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 Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:19 pm
 It moved frighteningly fast for a creature of that magnitude, scale after scale sliding across the ice. The serpent was stark against the cold - its dark body and green-tipped feathers were far more suited to the warm swamp, and it was wondrous that such a reptile was still hunting in this weather. It dipped between banks, past snow-tipped rocks to maintain what stealth it could. It slithered quietly, the smoothness of ice aiding its passage. It ceased movement below an overhang. In the near distance was a snow-white owlcat, barely visible, skulking by the bank in stealing steps. The end of its tail and accompanying spinal markings looked like a monstrous snake that had breathed its last. Soon it disappeared. The shadow burst apart from below, wings flared as it rose in a terrible coil. A hiss issued forth, disappearing into the chill. It descended, quick as it came, and seized the owlcat in one motion - now the scales slid against each other, closing in swiftly.
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:21 am
It was only an owlcat; the way it fought, it seemed more. It was a screaming banshee, yowling a sound beyond mere flesh. It was a slashing demon, not raking long before its claws, its jaws, its snowy fur were red with blood. It would not be taken so easily.
Overhead, there was the slightest flash of gold - a crane winged, disappearing into the barren white.
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Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:39 pm
It was only an owlcat! The serpent reeled as scales were mercilessly ripped out, warring between tightening about the devilish creature and releasing it to get away. It stretched its wings out of its catching claws, attempting to strike with its massive maw.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:39 am
Out of nowhere flew an ashen streak - it arced through the air with an cry like a kestrel's, too fast to track, but leaving the intimation of feathers. What knocked the serpent back, however, was a hoof, and as it rounded the owlcat, it was clear that it was a Kimeti, more or less. There were feathers, yes, a short fall down his nape, in the swell of his tail, from his strange, downturned horns. His face was smooth, somewhat alien, but for better or worse, he was a Kimeti. He moved, head high, staring down the serpent in warning as the owlcat, silent now, slunk easily at his ankles. An elegant fold of wings, and the crane, too, was there.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:22 pm
The massive snake hissed, its head forward but its body stilled, as if waiting...and so it was. There was a crackle, and a buck as dark as his serpent emerged from behind a barren trunk, crushing snow underhoof. " Well done. Magnificent." There was humour, condescension and admiration in his words, a unsettling combination. He continued forward, head down, each step deliberate and distinct. So the winged reptile was owned - for a snake would never play such games during winter without bidding. It stayed until its master arrived, then coiled its tail about a hoof. " Splendid animals, and more importantly, a splendid hunter - such precision. I am impressed."
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:02 pm
The pale buck stood his ground, strange eye glittering with wariness, fixed steadily upon that moving body. The complexity of his tone was not lost upon him, nor the menace of the approach upon his companions. The owlcat lurked, giving nothing away, but the crane had no such reservations, shaking out and sleeking back its feathers in disdain before calling shrilly, once, in disapproval. A dozen possibilities may have been calculated in the seconds that elapsed, but the reply he decided upon was an old fallback:
You shouldn't be here." It was without conviction. That was true of most he said it to, but bucks like this, they tended to be precisely where they meant to be, should or otherwise.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:16 pm
He laughed, dark, hollow and wry. His head lifted, crimson eyes fixed upon the light buck and his pale pack.
"I am Break You Down." A key statement, presented dismissively, flippantly. "I am attracted to unusual beauty. Beauty," his gaze flickered up and down the kin, and he smirked, the side of his mouth quirking up slowly. "...such as yours."
His serpent seemed to smile too, rows upon rows of teeth revealed on cue. "I paint." He offered in the cold silence. "But whether I am an artist," he raised a leg and etched a small sampling in the glass - a maze of lines, "is for you to decide. It is unseemly for one to claim such a title."
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:29 pm
He watched. That was his wont. He watched, silent, mistrustful, unflinching even at the dubious compliment. He spared no glance for the lines he drew, and long after his speech was done, his eyes were set upon him still. They held the dark intensity of a soul who wavered, stood at the edge of a cliff of ideals, knowing one way lay rightness, the other an end, and yet the dark that tendriled up the gaping chasm drew weakness. All this he knew.
"Who," he finally fell, with a voice that sounded several, like layers of drifting snow, a solemn echo in his breast, "Watches." Barely a whisper's finish.
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:50 pm
The soft acquiesce brought him much delight, akin to the satisfaction of a piece well bled. He replied, his low, steady voice as biting as the freezing wind: " pleased to make your acquaintance." END
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