Post by Poppy Montgomery on May 15, 2013 14:15:26 GMT -5
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, width: 497px; height: 675px; background-image:url(http://i46.tinypic.com/35d82vm.jpg)] I'm fine with eating rats, Poppy thought grumpily as she strode east. Meat is meat, isn't it? But this spring, when she started bringing them in by the bushel, everyone was suddenly squeamish. When it's gutted and skinned, it's the same as a squirrel, she had protested when the higher-up hunters told her to go after more sanitary prey. The girl had made it clear that she thought the motion was idiotic, but she acquiesced under threat of dismemberment. So last evening she had gone up to the cliffs and set a bunch of traps among the roots of those lofty redwoods, but this morning they had all been empty. Which is absurd. It was spring, the snow was melting and the trees were shooting out their little lime green leaves and there were supposed to be living and running about. But no. No luck. Poppy had shot a sparrow down while she had been checking the traps, but coming back to the sewers with one little sparrow was almost worse than coming home empty handed. Jeremiah would make ruthless fun of her. So now she headed east. There was some grassland around the Fallen border, and she imagined that there might be some rabbits bouncing around. Spring rabbit fur was the best, anyways, and Poppy was running low on quality fur. As she strode through carna streets, east and more east, she pulled her slingshot out of her overalls' pocket and just held it in her hands. It was beautiful. Smooth aluminum with a fat, durable rubber band and a little black leather sling. She had found it a week ago hanging from a branch over one of her snares. The keepers, it seemed, had left it especially for her. She had actually started crying. when she saw it; it was all she had dreamed of since coming here. Empty handed, she was nearly useless: she could make snares and peg critters at close range with a flick of her wrist, but really... she was quite ineffective. But now, with this slingshot, she felt safe and useful. The buildings thinned like trees at the edge of a forest, and the horizon with it's cataract-blue sky opened in front of Poppy. The ground, soft and green and damp, spread out like a garish lime quilt. The grass was still new and short- soon in would be waving 'round her knees, but for now there were only a few inches of growth. There, Poppy could see the razorwire fence that marked the edge of Fallen territory. There was a much vaster tract of grassland beyond that that would fade, soon as the summer heat hit, into barren desert. Poppy rolled her shoulders and let her eyes unfocus, trying to detect any motion in the green. Nothing nearby, she decided, but... wait. She focused her eyes into this speck in the distance and sighed. Yep, those looked like rabbits, and more than one... but they were on the other side of the fence, in Fallen land. The girl ran her hand through her scraggly black hair, remembering the pitiful little sparrow in her pocket. She looked out at those rabbits and gnawed on her lip. That was a pretty fence for sure... but not that effective at keeping others, especially little shifters. Like squirrels. So Poppy shrugged and loped toward the fence. She shifted into her little, black-furred body and slipped through the fence like a needle through loose cotton. On the other side, she stood up human again, catching a glimpse of those rabbits from her full height. Yes, there were three of them about a hundred feet away. Poppy's mouth watered. She shifted back into squirrel form and scampered through the grass, which stood slightly over her eye level, in the general direction of her prey. Trespassing tasted like iron under her tongue, and he felt her heart beat an excited rhythm in her ears. She imagined all the carna scolding her for being reckless, calling her back. With a little smile pulling and the corner of her mouth, she popped her head up over the grass, spotting the rabbits again and adjusting her course. To the north and west, she thought she could see a grey block that must have been the FallenRing nest. She kept moving until she was some fifteen feet from her prey. She popped her sleek black head up over the grass again, her whiskers twitching. The rabbits noted her, perking their long, soft ears, and then continued to snuffle through the young leaves. One of the many things Poppy loved about her shift. The squirrel breathed out slowly, focusing. With all the speed and fluidity she could manage, Poppy shifted back to human form on her hands and knees, drew back her slingshot and fired, pegging the first rabbit in the temple. It collapsed. The other two seemed frozen in shock for a heartbeat, but when the first pebble hit it's target, they darted. Poppy shot a second stone at one of the runners, hitting in the rump and causing one of its legs to give out. Poppy trampled after it and leaped, thudding onto it with both hands around it's stomach. She snapped it's neck quickly. The third rabbit zigzagged into the grasses, vanishing from view. Poppy returned to the first concussed rabbit, wrung its neck to finish it off, and stood, grinning at the sky for a beautiful moment, a soft carcass in each hand. Oh, this was a good day. |
