[PRP] Dine and Dash [Xue Li + Sindri][FIN]

[Menelie]

Menelie

Xue Li had roamed over much of the island since being kicked out of the nest. She had mostly avoided populated areas as she preferred to keep to herself. She was a solitary hunter. Didn't need anyone, especially not a family. Good riddance.

This town attracted her, though, because everything smelled good. She had kept to the outskirts and only came out at night when she could hide in the shadows. She'd found a collection of fat birds that would make a much more satisfying meal than the squirrels and mice she had been surviving on.

She returned just before dawn, before any of the paeple would be awake to try and poach one. She crept into the yard, silent as the darkness, toward the small building where the fat birds went at night. It should be an easy thing to swipe one while it was asleep and then make off to the forest to feast.

Daisicle

Sindri, the caretaker of said fat and happy birbs, was currently asleep in his very modest house nearby, fully unawares of any dangers approaching these birds. After all, there was a protector among them... the alpha birb. The rooster.

Said rooster was awake and preparing to scream at everypae to get the heck up when it turned and made direct eye contact with the stranger in its territory.

 

[Menelie]

Menelie

Xue Li froze when she saw the majestic plumed bird. It looked proud, fierce, and beautiful. She wanted it. Not to eat it, of course, but just to have it. They were kindred spirits, she felt. She needed it.

Her stomach rumbled. She'd come back for the fancy bird after she had fed herself. She met the bird's gaze with a fierce one of her own and kept advancing toward the bird building. She knew she was the superior avian here.

Daisicle

The roosted scratched at the ground in front of the coop and adopted an aggressive stance as the intruder approached. As she neared too close, it began to loudly screech at her to sound the alarm.

Sindri stirred awake quite quickly from the rooster's loud alarm due to it differing so greatly from the usual, somewhat aggravating one. He expected some sort of wild animal to have been messing around, so he walked outside with a quickly-grabbed broom to shoo it away with. It took a few steps outside of the home to realize it was actually a younger-looking bird-pae'il.

Menelie

"s**t," squawked Xue Li, and quickly nabbed a fat bird out of the bird building as the fancy bird started screeching. She wasn't expecting all the fat birds to then wake up and also start screeching these warbling screeches, including the one she was now holding. She tucked her prize under her arm and started to bolt away, but she didn't expect the fat bird to fight back. She shrieked as it pecked at her arm, and she recoiled, dropping it. "No!! You b*****d!!" She cried, chasing the bird around the yard. She hadn't even noticed the pae'il near the house with the broom.

Daisicle

"Hey, you put down Poofers right now!" Sindri called out once he'd finished assessing the situation and ran over to chase after Xue. Being quite a bit bigger, he caught up to her with relative ease to start trying to shoo her away with the broom. Some bonks may have ensued. "Git. They're not for you."

 

[Menelie]

Menelie

"What? Hey!" exclaimed Xue Li, swatting the broom away with one hand. "It's mine, I saw it first!" She kept trying to recapture the bird despite the assault.

Daisicle

Sindri gave the girl a solid bonk on the head. "Excuse me, I'd like to think MY chickens belong to ME first. Now stop that."

Menelie

"Ow!" screeched Xue Li, finally backing off and rubbing her head. "If it's your bird then why haven't you eaten it yet?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest and fixing him with an expression as if what she'd just said was irrefutable. Her stomach rumbled audibly, significantly lessening what she'd been hoping was an imposing stance.

Daisicle

Sindri took a victorious posture as the teen backed off from his birds, not once feeling like he was currently bullying a child. He raised a brow. "You can't get eggs from dead chickens. Also they're so cute - how could I ever eat Poofers or Snoofie or Snuggles? Maybe Hilda... she's got an attitude..."

At the impeccably-timed rumbling of her tumbling, he sighed and motioned to the house with his broom. "C'mon, I'll give you some food. But if you so much as look at one of them wrong you'll get more than a smack on the head."

Menelie

Xue Li was visibly conflicted. On the one hand, she was starving and needed to eat like, now. On the other hand, she didn't trust anywhere she couldn't make a quick exit from. She eyed him suspiciously. Why would he offer her food after attacking her? She took a halting step forward, then back, then forward again. Her stomach was winning this one. Besides, she reasoned, she'd have the upper hand in close combat. He didn't even have talons, just useless soft feet. "Squirrels are cute and you still eat them," she said petulantly as she followed him.

Daisicle

Sindri made a face. "I don't eat squirrels excuse me??" Actually, he didn't really eat meat at all anymore now that there weren't any reliable sources of fish. It felt weird to eat, like, furry and warm things.

Once inside, he moved to his kitchen area and pulled out a day-old loaf of bread and set it on the table, then pulled out a bowl and a jug of goat's milk, which he re-mixed after scooping out some of the fat from the top into a cast-iron pan. At this point he put some firewood into a small oven and used a small flint to light it, then returned to his bowl to add some milk, crack a few eggs, and mix in honey and some sort of grated and dried citrus rind. He whipped this until it was uniformly mixed before cutting up the bread and adding it to the mixture.

"So, what's up with you? You don't look like the bird brats that normally come and chase my chickens."

Menelie

"Well it's not like I can take down a deer or a pig yet," she said defensively. Not that she hadn't tried....it hadn't ended well for her. "Squirrels are better than mice, at least." She stood awkwardly near the door, looking around, before the sounds (and smells) of what he was making drew her toward where he was. Her eyes flicked all over, taking everything in. "What do you mean?" she asked, returning her attention to him. Others had tried to catch one of the fat birds? No wonder he'd come out so fast. She folded her arms over her chest. "Bet no one's actually caught one before," she said smugly.

Daisicle

Sindri moved the melting fat around the cast iron as it began to heat up on the stovetop, then picked up a pair of wooden tongs to flip the pieces of bread so both sides would soak thoroughly. "Usually it's the smaller kids from the nearby flock...? settlement...? that come over and chase after them. Though you're right, they've never actually succeeded. Probably cause they're smaller than you." He glanced back at her before picking up a piece of bread and placing it on the cooking surface with a sizzle. "But you don't look like any of them, and this is clearly your first time seeing my birds, so you're not from here."

"So what's up with you - what's your story?"

 

[Menelie]

Menelie

Xue Li shrugged, trying to stay nonchalant, but the smell of whatever he was cooking was really distracting. She'd never smelled anything like it before. "I dunno. I don't have a story. I'm not from anywhere. I go where I can find food and sleep wherever seems safe." Her smugness about having successfully stolen one of the birds, which by now she had ascertained were called chickens, was quashed by him saying the other harpies he had seen were just kids. Hmph. Although the idea of a flock intrigued her. She'd never heard of their kind living together. Then again, she'd never met any of their kind, except her mother and sister. "I've never heard of harpies who didn't live alone," she said, trying to be casual, not let on that she wanted to know more while still getting information out of him.

Daisicle

"Harpies... is that what you're called?" He flipped the bread and got the other side cooking before moving to pull out a pair of polished wooden plates. "There's a group of them a little ways off in the forest. The largest one - Saira - is pretty grumpy and acts like she hates them all, especially when there are chicks, but she hasn't outright made any leave yet. Threatens to, but doesn't do it. They've got 10 of them there right now - one who's actually a demon and the father of two of them, a tikicat helping watch the younger ones, and 3 of which are children."

"Apparently there used to be a big issue of them stealing items for the village, but now we trade with them. I just wish the little brats would stop scaring my chickens..."

Menelie

"Iunno," responded Xue Li with a shrug. "That's just what my mother used to call us." She listened to the description of the others who lived nearby and nodded. She wondered what it would be like to have a nest to stay in and not have to hunt for food all day long. She shook her head and tucked a stand of hair behind her ear. What nonsense. It would be great, but seemed completely out of reach.

She grinned a toothy grin. "I mean, your chickens do look tasty...."

Daisicle

Sindri looked over to glare at her. "You talk about eating them again and you won't get any food." He let the silence hang in the air a bit before moving the now-completed French toast onto a plate. He then got a second one going.

"When you're done eating, I'll take you to them." He offered her the plate. "Unless you want to try and settle into village life here or go back to squirrels and s**t."

"Can't promise they let you stay, but no harm in asking."

Menelie

Xue Li fell silent, crossing her arms over her chest with a petulant expression. She wanted to snark more, but she also really wanted to eat. It wasn't really in her nature to back down or back off, but she was also not stupid. When offered, she took the plate and attempted to pick up the food with her fingers, then yelped and dropped it back onto the plate. She snarled and tried again with the same result. She looked over at him with a ******** expression.

"Village life isn't for me," she said solemnly. She didn't have high hopes about these other harpies welcoming her--not even her own family wanted her around. But, against her better judgment, she did want to meet them. "They probably won't, but, um, I still want to meet them."

Daisicle

"You gotta let it cool down a bit first," he warned, evidently too late. He could get some strawberry preserves to top it for her, but he didn't quite want to show such a kindness to some stranger who tried to eat his chicken. He did offer her a wooden fork. "Try blowing on it - and this might help."

When he flipped his own piece, he reflected on how grateful he was that she didn't seem to want to stay - offering her food at all had been a bit of a risk. "Sounds good. I'll take you there once you're full. They should be up by then."

Menelie

Xue Li was delighted--she knew something was for stabbing when she saw it. She took the stabbing implement and impaled the food with it. She regarded the next suggestion with doubt, but decided it couldn't hurt. She blew on the food, then lifted it up with the stabbing implement. She took a bite and her eyes got big as saucers. She ate hungrily, using the stabbing implement to get the food inside her as quickly as possible. It was so, so tasty that it was impossible.

Daisicle

Well that was going quickly, ever quicker than expected. He turned and held out his hand for her sure to quickly be empty plate and, once he had it, added the now-finished second piece to it before handing it back. "Imagine, if you ate my chickens, I wouldn't be able to make this."

He added another piece of bread from the mixture to the pan and, sensing she might want more food still, cut off a few more pieces to get soaking. He continued cooking until she was full and he'd finished two slices of his own.

Menelie

Xue Li looked like she might cry. She hadn't felt so full and satisfied since she had left her nest. It seemed like much of her sharpness had dissipated as she had eaten. She couldn't quite find the words. "It was real nice of you to give me food," she said quietly. And then, even more quietly, "And I'm sorry I tried to eat your chicken."

The meal had given her a lot to think about. If she found somewhere to live permanently, could she learn to do this? And not be hungry anymore? The thought of living inside still made her skin crawl, but the villages seemed to have food more readily available. Maybe she could find something to trade for it, instead of subsisting on squirrels and rats.