Birdie Birdie In The Sky || Vanessa

[Deleted]

"Birdie, birdie, birdie," the big black cat muttered to herself as she wiggled through the junk yard. Normally, the jaguar stalked bigger prey when she was hunting, but today she was just playing around. She didn't often go chasing birds around, she was more likely to jump off the cliffs in Carna territory or go for a swim, but, the jaguar wanted to chase birds, so chasing birds she would go. She had already scared a few sparrows off, and she had even almost caught a crane, which was odd, but she ignored it and went about her prowling.

She had started in Carna territory, chasing seagulls around the docks before following them along the outskirts of Fallen territory before ending up in the freelands. She had been mumbling to herself the whole time, trying to decide which bird to pounce on and which to let go. Her jaguar wanted her to snap up every bird and eat it, but she had let every single one of them go. It wasn't the best idea to allow the cat to have its way all the time. If she wasn't careful she could lose herself completely to the huge black cat.

Harlequin St. Claire was a big cat, running just shy of seven feet in length and about three feet at her shoulder. She wasn't relying on her size and strength at this time, preferring to use stealth and tact instead, but the strength that the jaguar had at her disposal was always a plus. Of course, she wasn't planning on taking on anything that required her to use her strength. Most of the bigger birds of prey in the Menagerie were shifters, so it was best to leave them alone, but the smaller birds, on the other hand, were usually free game.

She was toying with another seagull when a flash of color caught her eyes. She lifted her huge black head away from the seagull, which promptly flew off, as she searched for the source of the color. She could have sworn that she had seen a flash of purple. No, not purple, more like lilac. She turned her attention back to the seagull, which, to her disappointment was gone, when a flash of blue caught her attention. What in the world was that flash of color coming from? Was she losing her mind?

She slunk down low to the ground, her black pelt blending in the the shadows as she waited for the flash of color again. There is was! She jerked her head to the right, her grey green eyes locked on the little bird that caught her attention. It was fairly small, but very colorful. It was blue, orange, red, and lilac which turned out to be a pretty, if unusual, combination. The jaguar wanted to eat it, but the girl just wanted to see it up close.

[Vanessa Ryder]

Fly here, fly there, fly absolutely everywhere! That’s what her plan was for the day – and quite surprisingly, she’d pretty much achieved it, give or take a few territories on the farther side of town. Her wings may have been exhausted after heading from one corner of the Menagerie to the other, but she’d seen more of it than she’d walked through in the past few months she’d been incarcerated in the exhibit. To her surprise, it was much, much bigger than expected. She figured it’d be a mile across or something close, but it was such a huge expanse that she couldn’t quite fathom how on earth the keepers had gotten enough glass to mold over the thing. It would have been easier for them to just put fences around the perimeter – but no, they had to cage in the birds, as well. Stupid humans.

Yeah, she’d done quite a lot of trespassing to get to see it all, but.. it wasn’t like anyone could catch her – much less figure out that she was a shifter, and not just one of the local birds. She could pass for a pet that escaped after the giant glass walls were put up and the local citizens left everything behind. She didn’t even smell like much of a rogue, anyways – virtually every scent of every ring lingered on her feathers now, at least for the moment. Sooner or later, it’d wear off and she’d be just another shifter, but for the moment, her disguise was knitted together pretty well.

After having gone in almost each of the ring’s territories, she found a strange feeling of peace once she’d flown into the freelands, almost as if all the anxiety of possibly getting caught had trickled out through her pores, leaving her carefree once again – like a big, empty, floating balloon, just letting the wind carry her off wherever it wanted to. It was entertaining, to say the least.

After a while of gliding, she finally tried descending, hoping to get a drink of water or maybe hunt down a few bugs. Normally, she would have hated the thought of eating bugs – mostly due to the weird, crunchy feeling followed by the oozing guts – but keeping her shift satiated was the key to keeping her human body healthy without eating three meals a day, so she didn’t have much of an option.
She finally landed on the ground, spreading her wings out and cupping them somewhat, in order to catch wind under them and slow her down before she hit the ground – possibly turning into a feathery pancake.
She let out a few chirps once she landed, jumping off yet again and spreading her wings every now and then to try to hover over some of the bugs she was after.

[Deleted]

She was going to get the bird, oh yes she was. Some of the other shifters who were birds were pretty, but Harlequin was certain that she hadn't seen a bird like this before. besides, it didn't smell like a ring so it was probably a real bird. If she did catch it, she should take it back to the camp, but who would profit from one small bird? It would be like bringing back a sparrow to camp, just pointless. She was a jaguar, if she really wanted to bring game back to the ring it would be easy enough to take down a deer or some other kind of game. Besides, if she tried to kill it with her paw she would squish and and if she tried to kill it with her teeth, she'd probably swallow it on accident.

The bird was now hopping around and eating bugs. Harley could feel her nose wrinkle slightly. She was glad that she wasn't a bird shift. the thought of eating bugs didn't appeal to her all that much. Oh sure, if she was starving, she'd probably eat some bugs, but not if she had any real say in the matter. Of course, her mother used to tell her that grasshopper and cricket wasn't that bad once it was cooked. But she was getting off topic.

She sunk closer to the ground, her long black tail twitching as she slowly stalked closer to the bird. Her grey green eyes flashed slightly as the sun hit them. If she had been stalking a rabbit, she would have slunk across the ground on her pads, because the rabbit would feel her before anything else. This was a bird though, just as long as she kept quiet she should be just fine. She was going to catch the bird, maybe play with it, and then maybe let it go. Her tail lashed once more before she sprang, silently as she could, with her paws open to form a cage around the bird when she came down on. If she timed this right, the bird wouldn't be able to get away from her.

[Vanessa Ryder]

Bugs, bugs, bugs. Yeah, they were a little creepy – and icky – when she was in her human form, but it just seemed natural when she was in her shift. While human tongues were laced with hundreds of taste buds and sensory devices that’d scream ‘bloody murder’ if she dared chomp down on a bug like it was chocolate, birds had beaks and relatively small tongues. She hardly noticed a taste at all, just a distinct, crunching feeling..

Somewhere in her little cycle of hopping around, flashing her wings, and pecking, something caught her eye. The bugs were one thing – every now and then there were worms, beetles, ants.. but there was something else nearby that she just couldn’t put her finger on.
Freezing in place for a few seconds, her attention lay solely on her ears, hoping to catch the sound of a snapping stick, smothered grass, or a few pebbles scratching against the ground. Nothing specific came to her attention, so she decided to glance around at the area before her to try to scout something out – still, there was nothing, and so she went back to the task at hand: eating.

Recently, she’d made a habit of sticking to rooftops and trying to scout out her prey while she was airborne before taking the dive, but today was an exception. Nothing had really riled her up in a while, most likely because she hadn’t gone out and put herself on the line. The first few weeks she was trapped in the Menagerie, she was everyone’s problem – boundaries meant absolutely nothing, and there were a few quarrels here and there. After a while of this, it got old fast and she decided to keep her skulking around to the skies, where few would be bothered to try and chase her off.
But today, she decided against roaming through the rings and decided to keep her hunting to the freelands. For the moment, she couldn’t exactly say if it’d been a good or bad idea – whether or not she’d do it again was yet to be decided.

What was that?
A flash of black caught her attention, but it disappeared just as quickly as it’d come. Growing completely still, the bird flicked her wings a few times, listening intently.. and that’s when it hit her – a swoosh through the air, an impending shadow. She was being hunted!
Shifting back to her human form, she flashed around and let out a yell, hoping to startle whatever had been – ..oh dear.

“N-Niiice kitty..” she whispered, holding up a hand between her and the black-furred feline in front of her. It had to be a shifter, right? The Menagerie wouldn’t have something like that as a native animal..

[Deleted]

This was going to be an easy catch, she assured herself in mid-air, as she waited to land on her prey. The bird didn't suspect a thing. She'd land, cage the little bird in between her big paws, and then decide what to do with it, since she still wasn't sure if she should eat it or not. It really wouldn't make much of a meal, not even a snack in her jaguar form. Maybe, she could catch it, and find something to use as a cage. Some of the other shifters kept pets, not a lot, but some of them did. Plus, the bird was pretty. It wasn't like she was contemplating making a pet out of a seagull or sparrow.

To say that she was startled when her prey shifted back into a human, was an understatement. She dropped down onto the spot where the bird had been a few seconds before and looked up at the other girl, her green grey eyes narrowed slightly. Well, just because her prey was gone, didn't mean her fun was. It was obvious that the girl was afraid of her, and with good reason. She'd be worried too if she had been a bird shift that was being hunted by a huge black cat.

She mentally smirked, before drawing her lips over her sharp teeth, a let a menacing hiss slip past her lips. She could always roar, jaguars were one of the big cats that could, but she was just trying to scare the girl a bit more, not give her a heart attack. She really didn't want to kill the girl, well not right now she didn't, and dealing with a dead body would ruin the rest of her day. Of course, she could always just leave the body and go about her normal day.

She took one step forward, her powerful shoulders rolling under her black pelt, her spots almost invisible, as she hissed again. She couldn't take it anymore, though, and a cough sound erupted from her throat. She quickly shifted back, laughing loudly as she fought to catch her breath.

Harlequin was a big cat, about seven feet long and three feet tall at her shoulder, but her human heights was so small. She barely stood at five foot, and right now she wasn't even that tall. She was crouched down, leaning back slightly on her boot heels, a smirk on her face once the laughter had bubbled out. She stood, pulling her pants up out of habit, and chuckled again. "Sorry about that," she drawled, her southern accent coming across as she pulled herself up to her full height. She smirked again, the two silver rings in her bottom lip pulling slightly s she did so.

[Vanessa Ryder]

The hiss had made her heart drop, that was for sure. Of all the things she’d run across in her lifetime, a black jaguar had not been one of them, nor had she expected it to be. However, there was something more to the creature that she just couldn’t set her finger on. The way it looked at her, for a few seconds, was almost characteristic of the mischievous gleam she got in her own eyes when she was up to something. That being said, it wasn’t too long before the cat suddenly coughed, morphing back into the shape of a girl – a much smaller girl.
Vanessa blinked a few times, staring at her in disbelief for a few moments before her mind dragged itself out of shock and realize what had happened. At this, she started laughing as well, mostly due to her own stupidity. She’d actually held up a hand to the girl’s shift like it would recognize it as a sign of neutrality – had it been a real jaguar, she would most likely be missing a great portion of her hand. Luck had been on her side that day, at least in the slightest bit.
She shook her head, mentally shaking off the nervousness and adrenaline that coursed through her veins. It was like fire, making her skin a bit tingly and her pupils wide – the hazel-colored iris was reduced to a bright ring around the pool of blackness.
Regardless of any of that and the thought that she could have been cat food, she let her anxiousness go rolling off of her shoulders like water off a duck.
“Very funny,” she chirped, reaching out to give the other girl a playful push.
“I’m not sure I’d make a very tasty meal considering I’m about the size of a chicken drumstick.”