He knew within a handful of chimes that it was a mistake to bring the meat. Carried in his mouth, the scent of the raw mass of muscle overpowering his senses of smell and taste, it was just a burden. A massive miscalculation, made in haste and (even if he would only whisper it to himself) a pinch of bravado to impress his cousin.
Should have just given it to the boy. Put it to some use...
Which was the point of it all, he added sourly as he set down the bundle and examined the latest in the trail of scratches he'd been following. A thick pink tongue flicked out to lick the blood from his nose, wiping it clean as best he could before snuffling it...
If he had the capability to do so, Taru would have sighed. His senses still weren't as sharp as the creature he was aping. They were improving, sharpening, every time he morphed, but right now... he was still just a man pretending to be a jaguar, not a Myrian becoming one. He had to draw more on his past; the memories of old hunts, his parents lessons, a myriad of tricks and hints and details.
The tree underneath... still sheer white. These are fresh. Very fresh. Probably... not more than half a bell, since the trunk hasn't changed color. But what next...
He answered his own question a chime later. His feline ears pricked up and swiveled a little, aiming at the distant canopy, faceless and masked, the faint sound beyond it...
Rushing water. The river? No, louder, more violent... ah... the falls.
Well, the waterfall, really. To a young Myrian male looking to impress his fellows, however, it was like plunging from a mountain into an ocean, and Taru never missed a chance to attempt it. That was where the tracks were heading, meaning-
Watering hole. Or stream, anyway. So... where does he go next? On or back?
He sat there for some time, staring at the scratches in the earth and on the fallen log, tail twitching in the same mindless metronome beat of any cat of any size. Without his burden, his decision would be simple. Continue his pursuit until he caught scent or sight of his prey, then shadow it, close the gap... strike.
Jaguars, he had learned early, were ambush predators. They waited in position for bells, perhaps even all day, for their chosen prey to get within range of jaws that could crunch through a skull like a rotten melon. All their victims ever experienced was a rush of movement, a falling shadow, a crash of shattering impact, perhaps a blink of (literally) skull-splitting pain-
Tarukko licked his lips and growled to himself. Ah, but that's not the situation, is it? You're burdened. Carrying around a half-dozen steaks that are stinking with every step...
The Myrian mind in the feline body cursed and Tarukko let the tortoise meat lie. It wasn't a total waste, after all; Vurk had got back to the village with the shell, providing him and the clan with a near-flawless model to work with. His family would have to do without-
No. They will not. You can move faster and clearer without lugging around raw meat. You can close on your prey. Bring back far more...
Put that way, the decision was easily made. The meat stayed where it was, and within a chime the jaguar was in the trees again, slinking among the low branches, eyes scanning the treeline as it moved closer towards the rushing river. Tarukko climbed higher, digging in deep and tight with his feline claws, shuffling up the trunk until he was safely hidden from ground level.
Now he had a myriad of windows in the canopy to peer from. Gaps in branches and clumps of leaves; spaces between trees. Syna's rays pierced as far as they could from even higher above, marking them out as he glided from branch to branch...
Until the canopy thinned, almost ended. Any other continent, and perhaps a river would be enough to sunder so thick a treeline. Not Falyndar: there the river slashed deep into it, but never broke the endless roof of greenery. Taru gazed down from his perch and saw the silver, sloshing tributary weave its way from higher ground, heading for the Basin, most likely.
But it was not the water he sought. He listened... he sniffed the air... he scanned every inch of exposed ground, sweeping his furry face left and right, whiskers twitching, trying to pin down scents and wafts-
-until he froze... and saw something black and limping lap at the stream below.c
