She needed to win this round.Inkheart ran past trees as fast as her legs could carry her, dark legs melding into the growing shadows. Flashes of white gave her away to anything looking for her coming, but her footfalls were silent among the decaying leaves of the forest. She could smell her quarry, the scent tracked from her home den out to where she was now. It was dinner! So close and yet... she could suddenly smell him.
A noise like a bark sounded from her side, and from nowhere a black blur sped past her. She scowled. By now her frame was much larger, but lean; he was smaller, and faster too. The sail-like wings on her back made it difficult to run, and she had yet to sort out how exactly they worked. Her parents didn't have them, and neither seemed inclined to tell her exactly where hers had come from. Some strange birth defect, no doubt.
By the time she had caught up, the rabbit she had so dutifully chased down was in bits and pieces, the best parts already gone. The panther-black blur was cleaning bits of gore from his face and paws, white eyes watching her with amusement.
"Ink, faster next time!" he chided playfully, voice silky smooth, "You almost made it, but we both know I'm faster. Maybe I'll give you a head start." He grinned a toothy smile, then spit out a bit of fur from his tongue.
"Cyn that's not fair," she pouted, sitting next to the carcass and picking at it with disdain, "I sniffed this one out and you took all the good bits. You always take the ones I find." She frowned. Her older sibling's teasings were harmless, and meant to push her harder, but today they just stung. She certainly wouldn't go hungry as mother and father would bring her something along, but she wanted that freeing sensation of her own kill! Cynder had stolen that from her yet again.
"Maybe if you figured out what to do with those," he said, nodding at the broad wings along her back, "You could beat me. They have to be good for something besides taking up space and looking nice, Ink!" Her eyes looked to the ground in shame.
"I can't!" she protested, standing and pacing around back and forth, "All they can do is flap." She spread them, an impressive span for a kage her size, and weakly flapped them a little. There wasn't much strength in them yet.
"Let's make this our secret!" Cynder whispered, leaping to his sibling's side and coming close to keep his voice hushed. "We'll figure out what they're for, and how to use them! Think of all the cool things we could see and catch if they worked." He looked at her with earnest eyes, the lack of pupil not an issue. Inkheart could read his face, and her brother never lied no matter how much he teased her.
"You won't tell mother?" she asked after a moment. He shook his head quickly. Excitement radiated from his body. He tagged her as 'it' and raced past her back towards the home den.
She paused before she followed, and traced her eyes upwards to the rapidly darkening sky. What could possibly be in store for her?
