Stars Fall | Acrylicat Storyline Development

Claws Out | Oneshot

Stella darted through the trees like a sleek fox; slim ears laid flat against her fluffy neck. Her paws, claws outstretched, met the earth and left it without precision, and her wings, one of which dragged awkwardly, were pulled so tensely towards her sides that it hurt. She ran like a rabbit from a burning warren.

She pulled up short; her paws skidding on the dew laden grass that she had suddenly burst out onto. A jumble of buildings rose before her, distant sounds of the city almost drowned out by the hammering of her heart. Casting an icily disgusted look at her pursuers, clamoring behind her, she launched herself within the city boundaries. 

She sprinted down a wide cobbled avenue, her pawsteps thunderous in her ears. The quiet buildings rimming the reaches of Harmonx, lit only by resolute street lamps, rapidly gave way to apartments and shops buzzing with nighttime activity; Stella vaulted a table laden with wares, her wildly lashing tail knocking a crock of something onto the stone where it crashed resoundingly. Yelps and shouts mingled as she shoved a startled acrylicat viciously aside, her claws raking across their chest. Her pursuers had managed to close in in the streets; she felt like a rat in a maze with no scent to follow. 

She had always made her getaway upwards when there was no predetermined plan; her wings gave her an advantage- but not now. Not now. But maybe-

She veered into an alleyway and saw what she needed; she vaulted up the fire escape, her claws clutching the rails, and jumped again to throw her forelegs over the rooftop. By the time her hunters were helping each other onto the roof, she was two buildings away. She paused, her glittering aquamarine irises following their movements calculatingly. 

"Stop!" one shouted, a frantic edge undermining their commanding tone.

Stella only laughed and jumped to the next rooftop.

It was far quieter above the city, the sounds of late night activity muted, but every noise was loud in Stella's ears, from the rushed talk between the crylis behind her to the scraping of shingles under her claws as she balanced along a roof's peak, wobbling slightly and spreading her wings for balance. She was exhausted, wounded and bruised, insanity creeping into her pounding skull, but adrenaline and foreign terror kept her a few steps before the well-rested, strong and determined unit behind her.

Eventually she came to a place where the rooftops stopped; pausing only a second to glance around at the area below her- a boardwalk studded with piers and docks, tethered boats bobbing like rubber ducks- and a pair of crylis who hadn't even had time to look up in surprise. The moment she took to survey her surroundings allowed her pursuers to leap to the sameroof as her; and she jumped.

Stella bowled into the larger of the two crylis, her claws meeting his skull- which cracked against the boardwalk. Without further ceremony she turned to the other and tore out their throat.

"... Oh," they said hollowly, staggering sideways and staring down at the blood tricking from the wound with mild shock. The cryli fell to their side with a soft whump and lay still.

Stella turned back to the other, who had pulled himself into a crouching position and was staring at his fallen comrade in shock. He seemed familiar, somehow, she was sure she had seen a cryli with that shade of fur, that stature and fur pocked with strange circular scars.

"You," she realized, her ears pinning back as she stepped closed to him and lowered her heard to look into his face. The wall she had created in her mind cracked and things she would rather not remember rushed into her head.

No.

She hated him. Whatever he had done to make her remember this was enough to fill her core with red hot rage; but desperation fought for control.

What could she do? For all it mattered, the world could have ended here. She was trapped.

She grinned wickedly, insanity twisting her bloodstained muzzle as she turned to the acrylicats closing in on her.

"Take another step and he dies." she whispered with merciless glee.

we can retcon this shit if need be, please SAY SO if you have any issues. Hyperdrive (dead guy) belongs to dreamhazard.