[FIN] Ferocious Beast (Bitter Heartbeat x Shank/Look-See)

[fluorescein]

How indecent! A buck just flopping himself down without a care in the swamp in the middle of her path. Unbelievable. Shank daintily kicked the slumbering buck in the ribs because good little does did not stomp. "Aim for the balls" the dark voice whispered. She shushed it for now.  

[fluorescein]

anemosagkelos

As if sensing his wonder, a crow cawed thrice. Shank delicately wrinkled her brows. Ankle Biter was no doubt hungry again. "Feed on this one" the voice pestered once more. No. Because cannibalism was gross. "Don't you care about your birds? Crows are carrion birds. They help the balance of the swamp," nagged the incessant voice. The crow's always hungry she shot back. They went back and forth like this, their mental conversation spanning a good few minutes. She wasn't talking to anybody in particular, only herself. Shank couldn't even claim she was talking to her birds. She had long assumed others had a voice. They had a conscience. Hers just wouldn't stop talking.

Left alone, the crane, hopped tirelessly while the eagle and songbird tittered to and fro endlessly. The swan waited by the shade, indifferent to whatever it was that happened. Shank was in her own world now.  

[fluorescein]

Jolted from her internal struggle, Shank looked at the buck and blinked. Hazily her thoughts ran back to what all had transpired. When she came to the event in question, her eyes sharpened in cognizance once more and she drew herself rigid.

“Well, you were just laying there.” She supposed the kick did hurt, but that’s what he got for obstructing a path. With nary a glance back, she walked off, her little black cloud menagerie following with the secret voice beckoning the red buck to follow.

Amused, Look-See came out from underneath the leaves awning to join abandoned buck. Careful of the low hanging branches, she swept clear of the underbrush and trailing moss curtains. Not even the jutting rocks would deter her. True to form, she was able to hone in on the buck. He was easy on the eyes. Red, very noticeable and a lovely target apparently. Though saddened to see the ruckus leave, she found she did not miss the constant smell of peat and droppings that accompanied the grey one. Her thoughts must be calm and placid like the lake but she was too joyous and mirth and relief are contagious. Still, she struggled to contain her thoughts.

Canting up to the red one, she asked him casually and all too jovially, “What was that all about?”  

[fluorescein]

anemosagkelos

"Matter of fact, I do. Why?" She didn't even skip a beat. She knew the large shadow both Doom and Gloom separately cast. But she was her own separate entity and he was dealing with her now. And she would take her daily pleasantries in where she could. Life was more interesting that way and they weren't promised tomorrow.  

[fluorescein]

She thought of a particular firey hornet. "It just so happen to know where such a ferocious beast lives and I have flowers to deliver." Non sequiturs at its best. It was really better to not give away too much information. She didn't want to damn herself or scare away the timid buck. He was high strung as it was, though artificially induced as it may.

"Follow me" she instructed gently but firmly.  

[fluorescein]

It was easy to follow Look-See if one didn't use their eyes. All they had to do was listen to the Swamp's breaking and sighing as she bulldozed her way through leaving widespread natural carnage in her wake. She all but walked through trees and the mangroves' intricate root systems by the time she found the intended lair.

How the other buck fared was a different matter. But they were both adults who had grown u pin the swamp and were well aware of the Swam's many, many hazardous charms.

"We are here. See" and behold, a sleeping hornet lay in her wake.

 

[fluorescein]

anemosagkelos

I so did! It's jumbled up with my fretting over the legend

Look-See did cluelessness by blindness with style. "Yes, this is Doom. She likes eggs." It was a good thing Doom was so colorful otherwise it would have taken longer to find her dear sister. Doom was looking well. The swamp had been kind to both of them, but Doom was different. She was more, she was other. She was a mare.

"I know she keeps a stash of eggs somewhere here." Look-See went about thrashing loud enough to wake the dead.