Secrets - book two

Hunting Lessons

"Hey, wake up," Ripper's voice echoed in Blue's ears. She opened her eyes, slowly parting any sleep dust that was around them. That's odd, I'm usually the one waking him up, not the other way round.

"What's got you so energised?" She asked. He looked so much more vibrant than last night, like her comfort actually did something. Of course, she knew this wouldn't last, Ripper wasn't exactly the type to stick to one mood, more like, it would change from angry, to royally pissed, to bloodthirsty in a matter of minutes depending on the situation.

"We're going to track down and annihilate my creators," he growled.

And there was the bloodthirstiness, Blue thought, must be a new record, zero to, like, fifty instantly.

"And where do you suggest we look?" She asked, now fully awake. Ripper used his tail to point to the east, back the way that Blue had come to find him.

"You are way too energised for this," Blue chuffed, getting up, and following him.

"Yeah, well. I-if you had been locked up in a caged and t-tortured," he kind of choked on that word, "and t-tortured for most of your life, you're gonna want to kill 'em." He growled with very deliberate aggression.

"Okay," she said slowly, turning to face what was in front of her. They walked in silence for a bit, walking though the forest Blue had originally travelled through.

The wind shook the trees lightly, making the leaves fall off. The two Raptors exited the forest, and entered a field with, not only long grass, but with... food! Blue couldn't remember the last time they had eaten. Suddenly, Blue heard a growl coming from Ripper, (nothing out of the ordinary, right?) But the growl wasn't coming from his maw, so where was it coming from? Grrr there it was again. She turned to Ripper with a perplexing look on her face.

He turned to her, and chuckled nervously. "G-guess I'm hungry," he shrugged.

Blue looked back at the sheep in front of her, then had a brainwave of an idea. "Have I ever taught you how to hunt?" She said with of slyness. He lowered his head as if it was something he should have learned; as if he was going to be tested on it.

Ripper was great at learning new things, by the time he was about knee height on a fully grown human, they already considered him too dangerous for standard cage. But Blue had never mentioned hunting, and even when she did, she was always the one doing it because he was too busy being a bleeding, falling apart, almost dead mess.

"That's ok, Ripper," she reassured. "We'll just start at the basics." Blue got down onto all fours, and lowered herself into the long grass. "First, you lower yourself down low to the ground in order to conceal yourself from your prey's sight."

"I know the basics of hunting, Blue," he complained, lowering himself to the ground.

"Ok," she said, "then we'll move on to the advanced stuff. Do you know how close you have to be to the prey?"

Ripper thought for a bit, then a bit more, until about two minutes later, he gave up.

"Within at least ten yards of your target," she helped.

Now that, Ripper did not know, he usually didn't care about 'stealth', he was usually fast enough to out run any animal, human or beast.

"That close?!" He asked, shocked.

"Ssh," she whispered. "You don't want to be heard."

"Right. Sorry."

Blue rolled her eyes, and looked back to the front.