Moonspear Shook up the bottle, made a good girl pop

Apologies for the tags, but AW! @Antares @Atlas @Osiris maybe? Set outside of Hydra's den.

keell, She uttered to herself under her soft breath, a word she had learned from Mother. keell, She huffed, as she pressed herself low to the ground, shuffling among stones and low grass. Ears flicked this way and that. 

thump thump thump 

The sound of tiny feet against stone. Mira twisted her head and scampered towards the place where the mouse passed by, trapping it between her little paws in a dimly lit dome. It struggled and struggled. This time she would not let it get away, licking her chops eagerly before carefully peeling away a paw and slamming jaws down towards it. 

CRACK

A little spine snapping between teeth. A dark smile grew at her victory, and she flipped the corpse over. Mira began to pluck casually at the skin of the abdomen, wanting to savor her meal in a slow dissection.

Osiris arrived at Hydra's whelping den with a weasel limply hanging from his jaws. While patrolling, he had come across the creature and figured that it would be a suitable snack and plaything for his younger siblings. 

"Mira," Osiris called as he drew near, once he spotted his crouching sister in the distance. Mira was picking at a small creature, shearing the fur along the animal's delicate belly. "I see that you have no need for this," he mused, mostly to himself.

Placing himself at her side, Osiris dropped the weasel at his paws and then observed Mira's craftsmanship. "Where did you get that?" he asked.

Her name was called. Mira perked up, head lifting with a tiny intensine hanging from her teeth. Inquisitively, she eyed whatever hung from his mouth- a bigger prize than her little mouse, she thought with slight disappointment. She slurped down the organ, licking blood from her chops quietly as he came to her side. 

Where did you get that?

keel. She explained, gaze turning to him. She wished to ask the same thing, to understand how to kill a create so large- but the words could not reform themselves in her mouth. um, She breathed, gesturing muzzle to the weasel at his paws.

How Mira looked at Osiris was comical, and he couldn't help but laugh. Just as he was about to reach over to help clean her face, she remedied the mess herself. He nodded in approval; she was already capable of helping herself—a quality that would greatly benefit her.  

When Mira replied, Osiris lifted a brow. "Kill?" he asked, wanting to make sure that he had heard her correctly. "Did you kill that mouse?" he reiterated then, motioning towards the kill that laid in her grasp. Osiris ignored Mira's question for now, as he wanted confirmation for his own curiousness.

She was unsure why he laughed. What was funny? Osiris questioned her again, and she huffed out a breath from her nostrils. mira keel. She repeated, not knowing how else she could explain. It was her first kill, and a little early even for a mouse- but Mira contained such an urge to slaughter that Hydra's lesson had pushed her to finally making the move. The black snake had not forgotten her own curiosity though, and she pointed to his weasel again, quiet.

When Mira repeated herself, Osiris understood. "Very good," he drawled, his voice a pleasant rumble; already, his sister was capable—a promising indication of what the newest generation would bring. 

"Hm?" Osiris hummed, glancing at his kill as Mira motioned to it. "Do you want it? It is for you," he affirmed; unfortunately, Osiris did not comprehend the purpose of her actions.

Good, he said. Mira blinked, unreadable. She successfully managed to get his eyes to fall back to the creature, but no hunting or killing tactics were presented, only words. Dissapointing. The snake frowned even as he spoke for you, but licked her lips slightly, while a little um. evaporated from her mouth again, a show that she would not mind this kind of offering, either.

Mira confused Osiris immensely. He wasn't sure why she wasn't using her words, and he felt incompetent in understanding her silence. "Do you... need help with it?" he asked, unsure of why she wasn't speaking more; he had heard the rest of her littermate's babble before—why wasn't she speaking?

A frustrated huff exited her when he did not give her the thing, and simply babbled more of that language that noisy Mother and Mintaka and Altair loved so much. It took everything in her not to stomp her feet and throw a tantrum; instead she let her gaze fall away from her brother and to the dead thing once again. how kill it. She breathed, not bothering to make eye contact with him as she questioned.

"Oh," Osiris replied, now understanding Mira. "I snapped it's neck," he replied matter-of-factly. "But before I was able to do that, I followed it's scent until I found it, and approached from down-wind." Unsure if she was following, Osiris prompted, "Do you know what down-wind means?" A nod or shake of Mira's head would suffice.

He snapped its neck, he told her. Mira was satisfied with this answer, though a couple new questions floated in her head. She was small, she knew that; could her own neck be snapped? Lucky for her, he didn't seem to want to do that... but the thought of her own vulnerability, and how simply he stated this action made it sound easy... the girl, suddenly feeling very little, pushed her chin slightly into her dark chest fur. Though this only made the back of her neck more open- but Mira felt safe in this way. 

Talk of scent seemed familiar, but the new word- downwind- meant nothing to her. She answered his question simply with a shake of her head, only a cant of it following to betray her curiosity that prompted him to explain.

Osiris watched as Mira pushed her chin into her chest. "You don't need to worry," he assured her with a smile and a wag of his tail. "I won't let anybody snap your neck." Osiris would protect all of his siblings with the same fierceness; he'd kill for them. 

"Downwind is a way the wind blow," he drawled. "If it is blowing towards your prey, you would want to position yourself behind your prey. They won't be able to smell you." Osiris was at times less than eloquent with his words; he wasn't sure if he was making sense. "I will show you sometime," he added, deciding that it might be easier to show he what he meant.

He told her she wouldn't need to worry, and so she slightly lifted her chin upwards again, though now feeling a bit exposed. Osiris launched into an explanation, and she listened with the same focus that she would give to Mother, ears tilted forward intently. Though his words only made some sense for Mira- experience was the best teacher, after all- she nodded at the end. On another day, she would be eager to learn more from him. For now, she gave him an awkward attempt at a smile, which was more like a kindergarten yearbook photo of a child baring their teeth, and then she set off away from him without a word to find something else to entertain her.