Blue rushes through the foliage at a moderate pace, not entirely enthusiastic with returning to her Caretaker after they used their cheating wiggly-thing trick to get her away from her meal. And to think: Blue was about to share with Caretaker. The nerve of some people. That’s the last time Blue considers anything like sharing again.

  Caretaker can just take care of themselves, then. No more shared he

  But even though Blue is ticked off and feeling a little murder-y, she returns anyways, having already been trained to associate that shrill whistle with the one thing that’s even better than a fresh meal:

  That delicious, beak-wateringly salty meat that only Caretaker seems able to procure.

  And thus, when her keen eyes catch sight of the Caretaker holding a vine-looking thing and a piece of that delicious, salty meat, she decides to speed up just that little bit more.

  If Caretaker wants to offer her a peace offering, she guesses she could forgive her. Just this once.

  Blue gets ever closer and closer, watching with a slight bit of amusement and satisfaction as Caretaker’s eyes scan the foliage near where Blue is running, their eyes sliding over her perfect form over and over; not once actually spotting her as she makes her way towards them. The forest is Blue’s home, and while in it, she’s perfectly hidden amongst its greenery. Blue feels secure in the fact that in almost every engagement, she’ll have spotted her prey long before they have spotted her.

  At least, for now. She is growing rather swiftly, after all. But by the time her size hinders her stealth, she won’t really need stealth.

  Blue quickly gets close to Caretaker, and for a moment, she can feel that clenching anticipation in her stomach that she normally feels when she’s about to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. Her pupils dilate on their own, and she feels her beak about to chatter in excitement and anticipation. Caretaker just looks so… Lost. So vulnerable.

  So tasty.

  Blue digs her claws into the earth beneath her feet, relishing in the feeling of surety that the traction it gives her. If she wanted to, she could dig in just that little bit deeper and get to her full speed. She could leap into the air and pounce on Caretaker, digging her claws into their flesh just like she did with the other fleshy thing. She could tear Caretaker apart and devour her, piece by piece…

  Just as Blue considers doing just that, Caretaker finally manages to spot Blue, their eyes locking across the distance between them, calming the rampaging instincts within Blue and bringing calm clarity back to her mind. Caretaker straightens her back, clenching the vine-thing tightly, her wiggly-flesh things glowing around it in that telltale cheat-thing she does.

  Now isn’t the time to attack. Now is the time to accept Caretaker’s peace offering with glee. At this rate, that time may never come. Caretaker has handily beaten Blue at almost every attempt, and at this point, her instincts are telling her that she’s not ready to try again.

  Not yet, anyway.

  Blue breaks through the foliage and lets out a greeting cluck at Caretaker, her long, elegant neck raised as high as it can go. She looks down on the puny flesh-thing as she takes a powerful step after the other towards them, the tantalizing smell of the salted meat and the sweet tang of fear and partial anticipation wafting off of Caretaker making Blue’s mouth water.

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  Caretaker makes some soothing noises at Blue and takes a step back, dropping the small hunk of salted meat on the ground as they do so. Blue watches Caretaker for a moment as Caretaker takes the loop of vine-thing and wraps it around itself with some purpose that Blue can’t quite discern. She cocks her majestic head to the side in curiosity, before deciding that whatever the silly Caretaker is doing can’t possibly be more important than the piece of meat sitting right there on the floor in front of her.

  With a pleased coo, Blue lowers her majestic head towards the floor, barely noticing as Caretaker deftly slips the vine-thing gently around Blue’s head and neck as she does so.

  Blue gently opens up her powerful beak and closes it around the small piece of delectable meat, fully intending to savour every single moment. She feels the thrill of sinking the sharp tip of her beak into the yielding hunk of flesh, letting out a satisfied rumble deep in her chest as she raises it slowly up into the air.

  She snaps her beak open, tilting her head back and letting the treat fall down into her throat. She snaps closed her beak with a satisfying clack that reverberates through the forest, swallowing down the delectable meat in one go. It slides down her long neck and reaches her stomach with a gulp, filling her up just that little bit more.

  With a few satisfied clacks of her beak, Blue is content. She can forgive Caretaker for stealing the rest of her meal, just this once. With a nod, Blue decides that as long as they keep bringing her offerings like this, she can look past quite a few things that Caretaker does that gets underneath her skin.

  At least, until she finally learns that wiggly flesh-thing trick.

  With that decided, Blue turns towards the forest, ready to set out once again and hunt whatever poor, unfortunate creature is unlucky enough to pique her interest, at least until Caretaker calls for her once again.

  She takes a step, then another, digging her talons in a bit as she decides to speed up and rush off.

  Before she feels a sudden tug around her neck, followed by the vine-thing tightening just that little bit more.

  Sending Blue into a blind, instincts-based panic.

  With a furious start, Blue tries to tug away from whatever’s around her neck, but finds the thing tugging back even harder. And that causes Blue to panic even more. She jumps up and down in place, wobbling her long neck from side to side to try and shake it off, but it just keeps tugging hard against her, tightening almost hard enough to cut off her breath.

  She digs her claws in and tries to force her way away, feeling the weight of something pulling against her attempts but ultimately failing when faced with the sheer might of her legs. But unfortunately, the harder she digs her claws in and the harder she pulls against the thing, the tighter it gets.

  Blue starts coughing and hacking, trying to draw breath and get away from this thing. Her vision starts to go spotty, and she lets out a honking wheeze, before her legs give in and she loses the strength to keep pulling against it.

  Blue takes a ponderous step towards Caretaker and finds that her breath comes back to her once again, the thing around her neck loosening just enough to let the life-saving element rush down her oesophagus. Breath returned once again, she does the only thing she can think of:

  Pull against it with all of her might. Again.

  Blue digs her claws in to the loamy earth and takes one heaving step after the other, dragging whatever is cutting off her air supply after her. With that not working quickly enough, she does the next thing that her little mind can come up with:

  Run in the opposite direction.

  Spinning on a dime, fast enough to hear the whistle of the wind past her ear holes, Blue does a full 180 and, her eyes completely unfocused, sprints as fast as she can; to great success. The tension around her neck disappears all at once, and she feels the weight of it dragging against her disappear.

  Until she crashes bodily into something. Something hard, fleshy, and that wraps its hard and fleshy bits around the base of her neck and stomach. On instinct, she digs her front talons into whatever this thing is, and it lets out a shout of pain and agony that sounds suspiciously like Caretaker.

  Holding onto this thing tightly, not willing to let go, and still in a blind panic; Blue races off into the foliage, sprinting away from whatever horrible thing just tried to capture her and putting as much distance as she can between her and it.