- Jun 5, 2024
- 8
- 0
- 1
TAGS — It's a day like any other.
Birdy loves the free life. He can hunt his own food, he can sleep in the plush green summer grass, he can piss where he pleases. It's been this way for over half his life now, and it still never gets old. Whether he roamed the streets of the housefolk colony or pushed his luck at the edge of the forest, he could always find something to spark the ignition in his chest and keep him moving. Whether it made him happy or not didn't matter — he didn't have to be happy as long as he didn't have to be anything else, either. As long as he didn't have to sit in that house, huge and vacant and cool white marble, with his family rioting around him. Parents who didn't understand his restlessness. Siblings who were great backups for a son that didn't quite work out.
The housefolk hadn't liked him much anyway. He was cagey; he didn't like to be touched, much less held or petted, something those giant flesh-pink idols didn't seem to understand despite his hissing and clawing and biting and — well. When he'd gone, they'd practically thrown him out, but Birdy maintains his own agency in the exit. He's a better loner than pet; a better tramp than child. He'd chosen this path knowing all of that.
And god damn, does he love it! It's a day like any other. Somewhere in the twolegplace, Birdy hunkers down amidst lush green foliage, hazel gaze fixed intently on a curbside sparrow. It flitted about a partner, the pair of them scrapping over some mysterious worm or crumb or mushy days-old burger. Toned muscles ripple beneath the scrappy black and flaxen pelt. He creeps forward, eyes flashing intently, and leaps — only for the sparrows to dissipate, splitting away from him like wood from an axe. Birdy squints; a lopsided, frustrated smile creeps across one side of his muzzle out of instinct. "For real...?" he murmurs, though he has already made his mental plan to continue hunting in search of a meal. This is exactly what he would be doing, actually, if talons like knives had not sunken into his back immediately following.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Birdy can't speak; can only watch as the ground pulls away from him. It's a slow ascension. For a few minutes, he thinks he might be able to grab onto something and wrench himself out of the grip he's caught in, but the hawk's talons are so fucking sharp and they hurt and blood dribbles from his back and down his shoulders and into the grass below, splattering across pavement he can't reach, and then across the tops of those shiny twoleg vehicles he'd sometimes napped beneath, and then across roof tiles he can almost touch, and he's pretty sure he's gonna die up here, isn't he?
He'd scream if he had the sense. Unfortunately Birdy lacks much sense in these cases. He manages to glimpse sideways enough to see the brown and cream feathers that gild the beast that holds him. Hawk. They don't commonly predate the suburbs, but he finds himself thinking he should've known to be careful regardless. Eventually they soar across the vast green ocean of manicured lawns and towards the pine forest, where Birdy can nearly grip the tops of the trees. He really is reaching, he really does have some survival instinct, but god, it hurts.
Birdy has accepted that this is his fate, unable to move enough to twist around and claw at his captor, when some shot rings out. The talons release. "Oh fuck," he finally manages, and the pair descend together.
Even if the milling SkyClan warriors had not been able to spot him above the crown of their all-encompassing pines, they would certainly take notice of the way the branches bend and snap now, cushioning a not-too-high but not-too-low fall the whole way down. Even the least perceptive SkyClanner would notice the newly-installed art piece, injured man and dead hawk in the middle of camp. The mottled tom hacks from his new residence among the fern embankments. "Oh my god," he manages, weak, unable to suck air back in to the lungs that expel it so readily. He can hardly see beyond the stars that twinkle in his hazel vision. A deeply horrid, desperate gasp for breath in, and then Birdy can feel the burn in his sides. Mistake. Breathing was a mistake. Truer now than ever before. "Oh wow. Oh my god."
He can do little more than writhe in the sandy earth he's been delivered upon.
/ tldr; birdy and a hawk have fallen in the middle of camp! the hawk was killed by a hunter (maybe even one from riverclan territory if that map math works). birdy is in need of medical attention for gashes and blood loss on his back, and some bruised bones (mostly in the ribs) but thanks to the pine trees catching his fall nothing broke completely.
Birdy loves the free life. He can hunt his own food, he can sleep in the plush green summer grass, he can piss where he pleases. It's been this way for over half his life now, and it still never gets old. Whether he roamed the streets of the housefolk colony or pushed his luck at the edge of the forest, he could always find something to spark the ignition in his chest and keep him moving. Whether it made him happy or not didn't matter — he didn't have to be happy as long as he didn't have to be anything else, either. As long as he didn't have to sit in that house, huge and vacant and cool white marble, with his family rioting around him. Parents who didn't understand his restlessness. Siblings who were great backups for a son that didn't quite work out.
The housefolk hadn't liked him much anyway. He was cagey; he didn't like to be touched, much less held or petted, something those giant flesh-pink idols didn't seem to understand despite his hissing and clawing and biting and — well. When he'd gone, they'd practically thrown him out, but Birdy maintains his own agency in the exit. He's a better loner than pet; a better tramp than child. He'd chosen this path knowing all of that.
And god damn, does he love it! It's a day like any other. Somewhere in the twolegplace, Birdy hunkers down amidst lush green foliage, hazel gaze fixed intently on a curbside sparrow. It flitted about a partner, the pair of them scrapping over some mysterious worm or crumb or mushy days-old burger. Toned muscles ripple beneath the scrappy black and flaxen pelt. He creeps forward, eyes flashing intently, and leaps — only for the sparrows to dissipate, splitting away from him like wood from an axe. Birdy squints; a lopsided, frustrated smile creeps across one side of his muzzle out of instinct. "For real...?" he murmurs, though he has already made his mental plan to continue hunting in search of a meal. This is exactly what he would be doing, actually, if talons like knives had not sunken into his back immediately following.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Birdy can't speak; can only watch as the ground pulls away from him. It's a slow ascension. For a few minutes, he thinks he might be able to grab onto something and wrench himself out of the grip he's caught in, but the hawk's talons are so fucking sharp and they hurt and blood dribbles from his back and down his shoulders and into the grass below, splattering across pavement he can't reach, and then across the tops of those shiny twoleg vehicles he'd sometimes napped beneath, and then across roof tiles he can almost touch, and he's pretty sure he's gonna die up here, isn't he?
He'd scream if he had the sense. Unfortunately Birdy lacks much sense in these cases. He manages to glimpse sideways enough to see the brown and cream feathers that gild the beast that holds him. Hawk. They don't commonly predate the suburbs, but he finds himself thinking he should've known to be careful regardless. Eventually they soar across the vast green ocean of manicured lawns and towards the pine forest, where Birdy can nearly grip the tops of the trees. He really is reaching, he really does have some survival instinct, but god, it hurts.
Birdy has accepted that this is his fate, unable to move enough to twist around and claw at his captor, when some shot rings out. The talons release. "Oh fuck," he finally manages, and the pair descend together.
Even if the milling SkyClan warriors had not been able to spot him above the crown of their all-encompassing pines, they would certainly take notice of the way the branches bend and snap now, cushioning a not-too-high but not-too-low fall the whole way down. Even the least perceptive SkyClanner would notice the newly-installed art piece, injured man and dead hawk in the middle of camp. The mottled tom hacks from his new residence among the fern embankments. "Oh my god," he manages, weak, unable to suck air back in to the lungs that expel it so readily. He can hardly see beyond the stars that twinkle in his hazel vision. A deeply horrid, desperate gasp for breath in, and then Birdy can feel the burn in his sides. Mistake. Breathing was a mistake. Truer now than ever before. "Oh wow. Oh my god."
He can do little more than writhe in the sandy earth he's been delivered upon.
/ tldr; birdy and a hawk have fallen in the middle of camp! the hawk was killed by a hunter (maybe even one from riverclan territory if that map math works). birdy is in need of medical attention for gashes and blood loss on his back, and some bruised bones (mostly in the ribs) but thanks to the pine trees catching his fall nothing broke completely.