Swiftcurrent Creek an occupation popular with demons and ducks

in just a few indignant stride-lengths she was upon him. in her mind, this conflict had already found its resolution: she would give chase, sink her barbwire gums into his tail—at which point the coveted relic would be expelled from his grasp, giving her enough time to dive for its rescue. 

things didn’t go according to her imagining (did they ever?). instead he squared up to her, but this did little to forebear her full-steam-ahead trajectory right towards the orphan, and their bodies united as Tiercel’s headbutt connected with his wither instead of the thunderclouded brow she’d fixed in her crosshairs. 

she immediately teetered backwards, toppling onto her ass with an uhn as Rhakios staggered aside her foray and jumped away to reinforce distance between them, issuing the devilkin a glottal warning as he did so. she didn’t move from her seat for a second, somewhat disoriented as she lifted her head to the visual double-exposure of the boy’s fierce stance. Tier cleared the vertigo from her head with a shake, an ornery gathering of her frons setting to challenge his intimidation strategy. 

she straddled her legs and tried to muster the mightiest thunder her lungs would allow, but there was nothing threatening about what amounted to the angry growl of a pacman frog. her scruff became piloerect, tail streaming aloft her back. often times, litter-mates tested each other’s limits to feel out the familial pecking order. however, these two were unfamiliar with each other and this was a veritable demonstration of resource guarding. 

on one hand, Rhakios was an older kid and by that merit defaulted to daunting foe, vicious sure… but on the other, more persuasive hand, there was that finders keepers losers weepers caveat in process. stone/fish was the apple of her eye and recouping its loss was the only thing her one-track attention span could focus on. who would ever believe she’d found this new species if she didn’t have the archetype itself to confirm her integrity?! Tiercel raked scores through the ground with her foreclaws, threatening to rush him a second time if he didn’t unhand her property immediately snorthuff.