider to sharpen the distance, almost like a high tech zooming lens with constant refocus at each delicate bob of her small head.

The Boro was exhausted but Nyr was weak from lack of a meal. Once she managed to get past the large, sharp claws then the fight was long over. She dug her teeth beneath the jaw, the place where that thick vein of pulsing blood was. The one to make the animal’s body go limp most often. Nyr got a shiver of delight over the idea, the very emotion that made her tail flick with enjoyment and eagerness. Now it was time to feast.

Nyr, savored the meat, the slender body held between her paws as she lapped up the blood and stringy sinew of the torn body. Her head twisted and pulled away, two sets of incisors worked their way about and into the soft tissue between the joints aided by the much smaller front teeth to peel all the meat from the very bone. Loud crunching noises betrayed her delight while her forepaws manipulated and tore the carcass apart. Gorging herself on both the animal carcass as well as the tiny spores, uncertain of her next nourishing meal Nyr greedily ate with increasing speed. This was her first fresh kill in a month as she scavenged alongside larger predators the long dead bodies of other animals ranging from starved herbivores to murdered carnivores for a scrawny meal, her body now budged with content, Nyr felt happy enough to purr. Sounds. Her large ears perked, flicking in limited motions of turns to locate the source.

Crack, crackle…a rumbling sound from above made her look up.

It took mere seconds to watch a black stone descended, much too quickly for the strange bat-bird peering over the ledge to catch it. Nyr couldn’t pry her now black pupils on white, her vision vibrate color followed the odd little thing until it landed near her kill. She tilted her head. Curious, her one ear pulled back against her head while eyes were wide with interest at what item fell from the heavens. Muscles moved before she could think of the after affects or realize how dangerous it was to provoke a strange animal, instincts took second place to her natural need to know about new things.

Very near she drew, stopping just a paw reach from the egg as she balled her body up in a similar pouncing stance from before. Her back legs bunched up, tense and ready to leap out upon the black stone. It wobbled and shook. Nyr felt her shoulders readjust, shifting like an Olympic runner before the gun shot, vision never left her target. A paw flicked out batting the shell slightly across the ground. Scriink, the sound cause Nyr to jump back startled, before just as fast reaching out the same paw, claws hidden, and purred. It was clear she was enjoying playing with her new found toy.

She shuffled it from one side, then to the other and finally took it up in her front paws. Her body flipped over with the egg pulled close to her chest, the pliable hairs folded harmlessly against her side, it continued to shake and quake making it hard to keep between her paws while her hind legs kicked out aiding in its hatching. It came loose from her surprisingly gentle grasp. She yowled as if calling it back, of course it didn’t. Nyr wasn’t that easily detoured, her lithe form stalked behind the skittering egg and her tail flicked lazily keeping a time of sort with the egg’s movements. Paws were nothing more than thick skin, immune to the gravel that scratched at it and voided of any nerve ends except for between the toes, so she easily took her time creeping closer to the item. What was it doing, she thought still eyeing it, not attentive to Jinijz in the least while the cracks multiplied across the surface.

[tirgesfu]

From his perch above Jinijz watched, making his body larger with fluffed chest feather and opened wings. The animal below only looked briefly at his fierce display. It was one of his wards that caught the cat’s eyes. Jinijz almost screeched as the kitten jumped near the egg. The bat like animal did not even begin to analysis motives. That was not in its nature. But there was a sense a connection an understanding of actions or body movements. Correct of not that was the tool Jinijz used to evaluate his surroundings.

Fear was not an accurate description of the state of alertness that tightened each membrane in Jinijz wings. Failure in protecting the egg did not lump up in the animal’s throat or cause any wetness of his eyes. But just as the cat would protect its kill for its own survival, Jinijz’s core shook with the understanding that the egg was his.

The first action he expected was for the creature to rip open the outer case and began to lick the tender insides. That feel for the things around him gave Jinijz the immediate sense that the cat was not going to eat the egg. How he reached this conclusion would never be examined. Jinijz did not feel the same aggression the slick slinky four leger showed moments ago when hunting. The cat was full. Hunger was not its drive.

Curiosity was now the motivation. But not for Jinijz. He did not care why the fur ball was batting his possession. But he did not fly immediately to the spot. His hesitation was the other eggs. He could not leave them. An attack on the feline with his other tender wards was not viable. At least not right away, Jinijz wiggled the closure of the bag tight and held them in one talon. Just as he was ready to glide down upon the cat he heard the cracks of the shell.

Things seemed to still as the small thin membrane quivered. A battle not unlike the kill or the flight of moments ago was ranging inside a small thin veil. From one world to the next similar the break in the sky, a small bit of life struggled to leave one place for another. From the safe womb the life had to escape to live on. To stay inside was to die. With fighting power scaled to its own form, like that of the killing cat or the fleeing flight, the small beginnings push and beat and chipped and hit and kick and struggled to crawl out of its shell.

The shell chipped. The black outer case began to fall from the small black object inside. Tiny little claws pushed the bits aside even as they stuck to the wet sleek black fur that matted to the small ball. Round orange eyes struggled to open. It finally slithered from the encasement and went quickly to the fur, the protection, the paws and soft pur of its new protector. In a needy and expecting way the egg opened and the baby sought its mother. Or what the small thing believed its mother to be.

[Fallenreaper]

Life, it wiggled and loud crackles of caused Nyr’s eyes to widen and lock upon the shard that erupted from a single point. Something told her to stay still. She couldn’t help but obey; a wash of motherly sentiment drowned the desire to bat it. Claws sheath, hidden beneath soft paws brushed with thick fur while she crossed over the strong forearms over the other. It rattled and pulsed with great effort, struggle to free itself from its own cramped space in the fresh air.

Like frail slat rock, the black fell from its slick body coated with the nourishment it once feed from, now discarded and useless excrement of its old life. Bitty and untested claws timidly clicked on the egg remains with almost hypnotic eyes they stared at one another. Nyr felt her breath stall, the female connect to something small and helpless overwhelm the cat like creature, her body rose to the cry. It wasn’t needed. With one last immense effort, all that remained of its storage of strength during its development busted free of the tiny space. It gave a meek yelp, exhausted.

Nyr stared at it, the small and matted baby. From the tip of its cone shaped beak to the end of its tailless bottom, it was about three paw lengths long and one wide as she gently prodded its laboring body. It squeaked! Her eyes shoot wide causing her body to arch back, instinctively letting a low threatening hiss escaped from the cavern of her narrow chest with a bit of spittle. Ears came back in fright, her toes spread out and the line hair came quickly forward to increase her size. The infant just stared at her…

If Nyr knew what foolish meant, it would fit her current mood this moment and cease her upright posture against the helpless damp thing before her. The feline didn’t as she held her ground, eyed the little squeaker with a discontented look while it nested its head into the hard claw surface, rubbing against the top’s smoothness. It took several moments to conclude one thing: it had no intention to eat her. Love her to death maybe, she mused inside at the affection it displayed. Her body relaxed, quills pressed up onto her sides in a limp look and at last let her instincts free rein.

The thin body curled up, the bony tail doubled till it was lying right next her head and forepaws gentle folded about the weak creature. Her sandpaper tongue flicked out glided across the foul tasting mucus leaving its fur softer with each pass. Two more eyes, a set of bright green, stared at her from her young ward making her pause from licking a patch of her own tan spotted fur, rid the stick substance’s flavor from it. She blinked. Two sets of eyes? Just behind the first, larger orange eyes were the smaller one as once the crusted fluids were cleared then the feeble lids opened and stared. It purred pleased to see its mother in both the brilliance of green night vision and the off colors of seeing only bright blacks, light blues and shades of warped yellow colors.

Nyr’s ear twisted back in alertness. Her body rippled with anxiety as she caught a low rumble in the distance like thunder. Paws at once came away from the tiny baby’s body, made it chirp in panic at the shortest fall of its new life right onto the rock. Its green eyes closed, pained from the harshness of the light above the pair, while its head lengthened out giving the creature a more squash shape then the fuzzy ball of earlier. The stouter back leg wobbled as it stood, Nyr’s nose butted it gruffly for it to catch balance while it made high pitch grunt of displeasure. It had to get up. She growled in annoyance at its stubborn nature, not realizing the animal was unfit to move for several more hours at least.

His fur puffed out and grew in volume, the plastered strands of his matted fur dried into feathery like baby down. Unable to wait, Nyr cupped her maw gently about the middle with her fully extended jaw. Her species wasn’t build to carry their young and the babe whimpered in pain, the “mother’s” ears dripped emitting her own muffled whine while she tried to pull the round belly to her molars-the flat teeth. She tasted blood, the puffball’s flesh was slowly being torn by her incisors. It took only seconds for her to set him down. Her body trembled; wide eyes saddened by the pooling drops of red moisten the once dried fur. A low whine pleaded for the critter to move but it only stared at her, lost and confused with fear. It didn’t know what was coming.

Rumbling drew closer and closer, drawn in by the mixing scent of the old carcass and fresh blood.

Two threads of wants tugged at Nyr, flee or fight. The only problem was she couldn’t leave the quivering ball of fur behind nor could she carry him. It was a male, firmly cemented in her mind with the memory of its deep masculine scent as the female turned her back to the ‘kitten’. Her fangs bared, wiry muscles braced and coiled with the embers to protect her child to the bitter end. She had chanced a brief glance back at the tiny thing, a glint of mourning for what was to come surface before it sink into motherly wrath. The green barbs stuck outright stiffly when the cracking of underbrush began, the green gave way to a huge thick scaly foot that brought the towering creature into full view.

[tirgesfu]

Through the small whimpers of the newly hatched egg Jinijz shifted his bag with the unhatched tight against the rock wall still battling with the possibility of leaving them to gather the one who rolled away. With effort and speed he wrapped the folds of the cloth around a small peak in the rock ledge, doing so while he viewed the egg opening and the life immediately adapting to the cat. He witnessed the bond. Even from his spot above it was clear the young one had made the survival connection. To Jinijz eager eyes the cat appeared to accept her role. Still Jinijz was prepared to glide down and protect. But before he could find his aggressive intuitive response the cat sent its own posture of protection. With good reason.

From around the moss covered rock a grumble sounded. Just as the light of one of this worlds sun stars began to filter its beams unto the boulder covered landscape a huge foot planted itself on the once pore spread surface near the meals remains. The creature was more feet and head than body. But even at that it was large. Clawed scaling toes were surrounded by crab like snappers all around its thick scaled ankles and thighs. The thick legs rose three times as high as the crouched cat, but the stringy shelled claws only covered a third of the way up its chunky support. Each leg had three set of jointed knees or places where they could bend. The legs ended at a small round bulge that supported a lizard type head. No arms, just a head with plates of thin sharp bones that stuck out like needles all over the back and top. Two scarlet eyes almost lost by the size of mouth. Pointed fangs and teeth filled the huge hole to the point where to seemed the beast could never close its lips and cover them. Hanging from the lizard like chin were again thin members that ended with clicking pinchers. The snappers began to click continuously on the creature’s legs swirling and moving as if attracted to the now protective cat.

The beast’s movements were slow and clumsy but filled with the sound and feel of strength. The only parts that moved with ease were the constantly cracking claws. Around each leg were six moving tendon attaching pinchers. They were smaller than the cat pawns but of shell like protection instead of the soft feel of fur.

Jinijz only need to spot the beast for a minute to know he was a fierce predator. As the cat got ready to spring in defense of her new found commitment Jinijz lept from his perch leaving his eggs behind to fly around the savage mouth filled head.

[Fallenreaper]

“Rrraaawwllll,” Nyr loudly cried, her thin back arched at the sight.

Eyes widen with fright and spit fire, large teeth pushed forward raring to ward off the creature. Fear, Nyr felt her heart race and abuse the tiny ribs around, her nostrils flared. Each breath filled her chest as Nyr’s paws found perch against the rough ground while eyes narrowed flickering before this monstrosity. Her common sense screamed for her to flee, abandon the chick to save her own skin but she couldn’t. Nyr wanted to be a mother, passing on her genes to the future and ensure her existence, but it seemed it wasn’t meant to happen it seems.

Deep bloody eyes, danced with hunger on the opportunity of fresh meat while spied the much larger feline, the closest meal. The many sounds of clicking and snapping claws rattled her delicate ear drums, and set her body with a deep foreboding at the predator making every hair on the back of her neck raise. Her eyes picked out the moving mass of claws moving at her like aggressive swaying kelp.

Something fast, feathered, and webbed wings shot out from behind her to zip about the animal’s head. His exposed teeth ripped open, the bellows annoyed at the disturbance of its hunt while it struggled to keep up. Stone gravel crackled with its shifting feet. Tendons in his jaws stretched the need to rid itself of the flying pest that hovered about its vision, beady red eyes flicked back and forth to lock on it. The creature twisted about to

The babe quivered and whimpered, seeking soothing licks from Nyr but she couldn’t. Not when he was in danger. She looked at it, once more butting it with her snout as it seemed to stand only to collapsed back to the ground in an undignified clump of fur with a muffled squeak. Once more she tried to move it and failed. She couldn’t do anything with the hatchling around, the risk of him getting kill was greater. A feeling of helplessness washed over her punctuated by a pitiful mournful mewl sound. Get up pleases she begged. He just stared at her. It was hopeless to persist in this course of action as she retargeted the beast behind her.

The creature’s eyes were the thing Nyr wanted to attack but she couldn’t reach it, yet. Without thinking, she twisted her body onto the rock face wall where Jinijz had descendent from. Her toes spread out while the babe’s cries echoed in her ears paining her, curved claws gifted from her DNA designed to scale the variety of terrain dug in while her muscle pulled her lithe body higher. If Jinijz turn it would appear as if the cat was abandoning her charge. Fore paws whipped out to grip any out jut while her hind leg braced against any purchase she could find, slowly making her way up the rock wall.

SSshhrriiikkkk. She lost ground, thick pads rubbed raw against the rock as it bled slightly, pebbles shot down where her paws lose grip. It was that sensation of being watch she felt first. The cat turned, looking beyond her bunched up shoulders to see the flicker of predator’s attention to the now loudly bawling, frantic ‘kitten’. Her hair stood on end as it ignored Jinijz, more focused on the tiny gulp she left undefended and Nyr hissed. Spines along her side rock back and forth, hollow and rubbed against each other creating a low pitched sound like a snake rattle.

The display said, look at me, look me. Keep your eyes on me…not him, me… Me. Red eyes narrowed on the swiveling head, Nyr to the babe back to Nyr, unable to decide the best meal. Easy won over mass in the dull creature’s mind while he went forward, his feet absorbed the shocks that his large steps made across the open space. The tree Nyr used to overpower the Boro splintered and broke from the massive strength while he went past it right for HER kit, the little one had manage to wiggled itself nearer the rock face in an attempt to follow it’s mother. She watched as the carcass’s smell was quickly buried by the tree. His head lowered, his bone spikes extended with the effort and stiffened, mouth reached forward to slip the puffball in.

Everything seemed to freeze while Nyr’s intelligent mind shut off giving way to primal instincts of the reckless nature. Hind leg pulled upward beneath her chest in one powerful motion, her head curled forward while she sprang from her over head perch. Front paws led the way. The motion twisted though her muscles to send her retracted claws outright and aimed right at the beast’s face. She wasn’t high enough and the flaps of flesh she used to glide opened too late… Where her body was just moments ago, came a small shower of rock and slant down from her hasty lounge, a safe distance from the bundled up egg sack.

Nyr body was tossed to the third bend of the legs, round wrinkly skin skittered under her search for a stable grip painting red lines in her downward path. Breath was knocked from her on the impact. Teeth joined needle nails, stopped her small body just inches beyond the snapping claws as the wind of their furious clapping brushes by her whip appendage. The predator roared. Fury washed over the animal as it lowered an eye in Nyr’s direction spying the cause of his misery. Inside Nyr was screaming her cat head off. Dread drenched her black eyes while her body coiled against the beast’s leg, itching to crawl away but could only helplessly hang there by her front shanks.

She was fully exposed and the beast tossed caution to the wind. Nyr took a fulfilling sense with her glance back to the hatchling. She might be able to glide but with the snapping claws at her hind quarters and far too close to the ground, it wouldn’t work. To top it off those truths, something felt wrong in her left hind leg as if it didn’t want to listen to her brain’s commands. That worried the cat greatly. Her hip was out of joint, popped from the socket in her leap and now it only meekly responded with slight twitches. Nothing more, she was lucky it wasn’t broken.

Nyr didn’t feel lucky now…

[tirgesfu]

Jinijz flew around the spiked covered head following the lead of that cat by making a loud screeching noise. Follow me, the cry seems to thunder as it bounced off the cliff hanging walls around them. Jinijz easily darted around the slow moving small eyed beast. He caught a glance of the green hair cat climbing up the rock ledge. The towering thing did not seem interested in Jinijz as he bent his long legs and then straighten them following the leaps of the cat. Jinijz found his wings heading toward his eggs more than the hatched one unattended or the cat who had risked all for the small one.

But as the feline jumped Jinijz swung his right membrane wing up and darted straight toward the long legged monsters middle from the rear. Right before Jinijz opened his mouth, the jaw made so as to come unhinged, he heard the painful cries of the monster. His face muscle stretched. His eyes squinted to make room for a move he does not engage often. His jaw opened. He knew his bite would add to the beast’s cries. With strong muscles that clamped tight to back undersized space on top of the beast’s legs, Jinijz’s two rows of small but very sharp teeth ripped. The jaw locked onto the flesh and poked each razor-sharp tooth deep into the leather covered skin. Howls filled the air. Screams and snapping claws shifted from the bend in its leg to the things on its back. The claws on its feet could not reach that high until the beast bent his legs almost squatting.

As the creature lowered Jinijz had some sense that the cat would find its paws back on the ground. If the snappers all swung around to attack him, maybe the new mother of his egg could slide off. Jinijz pulled hard on his wings and head and tore the meat, blood and even some organs from inside the middle of the crab lizard. He spit the foul tasting meat from his mouth as he flapped back quickly. The head swung toward him lead by the clacking pinchers as its own huge mouth opened. Large dagger teeth reached for Jinijz. Spikes jabbed into Jinijz’s wing. Teeth and claws found small bites as Jinijz kept pulling his wings as if to back paddle in the air.
He had to pull back quicker the stumbling beast was falling toward him, with salvia drooling from his teeth filled mouth. His knees began to straighten as his head came closer to Jinijz. Jinijz pulled his injured wing close and dipped to the other side gliding to the side of the huge head. The eyes, claws and head followed. Jinijz then opened both and with a quick snap closed the other wing quickly spinning the other direction. The pain crying mouth followed. The swift actions of Jinijz and the beast desire to follow made the legs stumble unable to keep up with the swaying head.
The big jointed monster began to trip over his own legs.

[Fallenreaper]

Confusion, the creature cried out in frustration at the difficulty of too many sounds to completely focus. A roar reached out in agony, its maw widens and brimmed with pearly teeth from his flesh being torn in two places. The cat’s nail bit in his leg while a pinching and piercing sensation in the rear, warmth trickled down the wrinkly flesh while snappers sought to render Jinijz to pieces. Wounds, red tatters of his outside appeared as if from nowhere. His null and slow calculating mind ran though its pace coming up empty to the source.

Jinijz’s attacks had scored several places, under the jaw line and what would stand; the beast’s “belly” gave away the most to the bites as thick intestines threaten to slip from its body. Its head moved viciously at the flying menace, each swing exposed the weakness more and more to Nyr’s keen eyes. She just needed to get to it. The beast’s movements were cumbersome while they jarred her body about.

Ground. She needed to get off of it first. Nyr pulled one paws forward while she let opposite relax, from one side to the other her rear swung about gaining momentum with each motion. She slowly swung like a pendulum to the side of the leg, clear of the snappers as she draped her body like some furry cloth, losing perch while leaving lengthening trails of red. Nyr halted from mid-motion as the beast’s leg was brought under her, creating a shelf for her descent to stop and dangled just one cat height from the earth below. Safe drop for Nyr as she released, once more curling her body about to land on all fours with ease.

Her paws hit the rough gravel, a jerk upward caused a meek meow to escape her black lined lips as her jaw pulled back to reveal glimmering teeth. A slight pop shouted that her hip was more in place than before; sharp needle of pain spiked though with each movement she made from the back hip but Nyr didn’t care. Her instincts screamed for her to move and move the animal did. Every muscle stretched, pushed out before pulling back the ground propelling her forward and hind legs flipped upward to come slamming down on the rocky surface furthering her distance behind. The creature was coming down. Jinijz’s were brilliant as one of the large beast’s legs crossed over, entangled among themselves, snappers engaged with one another as claws grappled and locked. Simple appendages, they only sensed disturbances in the air and snapped out at them, no higher brain function of any type to the beast’s misfortune.

A deafening roar, its head came crashing down exposing it’s underbelly to both Nyr and Jinijz. She looked at the flying bat/bird, wondering if the creature wanted the kill or if she should. Depending on Jinijz’s course of action would decide if Nyr went either to the beast or her kitten. For several seconds she stared at Jinijz for direction. Her rear hip joint was enflamed, sending dancing pain up to her mind while her side spikes slacked making her less imitating then before.

[tirgesfu]

Jinijz watched the beast fall. He stretched his wings feeling the strain and the drips of wet sticky blood running to the tips of his claws. With a slight caw almost more bird like than the squeak of a bat he tired to look at the cat’s eyes and then lifted his head toward the young hatched crawler. It was not so much as a direction as a release. Go, go where your instincts take you.

With a dip of his uninjured wing Jinijz dove down toward the fallen creatures exposed middle. Again the jaw opened wide unhinging and his sharp talons aim for the tender unguarded belly. In a last effort attempt the small claws hanging around it’s legs and jaw snapped and clicked in unfocused frantic motion. They made a crescendo of percussion uneven beats. Jinijz ignored them all and ripped into the flesh. His talons dug deep as fluids flew out of the dying creature. A wide bite was taken as the inside slouched out of the once fierce beast. Even as all his blood gushed out a few of the claw continued to make their noise as if to protest their fate. But as Jinijz drew back his mouthful the claws faded, falling as their main body did.

Jinijz stood with his wings open and the flesh of the beast in his mouth on his talons. Slowly he opened his wings and chew, swallowed and the again a small caw. With the long legged monster dead Jinijz looked to the ledge to check on the bag that hung against the rock wall. They were still. His eggs were safe. He then swung his blood coved mouth toward the cat and the hatched baby.

Jinijz closed his wings carefully around his body and hoped bounced on his talons away from his defeated meat. With one back membrane wing torn and bleeding he leaned toward one side and made his way to the cat. In a cautious way he limped toward the sleek feline. Jinijz perched a short distance away from the graceful animal and he watched. As if to offer he nodded, bobbed his head toward the fallen prey offering her to feed.

Or maybe the hatched animal needed to feed upon the meat of the beast that tried to kill them all.

[Fallenreaper]

Her body tensed, smelling the lingering scent of death that settled over the wavering mass and last signs of life ceased while the light died from the beast’s eyes. Nyr was awed as she lifted her head to take in the sight of it, the weight and bulk so much bigger then her, filled with this sense of accomplishment at bring down such a behemoth when her instincts told her to flee. The hatchling’s head warmed her paw, rubbing against the paws that stood around it like furry pillars of strength. Jinijz lifted his head to the rock wall causing her own to mimic. Did he want those? It was only the presence of the newborn that anchored her in place, curiosity growing at what lay inside that hung mass of bumps.

The wet sound of tearing meat made her ears flicker to the side, letting the sounds echo off her ear drum and realize what was happening. She turned in time to see a glob of red and white marbled insides came loose into the flyer’s mouth. The hollow shell, a source of food now, shifted with Jinijz’s movements as he pulled away to caw at her. Once more a look of ‘uh?’ was clear on her cat like face at his head bobbing. From her to the carcass and repeat, a pattern emerged but Nyr couldn’t for the life of her understand. She could make over a 100 different sounds but that experience was useless in this situation.

Uncertain, she laid down beside the hatchling that now pressed and push for her mouth, seeking greedily for some sort of nourishment. Nyr felt her body react on the reflex, the kitten’s beak tip found a sort of button in the nook of her jaw, and up came a wet, sloppy mush that steamed with digestive juices. The kit squeaked at the smell and split open its beak, four ways to reveal two tentacles reaching to shove the mush in to its own pallet. She looked to the beast; her stomach now emptied of its contents and growled for more forcing her up on her paws once more. The soft padding made scratching sounds as she lazily crossed over to the body, red lined the inside as pink marbled organs slide out onto the dirt and gravel.

Blood turned red as soon as it hit the air, luring the cat into the softer entrails. Her maw widened, both sets of teeth sank into the fleshy walls of a lung still inside the cavernous ribcage. Sinew became stringy, giving away easily at her twisting head tugging back and unlatching her jaws only to quickly clamp down in a firmer grip, crushing the air sack like a bean bag. Walls of the muscle she held caved in with her strong jaw ripping it free at last. It was awkward, the weight made a pleasant strain to her neck while she lugged the mass nearer to her adopted kit.

Paws wrapped about, holding it place while nails went deeper in the chamber of once useful thing as it provided oxygen to the creature that attacked her. She dined to the sounds of the kit gorging itself on with wet smacks of delight and high pitch growls, breaking though the first outer wall off the membrane lined with blue and red veins in a chaotic vine pattern. Sharp teeth broke though the tubes deep inside, gushing out more slowly colligated blood that sat there without any pressure to rush though. It had a chewy texture that skittered across her rough tongue, catching in her teeth with each yank from the paws. Once a chuck filled her jaws in a swallow able amount she gulped it down. Throat bulged with her effort as it went down. Each time her muscles pulled and rapidly filled her stomach beyond the normal ability.

Meal like this wasn’t going to remain a secret for very long in her world.