Swiftcurrent Creek an occupation popular with demons and ducks

sold all my brevity for oceanfront property, sorry 'bout it

ever oblivious, ever unfettered to intuition or any sense of jeopardy, Tiercel continued orbiting the moldered log 'til her attention was captured by a fault in the scenery.

nope, it wasn't the certified creeper watching her from afar. you'd think, huh?

”ISSSSSSSSS!” she roared, scuffing over to the ferns while ogling an iridescently tarnished stone half-buried in the dirt and gleaming like valuable loot. what she spied was peacock ore; a specimen with a unique metallic luster, forged in splendor from exposure to the elements. to Tiercel, who only had a generalized idea about the lives of fish, it was dead to rights the prettiest fish she’d encountered yet. her eyes flashed with avarice and a shrill croon left her throat as she passed unknowingly into Rhakios’ proximity to appreciate the scintillating object, mere steps from where he was crouched.

she angled her head curiously downwards, kneeling to inspect the prismatic artifact. unlike the ones living in the creek, this "fish" didn’t run away from her friendship. actually, it didn’t really run, or move, or do anything at all. Tiercel reached out and patted it daintily with her toe-nubs, head retracting into the folds of her neck in anticipation for the slap of fins like when she touched the fish that Wylla had caught and flung into her goddamn face. alas, there was no such reaction. hm. maybe a new species? straightening herself out, Tier decided then and there she wanted to bring it home to live with her. 

like a python unhinging its jaw to consume a dinosaur egg, her mouth expanded around the hefty ware and she collected it awkwardly into her mouth, working it in the glove of her mouth until it was securely in place. she chucked her head back, ready to prance home and share her find with mama (no touch, only look). 

but when she lifted her head, her gaze tripped over the ferns and the shyster hunkered down behind them came into frame soon after. there was a moment of convergerence where their eyes met and Tiercel whispered a gasp, faltering back. the stone fell from her clutch amidst the process, despite her snapping futiley after it, and reunited with the ground with a dull thud. her ears wilted sourly, legs drawing her in a tight circle that in some vague way instituted an immediate boundary between herself and the boy peering at her like he was a stray in a butcher shop, and her: the select cut. worse, maybe he wanted credit for her discovery of this new species of fish! her ego was clearly endangered, but where there were once strict policies in place to prevent extinction, there was now 404 not found.

she stared back at him for a long moment. distinguishing features were obscured by the foliage, so he was a hard study; he didn’t resemble mom or notMom or any of the faces that Tiercel had already met. he surpassed her in age and yet possessed the same telltale dilation of eye as her, an aspect favored only by those in the first blush of adolescence. all told, the only thing she was considering were the odds of failure stacked against her when it came to re-claiming the jazzy little stone.

blue-phased eyes broke contact with his auric stare to scour the ground with a measure of time sensitivity conspicuous in her movements. once she had the rock aimed down her sights, she lunged upon it and, in her rush, clotheslined herself right away on a low-hanging branch.