[B] Little Motes of Sunlight (Scatter/Doom)

[AMItotic]

[imgleft]https://matope-swamp.com/images/araucan ... uncert.png[/imgleft]When Scatter the Sun ran, it was fast and far reaching, like he was chasing light, like he was flying through the air. What else could he do when he felt halfway to the stars, high from the amorous attentions of a pretty doe? If he thought his fur could pass for feathers, he might have tried leaping anyways, just to check and see.

To burn off energy, he galloped and he galloped and he galloped until he could gallop no more, and then burned his restless energy by rolling around in the marsh grasses, for once not caring a lick if he got brambles or twigs in his fur. She'd liked him, she'd really liked him--and it was making his heart soar. The buck was so caught up in the after-feelings of romance that he'd yet to even consider that his affections might bear fruit.

[fluo]

Bah. Was it really so difficult to enjoy a  feast with her latest kill in peace? Apparently so. Doom's euphoria of  a hard won hunt was short lived with an oblivious kiokote crashing in on her dinner. Maw bloody and raised in ire up at the soft sun, she cursed her luck. Surveying the initially nondescript area for potential scavengers, she slithered her way through the grass to the unsuspecting buck. She was caught off guard. He was tussled up in fallen branches and dead swamp life but radiated happiness. Annoyed he couldn't do his rolling elsewhere and with less fanfare, she reared back, wings flapped twice in warning and struck at an unguarded leg rump.

@AMItotic

[AMItotic]

It was so easy to get caught up in celebrating that Scatter hadn't noticed his company, not until there were wings spread and teeth bared. The noise he made was half song and half-squawk, jerking away from the serpent, but not before he felt the snake strike against one of his back legs. Now his mind was wheeling, even as he stumbled to his hooves. Was he poisoned? Would he die? But--he couldn't! He was too pretty, and he was looking forward to a second date!

"What was that for?" He caterwauled, spinning in place to try and get a better look at the bite. Not that serpents could speak, so far as he knew, but his grievance had to be aired somewhere, and there didn't seem to be any other takers around? "Am I bleeding? Oh, if there's blood I'm going to faint, I just know it--"

While he spoke to no one in particular, he continued to spin in place, like a wolf trying to catch its own tail.

@fluo (You probably know this but she has???? THE PRETTIEST COLORS OMG)

[fluo]

This form was great for many things, but in all the seasons Doom had lived, she was taken aback at the waterworks. Even the squawk was not something she normally heard from the four hooved kind. And then he started chasing his tail like a rabid sanddog. She rolled her eyes so hard they almost fell off. The indignation she felt meant Doom shifted to her Mare form because efficiency was tantamount.

"First off, I didn't draw blood so you can save your drama you... buck." She had a few other colorful words to add, but with the endless circles the buck was going in, she wasn't sure he would comprehend her flair. And briefly just ever so briefly, the flames of her eyes grew and smoke could be seen coming out of her ears. Smoldering her eyes and she pulled back the sides of her mouth in her best attempt at a smile. Impatient to her bones, it was a poor facsimile.

"What are you doing here in my part of the woods?"

((super belated tag @AMItotic . I'm so sorry. Doom is preening at your compliment <3 ))

[AMItotic]

Scatter wasn't sure he'd seen a serpent like this before, but he was definitely certain he'd never seen a serpent that became a Kimeti. He stared with wide brown eyes, the whalesong of his voice warbling in vague distress.

"I...what...you're a doe?" And a pretty doe at that, but Scatter was too startled to find himself flirtatious, all things considered. He'd heard tale of these shifting sort of kin, blessed by the swamp, but he hadn't expected them to be real. (He marked that down along with the other things he'd suspected were fake but was proven otherwise, like 'snow' and 'caimans'.)

"I...I didn't know it was your part of the woods," he insisted, scrambling to his hooves for a sense of composing himself. "Didn't know kin could own the woods. I felt a run coming on, so I...went for a run." This wasn't a concept he would have needed to explain to a kiokote, who had running in their blood.

"Is that a problem?"

@fluo

[fluo]

Kin really couldn't own woods or any part of the swamp. If they were part of a tribe, they could carve out of the swamp as their domain, but seasons had a way of fading marks and glyphs no matter how neatly and diligently they were carved into stone. She weathered the swamp's fluctuating politics between traveling bands and tribes. She was older and took her fun in any way she could. Even if it meant terrifying this hapless buck.

"No, I'm a cute fluffy bunny. Wanna see my tail?"  she deadpanned as well as the Totoma.

"It's only a problem if you didn't bring me a snack." She pulled back her shoulders and gave him her coldest stare.

@AMItotic

[AMItotic]

"You can turn into a bunny, too? How many things can you turn into? An eagle? I've always thought I might be an eagle someday," chirped back Scatter, whose curiosity was starting to win out over his fear. But all she had to do was give him one look, one icy cold look, and fear came back with a vengeance, one of his back hooves nervously stomping.

"I--how was I supposed to know to bring you a snack?" These demands were impossible to anticipate--and she wasn't even taking into account how dashing he must have looked, rolling around in the grass! "I could...go find you one, probably. I run fast, it makes me a great hunter." Not to speak on the obvious of course, but...sometimes does didn't believe that someone so dashing could also be so skilled. Who cared if he'd only actually caught one thing bigger than a bug? It was one more thing than other people! He was doing his best.

@fluo

[fluo]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... mgriff.png[/imgleft]The kiokote's mind ran as fast their kind's legs would carry them in a dead sprint. From one topic to another he flitted and Doom moved to shut it down. And when the stomping started, the skin around her mouth twitched the barest range in rhythm to the ground smashing. The old adage of youth was wasted on the young brought to mind her next set of action. After all, Doom sincerely doubted the buck's hunting skills after catching him frolicking with abandon in the soft grass.

"Should you ever have a clutch, they will become great hunters, never wanting for bounty, and generous with their spoils to newcomers and old friends alike. Efficient as the carrion birds, they would be better prepared for what the Swamp has to give them. For the Swamp's sake and mine." The last bit of the blessing (or curse) she growled before taking to the skies in a different form built for speed and long distance should the kiokote get the wrong impression to follow her. Greener and quieter pastures awaited her.

@AMItotic