Her ears twitched.
A slight whip of her tail.
Her prey was a small group of
Pasqak grazing as she crept towards them. She hadn’t eaten in days. These new animals had proven elusive as of late and she had finally been able to sneak up on the small pack she had been stalking for almost 3 days.
These creature where sturdy, powerful, and as Rebecca had found time and again...easily spooked. After finding her self once again masterless, and alone after her new found friend Mika had parted ways with her Rebecca had done all she had ever known to do.
Wandered.
She wandered and followed the path her and her master had taken on the way in. After many days and nights sands gave way to grasses and soon she found herself in a land she had never visited.
Things here were strange from her normal swamps and forests she was used to. Water only gathered in small isolated areas rife with crocodiles and other dangers.
Howeverwhile the terrain, environment, and animals might have been strange and foriegn she found her body was well suited to it even if she wasn’t. Her natural stealth and vast array of natural weaponry her body boasted had served her survival here well if not being the sole reason she had survived out here this long. She began to ready herself to pounce when it came.
The rumble of wagon wheels and the slow clop of horse hooves began to approach. She pounced realizing her prey would flee only to land on top of nothing. Sensing this mysterious disturbance the pasqak had left quickly. She hissed in frustration. Her eyes shifting from pink to red as they turned to the direction of the large amounts of noise disturbing the savanna.
While angered by their unintentional interruption this was not the reason for her shift. She smelled the blood of mortals. Human, elf, and others. Their blood cried out to her nose, the sweetness of their flesh called to her tongue.
It had been a long time sense she had feasted on it. Her masters had generally kept her on a tight leash and helped her maintain what was left if her humanity after her..change..but the lack of guidance had left her as feral as she had ever been. Tribes in the area had begun to notice a new predator on the savanna as well.
Finding the crocodile she had torn in half when it tried to eat her the first time she had braved creeping to one of the “big puddles.” That seemed the only source of water for a drink after the tribe using it to fill their jars had left. She had been much more herself at that time.
Enjoying watching the people of the land visit the place and converse. Had she been in this state then...It might not have ended so pleasantly.
The tribes seemed divided on what they thought this new pressence was at the moment but the smell of poison and decay she left where ever she visited seemed to have some believe her to be an angry spirit.
Some of the less spiritual believed her to simply be an uncharacteristically active troll. With it being the dry season they were often rarely seen but stranger things had happened on the savanna.
None of this mattered to Rebecca as she stalked toward the caravan. Her scales flaring up and masking her form as light seemed to reflect from her leaving only the dimmest outline of her glittering presence. Just as she drew close she saw a detachment move away from the larger body.
Around half a dozen took point. The rest seeming to follow suit at a healthy distance behind.
It’s statement of passive defense clear as day. But that wasn’t what she foucused on. What she saw was a man lagging behind on the end.
Cursing at a clasp on his belt being tangled a strap on a bag her carried.
There was too many to openly attack them all, but such was her hunger their numbers did not matter. Her jaw unlatched as she crept closer. Her sensitive ears twitched again picking up the conversation being had easily, but hearing something and listening to it were quite different things. Listening took focus.
And all her focus was on the lolly gagger. Staying low and shielded by the tall grass she moved slowly as the wind blew. The slight rustle and movement it created in the grass causing the disturbance her movement caused to be attributed to it.
He almost saw her.
Almost caught up to the group at large.
Almost.
He glanced over as a small glint caught his eye. He never got a chance to even cry out before she hit him, first he was in his saddle.
Then he was gone with a soft swish like a passing arrow had blown across the group. His horse spooked kicking before galloping off.
His legs from the knee down still locked in the stirrups. The force of the blow simply taking with it whatever wasn’t locked in. She landed in the tall grass on the other side.
Blood splattering her clocked figure revealing her slightly as she drug off her prize. “Help! Ash-“ he began before she sank her teeth into his shoulder ripping out a chunk of flesh she devoured greedily. He screamed in agony as the venom burned his flesh.
Melting it slightly and making it easier to pull off his bones.
His cries of agony were mercifully short lived however as Rebecca simply grabbed his head and tore it off tossing it aside to gurgle into silence. She then would take her newly gained snack and cut through the grass lands like a cheetah.
She would be back.
But she was also unaware that she had left quite the trail to follow using her speed rather than her stealth to escape.
