Mount Apikuni After the night when I wake up

behind her, a flurry of feathers taking flight.

astara paused as she listened, gathering intel where she might. when the footsteps tread closer accompanied by a chuff, the blackbird pivoted on slim legs and regarded her pursuer with lips skimmed back in a toothsome grimace.

he was tall, muscled, and clothed a color that reminded astara of subcutaneous tissue; creamy fat girdled by darker gristle and tallow -- a pair of organ-mauve eyes.

and where was his bird? she saw no blackened shadow in the trees, and in so missed entirely the leucistic bird whose talons wrapped around a limb above.

the rook gazed to the treeline briefly before returning to the man before her, tail risen in quiet threat.