part of the ship, part of the crew (open)

[tecuani]

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[atrb=background][bg=839bbb] The cage he was in ought to be a prison. It ought to terrify him, to anger him, to turn him back into the monster that had once eaten a woman. And yet...compared to where he had been, it was...refreshing. He was with his own kind, and there was food. There was plenty of food, as far as Tecuani was concerned. He had grown up in an environment that had taught him to live off of songbirds stolen from the wing and hotdogs filched from a cart-- here, there was life, there were hares and mice and other sorts of creatures he couldn't recognize. There were even deer here, and boar, which were an unimaginable delight. The thought of it put a spark in the young cougar's eye. If nothing else, he would not have to beg here. And that was enough, for a proud creature-- to be able to provide for himself. He had woken up in this place a scant few hours prior, unsure of how he'd gotten there but quite cognizant of what it was that he'd been put into. A glass dome, right? He'd glanced up often since his arrival to the lonely place. He'd heard it was a glass dome, but he couldn't see any kind of ceiling from here. Tecuani had not eaten of the delights of this land, though-- not yet. So far he'd only wandered, taking in the landscape, sniffing wonderously though the undergrowth and discovering all the smells of prey animals, stale and old, but indicative of their presence. He was beginning to wonder where the others were, though-- he'd heard much of this place, and he knew this was where they brought all of his kind and the opposite kind from him, humans that turned into other kinds of creature. Occasionally in his initial meandering he'd gotten wind of a leopard or a fox, sometimes a snake, but it was hard to discern them; things he was used to eating he knew, but the scent of a giraffe or lynx was not so familiar. The large, sand-colored cat, a long beast and low to the ground, thust his nose into the dirt beneath a large fern. His muzzle, white-dipped and brown-banded, was short and compact, comprised of a mouthful of razors and a nose sharpened by constant hunger. That was-- he was quite sure that what he smelled was un conejo, a rabbit. His stomach rumbled, body now crouching lower, tensed, as the senses reached out for a sign of movement nearby; the scent was fresh, from droppings that hadn't been there but a few minutes. There was a rustle nearby, and Tecuani exploded into movement, heavy tail held behind him like a rudder as his legs tore at the underbrush after his prize. The chase lasted perhaps thirty seconds, Tex quite aware that his strength was in short, fierce bursts of speed and aggression and not the endurance chases that the cheetah were capable of. Ingenuity, luck and power combined in a deadly force that pulled an eerie death-wail from the defeated hare as the cougar's jaws closed heavily on its body. Hot blood met cool forest loam as Tecuani settled in where he stood to glut himself first on entrails, hunger driving him to be quick and efficient about his meal.

[Deleted]

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,500,true][bg=bdc6ab] Dark blue eyes looked up at the sky which currently was blanketed in thick gray clouds that promised rain. A light wind blew through the sandy colored fur of Calypso the lone caracal and rustled the pine trees of the hill in which she currently sat. She sighed exasperated at the fact that she was in a glass dome. Or the menagerie as some liked to call it. A place for the odd,a freak show. She dreamed of the outside almost everyday making up fantasies of the illusion of solace which only sank her further into melancholy and depression. Maybe it will be better with time but she really didn't know but she really hoped it would be. The presence of another shook her out of her thoughts as she noticed that she was not alone and that there was a cougar in a clearing below the hill. Another one of her tribe mates that she had yet to know the name of. He was hunting as he crouched low to the ground the, normal hunter stance, sniffing the air for prey. A nearby rustle in the near by undergrowth sent the cougar into motion as he chased the rabbit down,his jaws closing around the animal causing it to emit a squeal of defeat. He teared the rabbit apart with his fangs, making the strong scent of blood coat the air, eating it quickly and ravenously.The smell made Calypso realize how hungry she actually was and how long she had been sitting there. She got up stretching her limbs and decided to catch her own meal even though she was a warrior she liked to catch her own food so that she didn't have to rely on others. Her senses turned to her surroundings as she sniffed the air for any prey. The scent of a squirrel in a near by tree caught her attention. She crouched low to the ground slinking into the shadows so that it would not be aware of her presence. Moving stealthily she positioned herself underneath the branch in which the squirrel sat. Her blue eyes narrowed at the bushy tail of the squirrel as she gauged her jump to be about only a few feet. Crouching on her haunches she jumped with her powerful back legs grabbing the squirrels tail in her teeth and pulling it back down to the ground. Jumping for prey was one of the caracal's main ways to catch prey and had helped Calypso catch hyraxes in her home land but now since she had arrived in the menagerie she had to resort to squirrels. Crunching the squirrels body between her fangs she savored the flavor of it and had it devoured quickly. occ:; sorry its sucky