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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:18:15 GMT -6
He did not so much stand up as roll to his feet, legs pushing out like pistons the second his hooves were beneath him. Finally standing once more, he froze willingly as he listened for any new sound from the weird one now that he was no longer safely close to the earth, instinct rearing its head one last time before hunger mercilessly smothered it. To anyone looking over the fence, the young repointe appeared to be nibbling select patches of grass, a dainty image ruined when said observers looked a little closer and could see the bits of pink raw flesh that made a path in the grass.
With each piece of meat eaten, he grew bolder. He had to, for each piece brought him closer to the strange one, and his stomach would not be denied by such things as fear of a horrible death. He slipped back after a few of the nearer pieces, holding his distance for a few seconds before darting forward to the next.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:18:26 GMT -6
He lived long enough to gulp down each fresh piece of meat, continuing to survive as his stomach demanded more with every swallow. The loud one was forgotten as her voice drifted into silence, only the turn of the page and quiet breathing caught by his large ears and subsequently ignored in the pursuit of more flesh.
It was when she laughed that he realized how close he was, the sound smacking into him and laying him on the ground with a little hop. He could see her now, even with his body unresponsive for one heartbeat, then another as he stared at her with frozen eyes. He knew death was coming for him, but it did not come in the few beats it took for his muscles to loosen and respond to his demands. It did not come in the seconds later, as he half-hopped, half-crawled his way back from her, his ears confirming what his vision could make out. She was not moving towards him?
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:18:43 GMT -6
Fear could only mask his hunger as he waited for her to explode into motion, and every second she spent not hunting, only making random noises and staring down at the thing she held, the fear fell away. It did not fall by much, certainly not nearly enough to make him dare approach her in any normal circumstances, and even the hunger was held briefly at bay.
Then he caught the scent of meat. It was the same kind of meat he had been following, a weaker scent that the pieces before but it was there, and his stomach gurgled. Hunger warred with the fear, fought to hold it in check as he slowly trotted closer, lifting only one leg at a time. He crept as close as he dared, then even further than that, sniffing the air with a rapidly deflating hope that the scent would suddenly flee from the loud, large strange thing in front of him.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:19:10 GMT -6
The scent did not deviate and neither did he. Soon he was close enough that he could stretch out his neck and bite into the baggy skin that wrinkled as she moved to turn a page or scratch an itch. Fear and hunger clung to one another, and he found he could no more take another step towards the meat than take a step back. He waited, body tensed to run as if it would not lock up at the sudden burst of motion he feared would come for him.
Alma took longer than she should have to notice the repointe. One could not easily split their attention away from the current scene, not when the lovely pirate queen was so close to her prize of booty. The less than romantic gurgling noises that broke her out of the fantastical scene in the book to a decidedly less interesting scene in her reality took nearly a minute before she gave up on the description of the plundering that was being done.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:19:21 GMT -6
She glanced up at the noise, nose still pointed at the book as she matched gazes with the shivering repointe, his mouth half-open as he pointed his nose at her. “Well?” she asked him, still not moving as if the word would be enough to send him scurrying back and allow her to return to her book with minimal interruption. When he did not even have the good grace to fall over in his earlier comical shock, she slowly turned her head to fully face him. “Why now? Is that a thing you ones do, wait for a good point in a good little book, and come over to gurgle? You eat like the yumenokai do?” When he did not answer, she stared at him, tilting her head to the side.
“Oh!” The thought came to her in a flash. “You want more bits, right?” The repointe somehow managed to keep his footing, body having locked up at the exclamation.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:19:55 GMT -6
It kept him there long enough for her to awkwardly shove an arm behind herself, a loud snap of bone accompanying the act as she held the position. Her fist closed over something that felt squishy beneath her glove, and she drew out a handful of ground meat. Murp, if she had hear the butcher correctly, but the pink strands bore little resemblance to the hoofed beast. “Well, it’s pink. Some of them had pink fur. Wool.” She corrected herself with a laugh, then thrust the hand and it’s misshapen lump of meat towards the repointe.
Who, upon regaining feeling in his muscles and the slight vision his eyes provided, scrambled away from her with all the grace of a thundergug in a mining tunnel. “Awh, come on you little git.” She waggled the meat on her palm, the mass quivering. “It’s good meat. Had to pay for some of it, cause I wanted to give you some of the good stuff.”
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:20:11 GMT -6
“Better beasts need better food, right?” He did not seem inclined to agree, pressing himself against the fest and dropping to the ground in a small ball. She waggled it at him again. “Look, I can-naught eat this mess. Not cooked, cause it’s supposed to be better for you. No seasoning either, just some tasty murp meat. And one day, if the labs are kind and the Light shines on you, you might grow to be as big as them.”
He ignored her, and she leaned back against the cooler, muttering to herself about ungrateful beasts and the cost of real meat as she dumped the sludge in the grass next to her. She tried to wipe the shiny grease that clung to her glove away on the grass, but all she seemed able to do was smear it further along the leather. After the fifth wipe, she gave up, and held the book with one hand, glad that it was small.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:20:24 GMT -6
Before she could get her mind back on the book, even though she caught a line lower on the page that suggested there was about to be a bounty of big chests to read about, she glanced over at the repointe. He was moving at the pace of molasses in winter, but he was slowly pushing himself back up into a standing position, his head pointed towards her. With a sigh, she scooped the meat back up into her greasy glove. She rested her arm on her leg, palm up and the meat huddled there like a pile of worms, and returned to her book.
Reading with only one hand was difficult, the glove online making it more so as her thumb caught multiple pages when she only wanted to turn one. There was more than one curse from her as she muttered at the book “Just the one damned page, I’ll turn you next. Just wait!”
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:20:40 GMT -6
This new distraction was considerably less welcome than the first had been, but it worked all the same. The repointe, stomach still gurgling even as he had cowered beside the fence, made his way back to her with slowly growing speed as the scent grew ever stronger, almost reaching speeds of what could charitably be called a walk. It smelled better than the bits he had taken from the ground, and he barely made out the pink blob that so invitingly jiggled before him. He froze in the same spot as before, tearing his eyes away from the meat to join his ears in watching the loud one quietly murmuring. Then his eyes flicked back to the meat, drool leaking from his mouth even as his eyes flicked back to her. The sounds were quieter than before, her voice softer and less rough, and felt so much more inviting than before. Or maybe it was just the waterfall of drool slipping from his mouth.
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:20:50 GMT -6
The problem pages had been forgotten in favor of her new distraction, and she watched him draw near over the top of the book. She started whispering encouraging phrases, such as, “C’mon, you stupid pretty boy,” and with such soft tones things like, “a one legged inkrum could move faster than you. C’mon.” At first she did not think the words were working, the repointe stopping to stare at her with his oddly blank eyes at the same point as before. “Guess that’s why they call you a re-point-eh? Or is it cause you’re getting pointy scales again later?”
He lowered his head towards the handful of meat, so she supposed her joke must have not been half bad. She wanted to hold her breath as his nose reached the food, his head stopping as his nose quivered and his eyes locked on her. “If you bite me, gonna be annoyed. Then again, that’s what the gloves are for, right?”
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:21:01 GMT -6
And suddenly, without some sudden spark or noise, he was eating. It was not the snapping, starving feasting she had half expected, steeling herself not to chuck the meat away should his teeth scrap a little too close to her own skin. It was almost tame, a slow biting and swallowing of the food that let him keep his eyes locked on her as he did so. She talked to him throughout it, never seeming to really pause for breath even as his teeth started to scrape at hardened leather, even as the last of the meat disappeared on a long tongue. He gnawed on the leather for a moment, her finger feeling less than safe as the sharp new teeth of his worked to prove there was no weakness in his jaw muscles, but she slowly drew it back from him and he did not follow.
He only stared, tilting his head to the side as she had done earlier.
(Alma-228.0)
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:21:20 GMT -6
And then bleated at her at a volume that she was sure could rival a wiurn. She stood up quickly, far too quickly to care if he fell on his side and shattered like he was made of porcelain, but he did not. “Oh, am I not scary now that I have food?” She laughed at him, and took it as a good sign when he failed to flee back to the fence, only bleating at her again. “Brave now that you’re hungry and I have food, huh? Well, you’re going to have to start earning some of it.”
At that though, she paused her rummaging through the cooler. He needed a name, didn’t he? “Kinda look like one of those kirin galabex. Want to be called kirin?” He bleated loudly, butting his head against her leg. “Nah, you’re right. Need’s a twist, something to make it special. Kirin, karen, choiren, chirin? Hey,” she slaepped her leg, the clapping sound sending him collapsing to the ground, “that last one is not too bad. Chirin it is.”
(Chirin-Name Start)
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:21:40 GMT -6
It took her a moment to realize he had fallen over, and she was quick to yank out another handful of murp. “C’mon Chirin, time to get up,” she said as he stood, and she dropped a small piece of meat. It was gone before he regained his footing.
“This is the easiest part, Chirin! Well, unless you are like a grubble, Chirin, then you won’t learn anything, Chirin.” Each repetition of his name came with a small piece of meat, her gloves holding up gamely against his sharp teeth. She was sure her fingers would be black and blue when she slid them off back at the kennel though. “Not my fingers, Chirin. Just the meat, treats for little Chirin who faints at the drop of a leaf- No, it’s right here” she said, nudging a missed piece of meat with her boot. The piece had not even been a particularly small one, and she had seen it pass right by his eyes.
(Chirin-Name 2)
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:21:57 GMT -6
---- The piece was gone a second later, the repointe nearly taking some of her boot with it, but she continued with his name. “Chirin, I have better things for you to eat other than boots. Otherwise, Chirin, you might end up with scales of leather on your back. Chirin, that would not look good at all. Chirin, it would make me sad if you did not have those gem scales. Chirin, Chirin.” Soon, after so many repetitions and bits of meat to accompany them, Alma was forced to grab another handful of meat to continue. Chirin, for all that he had eaten so far, seemed no less eager to get at the new lump of meat, bleating once when she took too long to say his name and drop the treat.
Well, no, it was just the latter. She was quite sure of that. “Chirin, that’s the last free piece. You’re going to have to start working now.”
(Chirin-Name 3)
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Post by Alma on Mar 10, 2021 0:22:12 GMT -6
And with that, she sat on the cooler, ignoring the hungry repointe stomping the grass around her. He attempted once to lunge for the food, a tactic that brought a surprised yell from Alma and sent him collapsing to the ground without anything. Then she started her babbling again, informing him that he was behaving quite rudely.
After a minute, he gave up on his parent and the food she carried, sniffing at the grass in hopes of finding some morsel of meat that he had missed the first time. He did not really notice when her words began to contain a familiar noise as he spat out a mouthful of grass that had only been lightly counted in the oils he had smelled. When the noise was said again, in a tone that was less babble and more pointed shout, he looked up and fell over as a piece of meat slapped onto his face, then slipped past his nose to slide the inch to the ground.
(Chirin-Name 4)
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