- May 20, 2023
- 108
- 31
- 28
// strong tw for descriptions of death, rot, mild gore, disturbing imagery. stay safe tabbytalians!
It had been quite a normal day within the tunnels it was rare to see Cygnetstare outside of; proceeding down the familiarly mapped dirt halls with whoever was behind her, her balance even and kept so by the familiar and memorized scents and sounds. It had been until it was starkly interrupted by a scent, as revolting as it was unfamiliar; rot, far beyond that of a moldy root or especially dank tunnel. No, this smell not just crept into one's nose but assaulted it with the greasy stench of rot, bringing to mind terrible visions: flesh peeled from bones like melted tallow, dead unloved and unburied, bodies drifting facedown through swampy water, decay, death. Cygnetstare is relatively accustomed to bad scents or at the least holds a stomach as strong as her nose, keeping her wits about her; if a weaker-bellied cat attends this journey, they may well have to suppress (or not) a gag. The smell is absolutely rank, offensive to the nose of any decent creature.
The tunneler pushes past the offensiveness of the odor to try and pinpoint its location with a carefulness of thought she only displays in matters related to the tunnels; regardless of whether the cats alongside her follow, she pursues it, eyes watering slightly with the rudeness of the scent as she follows it to one of the furthest tunnel ends. There she's greeted by a rather nasty sight: the oozing corpse of a rabbit, laying in a puddle of blood so rotten it may well have fermented. It's a big piece of prey and Cygnetstare takes a moment to mourn its lack of place on their fresh-kill pile (in a much better state), but mostly their focus is on the sight of it; it's collapsed into essentially a disgusting puddle of meat and bones, so it's impossible to tell whether the rabbit had died violently or not. The chimera backs up a bit with nose wrinkled and turns to any cats that might be with her, mewing with her mouth barely opened, "It's definitely dead. Been like that for a damn while, I'd wager. D'you think we oughta be worried 'bout something killing it?"