A Thorny Adversary
Lena’s ear twitched, and she stopped her prowling to scratch it. The blue flame on it flickered from the movement, but with all the glowing plants around her, that shouldn’t startle any potential prey.
Strange, though. Lena’s spiral markings glowed a little more brightly amidst her black fur as she gazed into the future, looking for some sort of imminent threat to set off the itch, but nothing. Hm. Maybe sometimes, a twitch was just a twitch.
Back to the matter at paw, then. She’d smelled a mouse just a moment ago, and now slightly opened her mouth to locate the scent even better. Just a little bit further…
A high-pitched yelp ruined Lena’s attention and sent the mouse skittering away. Not that she cared, not this time; the yelp had sounded far too familiar, and there was exactly one thing allowed to torment her little apprentice, which was Lena herself. Twigs and brambles tried to hold her back, but whenever they would catch her skin or fur, she just liquidized the area, letting them slide off harmlessly. No bothersome plants would stop her from saving Sky.
It didn’t take her long to spot Sky’s sand-colored fur through the green bushes, back turned towards her. With an impressively loud hiss, Lena leapt over the fennec, paws just barely missing Sky’s glowing white wings, fur bristled, claws unsheathed. When she landed, the blue glow of her bared fangs reflected from— the leaves of a thistle bush.
She turned towards Sky, who was rubbing her nose with a paw. “Uh, sorry?” Sky offered sheepishly. “I didn’t know you were in the area… Or that you’d come running!” She stepped closer to Lena. “Sooo… I guess that means you docare about me!”
“Well,” Lena said, and quickly groomed her chest to cover up the embarrassment of trying to start a fight with a piece of vegetation, “I didn't expect my apprentice to be foolish enough to scream because she didn’t manage to see a bush bigger than she is.” Once Lena’s chest fur was nice and shiny, she moved on to her paw. “And as your mentor, it would have been my duty to protect you from anyactualthreats.”
“That’s so nice of you!” Sky lowered her torso to the ground, behind still high and tail wagging quickly. “So, since you’re here anyway…” There was a playful twinkle in Sky’s brown eyes, all the more noticeable thanks to the two glowing stripes on her cheeks.
Lena lifted her head to look at Sky, but kept her paw raised. “Don’t push your luck, kitten.” When Sky took another step towards her, Lena swiftly batted at her, claws of course sheathed.
Sky jumped back, flapping her wings and hovering a little above the ground. “Aw, come on!”
“My lunch got away thanks to you.” Lena’s tail tip twitched. “So I’ll have to find something new.” She paused, faced with Sky's big pleading eyes, then sighed. “Maybe afterwards, I can teach you some more.”
“What if I helped you?” Sky landed again and neatly folded her wings against her body, almost covering up the white splotch further back. Not like it mattered; Lena knew Sky didn’t actually need the wings to fly. “You know, if I caught you something!”
“And you think you’ll find something faster than I can?” She had confidence, if nothing else.
“Well, maybe not faster,” Sky admitted. “But if there’s two Seldnacs looking, then that’s twice the chance of finding something, right? So even if I’m not faster than you in general, I might get lucky, and then you’d have your food sooner!”
It didn’t seem like Sky would give up on the plan that quickly, and in a way, it was a little endearing. “All right. Show me your forest hunting skills.”
“I came here to practice those! Look!” Sky kept her tail still and ducked close to the ground, moving forwards quietly. Seemed like she had indeed trained, even if she was still a little clumsy when it came to avoiding all the little twigs, branches and roots that littered the forest ground. And bushes, apparently.
Lena circled Sky, nudging her slightly here, pulling one of her legs into a better position there. “Fine, you can try to help. You go that way, I’ll go this way. And remember to keep your legs on the ground while you’re here.”
“I will, promise!” Though Lena had no doubt Sky meant what she said, the fennec’s feet were again hanging a paw’s width above the ground.
Lena bit Sky’s foreleg, just gentle enough that her teeth wouldn’t pierce the skin, and yanked her back down. “Don't forget to look where you’re going, I can’t save you from every thistle you might run into.”
“Yeah, I learned that lesson.” Sky rubbed her nose one more time. “Okay, I’ll go, and I’ll be back with some nice lunch for you before you know it! See you!” And off she ran, though to her credit, her paws did in fact touch the ground with every step.
Lena shook her head and turned the other way, carefully sniffing the air. There had to be more prey hidden somewhere between all these roots, after all.