Blackbeak Bluff Haggis for Algernon

@O’Mally 

Come to think of it now, gobbling down almost putrefied remains of a dead seal had not been the brightest idea Merlin had had. There had been an inkling that it will turn out bad, when he had begun to eat it, but several days' worth of hunger had taken a complete hold of him and he had not stopped, until the bones were picked clean and not a shred of fur had been left. 

His belly was full and the brain was happy, but the overall state post eating orgies was quite miserable. He felt either nauseous or colicky and there was no relief to these sensations, because his body refused to let go any of the useful nutrients before it was done digesting the meal. So for two days straight Merlin felt fairly cheated by fate and lamented all and any gods, who were there to listen, about their cruel sense of humour, by throwin that rotten seal in his path in the first place.

O’Mally has been loving the coast. Well, he’s always loved it his entire life, but recently, he’s grown so much more attacked to it. He may not stay here forever though. The cunning Vanity might have other plans it seems and he has no idea where she plans on going but he will follow if she so desires.

Today though, he explores on his own accord. As he goes, he inspects a different variety of plants that litter the coast and the forest it neighbors. He notes clumps of juniper berries and he absentmindedly strolls up to them and picks a few even uselessly swallowing a couple. He should save the others for another time but he doesn’t. Rather he shuffles their location into his mind for later. 

He continues on. It couldn’t be ten minutes and he’s seeing a bright animal walking into his line of sight. He stops in his tracks and pads closer after a moment of curious inspection.

“Evening.” He calls to them. His baby blues slipping down their form. “You don’t look well, friend.” Comes his ordinary comment, facial expression neutral. Noting the brilliant color of their coat, along with that they don’t look all that well. For a moment he hopes they don’t have rabies. He’d seen a bad case of it in his younger years that was way too close to killing him than he was comfortable with.

Merlin had been about to puke over the railings of the ship - excuse me - ledge of the cliff, when this line of physiological thought was interrupted by the arrival of a sterling tall beast, who asked about his well-being. Or rather made a very accurate assumption of it. The boy stared at him for a while, thinking that it would be only polite to say something, when the corner's of his mouth began to pull back and his stomach began to retch. He got to his feet, leaned his head down and vomitted unashamedly right by the Prince Charming's feet. Pieces of guts, bone, meat, fur and some other debris of odd form and shape all swam in a pool of sticky yellow gastric juice. 

"Sorry, man," Merlin apologized, stepping away from the mess and licking his lips. "I suggest you do not attempt to eat it," he said, knowing that sometimes one canine was not against scouring the treasures of other canine's stomach contents. "It's as rotten as it looks."

Sorry I took so long! I’ve been swamped with Donovan replies :’>

O’Mally could instantly tell something is wrong when the other doesn’t hardly do anything but stare at him like a deer in headlights. The tell tale signs of a queasy stomach showing on his face and he’s easily puking up everything he seemed to have in his belly. To which he just watches him do it. The seen quite comical actually. The corners of O’Mally’s mouth pull into a light frown and he’s quirking a white brow as he watches him vomit. 

After the horrible deed is done they seem to look at each other at the same time a sorry, man. comkng from the others lips. O’Mally flicks eyes back down to the throw up and the smell is getting to him now and he twists his face up into a comical face of disgust. 

“My god.” Is all he says. Anyone who knew him to be a man of God would be flabbergasted by the way he takes the lords name in vain. “What did you eat?” He asks then, taking a few paces backwards. “That doesn’t smell right.” It smells rotten. Little did he know it actually was. 

O’Mally musters up the courage to smile, blue eyes lighting up and crinkling at the corners. “Hope it didn’t smell like that going in.” He jokes. More seriously he adds, “Need something to cure a stomach ache? I saw some juniper berries just a ways back.”

No problem!

"A seal? It smelled bad, but it did not taste that much worse," Merlin shrugged, staring down at the mess in disdain, but some primal part of his brain actually suggested to vacuum this up, because food was food, no matter, how sick it made you on one end of the gastrointestinal track or the other. 

"Juniper berries?" he scratched behind his ear, trying to remember, if he had ever heard about a thing about them, but - no - he did not even know, if them were edible. "Well, I doubt it will make me any sicker than this goo. Except..." his brow furrowed and he eyed the guy somewhat suspiciously. "How do I know that you are not going to poison me? I would like to survive for a bit longer, you know," he told. "Got all the future ahead of me and that stuff."

O’Mally wants to slap the ginger wolf across the face when he mentions haphazardly eating a clearly decayed seal. Rather he just settles for shaking his head side to side in obvious disappointment. He’s not truly this hurt, for his maw has a humorous smile to it.

Then it seems like he convinces the other of some juniper berries — until he doesn’t. Pointing out that O’Mally could in fact be trying to poison him. He laughs this time in full with a shake of his head once more.

“I am a man of God, killing a wolf such as you for no reason would be considered murder in his eyes.” He states easily, rather blandly as well. Then his baby blues look to him with a bit of humorous mischief in them, a quirk of his brow to match. “And murder without good reason is a sin. Is it not?” He asks before turning in the direction of where he found the berries and begins walking. He’s not necessarily looking for the other to answer, yet if he so wishes O’Mally would have no qualms about it.

“Plus, I’ll eat some too just to prove to you they’re not poisonous. They’re supposed to be known to cure stomach aches and settle any abdominal pain. It should be beneficial to you.” His deep, attractive voice is informative and confident as he says so. Looking back he expects the other to follow.

Well, had Merlin known that the man had considered him being a fool for eating rotten flesh, he would have bit back with a snide remark of someone speaking from a privileged position. Prince Charming looked well-fed, well-groomed and did not seem to have a problem in his life. Whereas him... but stating all the arguments, why he had chosen for a meal that would make him sick, would make him look weak, wouldn't it? Therefore, it is a good thing, he did not know and did not have to say anything either. 

The mention of god made Merlin furrow his brow, because he had no idea, what the guy was talking about. Yes, he was familiar with the exclamation "Oh, my God!", but it was just a string of words that did not have any deeper meaning. Just like "F*ck!" - he would use it often to express his disappointment or momentarily anger, but he did not know a hang of, what these four letters actually meant. "Yeah, well, I have no way of knowing, what your reasons are," Merlin shrugged. 

But his stomach ached, and the thought of a cure felt very comforing. "Okay, then. You eat first and no cheating. I will be watching closely," he told. "Where to?"

O’Mally is pleased to hear that the other will be following him. So he starts into an easy trot, eying down some rough shapes off in the distance he mentally marks as the very bushes he needs to get to. “It’s only a little ways off this way.” He hums back. 

About a mile or so. So they go, it really doesn’t take them long at all and soon enough they’re there. O’Mally is lingering closer to the bushes and grabbing the dull blue berries with his teeth. Once grabbing quite a few he shamelessly drops a mouthful of about eight in front of the other. 

Sky blue orbs look to him and he smiles charmingly before he grabs some in his mouth and eats them. Chewing them, swallowing them and looking back at him again. “You’re free to wait a few minutes for me to drop dead if you still think they’re poisoned.” He laughs easily.

In the back of his mind Merlin wondered, if he had trusted the God Guy too quickly. "Never follow strangers" - he may have not heard his from his own mom, but that self-preservation thought is instinctive. Therefore, to pacify his common sense, natural reflexes and wish to feel a tad bit better, he followed the guy, but kept a safe distance and an open field to flee, if he had to do so. 

They found the said bushes and the boy watched suspiciously, how the fellow plucked berry after berry, ate and swallowed them without flinching. He leaned towards the bush, sniffed it and scrunched his nose - did not seem like anything nice to him. Let alone wholesome. "Oh, I will wait for sure. That poison just might be such that takes you out after a while," he said. "While I wait - what are you really? That god stuff sounded positively weird," why not pass the time with small-talk.

O’Mally wants to roll his eyes, but then again, can he really blame the guy for being so suspicious of his apparent kindness? Not really. O’Mally would be suspicious too if he didn’t have to reply on God to guide him. He’s completely at peace for whatever would happen to him at any time. Other wolves though, they are lost. They’re afraid of death, they’re afraid to suffer. O’Mally is not. God isn’t for everyone though, so he shrugs internally.

On the outside though he also shrugs with an amused, “Suit yourself.” Before the ginger pelted wolf is asking him questions. Ones O’Mally doesn’t quite understand. 

“What am I?” He parrots back indifferently. “Theres so many directions I could go with that broad of a question.” Then he lowers his haunches into a seated position. “If you’re referencing my mention of God, I am a religious man. As I told you prior. I have a god, I pray to him, I worship him. Easy enough isn’t it?” O’Mally ends with an upwards tilt of his rose colored lips.

Then he looks to the bushes. “Also I have no reason to poison you, every medic in a twelve mile radius could tell you that these aren’t poisonous. Sure they smell a bit rancid, but definitely not poisonous.” He informs as he goes in to eat a few more to prove his point. Then he smiles charmingly at the other. “Plus if I wanted to poison you, why the hell would I also eat them? I have no need or desire to die that early.” He chuckles.

Merlin did not say anything, when the white man explained briefly about his relationship with some big guy in the sky, but his expression was spoke volumes of, how skeptical he actually was of all this stuff. It did not convince him in the least that the man was not trying to poison him. Besides - did serial killers and psychopats needed reasons to kill people? Sure there were trillions of them out there and reasonable folk would never understand this. 

"Hell, if I know," he shrugged. Deathwish was every person's private matter. That was not to be discussed - same as politics, religion (they just had and good thing that the cheeky, mannerless rascal had had the good sense to keep his trap shut) and money (he had no idea about that one too, but let's put objects of value to wolves there instead). "So, is this divine friend of yours like a Santa Claus?" he asked. "You are obedient all year - all life and he gives you gifts?" Who could blame him for the association - each age group had their idols and gods to worship and flatter.

Lucky for Merlin the Prince Charming had a good sense of humour and the cheeky boy did not poison himself. That did not deter him from forgetting about his benefactor completely few days later. Life's exciting like that, when you have memory disorders.