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 Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:46 am
 The day was cold. The north winds had picked up and the smell of frost drifted across the land. There was a blanket of gray clouds, unending, that covered the sky, dampening the sunlight and giving the blustery day a dreary atmosphere. Yet no rain seemed to fall from the overcast sky. Overall, it was a depressingly dull day.
Down on the forest floor, the wind hadn’t quite penetrated. Although it was slightly windy near the top boughs of the evergreens, the floor inhabitants were sheltered from the worst of it. Xanti was hidden, tucked firmly in the hovel beneath a large fir tree. He had dug himself a nest among the needles and was lying beside a large kill. He had wanted to get as far from the base of the mountains as possible, but when he had stumbled upon a wounded elk, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity, especially with so little meat this close to the mountains. He had dragged what he couldn’t eat to the closest possible shelter the day before, and had been lazing about ever since. At the moment, he was alert but bored, idly tracking the surroundings for movement. He spotted a field mouse, scurrying around the base of a pine, 10 feet off.
Hmmmm? Well there isss nothing else to do.
Lazily Xan rose to his feet, looking to play with his food before eating it.
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Posted: Wed Jun 30, 2010 7:24 pm
 Feeling fine this day, Zosime had stopped to hunt. Not a week ago she'd left the safety of the small valley she'd known all her life. Everything was still new and exciting. Prey here didn't expect her attack on them which usually made it fairly easy to catch sufficient prey for a meal. Today however, it seemed the prey was hunkering down in their tunnels.
With only a couple mouthfuls of vole inside her, her stomach growled to let her know it was still depressingly empty. Zo moves slowly and not quite 'stealthy' but enough so the prey did not come to suspect she was hunting. Her ears twitch to catch the sounds of easy prey moving nearby. The familiar scent of rabbit reaches her sensitive nostrils. Flattening her head crest she creeps upon it.
A flurry of dead leaves flies up as the rabbit realizing it's peril goes to make a mad dash for home and safety. Unfortunately for it and a couple fast steps for Zo the rabbit meets it's end. With a deft skill born of endless practice the rabbit in gone in a couple of bites. She moves on to the next with barely a pause. What catches her attention next is anything but small.
The whiff of a dead carcass draws her. While she wouldn't hunt anything that big herself, nothing said she couldn't scavenge from it. Provided of course that it was still good to eat. From the smell it was. Another scent that she doesn't recognize mixes with the first. Unable to place it, Zo dismisses the second scent as unimportant and makes for the first. This was much easier than having to hunt it down one tiny piece at a time.
Coming up on a large tree her nose tells her the carcass was under its covering branches. Feathers and wings clamped close to her body, Zo begins to wiggle under.
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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:51 pm
The field mouse provided enjoyable entertainment for a little while as it attempted to scurry away from Xanti. It wasn’t until it found a hole to hide in that Xan really got concerned. But it was nothing a little digging couldn’t handle. Although his hooves proved to be not suited for the task, his neck horns showed their worth. It only took him a couple minutes to dig a trench and unearth the squeaking vermin.
It fled, scared.
And Xan slowly lopped after it. Taking his time.
Hi ho, it’s heading back to my den...lucky.
The mouse scuttled under the branches of the fir and immediately scrambled up the base of the trunk, making an effort to reach a knobbed hole not too far up. Obviously its second den. Xan slowly followed, easily parting the branches and making his way into the quiet dimness of the tree's shade. He eyed the mouse as it darted up the tree, sending out a lazy hoof to knock it away from it's goal. Or he would have, if he hadn't been distracted by a noise. A noise on the other side of the trunk.
Something’s here?
The mouse managed to clamber its way up into its hole, and disappeared from sight. Xan’s pupil-less eyes watched the place it had vanished before sliding over towards the elk carcass.
Hrmm...more prey?
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Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:56 pm
Zo had settled down to a feast. The carcass was still quite fresh and good. She'd barely gotten a couple of bites in when the frightened squeaking of a rodent filled her ears. Clearly it had entered from the other side and was making for the tree trunk. With so lush a meal laid out before her, Zo felt no need to chase the poor little critter.
About to return to eating, the louder noise of branches moving and the powerful return of the scent from before brings her fully alert. Something big was after the rodent it seemed. She stands up and slightly mantles her wings over the carcass. If it just wanted the mouse that was fine by her, but she wasn't going to give up the big game so easily. Her head feathers weren't aggressively plastered down instead slicked slightly back in warning. Hopefully....
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:57 pm
Xanti moved out from behind the tree trunk, slinking, ready to pounce on whatever small critter was enjoying his kill. So when he finally managed to spot the creature, he was slightly shocked. He expected a coyote, fox or maybe even a wolf. Not another soquili.
It had glowing red eyes, feathers, wings and fangs. It appeared female, though it was hard to tell under the base of the tree. But it just looked slim and toned rather than muscular and bulky. Its head feathers were almost back and it had its wings out, black leathery wings, the sort you'd see on a Kalona. None of this really mattered to Xan. He knew one thing and one thing only. It was eating his kill.
Ears forward, lips pulled back, Xan let out a growl of pure animalistic rage. It reverberated through his diaphragm before becoming more of a roar. A warning if you will.
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:42 pm
Zosime almost blinks in shock. The beast was as big as she. It's glowing feet attracted her attention first. What was this thing? Her gaze moves calculating upward. Definitely male and well muscled, he didn't seem any stranger to fighting. He didn't have wings, but did have odd spikes growing from the side of his neck.
She takes in his aggressive behavior as her tail whips back and forth. As he roars, she flattens her head feathers completely and nods her head. Flashing her overly large canines at him in a display to let him know that they weren't just look pretties. Zo inhales and lets out her own vocal warning. It sounds like water hitting a very hot rock. Sssssssssss!
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Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:36 pm
Xanti’s ears flattened at the hiss. They pressed down all the way to his neck, sufficiently blocking out the sound. He eyed the feathered Kalona, for that is how he had started to think of her. He could see her gleaming white fangs. Large and dangerous. Gut rippers. And her long, snake-like tail whipping back and forth. Both something to avoid, but not something that would cause Xan to back down, especially not when the elk was right there at her feet. Her protective stance suggested that she thought this was her meat. Xan thought differently.
How dare this creature eat his kill! And claim it like it as hers!
Teeth still bared, Xan continued to snarl, only stopping to utter a few, barely coherent words. “Move. It’s mine.”
Irritation made Xan edgy. He stamped several times, releasing the tension from his front legs. If he didn’t calm down soon, he’d be attacking. Patience really wasn’t his virtue.
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magnadearel rolled 1 10-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-10)
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:21 pm
"I will not. You weren't here guarding it." Her cultured words cut through his snarls. She didn't relax an inch. As far as she was concerned he couldn't eat it all by himself anyhow, so finders was keepers. If he wanted it back that badly he could have it back after she'd eaten her fill and moved on.
Zo was confident in her fighting skills. She didn't feel the need to do big displays like some creatures. The most she did was whip her tail and a small twitching of her wings. Her red eyes stayed fixed on the other. She might have been perfectly willing to share if the other had asked pleasantly, but he hadn't. So she wasn't.
She read the irritation in his movements. Instantly she knew that this confrontation would never be settled peacefully. Instead she goes to make the first attack. Leaping over the elk to come at him. As her feet touch the ground on the other side, for the tree made jumping high enough to kick impossible, she snaps fiercely at him. If her luck was with her it would be a fast encounter and he'd back down. On the other hoof it could be long and dragged out.
HP: 50
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FitzRoyal rolled 2 10-sided dice:
1, 7
Total: 8 (2-20)
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:25 pm
Xanti was furious at her words.
Wasn’t here guarding it? He didn’t need to guard it when the largest creatures out here were wolves. Well other than her that is. Whatever, she will see me –
Xan had been watching the mare intently. Her twitching wings and whipping tail had been keeping his attention. They both relayed messages to him. One, that she was eager to either run or fight and two, she wasn’t in the best position under the tree. Wings would be next to useless, and would probably just hinder her agility.
So when she made a move Xan was somewhat prepared. She was quick; he had to give her that. She easily hopped the carcass and snapped her giant fangs at him. Backpedalling as fast as he could manage, Xan barely made it out of the way of getting a real bite. As it was, he felt the pinprick pain of her fangs cut two matching gashes in his thick hide, right above his shoulder. They weren’t deep and he wouldn’t even scar from them, but they sent a tingle all the way up his back. A tingle of anger. Now he was mad.
He lunged for her face. Her muzzle to be exact. He wanted to crush it in between his jaws, so that she wouldn’t be able to use those fangs on him again. So that she wouldn’t be able to eat any of his kill.
HP: 49
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magnadearel rolled 2 10-sided dice:
2, 9
Total: 11 (2-20)
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:39 pm
Her first attack met resistance that told her she'd scored. At least a small wound. To her surprise he backed up rather fast. She stumbled and moved to follow. It came as a more unpleasant surprise when he reversed direction for an attack of his own.
Zo hisses with pain as the brute chomps down on her nose. On purely instinct she jerks her head back before he could get a good grip. His fangs leave bloody furrows across her muzzle. Her eyes light with an inner fire. He hurt her! A growl more suited to a kalona comes from her throat. How dare he bite me! I must get him out more into the open. She was clearly a novice at fights and it showed.
She needed to get him out and away from the tree. Then her agility would have more room to work. Zo sinks back on her haunches as her left wing sweeps in from the side, claw first. Countless times in her valley she'd practiced using her wings in combat to get someone, usually a tree, out of her face. Unfortunately it had never occurred to her that by using her delicate wings in such a manor, opened them to harm.
HP: 45
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FitzRoyal rolled 2 10-sided dice:
9, 1
Total: 10 (2-20)
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:02 am
Xanti felt his canine teeth sink into her muzzle, but it was only for a second. She quickly pulled away. His teeth dragged against her nose and he could taste the faint tang of delicious blood, so he knew that he had scored her at the least. But it wasn’t the crushing bite he had been hoping for. Disgruntled at her speed, he went in for another bite.
Just as she reared up on her haunches and sent one of her delicate wings his way. Her wings had spikes at the end of each digit, so when she swept it his way it acted much like a claw would. Xan was in a different position then he had been seconds ago, as he was going in for another bite, so he managed to dodge her wing by pure chance. It threw him off balance though, just by the surprise of it. He never managed to even get close to placing that bite.
Xan had never seen a flying soquili even attempt to use its wings in battle before. He had hardly ever seen them unfurl their precious wings unless they were trying to intimidate him or fly away. So here he was, startled and out of his desired position.
HP:49
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magnadearel rolled 2 10-sided dice:
1, 6
Total: 7 (2-20)
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:49 pm
Zo snorts to clear the blood dripping into her nostrils. The wounds stung and bled, but didn't feel like major injuries. She'd take care of them once the fight was over. Seeing the next attack plainly coming she makes sure nothing in the way of it. Her front hooves touch the ground again.
It was sensing more than seeing that her opponent is off-kilter. Now is the time to attack. Zo eyes her opponent for a weak spot. She lunges forward, aiming for a bite on his chest. Zo hoped that would force him to move into a location more desirable for her.
HP: 45
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FitzRoyal rolled 2 10-sided dice:
3, 5
Total: 8 (2-20)
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Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:59 am
Xan saw the mare lunge but he was too slow to avoid it. Her giant gut rippers closed in on him. Luckily she aimed for the tough scales of his chest rather than the softer flesh of his shoulder, or he would have been lamed. As it was, he managed to make off with less damage than expected. Her fangs bounced off the hard plated chest, managing to slice one of his scales. It didn’t draw blood since the plates were so thick, nor did she puncture straight into his chest.
In retaliation, he swung his head at her. Aiming to injure with his neck spikes. It probably wasn’t the best idea, but he didn’t think before his attack. He just reacted in accordance with his instincts, which were screaming at him to create space. He didn’t particularly want to retreat, especially when he had the advantage under the tree, so instead he proceeded to go forward. Trying to force her back with his neck prong.
HP:46
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magnadearel rolled 2 10-sided dice:
8, 6
Total: 14 (2-20)
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:22 pm
She saw him pull his head back to begin his swing. The large spike on the side of his neck catching her eye as it came closer. It barely touched her. Zo scrambles sideways to move in the direction of his swing, staying just far enough ahead to remain unhurt. Close, too close. Her sides heave with a slight tremor. It would have really hurt had she not been able to move quickly.
Scampering out of reach of the deadly spike, she couldn't resist a parting shot. Her rear hoof kicked back. If she was lucky she'd connect to his head or another vital part; if not, then she might hit something non-vital or miss altogether. Zo wanted to prove she was dangerous from the front or from the rear!
HP:45
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