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Post by Ashe on Jun 5, 2024 20:48:36 GMT -6
Thoughtwarper x HamaOnly the users participating in the breeding may post in this thread. The room can look however you like, within reason.
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Post by Flare on Jun 5, 2024 22:09:24 GMT -6
Not even that grumpy seer kitava she shared lair space with who didn't seem to answer any question except for in riddles could've seen it. A joint hunting adventure leading to parenting. An adventure she wouldn't trade for the world over. "Uncle" is now taking care of the babies while she has to figure out a better way of feeding the lot of them. Fishing is only successful if she can pull them through the ground to snap their necks like carrion birds. Fish, however, can see her shadow from beneath the ground and flee from strange shadows. On some points, she wished she could egg some hunting advice from other clans; perhaps meet up with others for more joint hunting. Theres supposedly plenty of food dweling on the upper shelves of the canyon, but FINDING IT? Totally different question. Her ability is swimming through the earth on the canyon floor, not the rocks. Too hard. 1
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Post by Skylos on Jun 5, 2024 22:18:19 GMT -6
MAAAAAHH Overhead, a terrified 'baah' echoes across the canyon, then a resounding SPLAT. Something that gave off its light descended to where the splat landed. A bighorn sheep, now a meal. Difficult to track when one's wings flap madly to keep airborne. Primitive, nearly impossible to pull off. Why? NO LEGS. Four floating clawed feet grip the sheep's woolen coat before releasing its drop of death and demise. It wouldn't run away though, not now. Lower and lower, the luminescent creature swirls and banks lower. The meal coming closer and closer... was that a rock? Ouch. Flat ground allowed for more landing space. Something small descended past the steps of the temple, inclined to take part in its fallen meal at last. It was hungry. A void of hunger inside. Flying so long... stalking the herd, only to have them jump away at a speed faster than flight. Surprise tactics rarely worked these days. At least the wings were not to the point of insects, being useless in the humidity of the cold season. Dry season... still hungry though. Very, very hungry. Blue, however, is up in the sky. As the luminescence circles lower and lower to descend on the meal of sheep, a notice of blue on the walls is caught. What was this. 2
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Post by Flare on Jun 5, 2024 22:24:32 GMT -6
Cautiously walking along the edges of the canyon, where most smaller draconic can tread without worries, Hama's more concerned on where her feet go before seeing something loud, white and FALLING drop out of the corner of her vision. Looking to see a sheep. Fall. From the sky. What?! She looks up, squinting into the sunlight. Something is coming downwards, light as a feather, and practically drifting on the bit of wind that ruffles her crests, her feathers. SPLAT The sheep impacted, and moves nor baahs no more. Did it fall off on its own? No. That was a straight down, not a jump. She's tried only once to scale one side to the other, and that didn't work. Finally coming across the messy impact point of a bighorn. The serpentine drifter finally comes into view; and she can't mistake it; one of the clan of... uh... oh dung, what was it. "Did you drop that sheep?" she asks the drifter, nodding downwards at the sheep who is clearly not going anywhere. 3 x.20
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Post by Skylos on Jun 5, 2024 22:29:29 GMT -6
There are flaws with this particular way of getting a meal. The rams don't drop straight down. They panic. They struggle. It distracts trajectory and causes this. Landing on a rock... a grim grit of his teeth as the bright thing continues to circle, vulturelike, and descend. He'd dive faster, but he's quite light. Thus, the drifting. He's done this once, and will always do it again. Because although the way of hunting is messy and sometimes unsuccessful, it does earn a kill. Another flaw of this particular plan. Other draconics, landwalkers, happen upon its kill before managing to get down there to claim the kill and steal it. Chasing it away from its meal. How the Mother chose to create such dense, rock-brained landwalkers, would never know.
It would happen again. The descent stops... something is there, sniffing its kill. NO. Not again! A dangerous tactic, folding the wings and plummeting with a shrill sound, even brighter as it came down, and landed hard before its kill. And... it's smaller than expected. Four wings, about a human-sized swan with a long neck. "This is my kill, land walker." The land walker is the blue he'd seen on his way down. 4
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Post by Flare on Jun 5, 2024 22:38:12 GMT -6
Its one of the Hope clan. Thats where the color stood out. Almost as small as the Tainter clan; maybe smaller, all wings, and arching like a cat in front of the kill. "That doesn't answer my question." she fixes the smaller draconic with a silver eyed stare; the color of moonlight. "Did YOU drop that sheep." By the direction of the falling animal, she assumes it was them who did drop it. Whether its intentional or not, she wants to know. "I have no intention of stealing your kill, small one." No, she's wrong. It IS smaller then the Tainter clan male she'd spent the last few weeks alongside. Four wings, the size of a large canyon fowl with a long arching neck, and... where are its legs. Dont'... all draconics have legs? Was this a draconic fish? Little high out of the water, wasn't it? A rumble..., Hama sighs. Ignoring her growling gut. She will eat whatever she can get her paws on, but isn't about to steal someone's kill. 5
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Post by Skylos on Jun 5, 2024 22:47:27 GMT -6
"I lost my grip. The ram's struggle altered its drop path and caused it to collide with a rock rather than the flat surfaces below this." his foot taps the ground on which it is placed. "This ram has dropped... about three times now. Struggled and broke too quickly." almost a bored tone. "It is less than useful for when they struggle upon falling and rising." "To answer your question, land walker. Yes, I did drop this sheep. For Science." "Rams do not, per typical lifespan, walk again after this fall either." the male remarks dryly before twisting his head about, sighing heavily over the kill. It's a sweet scent, almost tickling his nostrils every time he does this. The ram's blood slowly sponges itself back inside, bones mending with grinding crunchy sounds, mending the torn flesh... and if one heard it over the alarming sounds of mending, a hearty thump of blood pumping again through the restarted heart. The ram stirs, blinking gray goat-pupils before seeing two predators standing practically on top of it. An alarmed 'baah' as it scrambles up, and away down the canyon. 6
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Post by Flare on Jun 5, 2024 22:59:41 GMT -6
Hama stares at the little bright male. He's dropping sheep. For SCIENCE. What. The way he speaks about the ram dropping... multiple times... and then just breathes on the creature, it puts itself BACK TOGETHER, wakes up, and FLEES. Shes... annoyed. Shocked. Mildly in awe... but but... gah. "You are dropping sheep from the sky, for science. That was perfectly good eating you just let get away, you know." She can't help her feathered crest rising with her ire of the distain of the situation he makes it sound like. "Some of us do struggle on finding food, so... playing with it instead of eating it?" Her intangible tail undulates like the mist curling over the water below at nightfall. Irritated. "Why. Do you like watching them fall to die? Instead of forcing it to suffer multiple times, just drop it once and eat, like the rest of us do." Its difficult to comprehend. "Since you dont' intend to eat it, I would appreciate direction on where its flock is so I may hunt for my own meal." No reason talking if he had no answer. 7
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Post by Skylos on Jun 6, 2024 3:56:11 GMT -6
True to that of a landwalker, it does not surprise the male of the lack of insight of his experiment of reviving the dead multiple times. "Multiple times of multiple heights. The result appears to be the same. Death upon impact, and breathing on them revives." It almost sounds like he's reading out of a lab notebook after watching grass grow, in such a boring tone. Extending one of his floating limbs so she, he's positive this is a she landwalker. "I lack the legs to properly capture prey more than tangling my feet into their pelts and lifting them only to drop. Another lack" He opens his jaw and it only seems to open quite short, for a carnivorous breed. "Is an inability to bite down and break the neck properly. Short of allowing birds to fly into my mouth, I might resort to doing so." A frustrated tone. "Due to my inability to regularly hunt for food-" his own stomach answers the landwalkers stomach growl "An experiment is due to find a successful method to feed myself." Theres no answer on if he 'likes' watching the rams fall to their deaths repeatedly. "The bighorn herd I usually stalk grazes the walls up north, sometimes out of the canyon entirely." Angling the swanlike head in that direction as he speaks. 8
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Post by Flare on Jun 6, 2024 4:05:25 GMT -6
The floating clawed feet with no attached limb catches Hama by surprise in his response to her upset on letting food get away. He's right, he's NOT built for hunting any sort of prey. More like a kite then anything else, a wind catcher on silk strings. Researching hunting methods... no, experimenting. A kitebodied male. He doesn't even appear to have a proper crushing jaw? Was he...hatched wrong? Concern. "Is your jaw broken?" She steps forward, being a few feet taller at the shoulder to peer into the shadowy gape of the kite's mouth. Didn't 'look' broken and he spoke without difficulty. "I understand now. Regular hunting ways of other clans of draconics don't work for you, so you need your way to catch food. I...shouldn't have gotten so upset about that." her ears droop a bit, staring at the ground. North huh. Almost out of the canyon entirely? Why did the herd venture in here? Wasn't it usually staying in the borders? She hasn't moved, looking north. Pondering. 9
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Post by Skylos on Jun 6, 2024 4:12:00 GMT -6
"It is difficult to say. It could be the ability of my clan; the Clan of Sacred Hope. I am a Shalaya. Or, as landwalkers sometimes consider, floaty-claw butterwings." His snout wrinkles at this nickname. Butterwings... What part of him looked like a butterfly?! The antennae that fall down his back curl in distaste as well. "I once previously tried using the assistance of a passing Harian, once the ram died the second time. It appears only Shalaya can do this 'revival of the dead', became my hypothesis' conclusion." Also that of talking science with a passing Makiyan who fascinated him as much as their science did. This one, if he had his breeds proper, was a loziuyesh, of the clan of Steel. The rippling hide of blue is interrupted by jutting spikes of glossy colors of black. And... his head angles slightly. Where is her tail? He regularly saw strange-colored draconics, though only when mating season hit its peak. Which appears to be right now; the gossip of a boon is on the wind. "I find it more difficult to capture prey that can run faster than I can fly. Haven't you ever practiced hunting technique?" he wonders. "Why should I care about the state of my food if it will die in the end by my claw or by fall." 10
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Post by Flare on Jun 6, 2024 4:19:58 GMT -6
Maybe its because of his lack of caring for what happens to another life while he repeatedly ends and renews it. Shalaya or not, the kitebodied male's response raises her crested hackles again. "Practicing a hunting technique is one thing. I don't fly, so hunting on the ground is what I need to do. My hide doesn't blend in on the cliffs, you saw me clear as day even in descent. Torturing my food to find a way of continuous success isn't hunting. That's just being cruel." Even if he CAN supposedly breathe on the beasts to bring them back to life. Now that has her fascinated, even while upset. Butterwings... the nickname of his type curls a smirk on her muzzle, the male does look like a butterwings. "As a landwalker, I do see the appeal of the nickname, but do you have one. A name, I mean." It wouldnt' do to tease him for his looks, even if upset. 11
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Post by Skylos on Jun 6, 2024 4:28:54 GMT -6
"Better to continuously practice my technique on one sheep instead of murdering the entire herd repeatedly." Sheep don't populate very quickly and are slow to grow. By analysis, they only repopulate around the end of the wet season when the grasses are fresh, just out of the bitter cold season. The grasses grow into the upper cliffs, inviting shelter and more food for them. The bighorn sheep, not other draconics. "Food is not abundant in the canyon, landwalker. This much I am aware of. I have spent a great deal of time practicing whenever I can catch up to the herd. Only one is being 'tortured', if you wish to use that word." "I can predict your thoughts at present." the swan-dragon turns away, looking back over his wings. "Why do I kill and revive creatures with my breath? It defies my breed acts to be." A snort, almost derisive. "It's a matter of "WHY". What allows the breath of the Shalaya, my breath, to even perform an act that defies the natural cycle of life and death." He begins to flutter-pace around, back and forth. "What I was told is more or less, we were made this way by the Draconic Mother. I find that to be utter auroch. And mixed-clan shalaya do not inherit my ability." His wings arch at mention of the ire-drawing nickname...wait. She wanted his name? Landwalkers rarely ask that. "Outside my clan, I am Thoughtwarper." 12
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Post by Flare on Jun 6, 2024 4:38:38 GMT -6
He does have a point; better to pinpoint the practice on one creature instead of murdering an entire herd for learning how to hunt for himself. Her feather-accented crests fall somewhat as her ire drops. Maybe this isn't as heartless a shalaya as he makes himself out to be. Or thoughtless. Thoughtwarper. Hm... "I...have heard of that before. Seen it myself even. Mixed clan draconics don't inherit our abilities inherent. I breathe smoke but not fire, for example. More of a concealing fog. But my children spit acid instead. They look like me in build, but take after their father in ability." Only a few clans spit acid, and she's not giving up that sort of information on a single argument. "It does provoke thought, on why the Draconic Mother has our abilities not pass down like that. Perhaps to allow us to strengthen our bloodlines to survive?" His breath to defy life and death... "Has it ever worked on a draconic, or on anything else?" 13
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Post by Skylos on Jun 6, 2024 4:48:00 GMT -6
This is the second landwalker he's come across in his travels through the canyon who is taking an interest in his study on his abilities. And Thoughtwarper has a long memory, even if he's only approached few. One of the Shalaya's front feet snags onto his lower jaw as he listens to her discuss the hypothesis, although she doesn't call it that. But her findings. An ablebodied female, he's not surprised to hear she has children. But those who spit acid? Only Gaias Guardians or the Tainter spit acid, if he recalls right. His eyes are drawn to the long horns arching off the landwalker female's head. But there's longer spikes here and there off her crests... they catch the sunlight in iridescence. "Are you wearing feathers?" he asks, briefly distracted. "You may have a point, I have considered it at one point that the Draconic Mother seeks us to strengthen our lineage so our children can survive the tests of time." She has some interesting insights. 14
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