Emberwood be with a boss

vague af. hunting thread, AW :)

Even if they had not wanted the boy, he would still be here.

If they really did want him? Probably a better case for his lurking along the woods.

The Big Man (@Colt) had shown him the basics of a hunt in that rabbit session. Kind of. With it had come a further curiosity. Along with more hunger once the hare he had from yesterday was gone.

Marston had not connected that hunting was easier in pairs, that the hare had not just dove into his mouth. So imagine his shock when he tested his prowess against a hare. Only to find it outraced him horribly.

He heaved as he gave chase, hoping to catch it at the hole it was headed for.

a heavy paw slammed down, crushing the rabbit into place. "best t'start yer run back further, marston," briggs growled.
the animal kicked and mewled. he jerked his head for the boy to come and finish the job. "yew need t'be huntin' more than rabbits anyway."

He startled in that moment as The Big Man crushed a paw down.

Then he figured that this was how it worked. That somehow The Big Man would always make sure Marston got the pick. He recovered in time to lunge for the squealing thing. Quick to puncture and end it, shoving it down into the ground where The Big Man's paw had once been.

Unexpected, even to himself, he began to thrash the hare back and forth. Overstimulated by the sudden success and unwilling to share the body again.

he let marston savage the thing a bit, then strode closer with a growl. "give it here, boy. we share what we got with the others. let it go."
his eyes burned. second lesson, and two seconds before he doled out punishment right between the green eyes. marston had to learn, else he couldn't run with the gang.

So far he had deferred to The Big Man in nearly all things.

Yet he had come to live with the fear that there might not ever be another meal. Which meant each was treasured, prized.

He hunched, but his grip on the prey remained tight. Ears splayed back as he watched with big, green eyes.

colt was not a father figure in any regard. he hadn't been raised by patience, he had been reared by pain.
his fetid jaws widened, seeking to clamp marston's muzzle and pinch him, hard enough to puncture if he was fought in any way. the loud growl was command enough.

Dagur had never known pain like this.

Marston learned it quick. Between the sharp pain that bloomed in the lower half of his face and the foul smell that masked the richness of hare, there could be no better lesson to the boy.

He yelped, prepared to give it all over if it meant The Big Man let go of his face again.

And it was not fear he came away with. Only understanding that The Big Man had won this meal. It showed in the way he crouch-scuttled his way a few feet out whenever he might be freed.

colt did gobble a bite or two down to prove himself. and then he pushed the carcass back toward where marston crouched, watching. "share," he repeated harshly. "now eat up. we gotta deer herd to track."
when the boy had done as he pleased, the rogue led on, through the cold trees into a small clearing.

Share.

The sound was harsh. Grated against him in some way as The Big Man moved the meal back towards him. He was quick to pick up whatever had been left behind by the older hunter. Not inclined to leave much of anything behind.

Then he became the role of shadow once more.

Quick at the man's heels, low and hunched. Eyes peeled for anything that might move.

fast learner. colt moved on. he showed marston the deer shit and the little marks of their cloven hooves. he stooped over broken twigs and ran his paw over soft tracks in the mud.
"injured." he tapped the ground where it was harder, motioning to uneven images of the hoof now. "bleedin'." 
a small pool of blood on the ground, congealing.

He sniffed along the hood patterns that had been left behind.

He noticed the uneven placement, the way there was a deeper groove and a lighter one. He did not know why. Then he found the holy grail.

Deeply he inhaled the blood, tail tantalized into curling up some behind him. The boy practically snorted up the blood. It seemed better than the rabbit or anything else he had dined upon before.

He snorted softly, looked up to The Big Man.

"oh, yer a strong killer, eh?" colt snickered. "awright, then, go on. find the rest of it."
the animal had been gravely wounded, cat if he had to guess, and gut-slashed besides. the splotches of blood grew larger and darker and warmer.
he stood stiff-legged and searched for any scent of a feline following its dying meal.

Marston did not understand what was said.

Only that The Big Man did not stop him and the the blood grew thicker the further they went. Pungent on the ground, he followed it all and made sure the hooves matched the ones of earlier.

His pace quickened when he thought he heard commotion up ahead.

colt too hurried, and sought to stop marston with a growl.
he checked again for the cat and slunk forward. the deer lay thrashing on its side, choking out final breaths. colt's red eyes looked to marston and then he lunged for the limp throat, moving easily between the weakened forelimbs.

The Big Man growled.

Marston stopped instantly.

His ears stood tall now as he listened close, both to The Big Man and the deer. Then they were moving as one. Only the older hunter had experience. Marston could not escape a flailing hoof.

While it did not blow as deadly as it could, it still cut at him. Sharp and stinging.

His own blood ran free out of a gash on his brow.

that would be a pretty scar. indra'd been older their first hunt. probably how she caught on to the hooves.
colt shoved the animal's head down and put his weight against its shoulder, pinning it and its top leg. his eyes told marston to bite.

It stung, it burned.

Marston learned through pain again it seemed. He lunged, now intimately familiar with the hooves and that they should be avoided.

Just like the rabbit earlier, he thrashed. Whipped and whipped until something proper loosened in the great beast.

A gurgle, twitching, a feast being secured.

colt briggs watched the boy rip and tear with a ferocity that only set him to smiling harder as the flecks of blood grew. when he was a pup, there had been something right wrong and dark settled inside of him.
instead of becoming a killer or beater, colt had become scary good at manipulation, wheedling what he wanted out of someone, ending in cruelty when he felt justified enough.
something right wrong and dark was in this boy too. he could shape it, call it out. 
colt hooted. "get im, marston! tear im up!"

Marston did not need to understand words to understand that The Big Man liked what he was doing.

He whipped his head to and fro until he could no more. Until whatever part of the deer he had managed to grapple into his mouth was shredded. His face turned crimson from his own injury and his success of violent mockery of the dying deer.

He heaved, trembled, energized and exhausted somehow all at once.

But he remembered his place beneath The Big Man and stumbled back some, slumping onto his rear with a contented sound in the back of his throat. Ready to wait his turn to eat until he bloated.

the boy breathed deep and bloody.
the rogue grinned a black grin.
indra was his. his to possess. his to shape. his to have. but marston could be his too, after a fashion. some unholy child not jumped from his own shifty loins, a son to rear up.
course indra could give him the same, one day, and his eyes flashed at that. this time he ate and deeply, moving away from the carcass only when his belly was tight with meat.

Marston chewed whatever had been left in his mouth only.

Finding it already half-digested practically with the way it had been torn. Only he found no fault with that. Waited, patient and studious.

Only when The Big Man pulled off with a bellyful did Marston dare to dive in. Devoured until he thought he was sick, gut slightly pudged as he pulled off and flopped back down.

A proper mess he had become, but his tail thumped happy despite the ache in his face along his brow.

fade? <3 we can have another!

"that's real good, boy," colt grunted by way of praise.
he let himself drift off. tucked away they could both nap a little. it was when you got out into the open that you needed to take turns on watch.
or maybe he was just soft now.
colt's breathing evened and then he was in a dream of redbird, the same he'd had every time he slept without her.