Changelings Chapter 1, Pt. 2

Not far behind, a small creature hopped out from the prairie grass, head cocked to the side, staring after it’s quarry. She was a curious looking creature, with the appearance of a wiry, featherless bird, covered in dark green and yellow striations. Her head moved back and forth as she moved, giving her a peculiar gait.

Her chest was deep and her small arms twitched almost involuntarily at small movements, snatching at dust motes in the early afternoon light.

She’d been out this morning hunting for worms among the cold mud, when she’d seen what she had thought to be the largest worm ever crawl nearby her. She had frozen, watching it carefully…

After a few moments, she realized this could not be a worm, for worms could not see, and felt about blindly. This creature quite obviously knew where it was going, moving about to and fro through the rocks, seeking out a path not covered in frost.

She decided to follow it, crouching carefully among the grass, making sure to make no noise.  This creature could keep her well fed for a full light and dark if she could kill it. And if not, she was oddly drawn to it, and was curious to find out what exactly it was, as her kind were often prone to feeling. Chances were she could injure it, but not kill it. She was very young, perhaps a season or so. She had hatched late, born in the bitterness of the fall, long after her siblings, and mother too, were gone. It was a miracle her egg had not been chanced upon and eaten, or frozen in the cold. Fortunately, it had been raining around that time, and she was hatched in a muddy area, and upon falling out of her egg, had tumbled out almost onto a large worm, which she pounced upon and eaten voraciously.  She had developed quite the taste for worms since then, and they had been her main sustenance for a long while.

She crept along through the weeds softly, watching her prey.

This was definitely not a worm. It could see, of this she was sure, as it turned its head from side to side, with a purpose, unlike worms, who waved their heads in circles doing what, she couldn’t possibly guess. It also had a tongue, as she did, but different. This worm-thing stuck it’s tongue out all the time, a simple little flick, over and over. She tried it. She stuck her tongue out and pulled it back in. Nothing. She tried again and again.  It was fun, but it served no purpose, as far as she could tell.

She again turned her attention to her quarry, watching it curiously. It didn’t move like a worm either, this creature had a sense of purpose, as it moved about, stopping from time to time to stick it’s tongue out, often changing direction ever so slightly after doing so. It also was strangely colored, as it was striped, like herself, but along the whole length of its body, it was black and yellow and orange.

“Hm. That looks a lot like a garter snake…” came a faint noise from nowhere, but all around her, far from her, but right beside her, as if she were in a cave. She froze, standing absolutely still, not daring to move. She had never heard a noise like it, and she did not want to find out what had made it.

It seemed her prey had heard it too, as it had stopped, and was lying like a dead stick on the ground. It lay there a long time. A very, very long time, her legs began to ache as she stood, waiting for it to move, her own sense of danger long sense past, but she sensed that it was better equipped to sense danger than she was, and so decided to not move until it did.

Finally, after many, many heartbeats, it lifted its head, flickered it’s tongue, and moved on. Struck by a sudden smell, she decided to stay still a while longer.

As she waited, it moved away very slowly, not making a single noise or moving a single plant, and moved a good 30 of her paces away from her, leaving a wet spot where it had sat. She hopped lightly out of the bushes and quickly stepped over to the glistening patch on the rocks. It seemed it had urinated as it left. She gave it a sniff.

It was a lot like herself. Cold blooded. Ate meat, and insects too. And worms. Worms don’t eat worms she thought, and that concluded it for her. Not a worm. And it was male too. That mildly interested her. Normally, her curiosity would be sated at this point, but she had been following this creature a long way, and wondered what he could possibly be headed for. She hopped back off of his trail a little ways and ran lightly through the weeds after him.

Unfortunately, she did not see the rock that was jutting up from behind a small tuft of grass and tripped over it while running, and landed on her head, did a small somersault and landed on her butt.

THUD THUD

”Hahaha haha, oh, haha oh, wow…” again, the noise, but this time it did not frighten her, it simply gave her a feeling, almost like curiosity, and a want to go do something fun. She stuck her tongue out.

She looked slightly off to her right to see what her traveling companion had done, if he had heard. It appeared that he had, as he had stopped, and was flicking his tongue in and out furiously.

His body froze suddenly, tongue protruding, he stayed that way for a moment. He flicked his tonge back in and out once more, then lay back along the ground, and took off at an tremendous speed, pushing through the grass heading west.

She quickly jumped up and ran after him, wondering what he could have possibly sensed.