WoF: Scavenger Hunt

Ch2; Captive

Moray's eyes focused to the distance and immediately saw two eyes peering at him from the bottom corner of his doorway. They immediately shot away and he could hear scrabbling. Moray jumped out of surprise and stuck his head out of the window beside his desk. He saw two strange figures. He could smell them now, too. One clambering their way across the sand and back into the forest, the other beckoning the first.

Those definitely weren't dragons. But I could pick up their emotions? He swung towards the door and hurried clumsily out in a panic. His mind hadn't clicked until now that these were indeed scavengers. The mysterious creatures of legend, right on his front porch.

He wondered if he should catch one and have a closer look, but then remembered how one of them managed to slay a dragon as massive and powerful as Queen Oasis. But how could such a small, frail-looking animal could do that? I'm a big, scary dragon!... compared to them.
They'll be easier to catch than birds, that's for sure. His mind argued back at him, yearning to finally fill the blanks of information in his mind.

Okay, I'm doing this.

He launched into a sprint. The running scavenger was almost to the treeline with the beckoning scavenger. Luckily he was much faster than them, but the runner still made it to the other scavenger before Moray could catch them on the sand. They darted into the leaves.

Moray burst into the treeline right behind them and one whipped around so fast it tripped on its own feet. It let out a shriek at Moray who was now standing over him. The fear radiating from its mind made him stagger back a step.
A rock then pelted Moray on the face.
And then another.
He flinched and looked up from the screaming scavenger at the source of the rocks. The other scavenger had only one remaining rock in its paws. He felt the scavenger on the ground in front of him shuffle around, and before he could look down he felt something sharp graze his chest.

Instinctively, Moray swat at whatever scratched him. As his eyes were met with the sight of a long silver claw, it was too late to stop his talons from swinging and let out a "YEEP" of surprise. The claw flew to the side as he slapped it from the scavengers paws. All of their gazes followed it as it flew away into a thicket.

There seemed to be a moment of silent stillness as the claw made a metallic 'tink' in the dirt. Moray looked back down at the scavenger in front of his talons. He wasn't so sure about picking it up now, yet his talons did just that. The scavenger let out more yelps and shrieks as Moray closed his talons around it. It was a lot more squishy than he expected... and a lot more wiggly. The scavenger was more likely to hurt itself trying to wriggle free than Moray was likely to hurt it accidentally.

"Hi there. I can feel your mind, like a dragon's. Does this mean you have the mind of a dragon or does it mean you can feel mine, too?" He said to it.
Could scavengers have mind-reading powers? No one would know, if so. How would I find out, though?

The other scavenger ran away as Moray spoke to the one he's holding. They squeaked at each other as Moray watched it vanish into the forest. "Aw, don't go! I'm not hurting him, see?" Moray took one of his talons off of the scavenger and waved it. The scavengers arm got free in the exchange between talons and began hitting Moray's claws ferociously. The scavenger felt a bit of fierce anger over his fear, now.

Moray observed the strange coverings that the scavengers were wearing. The other was wearing it, too. They couldn't be cold, it's humid and hot in the jungle. But, they do not have fur anywhere on them, too. Besides the top of their head. But surely it doesn't make the jungle feel cold to them? Lizards do just fine here, and they're cold blooded with no fur. These guys are plenty warm to the touch.

He petted the dark fluff on the scavenger's head and the scavenger used his free hand to push Moray's talon away. They were kind of cute. They'd make great interesting pets if they weren't so feral and hostile to dragons.

The scavenger wiggled awkwardly in his grip again. Moray tilted his head to the side, giving him a confused look. The scavenger looked up at him coldly, not moving at all. Moray raised his ears, trying to 'listen' in on the creature's mind more thoroughly. Then the scavenger made a quick, sudden jolt to one side and pain seared through Moray's talons on the other.

Moray jumped back and roared in pain, flinging open his talon and dropping the scavenger to the ground. Embedded in his middle claw was a small dagger. The scavenger had also apparently shed his lower coverings as he pried his way through Moray's talon after he stabbed him. They fell to the ground when Moray jerked his talon away.

Moray looked up from his bloody claws and saw the scavenger stumbling away in the direction his partner in crime went. He still had lower coverings on, as if he wore coverings under his coverings. But these were significantly shorter.

"Well, I hope you miss your coverings and dagger, slug food!" He cursed at the distant scavengers, glancing down at his dripping talon woefully.

Moray perked up, remembering the long claw, too. He walked to where it had plunked down and picked it up by the tiny handle. "AND your claw!" He huffed in the direction that they ran.