Noctisardor Bypass teil vier

Three females and one male in eclipse. To Wylla's untrained eye, all four mallards were indistinguishable, banded brown things with a stark blue band on their wings, but the male's bill was different than his partners. A more learned hunter would spot the difference, but Wylla did not. To her, they were all food. Who really cares what kind of duck it is, so long as it says "quack"?

The two largest females were the marks she had her eye on. It would take hours to collect both of them — if she managed to secure one with the first leap, the others would take flight and she would have to track them down again to attempt the second. That was okay, though. She'd given herself the entire afternoon to get this done.

Behind her was an admirer whose gaze went unnoticed. She was too trained upon her quarry — the largest duck, thick in the breast and long-necked. The most appropriate one, she felt. From her perch atop the rock, Wylla gave her rump a kittenish wiggle, testing her balance and limbering her muscles.

When all the ducks were faced away, she launched herself, closing the distance rapidly and leaping high into the air, just like her mother, to snatch her prey while it attempted to lift off. The landing was clumsy on account of her shoulder still being stiff even months later, and she ended up dropping the duck with a frustrated noise, but not before delivering a crushing blow to it.