(2/2 of the Canary short)

“When your prey is at its weakest …” her mother’s voice repeated, “… that’s when you go in with the killing bite.”

Canary dove at Wren, sinking her fangs into his throat. The pup writhed pitifully in her grasp, but he was too exhausted to

put up a real fight. No sooner had he given up than Canary could hear the faint bark of her mother in the distance.

“Wren! Canary! Both of you, to me, now!”

Canary tried to walk to her mother’s voice, but Wren’s larger size forced her to step with an odd waddle that would have left

her exhausted after a few steps. She tried shouting for Shrikesong, but her jaws were still trapped firmly around her brother’s

neck, so she simply stood still, waiting for Shrikesong’s tracking skill to lead her right to the pups.

She didn’t have to wait long for her mother to emerge from the brush with widened eyes. “Drop him!” She shouted, her voice

cracking.

The pure shock from the venom in her mother’s voice was enough to loosen Canary’s grip on Wren as her brother collapsed

to the ground, wheezing through oxygen-starved lungs.

Canary watched quietly, waiting for her mother to note the signs of a successful hunt and praise her on her skill. Sure,

Shrikesong would be initially upset at the sight of her injured son, but when she saw the evidence of an effective sneak

attack, the determination of the huntress, well … she couldn’t stay mad for long after that, could she?

But as Shrikesong turned to her, Canary saw no pride or understanding, only rage and malice. Behind her, Wren’s body no

longer shook with the effort of breath. The hunt was successful, but mother wasn’t happy. There was silence as Shrikesong

glared down at her living pup in deep thought, and Canary stared back with the wide-eyed desire for appreciation that would

never come.

Then, after burying Wren, mother turned and daughter followed … at a distance, of course. Even Canary knew that no adept

hunter, pup or no pup, could withstand a mother’s fury.

—————————————

She calculated her approach each time. She had done it all right, maybe a little sloppy on the execution of her drowning

idea, but overall she had done everything a hunter would have.

And still, still mother was unhappy.

At first, Canary couldn’t fathom why. The pieces fit together, so why weren’t they clicking? But watching the interactions

between her siblings and her mother, the interaction between really, anyone else at all, the truth became glaringly evident.

Even in the face of perfect form and execution, mother was unsatisfied with Canary because of Shrikesong’s own

attachment to Wren.

Attachment through true emotion was something Canary had never experienced, not because she made herself cold and

unreachable, but because she was simply incapable of understanding why any creature would endanger its future and

livelihood for another when it would do no good.

But attachment still prevailed in everyone else’s world, so mother’s anger festered against her, and Canary’s frustration grew

and contorted and darkened.

And then, so did she.

~CL1 will never let Canary die! She's my best character! (Curious now, what character is your favorite, or who you consider your best?)