Monkey Stew [TEU: The Forgotten Prompt 2]

TEU: The Forgotten Prompt 02
J’Inez, Coil, Merah, Cailu

Coil
On his way out of the clan territory, the puller swept through the shadows of the caves with his pickings. He was tempted to fix himself a meal while he was there, but getting back to Forgotten territory was his first priority. Eyeing his surroundings, he jogged across an arching  stone bridge, glancing back to his small companion that raced after him with a small picking of his own in his tiny jaws. Huffing, Coil slowed for Boc to climb up his tail. The monkey rushed up the rocky path and jumped into the bridge with the leverage of a couple of crystals. In the span of seconds, a small clatter echoed through the tunnels, and alarmed Haedians turned their gazes towards the sound of a squeak from a monkey. Coil turned his eyes to Boc, who looked back with beady red eyes. His gaze snapped to the open cave behind him, where a Haedian roared in alarm at the sight of a thief running off with their rations. Growling, Coil whipped his head back and lunged into a gallop away from the clan. 

A mouthful of rations clutched in his jaws, Coil rushed through the caverns with practiced agility. Ducking, leaping, up and down over uneven pathways and rocks he rushed away from the most of the angered clan, though a good few persisted at his tail without much of a challenge-- it was their domain after all. After a time, Coil reached the remainder of the raiding party and found unfamiliar faces amongst familiar ones. A gray-white puller, Troall, among a mix of other Haedians with varying stolen loot. 

Screeching to a halt, Coil stopped some ways away from the group, tossing the rations over before facing the approaching clan. His long mane obscured a part of his face, but the subtle red gleam of his eyes showed through the strands. The outraged Haedians gathered before him, many eyeing the party further back and the gray puller in their path. Coil was not a diplomat, but he was up for a challenge. Boc shared Coil’s stance and shrieked on his back, little hands clutching his mane while staring down the much much larger Haedians. 

J’Inez
The rabbit was hot in her jaws, charred skin easing her salivary glands awake. Did I eat anything this morning..?  She’d picked through a few voles the night before, stomach uneasy after the Elder’s announcement of that morning’s meeting– but no, she’d been in too much of a rush to eat before they ventured out. It’d be awfully easy to just–

“Troall said it ‘wandered in through the break’,” Beside her, Merah's voice prattled on about the rabbit's origin, and she groaned. “I wonder how common the knowledge of the entrance is? Or perhaps they’ve always known of it, but were unable to move the rubble out of the way to pass through it? That would be awful, to know the exit is ri–”

J’Inez growled at him, head lowering as they walked. She had little interest in the plight of the cave-dwellers– they had enough problems back home, topside. It begged the question of why she agreed to scout in the first place; she couldn’t answer that, beyond saying that doing what the Elder wished seemed important to her, somehow. It was a difficult loyalty to define. 

She strode to where Troall stood, Merah’s remaining words fading from her ears as she dropped the warm carcass at the leader’s feet. “Here are your leftovers.” she said, bored by now. “The exit?” 

Troall regarded the offering with disdain, her disappointment clear. Her game had been cut short, and with a good bit less drama than she’d hoped no less. “Fi–” Her word was cut short though when a dark vayron rushed to her side, looking crazed, mouth stretched full with food. 

His eyes were wide, and only a few moments later the group knew why: a horde of Haedians trailed behind him, their panicked cries echoing through the cavern. A monkey clung to the newcomer's shoulder, screeching in terror. J'Inez's ears flattened against her skull at the chaotic scene unfolding before her.

“You weren’t supposed to bloody get caught!” Troall roared at the newcomer, obviously familiar with him.

Coil
"Should have known it was you," some of the upset clan members spat at the sight of Troall and her kin. "Thieves." The momentary surprise and curiosity of surface-dwellers in their midst had diminished and quickly been replaced with anger and almost betrayal- not that any former trust had been established to begin with. The Haedians sneered down their noses at the few Vayrons present, and Coil snarled in turn. He could argue about the clan's conditions, their suffering and misfortune, but he was far from doing anything out of the goodness of his heart. All he needed were answers and a path forward. Answers which Troall was less than likely to share while they were being surrounded.

"My kin need these supplies," Troall argued to the other clan, her ears pinned in warning. "No one needs to get hurt over this."

Coil's spaded tail whipped behind him as he licked his lips. "Tell your kin to take the food and tuck tail then." The tension in the air was familiar, and all it needed was a spark before things might just escalate. The clan wouldn't let their things be taken without convincing or a fight. 

J’Inez
J’inez watched the drama unfolding before her, Merah at her side, silent for once. Her eyes tracked back and forth as the invader and Troall argued with the larger group of Haedians, brows raised. Issues– these underside creatures had issues. Finally, she’d had enough, her tongue unfolding. 

“You’re all aware that there’s a large hole that leads topside… where realistically, there’s more prey than any of us could ever hunt together… right?” she asked, head cocking as she pointed out the obvious. “Making a mess over rations for a few of you is silly; prey will be wandering in right and left now that the entrance is open.”

Seated gracefully, her tail coiled upon the rocky ground, J’Inez addressed the assembled throng. "You," she singled out a random member with a flick of her nose, "fancy deer?" 

Merah leaned in, whispering and naturally lacking any nerves, “They’ve probably never seen deer…” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Trust me, they’re good. Big enough to feed three of you, and we have so many of them the humans think of them as pests. Are rats more your style?”

At this, the Haedian nodded, and several others around him joined in hesitantly. “Rats are commonplace in these parts,” Troall pointed out, “granted, they don’t generally get very big. A good snack nonetheless.”

J’inez huffed, dismissing the leader’s input entirely.  “Our rats topside are about as big as your head. Nasty things, most of us don’t bother with them– no competition for you if you want them. Formidable prey though, indeed. And if rodents do not suffice, we hunt fowl, buffalo, serpents thick as tree trunks..." She looked towards the newcomer, his wide-eyed companion still perched upon his back. “The occasional monkey…”

Coil
A grin pulled across Coil’s lips at J'Inez's comment, and he gave a slight chuckle while Boc hissed at her, his tail flicking defiantly. The puller eyed between Troall and the other Haedians. They had once breached the separation between Vitalus and the rest of Reos, and now again the surface and the depths. Offering the many boons of the surface as a later solution to an immediate problem was more than Coil cared to think ahead to, but whether it was working or not he was eager to see.

Licking his canines, he flicked his ear in anticipation.The Haedians thought about J’Inez’s words, intriguing as they were, but the crimes had been committed. The thievery must be settled here and now, and the Forgotten were’t running into the shadows without a conclusion this time.