A Few Missed Taxes

[Auspice]

Food? Well shit. Auspice would be eating in front of Calandra quite a lot now, wouldn't he? He hated when people watched him eat. His diet was so restricted, it tended to look ridiculous to outsiders. He had a feeling that outsiders who were used to still-breathing animals would find it even more hilarious. "Yes ma'am. I'll handle all of my own hunting."

He was actually pretty hungry already. The King of Thieves rarely fed his prisoners well. Then again, he usually used cheap food when he DID feed them, and that usually involved the kind of grainy food Auspice had no trouble ingesting. He would have to wait until the others went hunting, which couldn't be too long.
Then he could go foraging for berries. How pathetic.

He decided that he was clean enough to give up cleaning, and walked to the fire. "Thank you for the rescue, by the way. I'm not dead, so I suppose it could be worse. Technically it could be a lot worse without my being dead, too, but you know."
He turned into a pigeon and started preening out his feathers. If one form was clean enough, then the other had to match. Hopefully Gabriel wouldn't see it as an escape attempt.

[Gabriel Jhaedaes Os Tar]

Gabriel watched as Loki demonstrated the enviable ability possessed my most males of falling asleep with hardly a moment's notice. It wasn't hard to agree with Calandra that spending the night here was a good idea. Loki was already asleep, Gabriel was looking forward to said indulgence (provided Auspice didn't try to stab him during), and now that he thought about it he was hungry. No, starving. The fire provided a much needed energy boost but real, substantial meat was what the Daemon craved.
"You're right, I'm in no hurry. And I'm certainly not adverse to resting here tonight provided you ask your slave to refrain from murdering me in my sleep." Gabriel, rightly enough, didn't trust Auspice one bit.

Not even when he saw his form was a pigeon.

He'd never seen a pigeon shifter before. Eagle, sure...hell, even a Phoenix once. But pigeon? That was a new one. Didn't allay his mistrust one bit though. People probably underestimated Auspice all the time based on that simple fact, and Gabriel wasn't stupid enough to do the same. Even if he did look like what could easily be Loki's dinner - chubby and feathery.

Despite his hunger Gabriel was in no hurry. His fascinationg with the fire was obvious; he seemed reluctant to leave it just yet, drawn to it as most Fire Elementals were. Eventually, though, he dragged his eyes away from flames that danced harmlessly over his skin and climbed gracefully to his feet. A hungry Daemon was a dangerous one, even more so than usual. He should hunt. And no doubt Calandra would enjoy a few moments with Auspice being less deferent and dejected - perhaps when Gabriel left, he'd perk up a bit. The Daemon Lord was naturally threatening after all, especially since he no longer had a neutral opinion of the Shifter and they both knew it.

"Enjoy your hunt, Cal. I'll see you back here later." Hunting was one thing that Gabriel did almost exclusively alone, preferring solitude to allow him to slip into the dangerous state of instinct-driven stalking without the worry of attacking someone he knew to make him uncomfortable. Many Daemons hunted perfectly well in the ordinary more civilised state but Gabriel was not one of them. He'd never learnt how to deal with weapons so relying on his instincts was really his only option - a natural but unpredictable technique. Already he was slipping away, eyes darkening to deep blue-black, senses taking over. The scent of blood guided him away from their makeshift camp and deeper into the trees.[/font]

[Calandra]

Calandra watched Gabriel go without much emotion. The daemon lord honored the old way of hunting, where you simply let yourself slip back into instinct and use all the senses you had at your disposal. Calandra was similar, but she relied on instinct without losing herself, though when the blood lust was upon her it could still be dangerous.

The daemon looked to Loki where he snoozed away and smiled. "Auspice, you can stay here for a bit. Try anything and Loki will wake up. Feel free to find something to eat, just make sure you don't run into Gabriel."

Calandra let her claws and fangs grow longer as she walked in the opposite direction of Gabriel. Stopping at the very edge of the campsite the daemon glanced back to look at the pigeon man again. "I'll bring back some extra meat for jerky or just plain leftovers, so you could also eat that if you'd like."

And with that, she was gone. Soon enough she would catch some prey, most likely a deer or something of the like, eat her fill, and carefully cut up the rest to bring back. Since Auspice was around, Calandra would also have to make sure the blood from her prey did not stain.

[Auspice]

Right, right. Auspice could have some scrap meat. Indigestion and vomit: always a lovely way to start the morning. Auspice would have to explain pigeon digestion to her later.

He looked around for a few seconds until he caught sight of a berry bush. Poisonous? Maybe. He decided to leave it alone, he didn't recognise the berries and it was never good to take chances.

So Gabriel thought he would actually try to kill him in his sleep, did he? Sure, that would be more of an annoyance to the Daemon Lord than anything, but at least the sentiment was there. Auspice took credit where he could, and if that meant pretending Gabriel was afraid of him, he'd take it.

Auspice hopped about, doing his best to look untasty to Loki. He found some bugs worth picking at, nothing particularly exciting. He just had to wait for the Daemons to get back. Maybe he'd have some work to do then.

[Gabriel Jhaedaes Os Tar]

Gabriel could hear Calandra leaving, could focus on each near-silent step as his senses of vision, hearing and smell sharpened away from the distraction of conscious thought and decisions. He could hear the scratching of pigeon feet as Auspice moved around. He could hear Loki's soft, even breathing even as he drew deeper into the forest. Gabriel ignored these, seeking instead the harsher heavy breaths of larger animals and the thick scent of blood moving sluggishly under furred skin.

Deer were the first thing the Daemon found and normally he would have settled on that happily - Gabriel was not a fussy eater beyond insisting on his diet consisting of meat which was both fresh and raw. Much like Auspice he could not digest much of anything else; unlike Auspice, he was designed exactly like any other large carnivore. This meant infrequent but large meals once or twice a week and, although he preferred it raw, while in the City Gabriel tended to deal with cooked meat. People seemed to get upset when they saw a Daemon like Gabriel with his usual fare.

However today the deer were immediately forgotten once Gabriel caught the scent of a wild boar - tougher meat, but rich in flavour and slightly more interesting to hunt than deer. Nonetheless it was over quickly. The animal never even saw the Daemon coming and, unlike with the soldiers, Gabriel managed to keep remarkably clean. With enough strength, there were ways to kill without spilling blood.

He allowed his consciousness to return before he ate to avoid the messy spectacle that would occur if he didn't and, by the time he was done, there was little of the animal to bother taking back. He left the carcass for the forest scavengers and made his way back to the camp, dipping his claws briefly in the water and restoking the fire before stretching out comfortably on the ground on his side, watching Auspice forage. Perhaps Shifters had to maintain a diet favourable to their animal form - Auspice seemed to be staying true to what a non-carnivourous bird might prefer. Calandra's hospitality would perhaps be wasted, then - though doubtless Loki would appreciate it.
"I have to say I'm surprised you didn't just up and leave while Cal and I were gone." Gabriel didn't expect a reply from a pigeon, so he pondered it himself. Maybe Auspice was worried about Loki's loyalty to Calandra. He wasn't sure if the Wisp would consider it part of his job description to look out for Cal's slaves, but perhaps Auspice had decided said Wisp and two peeved Daemons were not worth the effort.[/font]

[Calandra]

Calandra trotted away from camp, tasting the wind. There were deer not too far off, most of them resting and unaware of the danger that a hungry daemon posed. The kill had been easy and quick, as the animal had been old and weak, nearly past its prime anyway.

Calandra ate her fill and took a small portion of the leftovers and a leather bag for Auspice, or Loki, or whoever ended up wanting it. Leaving the carcass to the forest, the daemon made her way back to the campsite.

While walking she glanced down and smiled. Somehow she had managed to keep the gore of of her clothes, and looked nearly spotless. The fight back in the City of Thieves had been worse than this by a long shot.

The daemon reached their makeshift camp and tossed the leather bag in the center, leaving it up for grabs. She nodded to Auspice and Gabriel in greeting and plopped down next to the snoozing will-o'-the-wisp, ruffling his ears affectionately. Loki opened his eyes and stretched lazily, but made no move for the meat, choosing to stay put and let out a rusty purr.

It seemed the night was finally slowing down. Perhaps now Calandra would get a few hours of sleep before moving on to Spirit, since nobody really seemed up for travel at the moment. The daemon smiled contentedly and lay on her side, facing the fire. She propped up her head with one hand and scratched Loki's head absentmindedly with the other, staring into the flames.