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 Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:05 am
 It was a beautiful, sunny day out today, and what a better time to bathe and play around in a nearby stream? He and his brother had never really been able to find whatever it was they had sought when they first hatched, but in the end it didn't really matter. They had each other still, and thus far they had been managing fairly well on their own in this big, green world around them. They had even figured out how to talk with one another, which was also an extremely helpful bonus. All in all, things were going pretty well for them."Hey!" Kenjiro said with a laugh as his brother started to splash him. He was just as quick to start splashing back. "I won't go down so easy!"As they played, however, the two young kirin remained oblivious to the dark shadow lurking nearby.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:35 am
 "That's what you think!" Escalus teased, kicking through the water once more to send droplets flying at his brother. Then he shook his horns at Kenjiro for good measure. "Take that! And that! And that!" Each exclaimation was accompanied by a vigorous shake of the head, until the foal found himself quite dizzy. Woooah, time to stop and clear his head...
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:43 am
Kenji couldn't help but laugh again as his brother's dizziness became readily apparent. "What were you saying~?" he teased back, starting his own counter-splashing back up with renewed vigor. Whereas his brother had used his horns for extra splashing, he utilized his wings to help with the task. The battle would be won yet!
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:52 am
Aaagh! Faced with the onslaught of water, Escalus shied back, trying to tuck his head under his wings to protect his eyes from the worst of the water. Getting water in your eyes was definitely not fun. But he would only back down for so long! Counting slowly, he waited until there was the smallest of lulls in the splashing - and then attacked once more, charging at his brother full on. If he didn't scramble out of the way, Escalus would move at the last minute to merely go shoulder-to-shoulder. He refused to 'lose' this battle!
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:05 pm
Ack! As predicted, Kenjiro moved to scramble out of the way of his charging brother, preferring to avoid a collision. "Cheater!" he called out, trying to aim another splash at Escalus after he'd passed by. Really, this stream here was quite nice. They should come here to play more often.
~*~*~*~
Unfortunately, play time would be getting cut short.
Out of a nearby group of bushes a medium-sized canine leapt out, aiming to take down the nearest of the two foals. The predator was a mere few feet from his target, however, when suddenly a darker and much larger form lunged out of the shadows, taking the beast by surprise as it attacked him. The canine yelped and tried to fight back, but it was clear enough from the beginning of the struggle which of the two would be the winner. Now what the winner was exactly might have been a bit more difficult to discern.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:20 pm
Escalus had figured his brother would avoid the charge, but he hadn't exactly expected his charge to be met with a leaping canine. He made a very unflattering squealy noise and tried to skitter backwards, but slick rocks in the streambed and hooves were not the best of combinations. So he fell over entirely, and when the bigger shape came out of the shadows, he was thisclose to screaming for Kenjiro to run, don't look back--
...but the new threat wasn't attacking him. Rather, it was attacking the canine. And...it sort of looked like him and his brother? They didn't have beaks or spirally horns but enough of the rest seemed to match... He was back on his hooves in a flash, edging back towards his brother. "Who are you?!" he called out, challenging, squaring his shoulders and lowering his horns ever so slightly. Just in case it proved unfriendly...
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:39 pm
Amber and green eyes went wide with terror when Kenjiro saw his brother being attacked. "Escalus!" They shouldn't have come here. They shouldn't have stopped to play. His brother was about to be killed and it would be all his fault for not making sure they were more careful--
But then there was the back shape, and yelping, and blood starting to flow into the stream. The young male's attention didn't stay locked onto the battle for too long, however, before he was skittering over to his brother's side. "Don't talk to it, just run!" Kenjiro replied, grabbing onto his brother's nearest wing and tugging back for emphasis. They couldn't risk just standing around and seeing if the larger thing was friendly or not. If it wasn't friendly then they could be taken down just as easily as it was taking down the dog-thing.
-----------
The mare didn't bother answering the gusty foal right away, instead maintaining her deathgrip on her prey's neck until she was finally able to sharply jerk it at juuust the right angle to break it. There we go... Much easier to start eating something that wasn't trying to bite you back the whole time. "Does it matter?" Keela replied wryly, amused as she looked up to eye the two young males. "Thanks for the meal. You two make for nice bait." It was always so much easier to catch the predators by surprise when they were in the middle of trying to catch a meal themselves. Without any further ado, the raven-mare lowered her head back down to her prize to begin ripping out flesh to eat. Mm... Food was always best when it was fresh.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:52 pm
Curiosity had the better of him, so Escalus stood his ground against his brother's pleas. Even if the other was the type to want to eat them, hadn't it just killed its meal preference already? Obviously if they just waited long enough it would be too full to go after them, unless it was the greedy type. But it--she?--spoke eventually, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. Bait? He wasn't bait! But he didn't want to be canine-food either...
"...thank you for getting it before it could get us," Escalus said, a little grudgingly. He was pulling forward from his brother's grip now, approaching the kill - and the mare who'd made it - warily. "Does that stuff really taste good?" Or did her mouth make it difficult to eat like he and his brother did?
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:04 pm
This one was certainly a bold one, wasn't he. Or perhaps just stupid. His brother seemed to have the better idea, even if she didn't actually have any interest in harming them. "Tastes good to me," she replied with an indifferent shrug after swallowing another bit of meat. "Though not many of our kind seem to enjoy it in such large quantities." Glancing over at the pair once more, she tore off a few smaller chunks to toss their way. "Try it if you wish."
-------------
Whyyyyy was his brother getting closer to the blood-soaked maybe-kirin?? With a beak... and... talons... Yeah... They were screwed. Kenjiro stayed quite close to his brother's side, silent as he listened to the conversation between the two. So far so good, but... he still wasn't ready to trust the black one just yet.
The colt backed away squeamish as the small chunks of meat plunks into the water before them. That was... disgusting. ... His brother wasn't seriously going to try that, right? Riiiight? ... He was probably going to try it. orz
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 6:44 pm
"Maybe I will!" he said back, part bravado and part curiosity. He nosed around in the water for one of the bits of meat, and then took it in between his teeth. And chewed, and chewed some more. Hmm... It would serve, for food stuff. Trying to imagine going straight at the canine like the other was did make his stomach a bit queasy though. "Eh, it's okay." Escalus looked back to Kenjiro, slightly surprised to find him further back. He nodded his head over, urging the other to come back closer, and fluffed his wings before settling them against his back.
"So. You said 'our kind.' Do you...know many others?" He and Kenjiro hadn't met anyone else yet. He couldn't help wondering how different others might be, though, if this mare had a beak and what looked like claws for two of her feet...?
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:01 pm
... Ugh, he ate the meat. Kenjiro felt soooo many levels of ill just from watching that. ... Though admittedly, watching the mare before them tear so easily into her own bloody meal was far more sickening. He wasn't going to be coming closer at his brother's urging just yet.
"I don't know about how many others I 'know', but I've met quite a few, yes," Keela replied with a light shrug, pausing her eating briefly to speak. "I'm gathering by your question that you two don't." More foals left to their own devices to grow. Seriously, it was a wonder that half their kind ever even made it to adulthood. If these mares were going to go through all the trouble of mating and laying the eggs they might as well watch the flipping things... "If you're trying to figure out the standard to go by, I'm not it." How unfortunate for them if she happened to actually be the first other kirin they'd seen. Well, no one ever said life was especially fair.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:26 pm
A few was better than none. They weren't alone. That was good. With numbers came safety, right? Though this mare talked like she didn't feel like she needed others around. 'Met' was different than 'knowing', after all. "My brother and I have each other." And that had been enough, until now. "Standard? I don't think that matters much."
Not one to let good food go to waste, he grabbed the second of the chunks the other had tossed their way, chewed plenty and swallowed before his next question. "So. That thing you're eating. How do we fight the next one ourselves?" It was fight them or not make noise ever, and Escalus wasn't really interested in the second option.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:41 pm
Oh? He wanted to know how to fight, huh? Interest piqued, Keela slowly strolled over to look the other over more closely. She needed to see what he had before she could give a good answer. "These will come in very handy once they grow a bit more," she remarked, briefly nudging his growing antlers with her beak. "Otherwise? Run, kick, bite, use what you can of your surroundings to your advantage. If you're trapped up close? Go for the eyes-- gore them or tear them out with your teeth if you have to. If you kick aim for soft tissue-- vulnerable places like the belly or throat. Specially the throat. Since there's two of you, double-team 'em. Just do whatever you have to to make sure you're the ones who live. Until you're a bit bigger though, don't try to be stupidly brave and fight if you don't have to. Otherwise you'll end up a meal just the same as that canine." Advice dispensed, the raven-mare lowered her head to take a drink from the stream in which they they stood before making her way back over to the predator-turned-prey. She didn't intend to let a good meal go to waste.
~*~*~
Kenjiro... wasn't really sure what to make of all that. All he knew was that he'd rather just try to avoid being attacked again period, if at all possible. He didn't really think he had it in him to... tear-out an eyeball. .... He was going to be having nightmares tonight.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 7:55 pm
He tried not to flinch when she brought her beak close to his head, holding still when she nudged his antlers. She had a point. He wasn't really sure how much more they'd grow, but he got the feeling they would, so he did trust her saying that. The rest of her advice seemed good, too. She definitely sounded like she knew her way around a fight, and how easily she'd taken down the now-carcass spoke to that as well. It was definitely very...well, gross, to imagine tearing eyes out with his teeth. Horns he could do. Aim for the belly or throat, right. And double team always.
He couldn't help but chortle at the last bit though. "Oh, so when I am bigger I can be stupidly brave and fight all I want? Is that what you do?" He imagined a lot of her fighting was for food, but maybe that comment said something about her... "I do appreciate the advice though. Thanks."
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:05 pm
The raven-mare simply rolled her eyes. "'Stupidly brave' isn't recommended for when you're grown either, but it's definitely easier to get away with then. And no, I'm not stupidly brave." Entirely reckless? Most definitely yes, but 'bravery' was certainly not a part of her hunting routine. She wasn't foolish enough to try to take on a group of predators all on her own, for example. That was just a suicide mission. "You two are welcome to more meat if you'd like. Small though it is, I won't exactly be picking it clean." Of course, she probably should have dragged it out of the stream sooner. Stupid thing was water-logged now.
Kenji's stomach was back to doing somersaults. "Perhaps we should get going..." he said quietly to his brother, really not wishing to stay around for much longer. They just needed to find a nice, dark, safe place to hide for the remainder of the day before they resumed their exploration tomorrow. More quietly.
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