moineau bavarde
"You're no good," Ekwueme growled down at the dead gazelle. "No good at all."
The gazelle said nothing. It was young, feeble, and lay on the ground with stiff limbs and its neck bent an unnatural angle. Dead. Staring. Questioning. Ekwueme growled again and bit the neck once more, giving the body a quick shake before dragging his kill back to where he’d last seen Añuli.
Añuli. He’d told her to wait, but would she still be where he’d left her? He told himself the sudden tightness in his chest was because he didn’t want to waste time looking for her. Not because he was worried. Not because he was scared something would happen if she wandered off.
Añuli was… innocent. Fragile. But resilient, too. He could not break her. She was the only one he could not hurt.
But they were in the rogue lands now. There were tougher, meaner things than him. And sometimes he was unsure how well she understood the concept of danger.
He broke into a jog. To save time, he told himself, not because he was worried.
Painted Moose
Añuli didn’t listen to Ekwueme’s orders. She never did. Instead, the moment he had disappeared, so had she. She wasn’t sure where her paws were taking her, but with a wistful smile gracing her maw, she just…went. The enigmatic wild dog found water when she was thirsty and a place to rest when she was tired. What could be better?
With an apathetic turn, she ghosted along the Earth, her paws skimming the ground with every step, eyes partially glazed over. “What a pretty day~” She commented. Maybe Ekwueme would play with her later, if she asked really nicely? And oh! Would you look at that~
Añuli crept up behind the male and nipped his tail.
moineau bavarde
Lost in his thoughts, Ekwueme didn't hear Añuli coming. He remained unaware of her presence until something nipped his tail. He nearly jumped out of his skin and dropped the gazelle to boot, but he had long since learned to keep fear and worry locked up deep inside. "What-" he began as he whirled, but it was no stranger that had snuck up on him. "Añuli." He narrowed his eyes, knowing he should be upset, maybe say something, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't yell at her, be angry. "I caught something," he said instead.
Painted Moose
“You did?” Añuli slinked past him with her eyes on the gazelle. The longer she stared at the poor, sad creature the more she began to envision its life. Was it a happy life? Filled with fulfillment, love, joy, and happiness until Ekwueme had cut it short in a storm of pain? Her head drooped. She couldn’t tear her smoky eyes away from the carcass, even when she started bawling.
“Y-y-you killed it…” She sniffled, ears flattening back against her skull. “Y-yo-you just…and it…”
moineau bavarde
And here it went again. He adjusted his grip slightly on the neck. He should have thought this through, gone for one of the old ones. Maybe injured. Not this little one, a babe…
No, now he was thinking like Añuli. Meat was meat, prey was prey. He had to eat to live, so did Añuli.
It was to best explain things, like he always did. How the gazelle had given its life so that they could live theirs. That this was the way of the world, that sometimes things died.
“I, uh… it was already dead.”
Painted Moose
Añuli gasped, instinctively lowering herself closer to the corpse. What a sweet thing it must have been~ “Poor thing. Y-you…saved it? From the bad things?” Meaning any type of scavenger that meant to take a bite out of the wittle baby. Even as dead as it was, she still found it adorably cute.
How could she have thought that way? Ekwueme was a good thing, not a bad one, and he would never do anything bad. She just knew it. She sniffled, and straightened up, dipping her head down in front of him like a guilty child. “I’m sorry…”
moineau bavarde
He nodded, feeling guilty about lying. But if that’s what it took her to get to eat…
“We, uh. We better find a safe place to… to put this down… where there are no bad things.” He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, his previous tension returning. Añuli made him feel safe, she really did, but it wouldn’t do to forget that the bad things weren’t just interested in little baby dead gazelles.
“Do you remember what I told you?” he asked gently. “How sometimes we have to… to eat dead things, even if… even if they’re young… because they’re dead and…”
He paused, considering his words. Careful now. “When we eat the dead things,” he said slowly, “they become part of us. And we’re good things, right? So it isn’t bad. It’s a… funeral. Yeah. It, um, releases the spirit stuck in the body okay? You have to eat it and make the body part of your body so that the little spirit gazelle that lived in the body of this gazelle can move on. Be free. Run. Do gazelle things.”
Painted Moose
“I agree.” If they came, she wouldn’t know what to do. Probably hide behind Ekwueme until it was over, but after that, she might show her face. Maybe.
Añuli looked at him with wide, round eyes, her head tilted ever so slightly. “Uh huh, I remember.” She didn’t register his tone as anything other than normal. “So, when we eat the dead things…we’re being good?” She scrunched up her nose. “It doesn’t sound very good….but, if you say so…then it must be true.” Still, she wasn’t entirely convinced.
But if she did it, the little baby gazelle would be free to go back to its mommy and daddy. “Maybe I can help it home,” she piped in gleefully. Oh, how exciting!
moineau bavarde
There was a cave ahead, not deep, but empty. A little high, with a good view. He'd be able to see things coming in time to grab Añuli and run. He scrambled inside and dropped the gazelle. Stared down at it.
Why did it bother him that Añuli trusted him, relied on him? She could do better. But she didn’t. He was the only one. None of the others were trustworthy, none of them could look after her the way he did. No, no, he wouldn’t let him hurt her. Ever.
“And it’ll run forever and ever and never be tired or thirsty or hungry,” he said, thinking of his sister. Where was she now? Was she happy? Was she free? Or just… gone? He pushed the thoughts away. “You first,” he said, watching her carefully to make sure she ate enough.
Painted Moose
Añuli’s world revolved around Ekwueme. Well, not really, but in those rare touches of complete clarity she relied on him. He was her sun. Her moon. Her stars, and sea. She couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t there, and when she wasn’t leading him on wild goose chases. Nobody treated like her he did, and she was just fine with that.
“That sounds really nice.” She pondered wistfully. What would be that be like? To have a free life, without any cares in the world? If only she knew that her own wasn’t far from it. Añuli dipped her head down and tore off a little sliver of meat, chewing it as slowly and carefully as possible.
moineau bavarde
"I suppose," Ewueme said, less certain. He saw nothing to look forward to in death, no peace. Even the utopian vision he'd presented to Añuli held no appeal; it was merely another way of leaving, of moving on, and he was far from ready yet. He still had too much fighting to do. He'd always have too much to do. And if he died, who'd look after Añuli? There was nobody else worthy.
He tried not to look at the dead gazelle. Not out of pity, just simple hunger. It had been born, it had lived, it had died. That’s all there was to it, that’s all there ever was. Predator and prey, life and death. But he held his hunger to himself and didn’t rush Añuli while she ate. Such a thing would be… wrong.
She was his shining star. Or the moon. No. Nothing in the sky could match her.
But maybe… yes. The moon he had seen the night after the last hard rain, a full moon caught in a puddle. He dipped in a paw to touch it, but could not, and when the ripples subsided, the moon returned, same as before. For a night, for two nights, he didn’t know. It was beautiful.
Painted Moose
Añuli finished her meager portions in a relatively short time, and stepped back to clean off her maw like she had seen lion’s do. As pleasant as it was to help the little gazelle ascend to greener pastures, it still felt wrong to have its blood all over her face. Disrespectful, somehow.
“Your turn, Ewueme,” She chirped. Her large, luminescent eyes gleamed against her lighter fur. She never ate much; not because she knew he would need it more than she, but because she became full easily. Something her father had taught her long ago. That the best way to surviving was abstinence, and after a while, it was easily practiced.
Except when she would make up in the middle of a nap with a growling tummy and have to leave Ewueme. He always got angry after that, and she didn’t like making him angry.
moineau bavarde
Ekwueme looked down at the meager kill and grimaced. It worried him, it really did, that she ate so little, but… she seemed to do well enough. Just another one of Añuli’s quirks. He lay flat on his belly to eat - one of his quirks – and ate with quick, gulping bites, although he did his best to be neat about it. It wouldn’t do to upset Añuli, it really wouldn’t. He kept a wary eye out for danger while he ate, fully aware how stupid it was to maintain these kinds of eating habits out in the rogue lands. Eating while lying down was all well and good while they lived in a pack, but out here? Death. But he kept doing it. Just one more little thing to hold onto from things before. Things before, things before… he didn’t like thinking about the past much. Or the future. He was older than Añuli, he was an adolescent when he left, but she was juve… older, more worn down… no, best not to think about the future. His future. Añuli’s future.
Right now there was meat. Good meat, he most certainly did NOT feel guilty about it. At all. Añuli hadn’t gotten to him. Nope.
… maybe an old, injured buck would be best for next time.
Painted Moose
When Añuli was satisfied that Ekwueme was eating, she started to look off. The rogue lands was just as much of a home to her as her pack had ever been, more so because she actually remembered what happened out here. She sat up prim and proper, with her left hind leg stuck out in the weirdest angle possible. What if she just… Añuli sat up and started to filter back into the scenary. She couldn’t sit still for long without getting itchy feet. The world was so vast, so big and grand, that she couldn’t wait to explore it all. Before she had even realized it, Añuli was gone
moineau bavarde
It was good, it was really good. Ekwueme’s tail hit the ground at a regular beat, his attention divided between the meat and potential predators. He glanced at Añuli once, then back at the meat, then the scenery, the meat, behind him, the meat, oh it was so good, the meat – Añ-
“Añuli?” he called, looking around. But he already knew.
Damn.
