Blue can feel the anticipation building up within her veins, the delicious scent of blood pouring out of the wounded prey and the mind-numbing pleasure of the hunt irresistible to the deadly huntress. Her powerful legs propel her after the wounded fleshy thing like an eagle diving after prey, her pupils narrowing down to tiny dots and her nostrils flaring as she concentrates fully on her target.

  This one is smart, and Blue knows it. She can still feel the sting in her hide from the swipes it took at her with its long, shiny claw. It’s fast to react; and it seems able to tell exactly what Blue is going to do, always stepping just slightly out of her grasping beak or her swiping talons.

  This would have frustrated Blue to no end just a week ago; the proud predator would have gotten angrier and angrier as her attacks continued to prove fruitless. But now? After all the times she’s tried (and failed) to get the better of Caretaker?

  She can feel an icy calmness take a hold of her, and as she rapidly catches up to the fleeing prey. And instead of diving for them like she did last time, she decides to take a moment and listen to her brain.

  And the instincts running through her veins, honed over millions of years of predation.

  She sees the fleshy thing stop and turn towards her, its sharp claw held to the side, ready to swipe. Just before it does swipe, though, Blue slows down and lets out a low hiss, the sound reverberating through her larynx and setting the fleshy thing’s hair on end. The fleshy thing stands in place, knowing that to run is to die. The moment it turns its back on her again, it’s hers.

  Blue takes an exploratory bite at the fleshy thing, just barely managing to duck back her head before the sharp claw takes it off. She tries again lower down but the fleshy thing manages to take a quick step back, avoiding her beak, before slightly hobbling on its injured leg and standing straight again.

  Blue notices the slight limp, and with a clacking hiss, she starts to circle the fleshy thing towards its injured leg, taking an occasional false charge at it to keep it off-balance.

  The fleshy thing circles along with her, keeping her in its sight, refusing to fall for her feints. It keeps itself upright as best it can, gritting its blunt and useless teeth against the pain.

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  Until Blue suddenly twists and steps the other way, taking the fleshy thing off guard and causing it to take a dramatic spin to try and keep the sharp claw between it and her. The spin ends up being too much for the fleshy thing, and it lets out a small gasp of pain, not nearly spinning far enough to bring up the claw in time to block Blue’s beak from clamping over the fleshy thing’s arm and biting down until she tastes the warm rush of blood seeping down her throat and feels the crack of its bone splintering beneath her beak.

  The thing cries out and raises its sharp claw into the air, about to stab it into Blue’s side –

  – Until a whistling blade of wind slices through the air above Blue’s head, slicing off the fleshy thing’s arm in one fell swoop.

  Blood gushes out of the stump and drenches Blue with its delicious warmth, and the fleshy thing screams for the first time.

  And that scream sets off Blue like a shark in a frenzy.

  With another chomp, Blue snaps the fleshy thing’s other bone and the limb goes limp in her mouth. She twists and pulls her head, hearing it tear and snap until finally, she pulls the entire thing apart. She savours the salty tang for a moment before spitting it out for later, rushing at the fleshy thing with all of her mass and knocking it over onto its back.

  Blue steps onto the fleshy thing with her sharp claws, digging in deeply to ensure that it doesn’t run away. It squirms and shakes underneath her, digging itself deeper into her claws with a satisfying feeling that has her blood singing. It tries again and again to escape, but with two missing limbs, it has no chance of escaping her alive.

  With a cry of victory, she brings her beak up high into the air, savouring the moment of victory.

  Before bringing her beak down against the fleshy thing’s skull, piercing a hole into it and ending the fleshy thing’s struggling for good.

  The sweet feeling of victory sings through her veins, that feeling of going up against something that gave her a real challenge that ultimately fell to her, as they all will eventually. Not wasting a moment longer, she digs into her meal, biting down on the supple flesh with the sharp tip of her beak and ripping it from side to side until it tears off in a large, satisfying chunk.

  She lifts her head and swallows it down, contemplating for a moment leaving some of her meal to Caretaker as thanks for the assistance. Not that Blue needed it, but the wiggly-fleshy trick definitely spared Blue from some pain, and Blue feels… Compelled, in a way, to show some appreciation to them.

  She eyes the discarded limb that she spat out, lying on the side, and decides that that’s more than enough for Caretaker. She’ll take it to them later, once she’s had her fill.

  In the background of Blue’s senses, she can hear Caretaker doing more of that horrible hiccuping thing that she does with the wet eyes, and smells the sharply acidic tang of vomit coming from the same direction. For a moment, Blue feels her curiosity being piqued. What could Caretaker be doing over there?

  But then she tears another strip of meat from her meal, and decides it doesn’t really matter what Caretaker is up to.

  Blue needs to eat, after all.