Raven's Watch I swear to God my luck can't be worse

Anyone can join. Gonna try to make this a bird hunting thread

After Aviana's passing he had fallen into a sadness. It took a few days to shake it off but he had realised that this time he couldn't wallow. He had to make sure Faye was okay, that she had folks to keep an eye on her and make sure she rose above the sadness too. So he started to do things to bring himself out of his funk and one of those things was hunting. He hadn't exercised that muscle in a while and he particularly missed Hunting birds. He wasn't sure where to find any around here but he wandered out of Elysium's borders and began to follow a stream that widened the further he got. 

He still didn't see any birds but unfortunately they saw him. As the hill turned into a steeper slope, loud caws startled him and the air was filled with the sound of wings. He looked up just in time to see talons slashing downward and ducked his head just in time for the sharp claws to slice over his eye. He yelped and snapped at the air but he was surrounded. The ravens flocked around him, swooping and diving. He did all he could to try and ward them off, snarling and jumping and snapping at them. He had no idea they were roosting and a pair of Ravens had laid eggs early in the season. The talons raked his ears and head and he yelped again, tucking his tail and trying to get away.

On her way back to Undersea, Moorhen caught sight of a semi-familiar figure. It was that boy from Morningside - the one who'd come by once or twice to speak to Seelie. Moorhen had the vague idea that they might be related, same as Aditya and the others had been related to Undersea, but she didn't know the exact relation. Still, he was a friend of Morningside. Her tail wagged half-heartedly as she watch him scale the hillside, only to be set upon by an unkindness of ravens. They seemed to be giving him quite a bit of trouble.

"Vær!" she called out, unable to remember his name. It was something to do with the sky, so she simply used Fen's word for 'weather' and hoped the sound alone would cause him to look her way. "Come down. Leave bird."

She'd realized upon seeing him that she had something to tell him.

Who knew birds could be so angry?! His snarls and snaps did nothing to ward off the birds so he was grateful when a voice called out. He didn't understand the word that was said but he looked anyway, spotting the female who was looking directly at him. So he tried to follow her advice and made to go down the hill, the Raven's following him despite the fact that he was leaving. This annoyed him greatly and finally he looked upwards, jumping up onto his hind legs and quickly snapping his jaws around a Raven who had the unfortunate timing to swoop at that exact moment. The bird died crushed between his jaws with a loud squawk and he proudly watched the others fly away panicked.

Carrying his kill toward the woman who had called out to him, he dropped it when he was close enough for conversation. Drawing in her scent he was pleasantly surprised to find her from Undersea "Thanks for the distraction. I'm Sunny, you're from Undersea right?" he grinned at her despite the stinging scratch over his eye and the painful marks upon his ears.

The male heeded her words, which always won points, in Moorhen's books. She gave a few more perfunctory wags of her tail as he neared, dropping his kill nearby in a way that Moorhen wasn't sure about. Was it another gift? She'd been receiving an awful lot of gifts, lately. For now, she decided to leave it.

"Yes - I im Moorhen. Akhlut. Protector," she replied. "And you are... sønn? erfingi? from Morningside?" Damn! What was his name? She felt as though she really ought to know it by now, but those Morningside names always messed her up. They were always words instead of sounds, and it confused her to no end.

Something he hadn't caught a whiff of at first suddenly grabbed his attention and he sniffed at it, eyes flaring wide for a moment. She was in heat. Or at least she smelled like it. The alluring scent made him begin to feel things he had only felt once, the first time Aliac ever entered heat and he had stood by her torturously controlling himself while making sure nobody else ever got near her. Aliac. The thought was like a wave of ice water had doused him and he cleared his throat focusing back in on her as she tried to figure out his name. "Almost, The name's Sunny." he said awkwardly, shifting slightly and hoping that she wouldn't consider his sudden antsy behavior to be rude. "No longer from Morningside. All the morningsiders are now at Elysium." he said and inside he thought "except for Aviana. She's....somewhere else." but shook the thought off.

The breeze blew toward him and he cursed internally, breathing in that beautiful smell. He sighed it back out and swallowed thickly as he tried to focus on anything else. Shit. It sucked being young. and a vrigin. He had so little control over how strongly he felt things, especially since this was the first year he could truly breed. "How is Seelie? And Stockholm?" he asked curiously. The last thing he had heard was that Thresher was lost and he had delivered bad news that seemed to crush whatever happiness Seelie had left inside of her.

Sunny. That was why she was so confused - it was not a word, it was two words. Weather and familial relation. Moorhen wanted to scoff but thought this would be rude. Instead, she bobbed her head as though she'd heard and understood what he'd just said and repeated, "Elysium," just so show that she was paying attention.

The next question was easier. "Good," she chirped with a wag of her tail. "Thresher is safe. All safe. But, um. Find new guppy. Redcliff. Shelter at Undersea."

Luckily for Sunny, Moorhen was now quite used to males acting funny around her.

The smell was alluring and he wanted to say he wasn't tempted but he definitely was. Fortunately he had seen temptation in the form of a flame furred woman with a temper and Moorhen didn't seem at all interested in him or the things her scent could lead to. Her news brought an immediate stop to his hormones and instead his jaw dropped and his tail began to wag. He was confused and shocked and extremely happy to hear that Thresher was alive and well. It also surprised him to hear that Radcliffe had turned up at Undersea, he had noticed the boy's absence and hadn't been able to find him.

 "That is great news! Radcliffe is...was?...one of ours. He disappeared. I couldn't find him. I'm glad that he's safe at Undersea. Please if you can, let Seelie and Rad know I'll try to come visit them soon" he said, eyes sparkling. He looked at the dead raven and his belly growled, that mixed with the excitement of knowing Radcliffe was safe made him eager to return to Elysium.

Moorhen stiffened slightly when Sunny talked about Redcliff being theirs. It was true, she supposed, but it still made her uncomfortable since she was quite fond and rather possessive of the boy. I will tell, she reluctantly agreed, further discomfited by the idea of another wack job Morningsider possibly coming to the island to attack Coelacanth. Nevertheless, she would pass the message along.

In the meantime, she directed her attention back toward the blackbird he had plucked out of the air, realizing that she was quite hungry. For me? she asked him, take a few steps closer and pointing her nose toward the kill. Unintentionally (ostensibly), her shyness over asking for the meal made her appear someone coquettish.

Sunny noticed her reluctance and mistook it as fear they would come and take him. His gaze softened and while he wished Radcliffe would have stayed with them in Elysium he wouldn't force the kid away from somewhere where he was happy and had apparently made bonds. "If he's happy there that's all that matters. I love Undersea and I honestly believe he'll be happy there" he said this gently to try and soothe her fears. He watched her eyeball the raven and he licked his lips, anticipating what came next. She asked if she could have it and while he was intending to bring it to Elysium, she looked kind of adorable asking for it. He slowly released a breath and gave her a  lopsided smile nodding "Go ahead, I'll catch something else on the way back" he said. He didn't mind a little extra work and he couldn't bring himself to deny such a pretty face, especially a hungry one.

Sorry for the wait!

Moorhen was comforted by Sunny's words - enough that she was feeling quite generous with her time. She bolted the bird down in a few quick snaps and then, licking her chops, offered: "I will help catch more."

Well, maybe it was a little more like a statement than an offer. Without further prompting, she trotted past Sunny toward where he'd caught the bird, expecting them to swoop down toward her as they had swooped toward him. Hopefully she'd be able to snatch one as well!

He grinned and nodded eagerly as he trotted after her. luckily for them the ravens were not the brightest bunch and they were super territorial, so swoop down they did in several pairs of two. He cursed and ducked, snapping at the air and trying his best to avoid the talons. Unfortunately for the young man who had some seriously poor luck, a raven got lucky and struck his eye. The talon scratched across his flesh and the eyeball itself got scraped, enough that he screamed and ducked his head his hurt eyes shutting itself immediately. It would heal up in the future and while he wouldn't be immediately blind his vision would grow impaired and the eye would be somewhat foggy itsef with a long red scar across it. He growled through the pain gritting his teeth as the ravens continued to slice at his ears and yank his tail before he got pissed and jumed into the air, snagging one by the foot and slamming it to the ground, biting it's head clean off and spitting it out with disgust as he looked toward Moorhen with one wide open eye and one now numb, blood dripping and swollen eye "How bad is it? It hurt like hell but I can't feel it or open it now" he sounded seriously scared.

One moment they were chasing birds and it was fine, and the next, Sunny had cried out in distress. "Sunny!" the Akhlut called, wheeling around and trotting back toward him. He'd caught a bird, but now there was something wrong with his eye and he was asking her about it? She was no healer, but she came cautiously forward to take a look.

"Yuck," was her immediate reaction, but she tried to backpedal, saying, "Bad," and then moving forward to run her tongue over the rivulet of blood running down his cheek. "Wash with water?" she suggested, looking down toward the river. Or, actually, perhaps something cold might help? "Or - put it in snow?"

Her reaction brought him alarm and his good eye widened. He tried to reopen the injured eye and couldn't but trying to resulted in serious pain. He could see the disgust and concern on her face and wondered if his eye was hanging out. Oh God was his eye hanging out?! 

He slid into his belly and pressed the wounded eye to the snow, whining softly "I have such bad luck" he said and let his eye sit there for a few more moments before sitting up and standing. "I should get back to see a healer. It was nice meeting you" he said wanti to get back before his eye hurt even worse.

"Nice meeting you," Moorhen echoed glumly, watching the male retreat. She couldn't help but feel that things had gone rather poorly. But she'd gotten a meal out of it and it looked as though Sunny would live. With a ripple of her spine that shook away most of the bad feelings, Moorhen turned and headed toward her own home.