[The eyes blink down at her, red eyeshine glinting back like lit coals.
Kaede had been making slow, cautious progress through the primal forest, the same as everyone. Her antlers were big enough in the dream that they kept getting snared in vines unless she was careful, slowing the Chimera's progress when all she wanted to do was run, bolt through the giant trees, vent some of the unresolved rage clouding her mind. But getting hung up in these woods would be a terrible idea.
Then something--a stick?--had whirled by her face, and the instinct to chase overrode all else. She surged after the whatever-it-was, like a dog chasing a thrown tennis ball. And like a dog, she ran on four feet--it was faster. She caught up to the moving thing, seized it in her jaws--and realized, aghast, what she had done. So caught up in mortification was she that Kaede didn't swerve in time to keep from slamming her shoulder and side of her antlers into a tree. It was noisier than it was painful, at least.
With an indignant snarl, the Chimera had leaped up into the tree to get a better vantage point and find what was at fault here, claws digging easily into bark. Once she had cleared the overgrown ferns, it was easier to see around--was that a person, down there? Puca. Monster. Still person.
Which led her to this point, glowering down at the frozen-stiff Puca with her tail lashing like an angry cat.]
Drrrt--
[God. The stick was still in her mouth. Irritably, the Chimera snatched it out of her sharp teeth, growling a second time before she spoke.]
Did you throw this stupid thing?
[She heard a yelp from this direction before. Or maybe this was just a bystander as lost as she was. Either way, they were the newest outlet for Kaede's frustration and anger at the waking world. Sorry, Akko. She's in a really bad mood.]
I-ish
Kaede had been making slow, cautious progress through the primal forest, the same as everyone. Her antlers were big enough in the dream that they kept getting snared in vines unless she was careful, slowing the Chimera's progress when all she wanted to do was run, bolt through the giant trees, vent some of the unresolved rage clouding her mind. But getting hung up in these woods would be a terrible idea.
Then something--a stick?--had whirled by her face, and the instinct to chase overrode all else. She surged after the whatever-it-was, like a dog chasing a thrown tennis ball. And like a dog, she ran on four feet--it was faster. She caught up to the moving thing, seized it in her jaws--and realized, aghast, what she had done. So caught up in mortification was she that Kaede didn't swerve in time to keep from slamming her shoulder and side of her antlers into a tree. It was noisier than it was painful, at least.
With an indignant snarl, the Chimera had leaped up into the tree to get a better vantage point and find what was at fault here, claws digging easily into bark. Once she had cleared the overgrown ferns, it was easier to see around--was that a person, down there? Puca. Monster. Still person.
Which led her to this point, glowering down at the frozen-stiff Puca with her tail lashing like an angry cat.]
Drrrt--
[God. The stick was still in her mouth. Irritably, the Chimera snatched it out of her sharp teeth, growling a second time before she spoke.]
Did you throw this stupid thing?
[She heard a yelp from this direction before. Or maybe this was just a bystander as lost as she was. Either way, they were the newest outlet for Kaede's frustration and anger at the waking world. Sorry, Akko. She's in a really bad mood.]