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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:35:04 GMT -6
Maybe it would have been more accurate to say that the blue creature burst out of the pile of leaves, and then Rhys burst out after him in an almighty flutter of wings. The blue creature's exit had been quick and relatively unremarkable, except for maybe how fast it was moving, but Rhys's was much more dramatic. Between his size and the fact that he was trying to fly, his exit saw fit to send the whole pile of leaves flying everywhere, almost like it was some kind of... autumn colored special effect.
There wasn't much time to dwell on that though, since the blue creature was still trying to flee, and Rhys was still trying to catch it. The blue creature was running across the grounds now, and though it was small, it was setting a fairly fast pace. Even Aster had to start moving now, or else he'd lose them soon.
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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:37:34 GMT -6
He'd expected as much, but it was still kind of a pain to see his suspicions confirmed. He cursed under his breath, but it was better to get a little cardio in than to lose track of Rhys altogether over something so trivial as this... Not to mention the fact that at this time of year, being on the mansion grounds carried at least a little genuine threat. Something dangerous could happen, or at least something frightening, if ultimately harmless.
Rhys wasn't thinking about any of those things though. For Rhys, his goal was almost within his grasp. Maybe it was some of that leftover Felusine instinct that made him so quick to enter pursuit mode when he saw his quarry take flight. For all the cerebral abilities he'd been granted, and for all the other anatomical differences between himself and others of his kind, there were some things that just didn't change.
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Post by Noa on Oct 18, 2019 20:41:53 GMT -6
It was another concerning prospect for Aster to deal with, but at least it hadn't caused him much inconvenience before now. The Hara were just close enough to Rhys in size that Rhys hadn't felt particularly compelled to chase them, as far as Aster could tell, which was a good thing, because if that problem presented itself, he would have to intervene directly and immediately. Useful or not, he couldn't have a creature who couldn't control itself around the Hara, and Rhys was... not really the sort of creature Aster wanted living outside full time either.
Well, if they ever ended up with any Shiku or something someday... But no, Aster had little interest in anything like that.
If only that instinct wasn't causing him trouble right now. "Slow down," Aster said, but it was as though his words fell on deaf ears. Rhys was completely focused on something else now.
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Post by Jack on Oct 18, 2019 20:48:49 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:44:55 GMT -6
In some ways, it was a bit of a shame that nothing in Aster’s current plans would take advantage of such a clear natural aptitude and willingness to do this sort of prey chase. Unfortunately, Aster was mostly hoping to make use of Rhys’s less physical abilities. Moreover, it had seemed, at least to him, a little demeaning to ask something like that of an intelligent creature, but that wouldn’t be as much of an issue if Rhys did in fact enjoy this kind of thing…
Maybe he ought to consider teaching Rhys some chasing or agility work, for his amusement if nothing else, should the Felusine prove amenable to it. As it was, Aster didn’t know whether he would be, but it was worth asking someday.
For now, though, it was more imperative for Aster not to lose him. There would be no contemplating the future if he lost Rhys to the twists and turns of the mansion.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:45:30 GMT -6
Aster was able to keep apace, though he was privately thankful that Rhys didn’t see fit to take to the wing. He was much more nimble aloft than he was running on the ground, and while his ground speed wasn’t anything to scoff at either for his size, Aster wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him if he had chosen to fly.
… Of course, maybe he was making this presumption a little too soon. No sooner had he had the notion at all than did Rhys take to the air. Aster’s heart leapt into his throat, and he wanted to yell something out--- not that it had done him very much good so far, but all this emotion had to find an outlet somehow.
Fortunately he saw what was happening before he did it, and was spared the act of saying something that turned out to be unnecessary.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:45:50 GMT -6
Rhys went up and then came right back down, using a moment of flight to boost his speed as well as his height, before dropping down like a hawk on top of the thing he had been chasing. There was a bit of a squeak, or maybe a squeal, and then the two of them were lost in another pile of leaves.
Aster stopped for a moment, waiting and watching to see if they would emerge from it like they had burst out of the last one, but in the end they did not. There was a great deal of scuffling and rustling, but they remained more or less where they were.
Approaching the pile, Aster wondered idly if Rhys was killing the thing. He didn’t think that Rhys really had the aggressiveness that would drive him to do it, but then again, he could be wrong in his line of thinking.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:46:30 GMT -6
The Felusines were predators by nature, and if this little incident proved anything, it was that for all the differences between Rhys and other individuals of his species, at their core they still had more similarities than not. So maybe this was another part of those instincts, and Aster would unearth them both to find the pocketpet dead.
All this, despite the concern that Rhys had expressed concerning the pocketpet’s health earlier. What a rather gruesome turn of events, if this turned out to be the case.
When Rhys did finally pop out of the leaves, however, Aster found that his guess had been on the mark after all. The pocketpet was hanging, defeated but very much alive, from Rhys’s jaws. If you looked carefully, you could see that the grip Rhys had on him was a rather delicate one, just enough pressure to hold firm but not enough to harm.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:47:32 GMT -6
Some hunting dogs were bred and trained with this sort of grip, a ‘soft mouth’ as it were, to prevent them from damaging the game that their owners had already shot when they were bringing it back. But in Rhys’s case, it was probably a conscious decision that he was making, to hold the little blue creature like that, rather than the result of breeding. It definitely wasn't the result of any training that Aster had ever given him, that was for sure.
“What have you got there?” Aster said. In his line of thought about dogs, he had inadvertently begun using that same tone of voice that he might have with a trained creature, rather than a sentient companion.
But if Rhys noticed that, he didn’t show any sign of it. He said, {Look, I got him! And I got him to spit out all those leaves too.}
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:47:59 GMT -6
He seemed quite pleased with his own accomplishment, which Aster couldn’t exactly empathize with, but he did understand from an intellectual perspective that cats and dogs and the like enjoyed capturing ‘prey’. That was probably what this was.
And the bit about the leaves… “I’m surprised you still remembered about those things. I thought you were chasing it down for the kill,” Aster said. These were his genuine thoughts, though it was more convenient for him, at least, that he wasn’t dealing with any kind of a dead body right now. That would have been… not too much to bear, by any means, but hardly a pleasant thing. Butchered meat for his creatures was one thing, but he didn’t like to feed live if he could help it. Besides the obvious complaints of cruelty and the like to the prey animal, it also wasn’t safe for the creature being fed the live prey.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:48:39 GMT -6
Anything facing the prospect of its own death was going to fight like its life was on the line--- which in that sort of case, it very much was. And sometimes even being a larger, more dangerous predator didn’t guarantee your safety against a sufficiently desperate would-be meal.
That wasn’t what was at play here, thank the gods, but all the same.
{I wouldn’t do anything like that!} said Rhys, seeming genuinely surprised about Aster’s turn of thought. Maybe it didn’t go that deep after all, and Aster was simply overthinking it. {I really just wanted to get it to spit them out, that was all. Except it wouldn’t hold still at all, see, and then I had to chase it down…}
Rhys’s explanation carried its own logic, but without having known all that, as an onlooker, Aster’s mind had clearly gone elsewhere.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:48:51 GMT -6
Not that he blamed the pocketpet for its decision to run either. If Aster, who was larger and had the advantage of distance--- both in the physical sense and in the sense of being removed from the stakes of the situation--- hadn’t been able to infer Rhys’s real intent, then what chance did the pocketpet have? It didn’t seem capable of even enough intelligent thought for Rhys to be able to convey his message telepathically, and it had been experiencing very real fear for its life. The cornered would-be meal, as far as its own understanding was concerned.
Aster felt that he ought to at least point out this much to Rhys. “It probably thought you were going to eat it too. I mean, they’re the right size for it, and you have the teeth for it too. One look at you, and it probably thought ‘predator’.”
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:53:59 GMT -6
{Oh,} said Rhys. There was a slight pause, during which the weight of Aster’s words seemed to settle in on him. {Oh, I guess I hadn’t thought of that. But you’re right, it does look like that, doesn’t it?} Gently, slowly, he set the pocketpet down. Pretty much as soon as he did, the thing took off like a shot, running back into the safety of the underbrush elsewhere on the mansion grounds. Rhys watched it take its leave with a sort of sad expression, and Aster sighed.
“Don’t take it so hard,” Aster said. “You’ll know better next time.”
{Do you think so? How do I convince them I’m not dangerous?} Rhys said.
It was kind of funny that he was taking this so seriously. Aster himself had never thought much about pocketpets before. He didn’t bother for them, and didn’t see much sense in using them for anything.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 15:54:16 GMT -6
It only even occurred to him now that they might make decent target practice for small, sufficiently bored predators… but that probably counted as some kind of animal cruelty, so on second thought, he had probably better not. And he didn’t think he had any small, bored predators on his property anyway, aside from Rhys himself. All the predators on his property, bored and otherwise, were much too large to be taking a real interest in something of that size. And Rhys had already made it clear that that wasn’t what he had actually intended to do with pocketpets anyway.
Aster gave a shrug. “They’re not all that bright. Food would do it, probably. I don’t have any on me though, if you’re thinking of trying it out on a test subject.” He hadn’t come here to have a picnic or anything of the sort.
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Post by Noa on Oct 19, 2019 16:14:08 GMT -6
When they’d entered, and it was still in the more welcoming September setting, maybe it would have been feasible, but not the way it was right now, with everything so… unsettlingly laid out. You’d have to have some weird tastes yourself to want to be picnicking in this kind of atmosphere anyway.
He thought that would be the end of it, but it seemed that Rhys would not be deterred by this little setback. {We still have the apples!} he declared.
“What apples?” Aster said, frowning. He had thought they all disappeared when the place had shifted. He hadn’t seen any since then, though admittedly he also hadn’t been looking all that closely. There were other things happening that demanded his attention a little more urgently.
{No, there’s still a few around. The ones we found earlier… I can smell it. Maybe another pocketpet already got to it though,} Rhys said.
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