Post by zeis on Jan 5, 2011 15:50:30 GMT -8
Eyes full of nothing opened to the world one winter evening to find the lights on their side of the shared room dimmed. There was still a slight warmth in the air from the burnt out brazier, and the dying flame cast dancing and unstable light and shadow across the red rock walls. Xaph closed his eyes again, and rolled to sit more attentively, but still comfortably among the warm over-sized pillows of his couch. Now postured like a miniature sphinx, he noticed a fuzziness in his mind that wasn't just from his own waking. His eyes opened to slits to find S'pais laying on the covers on her bed, still fully dressed and dozing with a book forgotten in her hands.
It was not a hard picture to put together. His S'pais had been working long and hard since he had been born to feed and care for him, while also attending lessons, which were interesting if tiring. She had become so weakened she drifted off. He observed her idly, feeling at the edges of her dreams, blurred clumsy things that quivered and contracted at his touch. The girl's face contorted, and murmuring something intelligible she rolled away from him to face the wall, the book sliding out of her hands and nearly falling off the edge of the bed.
He eyed the tome with a subdued sort of curiosity, and pushed himself to his still learning legs. The blue stretched luxuriously, feeling full of energy and crystal clear after his nap. There was a slight edge of hunger, but nothing too pressing as of yet. He loved his S'pais, as much as she pretended to be strong where there was only weakness. He could forgive her for that, because that was his purpose in her life. To fortify her weak points, double her defenses, and serve as the sword with which she cut her enemies down. He would let her sleep for now, she needed it. Until then he could entertain himself.
He pawed lightly over the side of her bed, silent save for the heavy click of his talons on the cool stone floor. The blue chick reared awkwardly on his hind legs, propping himself up with his forelegs on the side of the bed. He took hold of the book in his beak, and dragged it back wit him with a flutter of pages. The chick retreated back to his couch, holding the flapping book like a dead thing. He took a seat on a large comfortable pillow and placed the item that had held his bonded's interest in front of him. The infant simourv had very little knowledge of what a book was. From what he could glean from his rider's currently sleep dulled and mostly unaccessible memories it was something you read. Puzzlingly that seemed to be wrong. This fragile flimsy little object had no mind to read. How could that be right?
He cocked his head and examined his prize, bumping it with his gray beak to sniff it and nudge the dogeared cover and pages about. On most of the flippy bits there were numerous lines of scraggly black markings on white. Nothing interesting at all from what he could tell. The sound was slightly amusing though, and he pawed through the pages quickly, bending some and tearing others slightly with his talons. He stopped and paused with his claws midway to the page when he came to a drawing. It was a picture of a battle between simourv and something else. The simourv was black, regal, and almost glowing. It stood rampant between a village and a great bellowing brass scaled beast, which brought excitement and anger to his heart. His blue and white feathers puffed out angrily, and he growled low in this throat, rising to his feet. He knew this beast, even though he had never seen one before. His ancestors had known, and so did he of xymokoxi.
He also knew exactly what to do.
The simourv pounced on the book, and tore into it with beak and claws. He shredded the page with the xymokoxi, and tore out the surrounding pages with vigor. He seized it in his beak and shook it wildly, littering his couch and the surrounding floor with a rain of torn paper that almost looked like snow. It wasn't long before he tired himself out, standing there panting in a rain of white with the ruined book dangling limp and dead in his jaws. He dropped the tattered thing back onto his couch, and looked down at it with numb satisfaction.
It was not a hard picture to put together. His S'pais had been working long and hard since he had been born to feed and care for him, while also attending lessons, which were interesting if tiring. She had become so weakened she drifted off. He observed her idly, feeling at the edges of her dreams, blurred clumsy things that quivered and contracted at his touch. The girl's face contorted, and murmuring something intelligible she rolled away from him to face the wall, the book sliding out of her hands and nearly falling off the edge of the bed.
He eyed the tome with a subdued sort of curiosity, and pushed himself to his still learning legs. The blue stretched luxuriously, feeling full of energy and crystal clear after his nap. There was a slight edge of hunger, but nothing too pressing as of yet. He loved his S'pais, as much as she pretended to be strong where there was only weakness. He could forgive her for that, because that was his purpose in her life. To fortify her weak points, double her defenses, and serve as the sword with which she cut her enemies down. He would let her sleep for now, she needed it. Until then he could entertain himself.
He pawed lightly over the side of her bed, silent save for the heavy click of his talons on the cool stone floor. The blue chick reared awkwardly on his hind legs, propping himself up with his forelegs on the side of the bed. He took hold of the book in his beak, and dragged it back wit him with a flutter of pages. The chick retreated back to his couch, holding the flapping book like a dead thing. He took a seat on a large comfortable pillow and placed the item that had held his bonded's interest in front of him. The infant simourv had very little knowledge of what a book was. From what he could glean from his rider's currently sleep dulled and mostly unaccessible memories it was something you read. Puzzlingly that seemed to be wrong. This fragile flimsy little object had no mind to read. How could that be right?
He cocked his head and examined his prize, bumping it with his gray beak to sniff it and nudge the dogeared cover and pages about. On most of the flippy bits there were numerous lines of scraggly black markings on white. Nothing interesting at all from what he could tell. The sound was slightly amusing though, and he pawed through the pages quickly, bending some and tearing others slightly with his talons. He stopped and paused with his claws midway to the page when he came to a drawing. It was a picture of a battle between simourv and something else. The simourv was black, regal, and almost glowing. It stood rampant between a village and a great bellowing brass scaled beast, which brought excitement and anger to his heart. His blue and white feathers puffed out angrily, and he growled low in this throat, rising to his feet. He knew this beast, even though he had never seen one before. His ancestors had known, and so did he of xymokoxi.
He also knew exactly what to do.
The simourv pounced on the book, and tore into it with beak and claws. He shredded the page with the xymokoxi, and tore out the surrounding pages with vigor. He seized it in his beak and shook it wildly, littering his couch and the surrounding floor with a rain of torn paper that almost looked like snow. It wasn't long before he tired himself out, standing there panting in a rain of white with the ruined book dangling limp and dead in his jaws. He dropped the tattered thing back onto his couch, and looked down at it with numb satisfaction.
