Hunting with a Sharpening Instinct

//I got some new readers, yay~! This was a long chapter to write, especially considering it's a pretty gloomy one. That little Sophia tidbit at the end was refreshingly wholesome, though. As always, drop me some comments —> —> —>

Her thin Summer cloak was barely anything against the snowy winds and the slushy snow that melted with every step outside the cave. It was colder this night than ever before. It wasn't like she made a habit of going out at night, it was like waddling through the forest with a blindfold on, save from the little light of the moon and the stars above, It wasn't that long ago she'd spent the first few hours of the night staring up at stars and connecting the shimmering sky gems into pictures without any discomfort, and now the entire world outside was dead and snowy.

Sonata took another high stomp into the snow. It was almost up to her knees, not that her knees were very high necessarily, considering her age. But it was a hassle for her, but she had to keep going or the ice would close in on her like a suction cup and make it even harder to push forwards. She hated it when she stumbled upon a deeper area like this. Her warm body melted the otherwise soft snow into ice every time it touched her skin. She could feel the unpleasant sensation of melted ice sticking to her and dripping down her legs. It didn't matter how much she wiped it away, it was just going to come back. So she tried to nullify the thought in her head.

RUSTLE

Sonata's eyes flickered towards the source of the noise. Lucky for her, even though she could barely see anything in the darkness, she could sort of sense the gravity of bigger trees and living things. And she could smell them—they were definitely here. She tried to run towards it but—ah! Any small obstruction was really detrimental. This bipedal for was really a liability. She considered changing into her dragon form, but her legs were much shorter that way, and she didn't like he possibility of snow getting on the rest of her body.

Sonata was brushing her hands off of the snow that'd caught her fall when there was another rustle. Her head darted up, her breaths instinctively coming quicker. She quickly reverted to her normal form and bounded towards the source of the sound. She didn't know what it was—she wasn't that skilled of a hunter yet, alright? But she knew she smelt blood.

Somehow, she found herself on a tree. Maybe it was instinct, being a relatively small predator. She could make out better the blurry, reddish lights in her vision where life was. And it was excellent pouncing leverage.

SOUND!

Sonata's tail swished back and forth as she watched the ground below for her future meal. It wasn't cruel. She was practically starving to death here. Hunting non-sentient forest animals with her small level of hunting expertise didn't even cross the radar of distressing things a hungry dragon could do.

POUNCE

She missed again. But it was hunting in the dark. The fact that Sonata could manage to get relatively close to accomplishing anything was a feat in itself. Sonata pounced down from the tree, wrestled through bushes, pattered in the snow a couple more times before she found herself racing up the slope in the darkness, lost to her own hunt. She'd probably find something better this way, anyways. The scent of blood, different to what she usually encountered. The outlines of tall trees flashed by her like part of the wind. She could hear her own breathing slip by her maw as she scraped her nails, lunging through the snow.

She didn't know how long she spent racing through the snow, chasing every little sound and every little whiff of a scent that caught her nose. That same bigger scent kept coming back to tease her now and again. She was sure it was moving, but she hadn't lost it yet. She kept running, her legs aching, melted snow mixing with sweat as time seemed to stand still, her brain clouded by the moment. She didn't really remember how she got there. One moment, she was lunging straight into something large and soft, the next moment she'd buried her teeth into it, shaking her head back and forth, biting till she found a place where the flesh curved and stiffened that felt like it should roughly be a neck, and then squeezing as hard as she could.

It went without saying, it was a much larger beast than the small critters she'd hunted thus far. As hard as she squeezed, it wasn't going down with a single snap like the smaller things she could squeeze to death with her bare hands. She dug her nails into it and tried to stay on its back as it flailed and bucked and tried with all its hooved force to get her free. Eventually it lost enough blood and air to finally collapse on the ground, and the dragon kept her maw closed tightly around its neck for a few moments until she was absolutely sure it was dead. She licked the blood off her chin, circling the outline of the form she'd taken down, sniffing and nuzzling it to feel its size and shape. It was...bigger than she'd realized it'd been. She'd gotten lucky by happening upon a place close to its neck without it noticing. The entire ordeal was over much more quickly than if she'd have to be chasing down a racing animal to get to its weak spots. Huh, it'd fallen into some bushes she didn't remember hearing. She bit down on the weird textured branch and pulled, except the it was weird-feeling, for a branch, and the rest of the animal could be felt pulling along with her...wait.

She'd somehow taken down a freaking deer?!

She sat down, her tail swishing back and forth as she re-evaluated the fruits of her labor. Not bad, not bad at all. Perhaps her hunting skills were getting better, after all.

Sonata gripped the roe by its neck and began the long journey of pulling it back to her refuge. Though she wasn't biting into it anymore, her prior bite marks bled into her mouth as she worked, and it eventually became too tempting to not taste it instead of letting all that potential sustenance just drip out of her mouth. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. So she let herself slurp the liquid until the roe's horns got stuck hard enough into a rut that she had to change forms to get them out, licking her lips as she looked around, maneuvering herself in the familiar shadows of trees and landmarks in the dim light,

Sonata stumbled back into the cave, slipping a little and catching herself on the damp, frosty rocks at the entrance. She sighed, dragging the large carcass another couple of steps before her arms ached like they were going to be pulled out of their sockets and she stopped again, the pressure of blood rushing to her head after every tug making her lightheaded. Her body tethered a little bit as she turned to grab a hold of the animal's long leg and continued pulling again, but it was nothing new. Despite the fact that she usually managed to catch something before she returned, her body wasn't taking well to the strain of the daily ordeal. Maybe she actually spent more energy hunting these creatures than she was getting back in food, she lamented. After all, it often took her the entire day just to catch something as small as a rabbit. There were days where she probably should have just given up after a few hours instead of hunting until sunset for such a small reward. She didn't have that self regulation down yet. She glared at the rays of early morning light reflecting against the cave. She'd spent the entire night not sleeping an inch. Still, it was probably still better than staying in the cave doing nothing and starving. She heaved the carcass another couple of feet forwards, sucking the smeared blood off her sullied lips. At least this one was a bit bigger. Hopefully it would fill their stomachs for a couple of days so she didn't have to go about this same tirade tomorrow.

Sonata checked on her sister as soon as she got the meat safe inside the cave. The fire was out, and she coughed drily when she was feeling her forehead. She could see the paleness of her skin and the fatigued dark circles under her eyes, even in the pale light. She felt the squeeze of tiny hands upon the closest bit of her arm she could reach, but brushed her hair and tucked the small girl back into bed. "Shh. Stay there. I'll get you something to eat." She promised. She small hand weakly let go, Roughly tearing off whatever furless chunk of meat she could most quickly get to and blowing as controlled a fire as she could manage directly only her hands. It was a bit like dunking your fingers in hot tea when the fire could occasionally scald her hands, but manageable. This was important, after all.

"Sophia" she whispered into the darkness of the cave, pulling the small body up. She whined like did as a baby when she was being woken up, shaking her head and slightly turning her body like that was all she could do.

"Sophia." She called again, and the small child reluctantly opened her eyes. "Food, here." she pressed the messily torn and roasted meat up to her closed lips.

Sophia squirmed and turned again away. "I don't want meat" she murmured, muffled by the sheets she'd buried her head into. "Tired of meat!"

Sonata frowned down at the sickly sister beneath her. She didn't have the patience for this.

Sophia's eyes were beginning to adjust to the bluish light coming from the entrance. Rubbing her eyes as she lifted her head, she noticed for the first time the dried up blood smeared on Sonata's nose and chin, the horrific pigment stained over her chest and clothes.

Her eyes widened and her body jolted slightly. The mood of the room suddenly changed. "Blood" she whispered, meeting Sonata's green eyes with her glistening, scared ones.

"Bloo...?"

Sonata's brows furrowed a moment, and then she looked down, noticing the blood, indeed, smeared over her body a little more than before, and remembered the blood that was probably streaked on her face by sucking it on the way here. She licked her wrist and rubbed furiously to get it off, turning away, flustered. "Oh. No, that's just—"

Sonata rubbed her lips, trying to wipe off any smears she may have missed. "I.. I drank some of the blood as I walked to regain some of my energy.." She finished, turning back to meet Sophia's gaze. The smaller child was still stunned still. It dawned on her then, the re-realization that her sister had actually killed things. That the things she ate had been hunted by the person next to her.

"You...drink raw blood?" She softly posed, her face still scrunched up in thought.

Sonata tilted her head at this strange question. "I am a dragon."

Sophia slowly broke out of her trance and pulled the cloak and blanket snugly against herself, weakly sitting up.

sonata offered her the meat again, and she took it. Only it was much too tough and too large a piece for a sickly child to manage.

"Too big" Sophia relented, hesitantly unmouthing the part of the chunk she was orally wrestling with. Sonata took it, trying to rip it apart with her bare hands, and then by digging her nails into it. Finding trouble with that, she grew a spike out from her forearm, biting into one side of the chunk and holding the other as she forced it through the spike till it gave way with a rip. She did that again and again until she had more manageable, thinner palm-sized chunks of meat at her disposal.

She held one up to Sophia's mouth. Sophia looked at her questionably.

"But you put your teeth on it."

Sonata cocked her head to the side forcefully. "Are you not hungry?"

Sophia pressed her lips together and gulped, receding back into the sheets a little in intimidation. She took the meat offered to her daintily and soundlessly popped it in her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut as she forced bite after bite down on the tough meat. When she swallowed, her mouth was dry and she coughed, leaning over to reach for water that wasn't there.

"What are you doing?" Sonata asked, holding her so she didn't fall.

"I...water..." she croaked.

Sonata looked around. Ah, yes. She'd forgotten the water jug in the woods again. A classic extra bit of work to have brought on oneself from pure stupidity. Sonata sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead as she stood up. She met eyes briefly with a routinely concerned Sophia, still in thought. It was snowing...didn't she vaguely remember the slippery alarm of leaping across a frozen stream sometimes that night. If it was that cold, it would take her some time to pound through the ice keeping her from their water source. It had gotten colder around midnight, though, so maybe the ice was thinner now... Her eyes flickered to the dead fireplace, and then Sophia. How long had she gone without the fire?

Sonata nervily brushed her fingers through her hair as she studied the remains. There were still a few embers she could see glistening under the rubble. It probably hadn't been too long since it went out, maybe less than an hour before Sonata returned.

Sophia at this point was wondering if her sister was still about to leave or not. Sonata briefly stuck out her tongue at her. "Wait for me." Sophia pressed her brows together but didn't ask her where she was going, just resigned herself to lying there away from the cold. Besides, she'd already partook in more conversation than her sickly throat was willing to take.

Sonata's feet pattered away.

If she wasn't wrong, it should be pretty easy to pick some snow up into her hands and let her warmth melt it... but Sonata was quickly met with the reality that the grainy, icy snow at her feet was still too shallow for any snow-eating to not involve some hay-eating and leaf-eating as well. She let herself wonder a bit deeper into the forest until she noticed the thick layers of glassy ice coating thinner branches and parts of the younger trees she passed. She tried picking the ice off and brushing off the remaining wood until her eyes settled on a set of familiar thin cones dropping down from a place where two branches intersected. That was perfect!

Sonata dropped the ice pieces that were practically already slushy water in her warm hands, wiping the water off on her dress and darting up the small incline to the icicles. She plucked them off and looked for more, only managing to find five small ones before they started to melt and became slippery in her hands. She hurried towards her little sister, trying her best to save the melted water but having most of it drip through her dipper hands. Sophia had almost drifted off to sleep when she approached.

"Here."

Sophia stared down at the hands cupped in front of her face. She briefly considered taking an icicle before the chill of the cavern reminded her how cold that would be. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth like a baby bird, wincing as some of the water she was served spilled onto her stomach. Cold...cold...

Sophia opened her eyes to just barely catch Sonata rushing away again. She realized if there were icicles, there was probably snow. That meant it was super cold outside, colder than she'd realized it was. She briefly wondered if her sister was really okay going out there and holding ice with her bare hands. Then her concern turned to a pout, and she scrunched her legs up closer to her body. She'd briefly forgotten that it was just she herself who was that embarrassingly weak.

Sonata came back again, holding her hands out for Sophia to drink. She looked a little more upset than she'd left her, but maybe that was just Sonata's imagination.

"You don't want?" The small being asked, looking down at the water in her hands.

It wasn't like Sonata had munched on snow as she hunted. It took a moment for her to rationalize why she was feeling thirsty.

"I drank blood."

"Oh," Sophia remembered. She opened her mouth and tilted her head so less of the water fell out, shivering from the wetness of the last spill.

Sonata wiped her chin dry with the back of her hand. "Are you quenched now?"

Sophia nodded. Sonata wiped her hands off on her skirt, brushing some of the snow that'd managed to cling to her cloak. "I'm going to start a fire," she spoke, "I hope there's some branches out there that haven't been made soggy by the snow." She brushed some stray ringlets clinging to the side of Sophia's face. "Did you sleep well?"

Sophia nodded.

Sonata smiled tiredly. "Good. Get better soon. Put all your energy into regaining your health."

Sophia took that to heart, immediately squeezing her eyes shut as though wellness was some force she could summon with willpower alone. Sonata just smirked, letting herself be passively entertained at her sister's expense.

"Okay," she stood up, brushing the sand off her knees. "I'm going." She walked those first few steps backwards without breaking eye contact. "You," she pointed, "Don't move from under those sheets."

Sophia obediently receded back into the sheets she'd habitually began to lean out of.

The branches were frosty. That wasn't necessarily bad, per say, they weren't wet if she could just brush them off before the ice melted, but that simply wasn't something possible when you were a fire-breathing dragon. Sonata grimaced down at the perfectly good branch she'd found—large and strong and already broken off— soiled the moment she'd tried to brush the frost off on her dress. She could probably still use it, yes, but there still remained the fact that the wetter part of the branch was also the largest part. Sonata searched the inner branches of trees where snow was less likely to hit and pulled down brittle vines to check for dry wood she could scrape off the bark underneath. She even went as far as to suffer her head into bushes to look for safe twigs underneath, thorns prodding at her skin and settling dust on her face. Little by little, she gathered enough to make a decent kindling. Maybe she'd have to come out searching again in a few hours, but it would probably get warmer as the sun rose up in the sky. Sonata tried to rub her eyes with her shoulder. She didn't know why it had to be now, but she felt all her sleepless exhaustion come crashing down on her as she took her first steps back into the dark cave. She barely made it to the fire, stopping her wood clumsily and collapsing on her knees. She sat there blinking in and out of consciousness, gathering her strength for what felt like a stretched eternity. Somehow, she managed to light the fire, shivering slightly as she collapsed from her own exhaustion.

Sophia's eyes widened. "Sonata?" She reached a hand out of the blanket, nervously prodding at her sister's back. When there was no response, she got up on all fours, pulling the blanket over her back and crawling around to her face. "Sonata?" She called her sister, leaning in to be inches away from her face. "Sis?" She pokes her forehead, shaking her head back and forth. To her relief, she could hear the sound of her breathing. She couldn't really tell where the lines were on how okay or not a person was. She'd been sick, but she only knew she was sick when someone told her "you're sick." She felt pain, but if she wasn't bleeding she didn't know if she was hurt enough to be "hurt" unless someone told her "you got hurt." Sophia coughed into her shoulder, rubbing her eyes awake as she tried to search her sister for blood or scratches, but she couldn't find anything that was a obviously her blood among all the animal blood, and her body was too heavy to turn her around or pull her head from side to side like her sister would do with her. A concerned croak escaping the base of her throat, she just set the blanket over her sister as well as she could, curling up against her and watching her until her consciousness drifted away.