Flashback The Hunter Hunted

[Scorn]

Winter 16, 507 (night) Scorn was spending more and more time alone these days. Ever since Scourge brought back that Glassbeak, Scorn just couldn't relate to her. It was too hard seeing the colony treat her sister like and adult, and Scorn like a child. And Scorn was feeling the pressure from the colony too. She was already five years old, and had yet to bring back a worthy kill. She often flew out alone, telling everyone that she was going hunting, but after the first few tries when she only brought back a deer or other equally non-threatening prey, Scorn had stopped trying. She went on these solo "hunting trips" mostly just to be alone. Her father had kept the colony close to the city of Knights longer than usual, and Scorn couldn't help but feel like this was a hint. Even though he constantly told even the grown members of the colony to stay away from the city, and not try to hunt the dangerous Knights, Scorn couldn't help but feel that he meant her to take one down as proof of her ability to hunt. She drifted along, high above the ground, thinking she might just fly over the city to see what all the fuss was about. She flew in not-so-straight lines for a bell or two. But after a while she thought, shouldn't she be able to see the "city" by now? She couldn't even see the big flat oddly square bits of land that stuck out of the forest like someone has taken patches of the Cyphrus and stuck them oddly in this landscape where they did not fit. She could only imagine that she had gotten turned around, as she often did. So she changed direction and kept flying. Another few bells passed, and she bagan to see something very strange, something she had never seen before. The land rose up to meet her, in great jagged walls. Frowning, she flew higher to avoid crashing into them, and soon she found herself among what she would later learn were mountains.

[Scorn]

The first odd thing Scorn noticed was a foul smell, worse than anything she had smelled before. She couldn't tell where it was coming from; somehow it seemed to be all around her. Before she could investigate further, she heard the sound of something moving fast through the air--above her! She barely dodged in time as a large form dived through the space she had been a moment before. She and the creature both took a tick to stabilize themselves in the air, giving Scorn a chance to get a good look at the thing. It was bigger than Scorn, but not by more than a slightly large male Zith. It was scalier than anything she'd encountered before, but all the really dangerous stuff seemed to be on its head. Its mouth seemed to be nothing but teeth, and as it redirected itself to aim at her, she saw the ugly, gnarled horn sticking straight out of its head. That was all she had time to notice before it attacked her again. Bloodlust awakened in her as she realized it was either kill or be killed. The Balicani's attack was slow and clumsy. It was young and inexperienced, and Scorn was easily able to evade. She was young herself, but she had the benefit of a colony who was dedicated to teaching her to hunt and fight. It was something akin to pride that made her want to prove to the animal that she was better than it, so while it was still trying to adjust its flight path, Scorn attacked it from behind. She raked her claws along its back... or tried to. Her claws hit scales that were as tough as rocks, sending an intensely uncomfortable sensation through her hands. Not at all like the feel of claws sliding cleanly through meat. She flapped backwards to avoid the Balicani as it turned to take a swipe at her. The two predators regarded each other. Having tested each other's defenses, both knew that neither would be easy to take down. They began to fight in earnest, neither willing to submit.

[Scorn]

Scorn attacked first, barely, flying toward the Bacilani just as it soared upward. Confused and annoyed at this apparently cowardly behavior, the Zith turned and growled, locating the creature as it stopped high above her. She frowned as she prepared to follow it, but she soon saw there was no need. It fell into a dive, heading straight for her. Even though she was prepared and could see it coming, Scorn was hard-pressed to dodge in time. This thing was fast! It dropped through the air like a rock, and though she pulled herself sideways, the Balicani's horn still grazed her side, leaving a bloody scrape. Scorn yowled angrily. The wound was no worse than what she normally endured when fighting her brothers and sisters, but it still hurt, and drove her into a frenzy of need to kill this thing. The monster had dived past her, so it was below her now. She oriented herself to face downward, and relaxed her wings, letting herself fall onto the beast below. She landed hard on its scaly back, her breath briefly knocked from her. She dug her claws in as she tried to hold on long enough for her breath to return. The Balicani wriggled and writhed furiously, trying to get the Zith off its back, but Scorn's claws were sharp. She hung on, clinging to the safety of the one place the monster could not reach. As the Balicani struggled futilely to dislodge the Zith, Scorn considered how to finally kill this thing. Its scaly hide was good for her claws to clings to, but it was too tough for her to actually hurt the monster through it. She took a swipe at its wing with a clawed foot, hoping to cripple its ability to fly, but she couldn't get good enough leverage to really do damage from where she was. Trying to take advantage of her loosened grip the Balicani gave a particularly violent shake, enough to dislodge a hand as well. Barely hanging on now, Scorn knew clinging to its back was a pointless and wasted effort. She had to moved somewhere she could cause damage. So she crawled across the back toward the base of the creature's wing. Her claws cut cleanly through the membrane, and partway through the bone framing it. The Balicani let out a roar of pain, and Scorn could no longer hang on in spite of the furious monster's aerial flailing. She tried to get in another hit, but the confusion of flapping wings and angry monster was too much for her to get another shot. The Balicani began to ascend once again, presumably to try the only trick it properly knew, but its half-detached wing made it stumble mid-flight, crying out in a terrible rage and pain. It was delightful. Scorn followed, sure she had the upper hand now. She follow it in its ascent, hungry for its swift and painful demise, no longer content to wait defensively for it to make a mistake. When it reached the same height as before, it looked around, seeming confused to find its prey nowhere below it. Scorn darted at it, testing its awareness, but at the last moment it lifted its head and saw her, and she changed course for fear of that wicked-looking horn. Either she was too late, or she dodged in the exact wrong direction, because the Balicani, having seen her now, darted straight forward, poking its horn through her side. Her eyes bulged at the sickening pain of being gored. The horn was still in her, too. Her torso was now resting on the monster's head, impaled on its horn. The fact that she wasn't dead already must have meant that the horn didn't hit anything too vital, but it still filled Scorn with murderous rage. She claws at the vulnerable fur around its eyes and throat. Finally, the Balicani could neither dodge nor throw her off. Her claws found their mark, shredding the monster's eyes, letting it suffer blindness mere ticks before her toe-claws ripped open its trachea. It gave one or two last instinctive flaps before its lifeblood drained away.

[Scorn]

The corpse fell away, its horn sliding out of Scorn's body even more easily than it had gone in. Scorn spread her wings and glided down after it, not wanting to exert herself until the bleeding had stopped. Now that the danger was more or less passed, she had the "luxury" to properly feel the pain of her injuries, and it wasn't pleasant. At least she had the satisfaction of the kill. It didn't even matter to her anymore that this fight would surely be worthy to mark her as an adult. All that mattered was that she had bested this foe, alone, with nothing more than her own strength and cunning. She felt powerful. At least, she felt powerful until she landed and felt like her guts were spilling out the hole in her. They weren't, but she held a hand to the wound anyway, pressing hard as if to keep her insides inside. She glanced at the dead creature next to her and grinned with fiendish glee at the sight of its mangled face. Unwilling to resist, she immediately began devouring its face, chunk by bleeding chunk. She could taste the eyes, even though there wasn't much left after she'd shredded them. After chewing most of the flesh off the face, she slurped its brains out through one of the eye-holes in the skull. With her hunger slightly sated, she slowed her ravenous consumption, licking the skull clean. As she licked the horn though, she tasted something foul, in addition to the taste of her own blood. She frowned in distaste and not a little anger. With an effort, she broke the horn free from the skull by smashing both against a rock repeatedly. She decided to keep the horn as a trophy of her kill, and proof that nothing could have power over her without paying dearly for it. Filled with an unfamiliar sense of fulfillment, Scorn dozed off, right there on the rocky ground next to her kill. When she awoke a few bells later, she felt a little better. Her gored side still hurt like nothing she'd ever endured before, but it had stopped bleeding quite so badly. She was suddenly filled with the desire for nothing more than to return home. For once, she would be glad to see her colony, since she would finally be able to celebrate with her sister over the impressive kill. And Scourge had not helped one bit, Scorn thought with no small amount of triumph. She shoved her horn souvenir through the meat of the corpse's neck so she wouldn't lose it. Then she grabbed on to the bag of meat and flapped harder than she'd ever flapped to bring it into the air with her. Killing the beast, no matter how impressive, would be meaningless if she did not get the meat back to share with the colony. She heaved and strained, ignoring the pain from her wounds. She had to stop frequently to rest, and then there was the small fact that she wasn't entirely sure which was to go to find her colony, since she had been lost when she started. She tried to guess at her location based on the smells around her. She noticed when she left the creatures territory--former territory now. She kept moving in a mostly straight line, hoping to just run into a Zith scent eventually... preferably before she passed out. She only almost got her wish. It was right after the strain of carrying the heavy corpse had pulled open her wound again, and the dizzying pain of both a bleeding wound and over-strained muscles made her want to throw up. She managed to pass out instead, and that was when Scourge found her, with a couple of their older brothers in tow. They made sure she and her kill got safely back to the colony, and they celebrated and feasted well into the morning. Even her father, normally a stickler for everyone staying quiet during the light time, lightened up this once and let the rowdy young Zith wrestle and play well past their sleeping time. Scorn, still sore, did not indulge in the playing much, but she did get the rare privilege of one of her father's rare smiles as he ruffled her hair.

[Perplexity]

Riddled With Rewards Scorn Experience Skill XP Earned Observation + 2 EXP Body Building + 1 EXP Brawling +3 EXP Lores • Lore Earned • The Scourge of Scorn • In Search of A City • What Is A Mountain? • A Kill Well Made • Fathers Pride Notes : An interesting solo. Zith are just so different. Well done. PM me if you've questions regarding your grade.