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 Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 6:06 pm
 ((Takes place after Basil/Bushfire encounter, and before Fiercefire/Bushfire. Are you confused yet? *headdesks*))
Then again, Bushfire was not looking to rationalise, and thus, she flew onward, sending forth a sharp hooting call as she breached what she was sure was the boundaries of Basil's new mate's territory. The Forager was riled from her earlier discussion with her ex-mate, the remorse from recalling what had happened that fateful night, so long ago, mingling at the back of her thoughts. How DARE he do such a thing as agree to kill their chick when he was so damned ready to fly into a Mist's wings and create a new batch of aberrants? How dare life be so unfair on her? How did things turn out so bad?
With such grim thoughts in mind, she sent forth another call, unconcerned if some neighbours heard her or not; she was past the point of giving a damn, really. All that Bushfire cared about, was finding a light colored female Mist within this territory so that she could vent her frustrations and problems upon her. It was all the Mist's fault, anyhow. Never mind that this made little sense, for it made the Forager feel better to think that way, and that was all that mattered.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 6:36 pm
It was a beautiful opportunity. Her sister was gone – probably off hunting somewhere further north in their territory – leaving her sister to practice her hunting skills. To Fireflight, that meant "use the time to study her sister's traps." True, she could have asked her sister to explain the traps and how they worked to her later, but that would defeat the purpose of learning them on her own. She had to be a prodigy like her sister, and prodigies didn't need help with anything. At least, that was what she had been told.
She was in the midst of studying a particularly strange looking trap when a hoot caught her attention. For a moment, Fireflight hesitated. Was it okay to let other Sentinels into her sister's territory? She supposed it couldn't hurt. If they needed something with Fiercefire she could just take their name and tell them to come back later. After all, her sister and her mate were currently in the nest-building phase which meant they were busy.
Having made her decision, the young Sentinel gave an answering hoot. Let them come to her. She would just wait here in her tree, studying the traps. She hoped whoever it was would keep their visit short. Fireflight had work to do!
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:59 am
The answering hoot came soon enough. Bushfire narrowed her eyes into slits for a moment before shifting her wings so she could make a sharp veer left. Her lithe body made it easier for her to perform sharper turns, and while it was true that she had less stamina due to it, she'd never really had a problem when it came to a fight. After all, she defended her large foraging ground from others quite often and had made more than one brave, cocky youngster make a dash for the horizon.
Then again, all those times she'd been fighting for her territory, she'd kept a clear, cool mind. Something which she was having great trouble as she swooped in an attempt to spot the one that had called back out to her. Her sharp, green eyes spotted the patch of hazy light colored feathers amongst the branches soon enough though, and without thinking so much as twice about it, the Forager let out an angry cry before diving into an attack, talons extended. Had it been any other time, Bushfire would have realised how horribly stupid it was to enter battle without making double sure she had the right individual, blinded by rage and fueled by envy, however, rational thought had long since flown out the window.
It was a mistake she would have never otherwise committed, and a mistake she would likely pay harshly, if not physically, then emotionally later.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:24 am
For a moment, the young Sentinel sat alert, ear tufts twitching. She waited for a sound to show her the direction of her visitor, however none came. Perhaps whoever it was had decided to fly further to find her sister. They were hard to distinguish, Fi and Fira, though the easiest thing to tell by was Fira's white-tipped tail. It was possible the visitor had seen her tail and realized she had the wrong Sentinel. It was also possible that they had left. Whatever the reason for the wait, they didn't come fast enough to keep Fira's attention, and she went back to studying the trap.
Thus, it was a huge surprise when an angry cry sounded from above and she was dive-bombed by something very brown and very feathery. Fireflight had never been attacked by another Sentinel, her parents had seen to that. She hadn't been allowed to leave the nest until they thought she was ready, and even then she had only been allowed four toes away from it to sit on a nearby branch. Even hunting-sharpened reflexes didn't prepare her for what happened next. The youngster screeched, wings flapping in an attempt to both defend herself and get her off the branch. So far, it appeared that trying to both was not a good idea.
"What are you doing?! I'm not touching the trap!" Fireflight's first thought was that she was in trouble. This must be one of her sister's friends, or maybe one of her mate's relatives hounding her for looking at a trap when she should be hunting.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:47 am
Somehow... the fluttering mess of feathers, screeches and obvious fear as not what Bushfire had anticipated the Mist to be. The mild surprise at being greeted with such inexperience was enough to get the Forager to falter during her attack; the talons that had been aiming for Fireflight's face were snapped close inches away from the target, missing the hit entirely.
Perplexed and more than slightly confused, Bushfire beat her wings once more, propelling herself back into the air. Her first thought was that Basil was a damned idiot (or rather, a bigger one than he'd thought the crafter to be); had he gone and mated a child? Because was, undoubtedly, what the pretty mist female that stood before was; a mere child, only barely just grown into her adult feathers. Something about the whole situation made little sense, for she'd heard the Mist trapper that lived within this territory was fierce, very much taking after her own name, "Are you Fierce?" came the snapped demand as the Forager took perch on a nearby tree, still bristling with rage, "Do you take residence here?" she further questioned, obviously ignoring poor Fireflight's earlier outburst, "I've got a bone to pick with you!"
It never occurred to Bushfire that she'd gotten the wrong Sentinel; after all, she was in the right territory and had a Mist-female with fiery eyes looking right back at her. If only she'd known better, it was probable she'd have felt horribly ashamed of herself. Still, rage and envy were fueling her actions and she thought not to look into how much logic the situation held.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:50 am
The young Sentinel continued to flail about in a rather undignified manner until Bushfire's talons were no longer so close to her face. It was terribly frightening to having another female so close to her trying to take a chunk out of her beak. Fireflight didn't like it one bit, and was extremely glad when her attacked moved to another tree. Her feathers remained fluffed as she tried to settle herself down. "I was just looking!" Fireflight repeated, trying to smooth her ruffled feathers while proclaiming her innocence. "You didn't need to—" The Wildtype, however, did not seem interested in her relationship to the trap. Instead she was asking about her sister. Fireflight clicked her beak irritably.
"Of course I'm not Fiercefire," she replied, as though it should be obvious. Anybody who knew about her sister should know that she was not only bigger, but older (and better, but she would never admit that to anyone). Had she not been attacked by this other female, Fireflight might have been a little proud that she'd been mistaken for her obviously skilled sister. But if being her sister meant she had to get jumped by strange ornery Sentinels then Fira wasn't so sure she wanted to be so recognizable.
"I do live here. With my sister and her mate. You're not one of his relatives are you?" Fireflight narrowed her eyes as she studied Bushfire.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:12 pm
Oh.
Well... that sort of... explained a lot. In fact, it sort of explained everything, really. It explained not only why the Mist was so inexperienced and why she seemed to young (barely an adult!). For a moment, Bushfire just stared at her, cooling down, and then raised a wing up, almost as if horribly frustrated. She hid her eyes behind her feathers for a long moment before tucking her wing back into place, "No wonder," she drawled out before taking a moment to ponder.
In retaliation, this was all her fault. She should have made sure this was Fiercefire and not... someone else, "Relative?" the Wildtype bristled again, her talons digging firmly into the branch till it audibly cracked, "In a way, I suppose, though I'm not blood related to that horrible coward of a male!" it was obvious the source of her barely contained anger was more the male than the Mist she'd been about to attack (which held very little logic, really), "That... that... scoundrel that fled off at the first signs of danger! That coward that left after our baby died and came HERE to court another one rather than help me pick up the pieces of the drama he'd left behind!"
If anything, the counter here was going to help cool the Forager down before she found Fiercefire, "I'm not related to him; he was my mate. He abandoned me, ran away when life got too hard! And instead, I find him here! Willing to risk the death of more chicks and willing to FIGHT for another female when all he did was turn tail on me!" while what she was saying was true, in a way, Bushfire had warped the events that had happened in her mind to make them all Basil's fault. Something that wasn't hardly fair, really for while he probably shouldn't have 'hightailed it away', could she blame him for trying to find happiness?
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:26 pm
The reaction she received from the Wildtype took her entirely by surprise. She had expected her to be Basil's grouchy aunt who would scold her for not helping her sister build her nest. 'Why were you out here spying on these traps when you could be useful to your family?' She would say, or at the very least something along those lines. Fireflight remembered well the day that her aunt had come for a visit and preened Fira until she thought she would go bald. But this Sentinel, though she looked the grouchy aunt type, seemed almost embarrassed by her previous actions. It was very strange.
Fireflight's feathers started to fluff again at the sound of the branch cracking, afraid that the Sentinel would charge her again. Instead, Bushfire started on a tirade about Basil and his cowardice. Or at least, his cowardice towards her and their potential family. According to this very angry Sentinel, he had ditched her and then run off with Fiercefire to have more chicks after the first chicks had died, if she understood it all correctly. Fireflight had the feeling that she'd missed out on a very large bit of gossip since her arrival.
"Um… you wanna run that by me one more time?" The sheer amount of drama was overwhelming. Sentinel relationships just didn't happen like this. You had a male and a female, they stayed together, they had chicks, everybody was happy. Since when did this kind of stuff happen? "How do I know you're not making this all up, anyways?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:48 pm
"Do you think I would be worked up over my ex-mate being here otherwise?" she snapped her beak, "Whether you believe me or not is none of my concern. It is not something that I want blown out to the four winds because it's death was my failure too!" still, if anything, it was clear this sentinel was rattled more than she probably would have been over something trivial. Her encounter with Dodger had enlightened her over the fact her chick WOULD have survived, had Basil not done the deed. While it was true they had decided to do the deed.... in the end, she'd been unable to do it, and it had been Basil whom had been the one to pull it off.
Within her saddened, grim thoughts, at the end of the day, it had been Basil's fault. The fact he was here courting a Mist and thus risking more aberrants like the one they had created was enough to enrage her, "It'll come to the surface soon anyhow, no matter what I do," she snapped her beak angrily, "There's too many dirty secrets, and that scoundrel is simply WILLING to risk it again! He's willing to risk with the Mist what he did not with me! What does that make me? Does that mean I wasn't worth the fight?" she flapped her wings twice, as if to calm herself down, then sneered, "Where is Fiercefire, child? I need to see Fiercefire!" and this time... she'd make sure not to swoop directly down into a bleeding attack. After all, though she carried envy for the Mist, maybe she had been deceived too. Surely she had been deceived! "I already spoke to the scoundrel, but I need to see the Mist."
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:08 pm
"Well you could just be jealous!" Fireflight shot back, torn between believing this Wildtype and defending her sister. On the one hand, this Sentinel clearly sounded distressed about the whole thing, what with all this mention of death and horrible relationships. On the other, Fiercefire was her sister. She was her rival most of the time and the one who everyone always compared her to, but at the end of the day she was still her sister. Nobody deserved to have a male do what they did to this Wildtype, but it was even worse to come in and attack her sister because she picked up a male that had been involved with another Sentinel. She simply wouldn't stand for this kind of behaviour.
It was the sneering that turned the tables against Bushfire, compounded by her calling Fira a child. The young Hunter's eyes narrowed and she clicked her beak. "I'm not a child! And I'm not telling you were she is so you can go attack her! Go ruin somebody else's happiness! If you took it up with Basil then that's all you can do. If Fi knows about this and has accepted Basil for what happened in the past then it's done. You won't be able to change her mind no matter what you say."
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:33 pm
A sneer from the wildtype as she spread her wings, "Your precious 'Fi' knows not about this, and you shall remain a child till you prove yourself to be grown up," came the snap back, "If you will not tell me where she is, I'll go find her myself," which was what she'd come here to do in the first place, wasn't it? As much as she regretted having attacked an innocent bystander, she needed to see Fiercefire, and no child was going to stop her from doing so, "I am not blaming the daft Mist. It's likely she's been deceived!" and this said, she flapped her wings again, no doubt preparing to jump off the branch any moment now, "If finding out the truth 'ruins their happiness' then so be it! Ruined like MINE was ruined. Ruined like my poor chick's life was ruined because Basil did not see it fit to fight for it!"
A shake of her head proved that Bushfire was likely as stubborn as Fiercefire was, and neither would back down, "If she can accept him regardless of his cowardliness, then that's up to her; but first I must see her and take the matter with her," twitching her tufts, she glared at the young adult, "Stop me, if you so wish to," a talon was raised as she spoke, clicking audibly, "But if you try to, this time I won't hold back," came the threat, "I'm tired of sitting about, having my life ruined because someone decided he was too much of a coward to try and sweep up the mess he left behind before coming out here to find 'happiness'. I'm tired of being disregarded and ignored. I'm not someone he can turn away from and ignore just because he sees fit."
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:13 pm
"How do you know what she knows and doesn't know? You don't even know what she looks like!" If Bushfire was going to insist on calling her a child then Fireflight saw no need to try and up her insults to 'adult level.' No use trying to convince the Wildtype she was an adult when all the other Sentinel did was rattle on about her lost love. "I don't think she's been deceived at all," she replied haughtily. "Fi is a lot smarter than you are. It's not her fault that you didn't hound Basil after he left you. Why give him time to find another mate if you were just coming to ruin his relationships?"
She had no comeback to Bushfire's final words, nor did she wish to start a fight with the elder Sentinel. She may have been a Hunter, but she was no battle-trained Sentinel, ready to fight in air combat against another female. That was just asking to lose an eye. Instead, she rustled her feathers and replied sulkily, "If you go find her now she'll bite your beak off and pull all your feathers out!" Fiercefire seemed to always been in a sour mood whenever she had non-business visitors, and this one was definitely not interested in trading something for food.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:22 pm
A cold glare was offered back at what Bushfire had decided was a brat that probably needed not only a lesson in manners, but a good scolding for not knowing when to respect her elders. Then again, if rumours were true, her lineage was not all that pure, which obviously meant the poor child was not entirely to blame; she was simply not taught to know better and there was nothing that could be done about that, "If your precious 'Fi' knows about what Basil did and is, regardless, willing to take him in, then that is her loss. I will pull back then and only then. However, I will first make sure she knows the mess he left behind, before he can move forth," another snort of disdain was offered as she spread her wings, "Is is not a gentleman's way to stay back and HELP? It's surely not a dame's way to go trailing off after a scoundrel. Damn me for caring enough to do so now though."
That said, she jumped off her perch to continue her search for Fiercefire, "Well!" she called back to Fireflight as she was leaving, "I'll make sure she leaves with that many scratches herself; I've beaten down my fair share of worthy adversaries too. DO grow up and learn some respect for those older than you, child, before someone sees it fit to bite YOUR beak off and pull all YOUR feathers out!" that said, she was gone.-- The end --
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