Feeding Time

As it turned out, Stryx were voracious little eaters, and Riodi found herself tending to the little beast’s whims for much of the day. One of its most… persistent times of day was the early morning after rising from a fitful sleep. 

She ignored the creature’s piercing screeches, peeling away the fur for later use off of the rabbit she’d caught. It had been a fun little hunt through the forest that had her alien equivalent to a heart contracting rapidly, her sensory spots pulsing an excitable yellow-red from the thrill of the hunt. The impulse to feed on the rabbit herself was strong, but the desire to care for her new pet was stronger.

The small creature was taking another approach to urging its provider to hurry up, hooking its talon around her arm. Riodi laughed.

“Oh come now! You act as if you hadn’t stuffed yourself stupid last night.”  

However, she had no doubt the creature truly needed it. To say that the feathered friend was growing rapidly was a severe understatement. Over the course of two months it had grown too large for her to cuddle in her arms, and had fledged a set of flight feathers that were already falling out to make room for a new and larger set. That trend would no doubt continue over and over, as Riodi had seen just how big these ‘Tyto’ style Dracostryx could bet. These preliminary flight feathers that were likely a failsafe to prevent death from falling out of a nest would eventually shed away to something that would support its fully grown self in actual flight. That was perhaps less exciting for a creature that could actually fly like Riodi, but it was a neat notion all the same. She merely hoped she’d be a decent enough teacher, considering her wings weren’t feathered in her true form! That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that her mechanics of flight were drastically different. Did Stryx use any form of warp propulsion?

That line of thinking was interrupted by the little Stryx attempting to climb into her lap.

“Woah, alright! Here..”   She tossed the fully skinned rabbit carcass into the air and the fledgeling defty caught and swallowed it in one gulp. Now -that- was something she could understand… eating food without having to swallow. Riodi laughed and pat it on the head, and was deftly rewarded with an affectionate nibble on her fingers. 

(405 Words)

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Full Body = 1
Colored = 1
Shaded = 1
Background = 2
Rider = 2
Personal art = 1
Biorhythm = 1 (Foggy morning with the rising sun reflecting off the water)
Writing = 2
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Total = 9