Red
The young raptor bounded away from the tusked thing that had let her out of the net, she was relieved but she was not grateful. Bloodtalons were strong and needed nothing from any other species, what would the other males think of her if they knew she had been caught in a snare and had been set free?
Since she was a chick, the raptor had identified herself very simply with the extent of the communication capable of a Bloodtalon. Raptors, think in images and in the memory of sounds and smells. From her youth, she had not chosen her self-recognition to be based on her talons, hunting ability, or her disposition towards play.
Her first, self-cognitive thought as a chick as she took a good look at herself and her kin, was very simple.
Me…..Red Raptor…….Me…..Red….Red, Red, Red!
She had always been an ill humored little thing, although she had grown up faster than her siblings because she was the most selfish and quick of the group, essentially;
Food! GRAB NOW, GRAB,GRAB, GRAB!
She was the smallest of the group and had been shunned for being the runt. Most males looked at her with a form of disdain because, her genes were thought to be likely stunted and would not produce good, healthy Bloodtalons.
She slowed down as she gained some distance, the thought of her pack leader, a relatively large female by the name of Stripe made her feel self-conscious. She stopped running and looked at her thighs, they were lean, no layer of fat on top of them, and her tail was also thin, no fat on that either.
If the churning pot of thought that was her mind could be placed into thoughts, they would have sounded like this;
I'm too skinny. Stripe looks much better than me, Talon doesn't even notice me anymore.
Red sighed and grunted in frustration as she trudged back to the little ravine that was the Bloodtalon nesting ground. As she approached, all of the raptors took a glance and a sniff in her direction, as they identified her as part of the pack, they went back to what they were doing.
Red walked as elegantly as she could, past Stripe's nest where she and Talon were sitting just enjoying the breeze and sniffing it for any Stormtail Thunderers. Red, tried to imitate Stripes long graceful gait right past Talon as to catch his eye.
As she does his yellow eyes shift to her and linger on her for a moment, Red suppressed a chick-like squeak of delight and also fought a smile, which for raptors is stretching the back of their lips which looks more like a snarl, but it's an expression of happiness none the less. Talon's noticing her was just the pick me up she was looking for. Her mood plummeted however because she stumbled as she passed him, too distracted to notice a small root that hooked itself in between her killing claw and her three other toes.
Stripe got up angrily and stepped casually around the nest and nipped Red's tail and hissed loudly at her.
The alpha female, does not tolerate competition for a mate.
Red took half a second too long to get up and was bitten on the tail, she found herself being chased away from the nest by Stripe who only chased her for a few dozen yards.
Raptors are smarter than most creatures, and they are privy to the feeling of humiliation.
After being chased out into the rest of the rocky setting of Durotar, Red grudgingly moped around, she had nowhere to be and nowhere where she was wanted, she was however, very, very hungry. She raised her head and looked around, she spied the ocean in the distance and the plains to the west past the big river. North, she could see the big, big nest where all of the orcs and tusked things went to. As the wind shifted she could smell something sweet in the air.
Meat
She could tell it was meat, but not any kind she had ever smelled before. It wasn't sweet like boars's or sour like scorpid's, it was, hearty somehow. Red was in very low spirits, and didn't have the mental energy to hunt, whatever the meat was, it was close, perhaps she could get a few scraps before anyone else got to it.
Plucking herself up and growling at nothing in particular, she trotted off towards the smell of the delectable food, and where, she remembered, she had been freed from the net by the tusked thing.
What was it that those things called themselves?
Trolls she remembered as she leafed through her memory.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Zep sat placidly in the little area where he had set free the raptor, he shifted his position to the rocks against the direction of the ocean as to not get a lot of sun, beyond that, the breeze was a little chilly and the sun had not yet warmed Kalimdor.
He had brought a little bit of wolf meat in his satchel, cooking these into steaks was one of his most favored things to do. Especially during the morning or the afternoon.
Bless Rakanus for his thoughtfulness.
As he cooked two strips of it in an impromptu fire pit he left one of the strips to waft its scent in the air, he had previously shooed away a scorpid and three boars as menacingly as he could.
He was waiting for a very special guest.
"Don't worry, about the man, cuz every little cut, is gonna heal alright. Three little parrots, singing in front of me hut, I smile wit the rising sun. Grab your spear and go hunting fo heads" hummed Zepylo thinking about the troll song from the Isles, it was a little song from the times of the Troll Human Wars.
He stopped humming as he saw a speck of crimson in his peripheral, the same raptor had stopped dead when it saw him. Obviously it was not expecting to see him again. The raptor glanced at him and at the meat almost mechanically.
Zepylo gestured the raptor to approach, more than anything, it glared at him and stood high, trying to seem as large as possible, which was not saying much on physical terms. But Zep understood the meaning it was trying to convey almost casually. Like it was maintaining its distance not because she was being cautious, but because she felt like it.
She craned her neck and clicked her killing claw trying to seem as intimidating and threatening as possible, eyeing him with scrutiny.
Red, felt frustrated, she was starving and the troll was not moving. Why wouldn't anyone be afraid of her like they should be?
The hissed menacingly, and still the troll, followed her movements with calm, not at all put off by her behavior.
She stopped dead in her tracks when the troll got up and took half of the meat and threw it at her almost casually.
Red picked it up in her snout within a second and gobbled it down, thighs tense, as she half expected him to chase her, but he didn't.
She lost track of how long she glared at the troll as it ate placidly while it looked at her. She had mock charged him twice, but after the first one, he didn't even flinch. He had held out his hand with a tiny little morsel of meat and it took her ten minutes to close the distance between herself and the troll and snatch the meat out of his hand and dash away again with a growl, kicking up sand. As she reached her twenty feet, safety line, she would calm down and continue glaring at him.
The small raptor circled him a few times trying to figure him out, he used objects to make a fire and heat the food, and while it was delicious, she preferred it raw. Why would he spoil the food by boiling the blood was beyond her, why make the meat dry?
And he had a bag, which he pulled stuff out of. Some of it was shiny and round, he had few of those little round things.
She was upset with him when he held out his hand with no food and tried to touch her snout. Red bit him in response and left him there, offended.
She was a Bloodtalon, she should have bitten his finger's off for petting her!
Red went back to her nest that night, some of the other raptors sniffed the new meat on her and she growled as she fluffed her nest for the night. The troll was her secret, he had good meat with him, dry, but otherwise ok. She wondered if she would see him there tomorrow.
She growled before settling down and went to sleep, the troll was an ok sort. He was still out of place in trying to touch her, but otherwise ok. Maybe she would feel comfortable enough to wander a little bit closer next time.
If she felt like it…..