[PRP] Self-Imposed Starvation (Arcadia Sinclair & Vapor)

[xo maho]

This is a private roleplay log between Arcadia Sinclair (Mahogany Sunset) and Vapor (Lunadriel).

 

[xo maho]

Arcadia's lips pressed firmly together as she struggled through the forest, her wings pulled in as tightly to her sides as she could get them. The feathers, for the most part, were unfeeling, but their roots in the skin beneath the downy plumage over the bones were not. Every time she brushed a wing against a twig, the tiny pressure sent a little burning sensation across her skin, but that was nothing compared to what happened when she brushed her flank across a pine branch - it had been as if a tiny thousand fires had flickered into being across her skin, raking and licking raw flesh where there was none. Arcadia had managed to bite down a screech as she pushed past the branch, but it had only stiffened her resolve.

Forests were not made for soquili of her size and condition. Not only that, but she was trapped on every side; she could not fly out of here. She could not escape. If she wanted to end her explorations, she'd have to turn back around before she'd found anything for her mother, and the caves were an hour in the other direction, through more trees. She would be better off finding a place where she could take to the skies and fly back. Her wings might not be good for much in the forest, but in the sky, they gave her speed and freedom that she knew nowhere else. Better than freedom and speed, they gave her painlessness. There was nothing better than cool air on her skin, quenching fires that smoldered with every little touch. Nothing was better than that.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the close trees began to grow farther apart, and at last, Arcadia could step between them without running her feathers against the trunks on either side. A few steps more, and she could unfurl her wings. The eyes that had been closed on them for protection blinked open, and suddenly, her field of vision got a little wider. Taking a deep breath of the clean air, Arcadia closed her eyes and shook, her entire body rumbling with the force of it. Foliage loosed itself from between her feathers, and Arcadia felt tiny little fir and pine needles roll off her back, along with a few little round twigs. It felt so good to be clean of debris again, even if it was only for a moment.

Giving her tail a good flick and tossing her bangs out of her face - and doing her best to keep her had on her head - Arcadia adjusted herself again and took in her surroundings. The place in which she stood wasn't a clearing, exactly, though she could see one a few hundred yards in front of her. The trees were simply thinner here; she could see the blue of the sky through the canopy overhead. Humming slightly to herself, she looked around, but there wasn't really anything exciting here that she could take home to her mother. Whatever she brought, it would have to weather the flight home between her teeth, and that would be a bit difficult for a flower. It would have to be a rock or something solid then, she decided.

Her eyes focused on something glinting in the light behind a tree in front of her, and while her mind tried to decipher just what it was she was heading toward, her body was already on the move, taking the route that would give her the widest berth of the trees.

Lunadriel

 

[Lunadriel]

The winters had been unkind, and cruel. The frigid air stung the skin of even those with the thickest hide. The moisture in the atmosphere foretold of snow. Soon Winter would spread her pure blanket on the land once again, until Sól warmed her to the point of melting. Food was scarce for scavengers. Once such scavenger, thrived on the hunt of others. Vapor was not unlike a carrion bird, picking of the corpse of any dead thing he could find. With cold weather, came hibernation, which meant the pickings were almost non existent. A couple months back, he had found an unspoiled dead boar. The boar was lean, and old, and likely couldn't handle the climate change. Vapor had fed off of it for a week! However, he had found nothing sense. Like the boar, he had grown lean. Funny how that worked out.

Dark clouds hung like dense fog in Vapors head. A storm brewed, sending his thoughts and senses into confusion. Quite literally, he was starving. "Damnit!" he exerted, as he skid against the body of a near by tree. The pain was excruciating. The bark cut into his cold skin like ice. He stayed leaned against the tree, white huffs panting from his mouth into the winter air. If he did end up collapsed on the ground, and it did in fact snow, he would surely meet his end. This sucked! If only he had it in him to kill his own prey. Pride had kept him from eating grass, and now, the only grass at his feet was brown and dead. Not like it would be enough nourishment at this point...

The world was fuzzy through his eyes, and his awareness was poor. A strangers approach, went unnoticed.  

[xo maho]

As Arcadia skirted the tree, she saw the white puffs of breath in the frigid air. "Hello?" she asked quietly, eyes focused on the tip of a golden horn - which became a spiraled unicorn horn framed by ram horns. And then a thin face appeared beneath them, a body with ribs so prominent she was surprised they did not break through the skin. "Gods," she whispered, standing before him. His wings were ripped, though whether those scars had come from his condition now or from fighting or something before, Arcadia did not know - but he needed help.

Gritting her teeth against the pain that came with kneeling on the ground beside him, Arcadia peered into the gold-lit eyes that squinted out at her. She stayed out of range of his tail; her siblings had those, and she knew they could swat like the whip of muscle they were. "Are you sick or starving?" she asked, to the point. There was no way he could have energy to speak. If he was sick, she didn't know what she could do for him. Comfort was beyond her except if he wanted her to sit with him. If he was starving... Arcadia swallowed. Please let him be vegetarian, she prayed.

Lunadriel

 

[Lunadriel]

Vapor eyes fluttered, rolling back into his head. Annoyance bubbled up, stirring up his bad attitude, at the sound of someone speaking to him. With the most pitiful expression of attempt at hate, he looked towards the female voice next to him in the woods. He would of stepped back as she knelt beside him, but he could only muster the strength to adjust a hoof, as he half stood, half fallen against the tree. Good spirits... With feather and wing, the mare towered at least a head or two above him, in his current stance, she doubled him in height.

Sick or starving? The fact that she noticed, AND seemed to care, pissed him the eff off. Showing care, in any amount, wasn't something he had been given. Normally with words and his butt hole of an attitude, he made sure nobody was given the chance to care two horseshoes about him.

He sucked his lip. "Fckaofhhhh..." The rage had taken the last of his energy, and his threat to try and get her to back off, came out in a drunken slur, as he completed his meet to the ground. He only saw white spots, and his sinuses grew painfully hot, as he passed out from hunger.  

[xo maho]

Eyes widening at what sounded like an attempt to curse her away, Arcadia could do nothing but watch as the stallion collapsed completely against the tree. It took her a moment to regain her shocked senses, but her first thought was that he had died. Ears flicking toward him, she listened for breath, and when she heard it, she heaved a deep sigh of relief. She wasn't sure what she would have done if he had died; she could not have brought herself to touch his body, and he might just freeze out here, preserved by ice in this dark forest.

Shaking her head, she stumbled to her feet, knees searing as the shape of the ground left imprints in the skin beneath her dark fur. She hadn't heard anything that suggested he was sick - nothing in his voice, at least, beyond that strange attempt he had made at speech. Starvation it is, she thought ruefully, looking around for something edible. Both greens and meat would be hard to come by, and she was loathe to catch an innocent animal, but he had kalona in him - which meant he might need meat. Even with her kalona blood so heavily diluted, Arcadia still snapped every once in a while and required meat, and then was guilty for months afterward. This is for another, though. And this stallion, whoever he was, needed it, because he had just passed out in front of her.

Steeling herself to the reality of the situation, Arcadia decided to find the green stuff first. There were a few evergreens around, but their needles were hardly apt for chewing. She would have to find something else. Allowing herself a few minutes to look, she pulled her wings in close, and began to search around the trees.

Ten minutes later, Arcadia came back with branches of sweetbay and rosemary clutched in her mouth, their scents assailing her nose. Her lips were drawn back as far as she could manage, but her face and muzzle still burned wherever the plants touched her; the pressure was intolerable to her skin, and as soon as she was close to the stallion, she spit the plants out, glad to be rid of them. They might not taste very good, but at least they would feed him.

Next, prey. Her best option was a rabbit; anything else would be too small, and anything larger she would need help to bring down. Shivering at the thought of ending another life, Arcadia set out into the forest again.

Finding the rabbit was the hard part. They did not come out of their warrens for much this time of year, and the first time she spotted one, it spotted her before she could so much as make a move toward it. Finally, she came across one that did not hear her; it nibbled at the tiny shoots of green grass growing in the shelter of a hollow log. Getting as near as she dared, she flicked her tail over it. The rabbit screamed as it was entangled, a sound that pierced Arcadia's ears, and pain shuddered up her leg as she kicked it, ending its cries.

She dragged it back in her tail, little fires tugging at the skin it was attached to where the rabbit's legs had tangled. When she reached the stallion, she shook her tail out in front of her face, clenching her teeth as the small body dropped in front of his nose. Perhaps the smell of warm food would wake him up, but only time would tell, so Arcadia stood a few feet away to wait.

Lunadriel

 

[Lunadriel]

A foal walked up to Vapor, stopping in front of him. "You're an idiot." it called to him, before winking out of existence. Vapor twitched his head and sucked his teeth. Had the little whelp stuck around, he would of given him a piece of his mind. Where is this place anyways? he thought, not remembering how he came to be where here. An eyebrow lifted as he shifted his head around slowly. Nothing. No trees, no soquili. Only a nothingness that stretched on forever in every direction. Where had the foal gone to then? Confusion took over. Picking a direction, he began walking. Only as he did, the ground gave way to black muck, and he quickly began to disappear in its bog of darkness. "Eahhh!" he struggled, flapping his wings in attempt to break loose. The mire swallowed him further with every struggle, till all that remained, was his face.~

Outside of his dream, Vapor lay where he had fallen. Eyes danced below their lids as he attempted to wake from his hunger induced nightmare. At some point, he realized he was dreaming. "Wake up, wake up, wake up! he fought with his mind, trying to snap awake. The hold of sleep kept him there, pulling him back and forth between waking and deep slumber, like the ebbing tide of the ocean. His eyes seemed to open to only a slit, before his eyes rolled back into his head.

After a few minutes, he shook his body, in attempts to break free of the dream. A hoof popped up under him, and he awoke. Awkwardly he sat there, with one front leg up, and the dead rabbit under his nose, accompanied by fragrant greens of some unknown variety. The collection of smells made him want to wretch. When you go too long without food, the thought of food can make you sick.

"Uhhh..." he looked at the food with confusion, half wondering if he still lay there, dreaming another dream. The weight of his body and head, told him it was no dream. Tempted, he wanted to go back to sleep. Fighting off the sleep, instinct took over. That rabbit looked good. With one hoof, he attempted to hold it to the ground, so he could rip the fur from its flesh with his teeth. The effort seemed so great, with him being so tired and weak. How had he let it come to this? The foal in his dream was right, he was an idiot. Vapor scoffed, then startled, ears ringing, sound suddenly having the feeling he wasn't alone. That mare. She's still here. Had she said anything all this time? Vapor was so out of it, that if she had, he didn't hear her. His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to make sense of everything.  

[xo maho]

Arcadia watched with wide eyes as the stallion seemed to twitch and shake in the grips of his unconscious. The bark on his skin could not feel pleasant, nor could the hard winter ground; if he did not wake soon, she might have to tug him away from there, if she could figure out a way to. He probably wouldn't appreciate it, but the way he looked, he probably could not handle a wound and an infection. If he kicked her, it would be agony, but a temporary one in exchange for life...

She was saved from contemplating the idea any further by a sudden movement catching her eye. He was awake, one hoof under him, not looking altogether pleased by the food she had set before him. Arcadia was just about to badger him to eat it when it looked like he almost animalistically held down the rabbit with his hoof and tore it apart. Flinching backward - those teeth looked sharp - she watched him gnaw at it. Suddenly, though, he seemed to look around, confused. Maybe he doesn't remember that I was here, she thought. "I caught the rabbit for you," she said softly. "Don't eat too fast. You could find yourself with choke. I can help you tear it up if you need." Please don't make me, she thought. Don't say yes. "You should eat the greens, too. They might be pungent, but they're edible and they grow year round." After a moment, Arcadia remembered his initial hostility, and took a few steps back, out of goring range of his horn if he decided to stand up. It might have been made for healing, but that golden thing looked like a needle ready to tear her heart out.

What could she do, now that he was awake? She obviously had to stick around, and make sure that he didn't choke on his food or starve as he regained his strength. But would he want her to? Looking around, Arcadia judged the width between the trees around her. Finally, she was in a place where she could unfurl her wings. The clearing was still up ahead, and there, she would be able to feel the wind beneath them again.

Unfurling her six black-orange masses of feathers, Arcadia let them loom over her. The eyes blinked open and her vision expanded, staring down at the stallion and keeping him in her line of sight. Her wings shadowed him, the floating paint blobs shimmering in the weak sunlight. If he got out of hand, she could mar his pretty coat or something. "I'll be staying with you until you can fend for yourself," she said, ears flicking to listen to him eating and moving. So much better than deathly silence. "Why have you been starving?" Of course, she didn't expect an answer right away - not while he was eating, stuffing his face, just as he should be.

Lunadriel

 

[Lunadriel]

Eyes wide, he stared at the mare with crazy whites showing. What in the world was she doing here? Why would she care about him? What kind of trickery was this? Tskk. As IF he would ask her to tear up the rabbit. But...still confusing why she would leave the rabbit there. Vapor peered down at the rabbit, wondering if she had poisoned it. Eyebrows furrowed. His stomach protested as loud as it could. Eat the rabbit! it seemed to yell at him. Hunger overcame his logic, and he clamped his jaws on the rabbit. Holding it in his jaws, blood trickled down the side of his mouth. He looked primal in the midst of his otherwise pitiful shape.

The blood in his mouth was luke warm, and tasted amazing. Like it was the best thing he had ever tasted. His stomach turned at the sensation of something entering into its flat domain. He began to chew on it, fur and all.

Vapor startled as the mare unfurled her wings. OH GAWD!!!

The rabbit fell from his mouth with a sad plop. Vapor coughed and his chest heaved like prey in the midst of a predator. He couldn't decide if he was still dreaming. The mare huge, full of an unnatural number of wings, and even more, and unnatural number of eyes in places they shouldn't be! Vapor felt more uneasy than before, as if he might become her lunch. For a few minutes, he waited, to see what her next move would be. After he realized she wasn't going to do anything, his hunger kicked him in the side, reminding him of his meal. Then, he growled, and ate the rabbit quickly, as if she might take it away. Who knows what she would do...

Stay with him?! What the ever living heck was she talking about? His eyebrows furrowed again. A typical face for him. His eyes cut right through her, or at least he hoped they would. Too weak to try and hurt her with his words. Though really, did he stand a chance of intimidating her at this point? Already vulnerable, and in a position to be at her mercy.

Why had he been starving? Because he hadn't had food, duh! Not that he planned on giving her an answer. He owed her nothing! Or that's at least how he felt. Showing gratitude something that simply didn't exist for him. He grunted, and rolled his eyes, still chomping at the bits of rabbit. When there wasn't anything left he could gnaw off, he resorted to licking at the bones and fur left still hanging. His face a deep shade of maroon, and his teeth stained red.  

[xo maho]

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Arcadia watched as the rabbit fell from his mouth. "Oh, come now, eat your food. I don't mean to frighten you, but it's for your own protection." Or something. For the first time, she saw the white of his eyes around the black of his irises - if that was indeed how his eyes worked. The yellow pupils seemed strange, but perhaps it was just the way they shone in the light. In any case, she appeared to have certainly surprised him: maybe she had even struck fear into him. As long as he did not try to flee or fight her, that would be a good thing. Fleeing meant he would likely hurt himself, and fighting... He would likely hurt her. Arcadia did not have many combat skills; she could buffet things with her wings, to be sure, and throw her weight behind a kick. Everything sent pain shivering through her, though, and that was an inconvenience in a fight.

He chomped down the rabbit, staring up at her, and Arcadia did everything in her power not to fidget. Any detection of her lacking self confidence could mean injury for them both, and that she could not have. She stared down at his blood-stained face, pondering how she could get water to him. If he was anything like her (and the unicorn blood suggested he might be a touch similar, if anything), she knew she hated the feeling of stickiness all over her fur and muzzle, growing rank in her nostrils. "Eat the plants, too," she commanded, reaching out with a pinion to brush them closer to him. Having a feather bitten was much less dangerous than having a hoof bitten. "Something tells me that your blood dictates a need for vegetation." Sighing again, Arcadia rolled her eyes at herself. She sounded so stern! Was it really necessary? One rabbit surely would not affect his body so much as to let him run away from her with any energy. He needed rest, exercise, good food, to regain his strength. Otherwise, winter would take him in her cruel grasp and never let him see spring again.

"I'll go get you some water to wash your face with, if you like. If you don't, you can drink it." Flipping her head so her hat flew off, Arcadia listened and sniffed for a nearby body of water. Many things were frozen, but quick-moving streams and deep ones might not be. She picked it up off the ground and headed past him, to her right. Let him be alone with his thoughts for a while. At least he was awake this time, not passed out and waking to the sight of a strange, huge mare he'd never met. That must have been upsetting, at the very least.

Lunadriel

 

[Lunadriel]

A guttural noise came from Vapor, as he tried to speak, but the words felt dead in his mouth. There was no way in hot hells he was going to eat that herbivore crap. Maybe it was psychological, but the stuff made him sick to his stomach anytime he had tried to eat it in the past. Not willing to try again, given circumstances. He ate meat, and that's the way it was going to stay. That matter of fact tone of her ticked him off. She knew nothing about him! Nor his needs.. but she did feed you...

Snorting, he flared his nostrils and turned his head away from the mare, with a deep eye roll. Though it was hard to see considering his eyes had a solid black sclera. Whoever this mare was, she annoyed him. There was a tiny voice in the back of his head saying: but she saved you... in which he chose not to listen to. Vapor never was the sensible type to think with reason.

Something to wash the blood off. That had caught his attention again, momentarily. This feathery dame with the purple hat, oddly seemed to know his quirk about blood. Never did he let it stay on him for long, before he washed himself off.

His jaw popped to one side without opening his mouth. Even if he was annoyed, she was providing things for him, without him having to do anything in return! Could he really complain about that? Vapor watched as she trailed away. He studied her feathers, and the strange floating globs that extended from a few of them with a suspended life of their own. Unattached, yet not leaving their place from near the feathers ends. So many feathers. In all his years, he had never seen a stranger like this.

As he sat there, he felt a sharp cramp in his ankles. He winced and tried to move them. The front legs were easy. He moved them in front of him, and adjusted his weight. Leaning to one side, he eased one back leg out. Maybe he should just stand up? Flaring his wings out, he flapped them as he tried to lift himself up. The air whipped at the frayed ends of his wings, but Vapor didn't move much. Flying was a tricky task for him, due to the condition of his wings. He always needed a little hop and a skip to get up off the ground. They were no help in picking him up off the ground today. Out of annoyance, he whipped the spade of his tail behind him, lashing at the ground.

Even if he wanted to leave before she got back, he couldn't...