PM to join Strangers in a Familiar Sky (Treachery)

[Scorn]

64th Spring, 516

It was a dark, cloudy night, but the two Zith could see as clearly as the owl they were hunting. Not that they really needed to see; they could pinpoint its heartbeat, as well as the heartbeat of the tiny vole the owl itself was hunting. Scorn and Scourge glided in practiced synchronization, barely needing the signals they sent to each other in the parts of the Zith language that were beyond the range of their prey's hearing.

The owl made its move, diving from the cover of the tree it was hiding in to take a shot at the unsuspecting vole. But Scorn and her sister were ready. Scourge dove first, dropping out of the sky to rake her talons across the owl's back. The surprised bird gave a frightened hoot and flapped madly as the vole scurried for cover, only to have its flight be cut short an instant later as Scorn slammed into it. She grabbed at the meaty bits of the owl, catching a wing and refusing to let go as momentum carried her past. As she felt the weight of the owl being yanked along with her, she spread her wings, gliding gently down into the small meadow with her prey. There, she put the owl out of it's misery with a quick claw across the throat.

Despite her hunger, Scorn waited for Scourge to land before digging into to the regrettably small meal. If she had been alone, this might have satisfied her for a single night, but she couldn't let her twin go hungry. Especially not after everything she had endured to bring her lost sister back to the colony.

...The colony they still hadn't found. They had only recently made it back to the mountains that Scorn remembered from her childhood, and yet there had been no sign of her family. Still, Scorn wasn't ready to give up. She had found her sister against all odds, and she was determined that they would be part of a colony again. She knew in her heart what it meant to be Zith, and Zith did not abandon family.

The owl was consumed all too soon, but Scorn and Scourge huddled together in the quiet meadow. Scorn fiddled with the simple pendant she wore around her neck, and despite her lingering hunger, she knew, without doubt, that she and Scourge would have a colony again.

[Treachery]

The squires in the dorm snored loudly as Treachery carefully made his way across the floor and out the door. It was the dead of night, squires weren't supposed to be awake but the zith wasn't gonna let that stop him. Having foregone footwear for sake of comfort and stealth, he made his way along the corridor towards the nearest window he could find. Growling lightly at the two torches either side of the window, Treachery flapped hard at the two, accidentally sending a gust of air down the hallway. The torch extinguished themselves in the gust and the zith carefully slipped out the window onto the small ledge beyond. Staring up at the cloudy night sky, Treachery smirked softly as he took off flapping his wings hard in the air to gain height. Soon soaring well over the bounds of the castle on to over and beyond the bronze woods, the zith was about to begin his secret midnight hunt when what must have been a murmur of Zithanese reached his ears. Zeroing on the sound from his lofty position, the zith began to track the sound from a distance. Circling around to stay down wind of the intruders, by now he was sure there was more than one, he stayed high as he went. They were hunting something or someone. The latter of the two troubled him. Him and his patron had been called out to search for zith in Syliras' territory before due to attacks. But that had been over a year ago. Frowning, the squire finally dropped down to the tree line still following the noise. It seemed that as he did that the pair stopped talking. Landing as quietly as he could, Treachery crouched by a tree hoping he hadn’t been noticed. It seemed he was fine, when they began complaining about being hungry. Listening a while longer, the squire decided to shift over to under a bush as the voices got louder and closer. Stilling and quieting his breathing when the hunt circled where he was, treachery had to keep himself from jumping when the sudden cry of an owl came from a few dozen feet infront of him. Locating the noise's source, Treachery openly gaped as a blue haired huntress gracefully took down the bird flying with it to a nearby meadow, her dark furred companion flying after her. They were beautiful. Things just got a whole lot more interesting. Leaving his hiding spot, the squire carefully closed in on the two females location, again keeping down wind to prevent them from smelling him. They weren't being quiet so they were easy to find, tearing into their prey with a wonderful viciousness, devouring all that they could from it. Treachery watched them till they had finished before walking forward into the clearing. “You two hunt well for huntresses hunting on the territory of others.” His voice was hostile but kept a slight flirtatious edge. Hey, they were attractive but they were still intruding. Not to mention he hadn't seen another zith in what must have been almost two years now and those zith had been trying to kill him. Moving forward but keeping a distance better them should things turn hostile, Treachery readied himself for whatever move they should make, a smug grin painted across his face as he observed the pair.

[Scorn]

Scorn and her sister reacted instantly to the intrusion--they were too aware of their vulnerable position of two lone Zith to be able to ever really relax. Both leaped to their feet, Scorn moving to crouch protectively in front of her sister as the midnight-colored Zith shrank away in preparation to flee.

Scorn's mind rapidly shuffled through all the possible responses. She never liked running, and the odds were not bad enough for her to consider it yet. The male sounded hostile, and if it came to a fight, Scorn trusted Scourge to follow her lead. But...his posture was not quite aggressive. And, since he was polite enough to not immediately close the distance between them, she had time to realize that he was a perfectly acceptable specimen of male Zith-hood. It had been...quite some time since Scorn had...encountered...someone like him.

Scorn ran her tongue over her upper lip as she slowly straightened from her defensive crouch. "Territory is defined by who holds it. Is your colony nearby? Or do you claim to hold territory all on your own?" She tilted her head as she smirked at him, managing at this distance to give the appearance of looking down at him, despite the difference in height.

[Treachery]

The pair reacted immediately to his words, the darker of the two shrinking and crouching down behind the blue haired one who took a defensive stance. Were they really that threatened by him? Then again he was a lot bigger them but they could probably over power him together. This was good. He kept them scared they wouldn't try anything, might even fly out of the area. Though part of him didn't want that to happen yet. Closing the distance slightly, Treachery noticed the more aggressive of the two's eyes on him' Keeping eye contact, he kept smiling as she rose licking her upper lip in away that forced the squire's eyes to follow it. He tried not laugh at her words. She was a feisty one. Trying to look down at him with a smirk while her friend cowered behind her. How adorable. Showing too many teeth in his smirk as he confidentially took another few steps closer, cocking his head and letting out a loud laugh as he did. Now only a dozen strides from them, he could get a better look at the pair. Despite being drastically different colourings they both had strikingly similar faces. They were from the same colony definitely, possibly even from the same coupling. They both looked about his age with the blue haired one being by far the stronger of the pair. “While I'd love to hold such a large territory on my own, an individual alone couldn't do that. My colony lies not far from here and they dislike others stealing their prey.” The last part of that sentence came out little more than a growl while his body language remained fairly non-hostile. Suddenly deciding to test out how flighty, his opponents were Treachery at that point drew himself up to his full height and rapidly closed the distance between them, stopping short of them by only a feet in hopes of startling them to run or fight or to simply laugh if they did neither and cowered.

[Scorn]

Scorn raised her eyebrows at the male Zith's words. His tone continued to be at odds with his body language, and she couldn't figure out what he was trying to do. She did sense a contradiction in his words. If he were here to hunt, if he had a colony, he would be out here with three or four other Zith at the very least. Most likely he was bluffing--it's what she would do in this situation--but she wasn't prepared to take the risk of pissing off a whole colony.

At least, she wasn't, until he suddenly attacked. Scorn did not pause to think. She reacted on instinct, and as soon as the other Zith moved, she launched herself at him, ducking low and aiming with the intend to swipe at his side with her claws on her way past. If all went as planned, she would be behind him, and he would be bleeding, which were odds she liked better than the alternative.

Scourge meanwhile took to the sky with a screech, but not to flee. (She would never abandon her sister like that, are you mad?) She hovered in the air, her midnight fur blending against the sky, and kept an eye out for an opening, waiting for a signal from Scorn.

[Treachery]

The blue haired female lunged at him as soon he moved, her assumed sister taking to the air in that instant. Caught off guard, Treachery quickly tried to take to the air, back flapping to give him more distance though it didn't do much to prevent the huntress's claws tearing through his trouser leg and drawing blood from near his hip. Hissing at the pain, the squire made a wild flailing swipe at his attacker's wings as she went past, hoping to prevent her flying at him again. Suddenly remembering that he had more than one enemy in this situation, Treachery whipped his head around to see where they had gone. There flying up out of the chaos was the one he'd pegged as weaker of the two. One on One would be easier so he should just take that one out now. Reaiming wings, the squire quickly began to charge at the midnight zith. Aiming high, he slashed wildly at her with his claws, pulling his already bleeding legs up to try and protect his chest from any retaliation. Now if that other one could just stay out the way until he finished off this one then he might actually have a fighting chance in this. As it stood, his size seemed to be his only advantage.

[Scorn]

Scorn flinched her wings away at the bigger Zith's clumsy swipe. Her brain took half an instant to assess the damage: a minor graze, lightly bleeding, but she'd had worse and it wouldn't hinder her flight. And a good thing too, since the male Zith had opted for a sky battle. Scorn understood that instinct; less cover, sure, but more maneuverability, and what was a Zith if they could not command the skies?

But the enemy Zith made one terrible mistake. He threatened Scorn's twin.

Scourge shrieked as she tried to dodge the attack. She folded one wing and fell to the side in an aerial tumble that would have left her completely vulnerable--if she'd been alone. Luckily Scorn shot up from the ground like an arrow, claws aimed straight at the wide target of the Zith's wing-covered back. With the intent to let her momentum embed her claws into muscley flesh, she screamed furiously, "Get away from my twin!"

[Treachery]

Triumph raced through the squire as his attacks sent the weaker one tumbling, about to swoop down and finish her off, his plan shattered when a shriek came from beneath him. His earlier swiping at the blue haired one hadn't worked as plan it seemed as she shoot up towards him. Red eyes widened in horror as he realised where she was aiming. Oh no. Not his wings. He wasn't going through being grounded again. Not now, not ever again. Using all his energy, the zith twisted in the air just in time for her claws to instead leave shallow scratches along his chest. Pissed as could be over what could have resulted, Treachery tried to grab a hold of the female with one hand as his other sent a handful of sharp talons towards her face. It was about then that the squire felt himself start to fall. If he'd manage to grab a hold of the blue haired zith by then he'd let himself drop and try to flip them hoping to use his weight to pull them both out the sky, the female aimed to hopefully hit the ground first. If he hadn't grabbed her, Treachery would simply stay in the air and throw another slash of claws towards her.

[Scorn]

Of course things could never be simple. Scorn's relief at seeing Scourge right herself before hitting the ground was cut short by their attacker getting a decent grip on Scorn's arm. She just barely managed to tilt her head up, enough that his scratching claws missed her eyes and merely left long cuts against her chin and mouth.

Determined not to be the only one being grabbed onto, Scorn grabbed onto the back of his neck with her free hand, which had the inadvertent effect of bringing their faces closer together. The next breath Scorn took filled her with the musk of male Zith. There were other scents too, of various other meat-creatures, and if she'd been in a position to think about it, she might have noticed that those other scents were a bit stronger than she would have expected, but at that moment all she could think about was Zith.

Heedless of the fact that they were falling, Scorn bared her teeth and clamped her mouth onto his, all violent energy transmuted into something else. She barely noticed Scourge flying underneath her to slow her fall, trying to pull Scorn up so that, at the very least, she wouldn't be crushed under the larger Zith when they landed. Scourge abandoned the effort just in time to save her own skin, and flew off to a safe distance to keep watch over the proceedings and the surrounding area.

The impact into the soft ground of the meadow was barely enough to knock Scorn's lips away for a moment, and not enough to break her concentration. Following scent and heat, she resumed her attack on the male's neck, nibbling and biting just hard enough to break skin, but not cause any real damage.

[Treachery]

Smirking when he got a grip on the female's arm, his expression didn't quite return fully to anger when the female grabbed at his neck the pressure distracting him in a not unpleasant way as they fell out the sky. Inhaling anger vanished out the zith's mind. All he could smell was zith, female zith. His instincts took over. Seemed the female's had too since her mouth came to meet his moments before he had the chance to do the same. Biting and sucking at teeth, lips, tongue and whatever else he could, Treachery only just realised their situation enough to send out a few flaps to make their landing rough but not damaging. Fighting a thing of the past, Treachery let go of his hold on the female running his claws lightly down her sides and then across her stomach. Breathing hitching lightly when she gently attack his neck, a soft moan escaped as he bit his bottom lip, quickly exchanging his lip for parts of her shoulder. Trailing bites and licks up her neck, the zith playfully blew into her ear before giving the shell a soft bite and nibbling on the ear lobe as he rocked his hips against her to showcase exactly what he wanted right now.