Lost Lunch (Streams of Silver x Half Truth)

[Anhelisk]

Streams of Silver had hung the remains of the boar in a tree, in hopes that when she returned to it, that it would be there. Of course, there was the threat of other kin and other predators, but the swamp was a big place, and the boar was a big kill– after she'd eaten her fill and given her familiars their fill, she'd had no better choice for what to do with it.

She'd had some trouble refinding it– she'd put it in the center of a natural maze, in a place where hills cupped around the place and stirred the winds, keeping them from being too direct a guide to whatever one smelled there. Some searching later, there it was, mostly no worse for the wear for the extra day it had sat– and easy enough to pull down with Catty's help, after the muskie had helped her stash it.

She'd just been settling in to tuck into another meal of boar meat when she caught it working its way out of the bush.

It was like a caterpillar had laid eggs with a nightmare. Its beady eyes glowed, its mouth was a double set of wiggling blades, and it was covered with thorny bumps.

More distracting than its grotesquely lumpy form, though, was its odor– she couldn't help but gag a little and step back as the smell of old blood and bad rot was carried to her by the shifting breeze. She watched with sickened fascination as its body undulated in a horrific, slow-motion parody of a gallop, working its corpulence towards her meal.

How was she supposed to scare off a creature like that?  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Half Truth had sworn to her son she'd watch his horrible, horrible cave worm. She never broke a promise to him, but she was seriously regretting her choices right now. The damned thing had gotten away from her- all those legs meant it could move incredibly fast, and it had darted away faster than she'd ever seen it move in Changes' care. Cursing whatever impulse she'd fallen prey to that allowed the worm into her life in the first place, she sprinted after it. At least the horrible thing was easy to track. It looked... wrong. Poisonous animals often were brightly colored to warn away potential predators, but the cave worm was a vivid mockery of nature- a riot of colors that did not belong together. There was nothing subtle about the cave worm.

Besides, it smelled like decaying meat. How did Changes let that thing sleep near him? Or rather, sit there while he slept. She had no idea if the cave worm actually slept. She imagined it just... lurked. And chittered occasionally. A shudder ran down her back as she recalled the click of mandibles in her ear, the thorny prickles of the horrible beast skittering over her as she slept. Could cave worms be malicious?

But still, her son loved the thing, so she pursued it instead of letting it skitter off into the distance. It would be terrible if she lost it.

Panting lightly, she sprinted after its rapidly advancing back. Thickets and grasses blurred past her vision, but she was mostly focusing on the worm. However, the smell of another kin- and some not-so-decayed dinner- almost stopped her in her tracks. It was bad enough she was saddled with the worm, but now he was invading somebody else's territory! Huffing angrily, she tapped into a reserve of irritated energy and finally caught up with the worm, quickly enough to put a hoof between it and the meat. "Don't you DARE," she growled, not knowing if it understood or not. "I mean it. One mandible out of place and I squish you."
 

[Anhelisk]

Catty did not like this strange thing. Cattie's back bristled, and Streams of Silver was forced to pay attention to her muskie as the animal started to growl. "Easy, girl. Hush, now." She backed up a little further– and then watched as another doe stepped in, trotting briskly to get between the creature and the meat.

"Please, try to avoid letting it come to that?" Sil asked the stranger. "I have a feeling it would smell worse on the inside, and I'd rather avoid losing my meal."  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

"You're probably right, and honestly? I wouldn't do that. It's kind of an empty threat. It's... it's my son's, and I think if I squished it, I'd break his heart. I'm terrible at actually lying to the kid." And she was. Anybody else? Su- wait, no, she couldn't lie to Rose, either. But outside of them, she was a consummate and skilled liar. Maybe a bit out of practice, as of recent, but you never really forgot that sort of thing. The caveworm chittered angrily and tried to slither around her. She couldn't suppress a shudder of disgust as its little segmented legs prickled her ankle. How was she going to get it out of here? She certainly wasn't going to pick it up. Her mouth wasn't going anywhere near that thing. She squeezed it between her front hooves, trapping it in place, as she looked around to see what she'd landed in. Dead boar in a tree. Large, fluffy dog-thing growling at her. Another kin, who probably owned both the dead boar and the fluffy thing. Right, that was the most important part of this situation.

"I am so sorry about this thing. I hope it didn't spoil your supplies. Or attack your, uh... dog. Wolf. Hound. Friend?" She really, really hoped it wasn't going to attack her. Or the worm. Honestly, the worm would be worse.
 

[Anhelisk]

The doe nodded at the response, expression one of understanding and sympathy. She opened her mouth to respond, but as the creature surged forward to make another attempt at the corpse, she stepped forward, barking out an instruction to her familiar.

"Catty, stash it," the doe commanded, nodding decisively at the boar. The muskie bounded forward, grabbing it by a leg, and starting to dash towards a tree. "She's a muskwolf. We're unharmed– and unless its stench spoils things, I think we should be safe. Ah... this would be a... cave worm, wouldn't it be?" the doe asked, curious in spite of her revulsion.  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Half Truth eyed the muskwolf appreciatively as it stashed the carcass. "Mighty fine trick there. I've never seen one of those before, but she seems like a good dog. Gonna have to see if my caiman can learn something like that. I don't think the stench spoils things, except for appetites. This forsaken heap of chitin is a cave worm, and I don't know what the Motherfather was thinking when it was concocted. Nor do I know what the Zikwa were thinking when they decided to bring it into the light. It's a scavenger- eats dead stuff, and the deader the better. I've seen eaglehounds reject rotten carcasses that this thing happily devours. I'm quite glad it didn't get at your boar there- it's no easy thing, bringing down a boar. I'd hate for you to have to discard it prematurely." The caveworm clicked its mandibles, a harsh grating noise coming from it as it dragged its jaws across each other. Subconsciously, Half Truth lifted her hoof and brought it down further away from the worm's head as it snapped at the air where her ankle had just been. "Of course, even though they're scavengers, that doesn't stop them from trying to take a bite out of the living every now and again. They're about the worst pet imaginable."
 

[Anhelisk]

"And, of course, your son decided to bring it home," she said, voice mild as she walked around to get a better look at it. "It certainly couldn't get much uglier, could it?" Mandibles clearly meant to tear at flesh, hide, and ligament would leave nasty marks, and that meant that a bite could potentially sicken, though...

...though, if that were the case, she couldn't imagine they would be kept as pets. "Maybe it just needs to be trained properly," the doe mentioned. "I can't imagine the zikwa would keep untameable, dangerous pets– there must be some sort of conditioning that this critter can learn." She turned to look at the doe, expression intent.

"She's Catty," she said, ear flicking in the direction of the muskie in the tree– who, despite her usual eagerness to get back to the ground, seemed to have no interest in relinquishing her prey to the chitinous threat, "what's this one named? Something uncharacteristically saccharine, I'd wager,"  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Half Truth nodded sadly. "He calls it... he calls it I Love You. It does listen to him, sort of. It knows its name and it'll stay when he tells it to stay and it'll come when he tells it to come. When it was smaller, it would ride on his back and I'd worry it would bite him. Now it follows after him- and he says it's not done growing yet. It knows a few things, but it doesn't really like anybody but him. Apparently the zikwa have several uses for them- their egg sacs are made of a very fine silken thread- and they're good at scaling vertical walls and exploring. And guarding things and scaring intruders. But one thing they aren't good at is swimming- which is how I got landed with it. My boy's on a river fishing trip with some of his friends, and taking it would have been a problem." She glanced up at the muskwolf again, noting its suspicion. Smart animal. "So she's catty and this is I Love You and I'm Half Truth and it'd be a shame if I didn't at least get your name so I can lecture this thing on the way home," she said by way of introduction.
 

[Anhelisk]

Oh, she liked this doe. "I'm Streams of Silver," the doe replied amicably. "I'd encourage him to try to discipline it a little further. It's hardly a foxbun or a chicken–" the doe said– "A bird that lays eggs constantly, good for food," the doe said, by way of explanation. Rise and Shine weren't ubiquitously known throughout the swamp– she had to assume that their familiars wouldn't be known very well either.

"It's good to meet you, Half Truth," she said. "And... good to have met I Love You, if only so I know what putrid creatures cave worms really are. I'd been considering taming one for my son, Cave Yell– I know better, now. Maybe one of their bats, instead...." she mused.  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

A look of horror passed over Half Truth's face. Her mental filing of information was quickly struck away by the desperate need for a warning. "NO. Do NOT. The smell does not come out of pelts. I had to throw his bed away twice because his pile of skins reeked. Bats are lovely creatures and a great gift from the underground- their wings are exquisitely velvety. Get your boy a nice bat and don't entertain the thought of inviting a cave worm into your life. Don't do this to yourself. I am a lesson!"

She was being extremely melodramatic of course, but if she could stop one innocent family from being plagued with cave worms, it would be worth it.
 

[Anhelisk]

Sil couldn't help it. She laughed. The doe shook with quiet cackles, clearly amused by her cohort's dramatic response. "I promise you, I know better now," she reassured the green and gold doe. "As it is, all I can offer is advice in how you may find someone to help train them. I know of a doe that trains insects of all kinds– and I also know of a relatively new tribe that is focused entirely on the training of familiars. It may be worthwhile to send your son one of those two ways if he's serious about keeping this... thing." Hey, it wasn't Half Truth's pet, and the other doe had made her opinion abundantly clear. She wouldn't be hurting anyone's feelings by insulting it.  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

"Really? There's somebody who specializes in insects? I had great luck with my wasp, but I think that was a fluke. That or I just have a particularly obedient and nice wasp. She followed me for three days before I realized she wanted to stay with me, rather than sting me or chase me away from her hive. What's this doe's name? I'd love to point my kid her way. I can sell it to him as a wonderful bonding experience with his cave worm." She paused, smiling and laughing a little herself. "You know, when he got this thing, I was sure it'd run away from him and return to the cave from whence it came. I know that if I'd had a pet when I was his age, I'd have been terrible about remembering to care for it. But he swore up and down that it had bonded with him, and he was so meticulous and responsible... which I mean, I guess that was why I let him get a pet in the first place, because he'd been wanting one so badly and had really shown a lot of maturity in helping out around home. So I know if there was somebody who'd help him get... ugh, closer to it," she said with audible disgust, "he'd go for it in a heartbeat."
 

[Anhelisk]

The doe chuckled. "Well, he won't live in your cave forever, and he can hopefully learn from them... she's Beetleshell, though I'm not sure where she's located, and the tribe's called 'The Very Best'. Sounds pretentious, but it's not as bad as it could be– they're all about being the best you can be, though they do have plenty of up-talk and competition amongst themselves."

She turned, facing west. "They're scattered all around– use coloured knots, sometimes with items tied in them– as merit badges, but the majority of them are centered around an island to the east of here, near the Mother's Club. I'm not sure," the doe mused, "whether that was happenstance, or whether they plan on an aggressive recruitment gambit."  

[Scaramouche Fandango]

Half Truth nodded. "I know the Mother's Club well," she said. "That's where I adopted my boy. Somehow he ended up there when he was still in the egg, and we met at one of their open adoptions. Best day of my life, looking back on it. I drop by their place on the regular, bringing food and pelts. They've got hunters, but a little extra never hurts, you know? I'm sure if I can't find 'em, Peep can help out. I've never heard of Beetleshell or the tribe, but if they're half as good as they're claiming, I'm sure one of them can help. Even once he moves out, family's forever. Even if that family... includes a cave worm." Which... well, it did. Changes loved this thing, and she loved Changes, so the worm's presence wasn't that big of a sacrifice, all things considered.

Still, if it was more obedient- if this Beetleshell or somebody from this tribe could knock some sense into its chitinous head- that would make things so much better. "D'you think they might know where she is? If they don't, I have some kin I could ask- the acha tribes seem to know everybody."
 

[Anhelisk]

Streams of Silver chuckled. "I've got none, sadly– but I can agree that Acha tend to be a sociable lot. My children's half-sister, well, she's the most antisocial acha I've met, and that's because she manages a flock of dragons full-time in between acting as an ambassador between our tribe and others."