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 Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:44 pm
Eyes closing with pleasure, Crow laughed.
"He told me he was gonna do it a couple days before he went to go propose. I had to throw him out and lock the door so he couldn't come back in and hide," she said. "He was so nervous. Kinda sweet, actually."
Half-lulled to sleep by the sunlight already, Crow was nearly nodding off when the sound of something squealing in terror and crashing through the brush in the woods made her jolt upright. A full-grown deer skirted close to the copse of trees bordering the grounds, and suddenly veered off deeper into the forest. A beat later something crashed through the growth after the deer, a black-and-red blur that growled and hissed as it pursued the unfortunate animal. After a seconds there was only silence.
"...holy <********>
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:52 pm
Liam's eyes opened wide and he swallowed hard. How dare some enormous scary thing come ruin their moment?!
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:56 pm
Completely still, watching the forest wide-eyed, Crow jolted against Liam in shock as the deer gave a terrible throaty yowl, deeper in the forest. That did it. Jumping up and grabbing Liam's arm, Crow took off like a shot for the trees, running break-neck.
"Come on!"
No more death. She couldn't bear it. The deer gave horribly high-pitched shriek and the sound of shambling running crashed closer.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:58 pm
Liam grumbled something about 'the circle of life' under his breath and grudgingly allowed himself to be dragged. Stupid sumbitch motherf--did deer even make noises like that?
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:06 pm
Hyper-alert to every single noise, maintaining her iron grip on Liam's arm, Crow followed the staggering crashing of the deer until the noise of its first pursuer made her freeze. It was a coarse, shrieking roar, guttural and vicious. She shuddered, but kept on going in the same direction. Bursting into a rock-strewn clearing cleaved in half by a brook, she skidded to a sharp halt and pressed a hand to her mouth, half in revulsion, half in shock.
The deer lay dead, neck twisted at an odd angle and one antler snapped cleanly from its head. Its pursuer knelt in front of it, unnaturally long fingers poking and prodding the deer's body. It cast the broken antler aside, drawing its ragged, stained cloak around its shoulders and lowering its hooded head to take a noisy bite of its meal.
"...huh," Crow said.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:08 pm
Liam cocked his head to one side and approached, utterly fearless. And anyway, dead animals were kind of cool, regardless of the fact that this smacked horribly of that Harry Potter movie.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:14 pm
Following Liam right beside, Crow watched and cringed only a bit at the sounds of tearing and crunching. She couldn't help but flinch as the hooded thing tore at the dead deer with long-taloned fingers, opening its belly and gurgling deep in its throat as it fell to all fours, eating. It was disgusting and almost pitiful to watch.
It grew a lot less fascinating and a lot more creepy as she stepped on an inconvenient stick and snapped it with a sharp crack. The hooded thing's head jerked up and swung around in serpentine motion. All Crow had time to notice were red scales and a mouthful of sharp teeth before the thing bounded at them, a guttural, territorial roar escaping from it.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:15 pm
Liam cocked his head to one side and smiled slightly.
"Hello." When you were immortal, there was really no fear of things tearing you apart. He did, however, take a firm step in front of Crow.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:21 pm
The cloaked thing didn't stop. It barreled into Liam and pinned him to the ground, growling like a maddened animal and blood leaking out of its mouth, splattering onto him. Crow gave an angry hiss and shoved it off him, fire bursting to life in her hands. The cloaked thing yowled and scuttled back, heaving panting breaths before launching into the air and tackling her. Its hands, human hands but for the fourth joint that made its fingers so long, tindered fire of their own and mashed against her face, trying to burn her. It slid off like water, ineffectual.
Kicking the thing off her with a sharp knee to its gut, Crow rolled over and seized its hood, tearing the cloak off its otherwise naked body. A lean boy, looking hardly any older than Ethan, stumbled and rolled back, defending its kill. Crow discarded the cloak and looked at the kid, curious. He looked back - or at least, turned his face in her direction. He was blindfolded.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:24 pm
Really, Liam had no reason to get his hopes up. It was just this...scaly thing with long fingers eating a deer...but...what other living thing had he seen devour a living animal?
...well...previously living.
"We don't want your deer," he said matter-of-factly, retrieving the cloak and holding it out, "We would, however, like you to clothe yourself."
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:28 pm
The boy croaked in response, a long and drawn-out noise before he fumbled blindly for his cloak, wrapping it around his shoulders. He flinched at every noise, drawing away further from Liam and Crow and going back to his deer. He tore off a sizeable chunk of it with his sharp teeth and chewed noisily, fingers exploring the opened cavity of its chest and wrapping around a rib. He snapped the bone off easily and chewed on it, trying to get the marrow.
A hopeful idea dawned on Crow.
"...Jeddeth?"
The boy bit the bone in half, ignoring them.
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:30 pm
Liam looked to Crow and smiled, mouthing the words 'I think so'. He approached then and sat cross-legged a few feet from the deer.
"Yenno, Jeddy, I thought we was friends."
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:37 pm
The boy, gnawing at the remnants of the rib, turned to "look" at Liam. His head tilted to one side, expression shifting into confusion. He fumbled and dropped the bone, shrinking back unexpectedly.
"Jeddeth?" Crow asked again, creeping forward a step.
"No," the boy said, voice hoarse. "Dead."
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:39 pm
"I dunno if he's telling me he's dead or Jeddy is," Liam leaned back and bit and shrugged, "but it's a boy with a blindfold eating a ribcage. I'm pretty sure it's Jeddy. I'm not dead, and neither are you, buddy boy. Now stop ******** around or tell us your name."
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:25 pm
Fumbling with the discarded bone, shoulders hunched and head shaking slowly as though to clear it, the boy suddenly took a long, shaking breath. Tears leaked out from beneath the blindfold, soaking it through. Crow made a small noise, pitying him.
"N-nnn," the boy said, face trembling with the effort of trying not to cry. He took a shaking breath and it burst out as a sob, and he dropped the bone again, leaping over the dead deer and clawing at Liam, blindly seeking safety.
"Liam," he said, voice cracking. "Liam, Liam, Liam!"
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