Title: I Found a |.Shiny.| Thing
Wild Heart - March 8, 2008 06:26 PM (GMT)
The forest was smoking still. The ground was damp with recent rain. The fire had just been put out, but still life thrived in the place of death. The small creature stalked softly through the ashes and tall charcoal black oaks. Large red rocks sat around the wet forest, still smouldering somewhat. Heat made the air hazy, like waves.
She padded carefully up to a rock, and then circled it, shoulders low and tufted ears back. Slowly, she pushed herself upwards from the crouch, readjusting the leathery wings on her back. In a very dog like fashion, she dug through the ash, and then screamed with delight. The heat from the meteor had melted the sand on the the earth into a shard of glass. She squealed happily, tearing three circles around her treasure before coming to a halt in front of it again. Her green eyes glittered with magpie-like greed. She leaned down slowly, and carefully picked the shard up in her teeth.
And then she threw it.
Her head snapped to the side and she released the shard, sending it spiraling away. Spreading her wings she leapt into the air and batted the falling piece of glass up with her paw. Again and again she did this, giggling with pure delight as light bounced around grove of oaks.
"I HAVE FOUND A SHINY THING! I HAVE FOUND A SHINY THING!"
Silverstreak - March 8, 2008 06:31 PM (GMT)
Sorrow inched forward, pawstep by pawstep, fear glittering in her eyes. The rain of fire had just ended, but she was still wary of the asteroids. She whipped around at a squeal, startled.
"Shiny?" she asked, looking slightly confused. She tilted her head to the side slightly, paws kneading the ground.
Spottedleaf - March 8, 2008 06:47 PM (GMT)
Echo's eyes were somewhere between a squint and a look of pure fascination as she ran through the scortched grove. Her eyes batted from side to side following a ray of light in the ashes. She looked at it intensely, in a stalking pose, and pounced. Then she stared in pure awe as the light was on top of her paws instead of under it.
"Wow!" she gasped in pure wonder. "How'd you do that?!"
Suddenly she turned her attention elsewhere. She had heard a sound. Quickly she dove into a clump of grass and when she looked up she saw a panther-like creature standing there. She tilted her head to the side and stood up. "Why do you talk to yourself?" she said, not knowing that the other cat hadn't been alone.
Wild Heart - March 8, 2008 06:56 PM (GMT)
She flipped straight over, using her back paws to shoot the glass straight into the air. Green eyes flashed with happiness as the diamond flew upwards, sparkling like a million constellations. Her wings spread, and then came down, the membrane inflating like a ballon. She flew upwards, mouth wide open, and then CHINK! she caught the glass in her mouth.
She hovered for a moment to catch her breath, her small wings pumping furiously to keep her air borne. Then, she saw Sorrow. Her head tilted to the side, and then finally her whole body followed until she was suspended sideways in the air, looking at Sorrow. Her tail curled and she blinked hard several times. Using her tail, she reached upto her mouth and wrapped her tail around the shard of glass. Holding it in her tail she continued to stare at Sorrow.
"Well, well, who is this?
This who asks me things?
What she want, where she come?
Why she talk to meh?"
Her voice was young and mysterious, eyes sparkling and curious.
Silverstreak - March 8, 2008 07:01 PM (GMT)
Sorrow blinked. So many words! What did they all mean? Her head spun with all these pronounciations. Confusion clouded her blue gaze. They glinted orange in the dim light, as the rain of fire was still healing.
A frog leapt onto a branch. Sorrow yelped in surprise, following the strange creature with her eyes. She slowly let her paw creep forward to touch it.
Spottedleaf - March 8, 2008 07:11 PM (GMT)
Looking up, Echo noticed a flying thing. Her jaw dropped and she stared at the creature as it hovered there. Then she heard the rhythem in the way it talked. She kneaded her paws on the ground, hyperactivity building in her body.
"Why you talk like that,
With the rhythem and rhyme,
How you fly like that,
And have horns like a bovine?"
She smiled cheesily and jumped up and down, seeing if she could fly too.
Wild Heart - March 8, 2008 07:36 PM (GMT)
No answer came from Sorrow. She frowned, wondering if it was unintelligent, for it seemed much more interested in a frog than in her. Shrugging this off she proceeded to do a backflip in the air and then noticed another cat had stepped from no where.
And then it talked.
And it mocked her.
She pinned her ears, baring her teeth.
"Don't mock me bigger one,
Horns or not,
I have more brains than you,
For I don't jump about about like a fool,
Looking for trouble or something to do,
So buzz off big fly,
I have no time for you."
She growled low, her tail twisting and curling so that the shard of glass glistened.
"Buzz off big fly,
I have no time for you."
Spottedleaf - March 8, 2008 07:52 PM (GMT)
Echo jumped back a little. She hadn't meant to offend the small creature, but she was used to having people talk to her like that. She knew that she had said the wrong thing once again.
Quickly she shrugged it off and her eyes went into a squint-awe again.
"What is your name,
You with the horns,
Where do you live,
The one most recently born?
For your size does not show,
And your eyes they don't glow,
Like you live where we do,
In this land honest and true."
She stepped forward, regaining the pace she had lost before.
"And do not growl young one,
This is not the place to do battle,
And we all know how many you have won,
Which really isn't a number at all."
She couldn't help herself. The last rhyme was simply in her and had to come out.
Wild Heart - March 8, 2008 08:08 PM (GMT)
The nerve of the cat surprised her. She bristled, and then landed in front of the panther. Folding her wings she lowered her head. Hey, the panther towered over her. Did she care? Nope, not in the slightest. She was, though it did not show, enjoying this. It was plenty of fun to out ryme anyone. She was a rymer, she rymed all the time. It was just...her thing.
Yea, okay, if Echo decided that she wanted to make her lunch, then she could easily get out of the way. Wings, of course, wings. She was quick agile, and had wings.
"Everyone calls me Umbra,
The Shadow above ground,
For I do not hide the dark,
Like the cowering larks,
I eat for my lunch.
Size is my deciever,
I am large in heart and soul,
And in the art of flight,
Do not be fooled,
I have won a fair few,
Through skill and not acting like a bumbling baboon.
So please don't act like you own the place,
I own my sky, my trees, my prey,
I leave it to you to hide in the dark,
While I prey on the larks.
So are you done?
Or is this battle not won?
Do you have more to say?
If not, then go away."
She stood proudly, chest puffed outwards, ears back and green eyes forewards.
Silverstreak - March 8, 2008 08:15 PM (GMT)
Sorrow tilted her head in confusion. So many words with the same sounds at the end. Were those the things called rhymes? The she-panther stepped towards them and yelped as the light stung her eyes. She could no longer be seen.
She scrambled about, the grass trembling fragily as she tried to get the sunlight out. She was like an invisible ghost- which, practically, she was.
Spottedleaf - March 8, 2008 08:39 PM (GMT)
Echo was still bursting with rhymes and was about to roll off another set when she suddenly noticed the cat that had been standing beside them was gone. It wasn't like she had ran away, no, she had been there only a moment before. Quickly her rhymes wound themselves back up and were reworded in her mind.
"Where did the wolf go,
The one called Sorrow,
Where has she gone,
Was she called upon?
Has she gone to a friend,
Or has something taken her,
Did she come to an end,
We must try to find her!"
Echo lowered her nose to the ground. She could pick up the cat's scent, but not a sight of her. Quickly she raced around the area sniffing everywhere she thought the cat would have vanished.