Overture Downs your mother's throat clicks and my spirit swims right to the hook

It worked astoundingly well. The killdeer's body crushed against the stone until it was beyond recognition and blood leaked from its orifices. Aventus stooped, preparing to scoop it into his mouth and crunch it down whole, but Phaedra's voice broke across the distance and cowed him as surely as a whip crack. He crouched in place, sweeping his tail tight against his thighs and peering up at her, the picture of a mischievous feline caught mid-wrongdoing, with his mouth unhinged and hovering over the shattered bird.

Oh, but Aventus remembered her, now that he got a good look at her. Pale-pearl fur with dawn highlights, soft eyes like wild purple hearts. Phaedra was as remarkable as Aventus was nondescript, but it was her definitely pink-ass nose that coaxed forth a fuzzy memory. A brief encounter, but one that captivated him, at the time.

Phaedra had already turned and dismissed him with an exasperated exclamation by the time he came to this realization. Aventus hovered there several heartbeats after she began to move away before snapping back to reality. The scent of blood wound tantalizing under his nose, but he ignored the groan of his belly and gingerly picked the killdeer up. It flopped limp in his jaws, testament to the Bruin-jaw's strength, but his focus was on the feathered backs of her legs as she walked away and the bob of her tail.

She must be upset that he stole her kill. Maybe she was being deliberately slow about it. The notion that Phaedra might have been watching it suffer because she enjoyed it crept across his mind, deciding for him what he must do. Aventus kicked into a trot, tailing after Phaedra with an inviting rumble, killdeer borne aloft for her to take.