Madalarnari flew in a tight, agitated circle above the trees, touching down briefly on a thick tree branch before launching again into the air, this time at a lower altitude and relatively straight line. Her smallish wings weren’t much good for long flights, but they were helpful when dodging trees in a dense forest. She flipped them closed and stooped on a frightened and unsuspecting creature, then pulled up and dug her claws into the trunk of a tree to watch it flee in blind terror. But not even that could cheer her up today.
She shouldn’t have had to stay there if she didn’t want to. And she shouldn’t have been made to leave, either. Not that it mattered now; she’d already made up her mind to leave, and nothing could’ve stopped her.
The black bishen leapt into the air again and glided toward the next tree, about a hundred feet away. At least she could do that much. Anger gave her wings strength, but she could only keep that up so long before it became dangerous. Anger caused rashness, and that lead to mistakes, which in turn lead to situations that she'd rather not have to work her way out of. Oh great, now she sounded like Yoda. Well, it was too late for her; she was already on the dark side.
Her sarcastically humorous thoughts were interrupted by a noise to her right. It was large, larger than she wanted to deal with right now, she knew, so she paused at the tree she was currently clinging to and climbed it using both her hind claws and wing claws.
Once she was out of reach, she stopped and peered out of the tree at whatever was ranging around below. Four gleaming red eyes fixed on a spot in the underbrush and blinked as a harmless looking creature shuffled it’s way out of the brambles. It’s thick brown coat brushed off the clinging branches and it paused, scenting the air. Could it smell her? She wasn’t prepared to guess wrong, so she stayed put as the thing moved away.
What a trophy that would be, she thought enviously. If only she weren’t so tired from her long day of travel. Maybe she could track it... but no, she wanted to get as far away from her old home as possible. There would be other creatures, probably even bigger and more challenging than this one. She couldn’t say no to a challenging hunt. That was probably what had landed her in this situation in the first place, but it’s who she was, and she wasn’t going to change that. Not for all the trophy hunting in the world. Well, maybe for
all the trophy hunting.
By the time the creature was a safe enough distance away that it wouldn’t see, hear or scent her progress, Arnari was well rested and ready to resume her travels. Maybe she could even snag a snack on the way. She was famished.
On the wing again, she was careful to keep an eye out for any small, or large for that matter, prey animal she might come across. Heck, it didn’t even need to be a prey animal for her to hunt it. They tasted better sometimes, but the others were much more satisfying a kill. A swift movement out of the corner of her eye was all the warning she needed to tuck her wings in and dive steeply to avoid becoming a meal herself. She’d honed such skills as this, and they now served her well. Whatever it was that had fallen from the canopy missed by inches, the wind it’s body made as it lunged past momentarily disrupting Madal’s flight. Only momentarily. She dodged and opened her wings to land her talons in the bark of another tree, then turned her head to watch the creature fall once again to the forest floor.
It was an ugly brute of a thing, all bones and belly, with a huge head and sharp beak. It was all she needed to know that this wasn’t a hunter, but a scavenger. It had thought it’d be clever and catch itself some fresh meat. Well, this was
not it’s lucky day.
Madalarnari flung herself from the tree as the thing landed and began to wonder what went wrong with it’s attack. It never knew what hit it. She was on it in seconds, tearing its protruding shoulders open with her hind claws and winging away before it could retaliate. Her attack knocked it to the ground, and it would take a moment for the thing to get back up, giving her a chance to make good her escape. That was how to do it. Her poison would take effect shortly, and she’d have both a meal and a new trophy to add to her collection, once she could figure out where to put it.
The thing cried out in pain and anger, it’s right fore claw hanging limply already. It tried to follow her back to the trees where she’d perched once again, but she’d gotten a hit so close to the nervous and circulatory system that it didn’t have the energy left to make it the whole way. It’s forequarters collapsed, momentum from it’s attempt digging it’s chest into the ground. It cried out again, a gurgling sound that probably scared any other creature in the area away, but Madal didn’t much care at this point. She watched in curious fascination as the thing died, it’s neck finally unable to support it’s huge head, letting it crash to the ground with a grunt, followed shortly thereafter by its hindquarters. It’s limbs twitched spastically for a moment as the poison worked it’s final course through the nervous system, then it lay still.
Her hunts weren't normally so quick and dirty as this, nor did the creature she hunted normally fall so fast to her poison. But she was hungry, and not in the mood to carry this hunt on for hours.
For a moment, Madal only looked at it, studied it. Then, once she was certain her poison had done it’s work, she glided down and inspected it at a closer range. It was small, about her size, possibly smaller, and young. And well fed. Its belly was a bulge of meat and whatever else it might have eaten.
She didn’t trust scavengers. She’d gotten food poisoning from one once when she was younger, and would hate to repeat the experience, even though her tattoos probably protected her against that eventuality. It had enough meat on it to sustain her, without even getting close to the belly. She didn’t want to eat too much in one sitting anyway. Her wings wouldn’t do much if she was too heavy to even glide.
Once she was finished eating, she sat back and eyed the thing. It was fairly unimpressive, for the most part. A pathetic sack of skin and bones. However, it’s skull, all sharp beak and horns, would make a fine token, she thought, then moved to make a precise cut to the jugular. Sure enough, she cut right through to the bone, and had placed her talon so that it laid right between the second and third vertebra, where there was a cartilage spacer. The fact that she could practically see through the skin at the top of the neck helped. From there it was a simple thing to pop the head loose from the rest of the body, and she carried it up a tree with her.
By now it was getting late; the sun was about to appear over the horizon any moment. So, taking her prize with her to finish cleaning, Madalarnari disappeared up the tree to wait out the day.
