Moonspear pumpkin eyes

NP — @Arcturus or @Revui WHOEVER IS QUICKEST #hungergames

 

Hydra carried with her the head of a coyote, having finished off the rest of the body with @Dirge and @Lyra. The latter desired for her to put the head where they collected things, but with its eyes and its lolling tongue and its skin and its blood, it was not ready to be placed there. The scent of rot was not one that appealed to Hydra, and she was also never one to let things go to waste. She detected the faint scent of @Arcturus and followed after it, though there was no true drive in her search this darkening hour. Her eyes panned toward the sky that presented itself in sharp, blood-orange, and Hydra had little care as to who she might run into on her way to her inkblot brother...

Her eyes drifted back to level ground as she caught the whiff of Revui. It did not seem as though they were together, but perhaps they had united to be so? She imagined she would find out soon enough.

The stench of something freshly dead would always draw the leviathan from hiding, as it did now. It was difficult to miss the fact that the trail did not terminate at one point but rather, continued, weaving through the territory as if the object of his fixation (and salivation) were still alive; however, at one moment or another Revui became aware of the scent of his older sister. His pace shifted after that and became more direct, bringing him within the line of sight of Hydra and her prize. His gaze remained upon her waiting silhouette, but as he approached it was clear he was more interested in the canid head she carried.

Indeed, food would always draw him out. In hindsight, perhaps when she searched for him she ought to have simply carried corpses. She would have found him far sooner. He was food motivated, and Hydra knew this perhaps better than anyone. The Ostrega placed the head down, none too gentle, and stopped it from rolling away with a paw that stabilized it momentarily. 

It's for you, she offered, though not without a catch: brains and all—should you be able to pierce its eye when you catch it. And with that, she picked it up again and with much gusto, tossed the thing until it was rolling helter-skelter down, down, down. Just as good as fleeing prey; and it would bring knowing, too; the knowing of what it would feel like to dig into the fleeing enemy, to maim.

One should always suspect some sort of wrench in the works if these Moonspear wolves were involved, and he should have anticipated there to be some form of test, battle, or game designed to make him work for the prize. The last thing Revui anticipated was this grotesque game of cat-and-mouse to erupt with Hydra's blessing; alas, he had a weakness and she knew how to exploit it. If it meant he didn't have to talk then he was all for it - and tore after the rolling head like it was a life or death gambit.

Revui was bigger now and stronger, yet retained the blundering footwork of a child. He ploughed down the cliffside and carved a path wide enough for his hefty self but the skull bounced, rebounded, and smashed just a lunge ahead of him at every turn. Hydra was forgotten - he was intent on grappling with the bloodied husk before it could be shattered and its glorious innards lost to the crags. Whether or not Revui was successful without seriously damaging himself was another question.

Successful or not, it would certainly be an entertaining show.

Hydra's tail waved wildly behind her as he obliged her command. 

She supposed she had missed him. There was a small place in her heart for her brothers, and room enough for only two sisters. Vela, she supposed, she liked well enough. She was wise; but she was gone, now. For how long, who knew? She did not worry after her; she was not soft like Korei Julia. Hydra did not imagine she would be walking to her death, or else a sorrier life. 

Stealthily, Hydra followed after Revui, observant. The skull was ever a roll ahead of his reach, and Hydra continued after the game of cat and mouse. She did not doubt his ability to capture it, eventually, but perhaps the way in which he would; she did so hope that his fang would fall into the juncture where the eye was, messy or not. Revui had returned to Moonspear scarred; someday, she imagined he would dole out his own, and she would show him how.

If there was ever a reason to doubt Revui's abilities, this game might hone in on those inadequacies and make them glaringly obvious; Hydra may have intended this with the toss of the skull down the mountain. He would fight the sense of vertigo that slowly drifted through his body. Likewise, Revui tried to judge where the head would tilt or tumble next with the intent to intercept it. As the head fell it left patches of oily, red-hued patches of blood and hair; each time Revui missed, he nearly careened in to these bloodied marks upon the stone until he was furious with the desire to end the game. 

The end came as swiftly as the beginning. The head rolled and the canid muzzle caught sharply berween a pinch of shake, splattering the air adjacent in a red spray. Revui almost missed it; his dense body would have sailed right on by had the head's motion not ceased so dramatically. He stumbled and fought gravity in order to stop. Afterwards, as the dirt and debris settled around him across the slope, Revui turned his full attention to the mess and bolted straight for it.

The boy sank his teeth in to the sockets and crunched through the zygomatic bone segregating them, felt the wet sink of his snout in to the mushroom-like membrane within, and rumbled a deep note of pleasure as he made a show of lifting away the fragmented face. Material dropped from his snout and blood fanned up as his head moved. He sought out his sister with a frenzied look in his eyes, relishing the success.

Indeed, there were things to work on. But they were easy enough to remedy. Hydra stalked from above, eyes sharp and bright; she thrilled at his chase, and at his ability to recover quickly. He was tenacious; Hydra admired it about him. Their spiriit was the same in that regard; they would not give up. Until the desired outcome was acheived, their drive was ceaseless. And she thrilled when he succeeded in the end, her tail swayed over her back as she let out a sharp bark of approval. He had done precisely as she had asked; she observed, from afar, the curve of his fang right where she had wanted it. 

She expertly drifted downward to meet him, a roguish grin on her typically cold and indifferent features. But Revui had improved significantly from her teachings and his experiences, and he was family—a brother she could be proud of. Well done, she commended, gesturing to her side as she took another step forward. Time for a recovery walk. And time for another lesson.

Our enemies are far more predictable than an object thrown about by our mountain, Hydra advisied. When they flee, they want to get away; they are aided by adrenaline, but you can anticipate which way they might go... she begins, looking to him to ensure she was being heard, and if he understood.

Well done, she praised; perhaps one of the few things he missed while he roamed away from Moonspear was her influence. One day perhaps, she would rule this mountain. Revui would like to see that day come to pass.

The lesson that came next was drowned out by his pleasurable humming, and he dipped his nose back towards the skull to clean it out of the soft tissues; they were sweet, bloody, and gone soon enough. As he was licking the mess from his chin, Revui turned to regard his sister just as she was nearing the end of her statements - and he huffed, I know this.

I found a Blackfeather; I broke her leg. I found rogues too, and they broke to my teeth. He was confident. Too confident perhaps. But Revui knew all to well that his targets would run for safety - it was his goal to never let them reach it.

Hydra grinned at the field experience he had learned; invaluable, and which would stay with him. You were able to anticipate what they might do, before they would do it? She inquired next, her ears pricking forward as she asked. Catching limbs and causing others to bend and break to their teeth was easy enough for them to do when proximity granted it. But what if it did not? What then? 

stinky sister taking 5ever

She seemed impressed, and his ego swelled. Hydra did not need to overtly praise him for Revui to feel pride and value in himself, the slightest shift in her tone was enough — that smile. Yes. The Blackfeather tried to escape me -  like a bolting rabbit. I would have pulled her limbs off had she not fought back. Like the wings off a fly. Remembering the crack of bone and the feeling that shocked through him with the clenching of his teeth was like an aphrodesiac; the mere memory excited his body.