 Although Aithne cannot be called tentative theirs is a tentative friendship that seems to burgeon between the pair. Ember is not quite so cocky as she had thought - there are layers beneath his facade that flash like the brilliant colors beneath his coat. He is not at all like the males from back home when she got down to it. There was a feral quality about them. It came from knowing that food was in short supply and the body desperately wanted to leave something behind on this earth.. a legacy of sorts. Rather than take the clever route of actually moving off to a better land such as Moladion, rich as it was in everything, they decided that having more mouths to feed was prudent and the most sensible course. It was all a vicious cycle of stupidity and savagery and Aithne would no more take part in foolishness. Even as she began to focus on the deer down the way she heard him compliment her name which caused her lips to curl into a half-smile. Then he offers his name of course. Ember. "How fitting," she answers blandly. It wasn't meant to be derogatory, it was a simple fact that she was stating. Clearly his parents named him for the way his undercoat gleamed and squirmed as if alive with some hidden flame. It was all she said, all they both said, before they began the hunt that would hopefully settle deep within their bellies. They day was getting uncomfortably hot; a warm belly would only suffice to make them both sleepy afterwards yet she wasn't overly wary of him anymore. And she is a blur across the ground, using her powerful muscles to throw her weight into the hind end of the deer that has just seen Ember launching up at it. The screech of it's fear is terrible. It is repeated in the bleats of panic from it's rapidly moving herd as they begin to disappear into the forest without so much as a backward glance to their comrade. Her claws scrape into the thickened hide of the doe as her thick jaw comes snatching down on its trembling tail. She rips, snarling, and the appendage rips and tears away from the small protruding bone. Ember now has the creature in his clutches from the front and soon enough they have wrestled it onto the ground, both managing to steer clear of it's flailing hoofs. Her maw has tore into the softened belly already, gutting the creature as she finally finished her last throes of death. It isn't cruelty that inspires such vengeance, it is simply in her nature from an earlier time of life to commit to the kill. Where Ember is quick to come to himself Aithne is not. The feral glint in her dark green eyes does not fade for a few moments even after his question; the tender flesh between her teeth is too intoxicating. It is rich and warm and slides down her gullet with ease. Finally her sense begin to ease and she glances at Ember as he waits patiently. She does not attempt to lick clean the gore from her face - it is a part of her until she has finished with this meal. The river would take care of the rest afterwards. "Yes, probably those of the swamplands. You?" Subtly she shifts to the side so that he can fit betwixt the legs of the beast and be next to her. She offers him the fore-end of the doe, the heart and all it entails, and she begins once more to gnaw on the soft underbelly, nudging aside pieces of the entrails she did not want while she waits. Finally once her belly is full she steps away from Ember and towards the river, casting a lazy look that only a full stomach can bring. Whether he will follow her lead or not who knew but she moved to the edge of the bank, angled downward since it was so steep, and finally pushed off into the water, making sure to dip under before paddling around beneath the hot sun. A I T H N E Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing; bow down to the mighty _______________________ |