[aw] entrails of the animals

Ataxia D'Angelo · 09-14-2012, 04:27 PM

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Word Count → 522 :: trying to kick my muse into working again. Don't worry; the snake won't bite the character that decides to join and Ataxia isn't going to handle it until later in the day when it gets darker and the snake is less active. Also, a small adorable mammal is getting eaten in this post. I don't think it's graphic enough for a mature warning, but correct me if you think I'm wrong.

"This one is weak," Ataxia said, holding a brown ball of fur in her cupped paws. It shuddered. She could feel its heart beat; such a tiny, delicate thing. If she were so inclined, she might perhaps crush its windpipe, take the breath from from it with the manner of a snake constricting prey.

The thistle surrounding her tower was broken by a group of large stones leaning against one another - facing the south side so it might catch the sun. The longested of them was dominated by a coiled serpent, basking in the heat of the sun. It gazed at her with slit pupils' Ataxia could not tell whether it understood, or if it was capable of comprehending what she said. It hardly mattered; she simply wanted company. Someone that would not die or leave her like so many others did. The snake opened its mouth, forked tongue flicking in and out.

"It cannot live." She placed it in front of the stacked stone, at the edge of Nagual's reach. The brown, mammalian creature twitched. Two ears flew up - oversized compared to its body - and flicked backwards at her. It was obvious quite young. It was not a newborn, but small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. "Food."

"Fsss..." the snake hissed. The rabbit's ears immediately turned towards its scaled adversary. It stared fearfully in that direction, nose twitching. Then - it became very still.

"Food." Ataxia repeated. Not a twitch came from the brown kit.

"Foossss..." Nagual said, and slid from his perch. His movement was silent. No warning came from the rattle on his tail. There was a certain elegence to the legless creature. Ataxia watched him cascade down the stones towards his prey, with rapt attention.

The young rabbit twitched its nose rapidly, as if realizing the folly of its plan. It propelled itself away with one good hindfoot, the other injured and dragging against the ground.

Nagual shot forward in response to the movement, scales and pattern blurring into one solid color. All too soon, it was over. The young rabbit found itself caught in the serpent's jaws. It twitched. It struggled. Each movement causing the snake's fangs to sink deeper into its skin. With no sound at all, its efforts halted. It became still. It was not a feint, this time.

Ataxia smiled. There was no concern in for the rabbit - she could not identify with such a weak thing, even in the passing moments when she was painfully aware of her own weaknesses. She was raised to never show or admit such thing. Her eyes held only fascination, not sympathy.

When the snake unhinged its jaw and began to swallow its dinner, she spoke to it with quiet murmurs of approval. Ataxia had come to bond more with her scaled friend than other members of Salsola. So many people she had known were gone - perhaps dead - and others, like her mother, were to distance to her now. Although some of that was perhaps her own fault, she preferred to blame others for her failure.

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