"My blood may be white as ice, but my gaze is ten times colder." -Camilia Cambelle
"Look into my eyes, you will see that I have two sets of daggers." -Lucretia Stone
"Under all this white, I'd forgotten how to be normal." -Arlette Earth
These three...
The shadow of my prey gives away it's location. I lower my body until i'm one with the floor. The gentle breeze whips through my hair as each strand brings music to my ears. The crickets start to stridulate and all is going as it should. Each movement of mine has been calculated to this exact moment, as if time itself stopped for me. The bright green hedge now rests black. The moon is all that is left to illuminate Rothemer's Bloodbound Forest. I follow the trail left behind by previous deer, in hopes to muffle the sound of my footsteps. The beast inside me vibrates my soul, as sweet victory is in the air. I have found my prey.
The black and white creature stands up on it's hind legs and sniffs the air. Sensing danger, it raises it's tail threateningly. As if meaning to warn me of it's power. My laugh pierces the forest and my prey takes off. I smiled to myself as I bent down to discover what it was guarding.
It was a mother of five. How sweet. The tiny morsels whimper as I bare my teeth. I pick up the largest one and inspect it. The offspring are so small. Barely more than a few weeks old. My disappointment is masked by curiosity. Why would the mother place her babies in danger? The furry black and white animal squirms in my arms. A faint odor rises in the air. If skunks think their black-and-white coloring is a big enough warning for me to stay away, they are in for a bigger surprise.
We should take these back home and raise them to protect our camp's outside edges. Damon's voice echoes in my head. I look up and my companion is a few feet away. His dark form shifts slightly as if startled by how easily I found him.
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The Guardians haven't always traveled in twos. Long ago, we didn't. And because of this, the naturalists nearly wiped us out. They dug into our roots, and they ripped us out one by one. Only a handful of us survived. Because there were few of us left standing, many of us are now related. I can name nearly everyone who resides in camp. In my eyes, almost everyone is the same. Damon, however, is an interesting soul. He has intrigued so many women within his time, luckily my heart can't be tampered with.
In birth, they stick a chip just below our ear and cut our wrists to merge with the other. These chips allow us to communicate with our birth partner. Some say without a birth partner, we are like a naturalist without a familiar. Our birth partner is determined by the next child that is closest to our birth month. Our clan specifically worships each month of the moon goddess. We believe that each month determines how we react to circumstances based on our actions. Our birth months are hidden from our enemies, for obvious reasons. I was born before Damon, however he's always been my constant companion ever since I can remember. I feel like, even if he wasn't my birth partner, we would still make an incredible team. His presence has grown significantly on me. We are like one mine interlinked between multiple minds. If it wasn't for his dark humor an impossible smile, I would be lost.
I grunt in response and set the little creature down. Without signal, I sprint off after the mother, leaving Damon to care for her offspring. Silent as a mouse, my feet take me after her. I stop for a brief moment to inhale the air. My senses fire up and I opened my eyes to see the yellow paw prints of my quarry. Under the moon, I am an unstoppable predator.
