Fight or Flight

Whatever this thing was, it was fast. Miri had run down all sorts of creatures in her time, using stamina to overrun even the fleetest in the long run. It was something you could always count on - the faster something moved, the quicker it tired out, and her prey tended to be bad at energy management. It was all about keeping up the pace, being persistent. Sooner or later, panicking prey made a mistake, the gap closed, and it was all about finishing the job from there.

But whatever she was chasing after now was different. It moved through the trees at a steady pace, going from branch to branch with practised ease, as if this were its own personal playground. It even had the presence of mind to send a few pratfalls towards Miri - incoming branches, all heading straight towards her. An accident? Not likely.

Miri dodged the first, juked around the second, but that put her in the path of the third, coming down right as she was jumping to a stone on the other side of the creek. She either had to get hit by it or jump into the water, and neither option appealed for different reasons. That meant she had to come up with a third.

Swift, quick, she brought out her dual blades and swung them through the air in a wide arc, lighting up the forest with their brilliant hue. The wood never stood a chance as the charge blade cut through it, reducing it to little more than splinters in a single swipe.

A good move, but it meant that she lost her prey for a moment, and that was all the time it needed to make its way to the grass. Open field. Level ground. Equal footing. In theory.

With the blades still alight, Miri came through the grass with careful steps, keeping her eyes open and her senses sharp. Something was moving not too far off, but it wasn’t the right size. Something smaller, much smaller, skinnier, lighter…

...a cat?

That was Miri’s first inclination, until she had a good look at the thing. Even with the dusk settling in, she could make out the cat’s colors and noticed the strange, shifting shades along its furs. Not to mention the cut coming from its tail, oozing a sickly kind of liquid that had no business coming out of a feline’s body. That wasn’t the shape of the thing she’d been chasing, but the markings were undeniable. Had it changed form to trick her? A mimic? Miri had fought mimics before, but they tended to be ambush predators, transforming into some mundane form, waiting for humans to happen on them, gobbling them up and then waiting for the next predator. When you caught them, they would stand and fight, not run away. This was new. Definitely new.

Even more cautious, she began to approach it, ready to break into chase once more if it fled. ”Nice try, but that won’t work…”

The faux feline's ears perked, twitching with each crunched twig and trampled blade of high grass. Delicate paws pranced at a hurried pace away from the one in white who carried with them sharp shinies that hurt so much. Unbenounced to Faye however, she left a trail in her wake, one that found her emerging from the grass to stand before the very woman she was fleeing from. Her fur stood on end at first, the overwhelming feeling of wanting to take flight again tugging at her like the lingering pain in her tail. If she did, the chase would begin again. Perhaps it was best to lie and play her chosen role. Rather than turning tail, the faux feline lightly planted its butt on the ground and stared up at the approaching huntress with its bright golden eyes shining in the moonlight.

She would not run… yet. This wasn't the first time she had used this form, remembering fondly all the fun faces and sounds people had made before when she had used it. Some had even left her food or pet her head… those ones had been her favorite of the people. When Miri loomed over her, Faye tilted her hair to peer up at her with the biggest saddest feline expression she could muster. The gentle shaking, while a nice effect, was more genuine than she may have liked. Finally she spoke up in response, letting out the tiniest squeak which sounded identical to any whining kitten. "Mew?"

Run or attack, run or attack, run or attack. Mira was ready for both, already eying the scene around them and formulating scenarios. Here, in this clearing, away from the trees, the fight would favor her if that’s what it came to. She could barely keep up with this thing before, but on a straightaway she would have better luck, and having an unobstructed field of view would give her better options over a distance. She was still learning what this creature was, and this was a prime area to do that in, to piece things together.

She was ready for both. She got neither.

Miri was trained for a wide variety of things, had prepared for multiple scenarios, was adept at learning, but none of her lessons had ever told her how to deal with ‘meowing’. The thing before her definitely wanted her to think it was a cat, despite all the evidence to the contrary. It wasn’t attacking, it wasn’t fleeing, it was just…sitting there. Scared? Maybe.

She chewed her lips, canted her head to the side and squinted her eyes, as if trying to get a better look at the creature before her. She didn’t want to attack, not just yet, but she didn’t lower her guard all the way, either. Her blades crackled with raw energy as she lowered them to her sides and dropped to a single knee. This thing was clearly smart. How smart?

She tucked one blade away, then reached in her poach and pulled out some kokoa beans. Hard, crunchy, tasty on the inside, she’d been saving them for lunch, but now she had a different use for them. Miri hesitated for a moment before she extended her hand with an open palm, offering them up to see if the creature would go for it.

The faux feline's purple-pink ears tucked back at the crackle of the blades, dipping slightly to bow their head and curl its tail closer. Another time it may have held an intense interest in the phenomenon, not unlike the arcing lights which crashed from the skies or the multihued bridges of light that formed by fall water mists. Tonight however she had felt what those glittering shards were like and knew better than to touch them again. The feline's head tilted slightly to the side, mirroring Miri's own behavior as it slowly raised itself back up to observe. One of her ears twitched at the rustling of something muted within the white huntress's pouch.

When a hand was extended out to Faye, the curiously colored kitten leaned away from it, tucking their chin to withdraw as much as was possible while seated as they were. When the hand remained, fingers unfurled with the offer of something… it sniffed. Again… and again… leaning back towards the huntress in the extreme other direction, craning their neck to sniff-sniff at what was on offer. The feline took a half step forward, stopping as if frozen in the moment to eye Miri to see if she were intending to cruelly take back the offered treat.

Should the beans remain Faye would pad closer, dipping its head to run its coarse tongue over Miri's palm to lap up the beans, looking back to the white huntress as they chewed on the tough food with an open mouth. The beans audibly crackled as they ate them, greedily swallowing them probably before they had been chewed thoroughly enough. The feline licked its lips, whispers perking as they stared back at Miri. Leaning up onto all fours it inched closer, padding right up to the white-haired huntress… then abruptly skirted around to slip beside her, immediately trying to bury its face into the pouch she had withdrawn the food from.

This was a bad idea. If Miri’s elders had been here, they would’ve slapped her in the head.

Her whole life, she’d been trained to deal with a wide variety of threats, and this certainly fell within the range. If she had to guess, it was a mimic of some sort - dangerous creatures that took a variety of forms, laid in wait for their prey for days, weeks, even years, and struck out on their unsuspecting victims from the shadows. The only thing that was throwing her off was that mimics a) didn’t tend to move around all that much, if at all, until they had a sure kill and b) they preferred remote areas, where they had little chance of being stumbled on by more than they could handle at any given time.

So, she was dealing with something new, something potentially dangerous, and her training was clear: Take no chances, take no risks. That certainly included not petting and feeding the strange creature.

But…well, something was different here. Something was off. And while she was still cautious, the curious side of her was starting to win out.

”Okay, okay, just-” The creature had been doing fine, chomping down on the nuts, but now it was getting all greedy and digging for the bag, where Miri kept all kinds of things, food and otherwise. ”Heyheyhey!” She gave it a gentle push back and scooched over to the side, keeping the bag just out of reach. ”I’ll share with you. Share.”

She reached into the bag and brought out a handful of the nuts, putting them all down into a pile and dividing them up in two halves. ”Mine.” She pointed to one pile, then at herself. ”Yours.” Then at the other pile and back to the creature. ”Okay?”