[Courtship] Catching Up

Birdsong was light in the air, numerous different calls and songs as the different species alerted, alarmed, and serenaded. Dinosaurs bugled in the distance, or bayed, or crowed, or whatever sound they desired to make. Wind rustled leaves and grass, made trees creak and groan. If you were close enough to the edge of the island, you could even hear waves crashing against the shore. The outside world was so loud. All the time. The Alpha Labs were never quiet, of course. There was always the ever-present hum of electricity, of rats scrabbling along metal. The clack of claws against tile, the hiss of steam or mist of machinery when it warmed up or powered down. Sometimes the death sounds if an acro or an alberto made a kill. But it was never loud like the land beyond the labs was loud. Dinosaurs didn't bugle or call inside the lab's smooth stone and metal walls. In such a confined space, a roar was deafening at best. To call out into the dark...was a death wish at worst.

But out here...Rime closed her eyes, feeling the sun warm her hide as she inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with the sweet air. It was still cool, but the snow that had first greeted her when she left Zone A -  and all of the Alpha Labs - had melted away and not returned. She doubted that it would any time soon. The air was continuing to warm, but it was...not an uncomfortable warmth. It was strangely comforting, even, in a way opposite to the cold room. Where the cold room harboured the dead, this felt more like...life. Perhaps Basalt had been right after all when they had encouraged her to leave the Alpha Labs behind, not that she would admit it. She was too stubborn, too proud, to admit such things even to her guardian.

Where the walls of the Morpheus facility had hummed with electricity, the air out here seemed to hum with a different kind of energy. Electricity was deadly if you touched an exposed wire. The energy that seemed to come with warming-of-air-melting-of-snow felt more invigorating and untouchable.

The best part about being outside, of course, was that her claws didn't clack on the ground when she walked. Only if she walked on stone. She was almost silent, almost undetectable as she moved across the earth. Except, of course, for the dull tremor that came with every footstep and the colossal shadow that she cast across the ground.

Footsteps and shadows didn't matter when you were hunting a wounded beast, though.

The scent of blood was still on the wind, stronger now than it had been. She had come across the trail on accident, wandering across the island as she had been. It looked as though something large had encountered a weak secion of rock at the top of a short ledge and gotten too close. The fall wasn't severe, but enough that the fall would have wounded it. It was bleeding, that much was evident, and it would be slow. The perfect prey.

Her heart twinged, and not for the first time. She missed hunting with Gloam. Despite being smaller than Rime, Gloam had always been the more tenacious, pushing them to go for larger prey that would keep them fed longer. It was what ultimately lead to their falling out. Rime missed her, though. Even if they didn't always see eye-to-eye on some things, Gloam had such a wild energy to her that Rime...

Well. "Loved" was a strong word.

It must have been thinking about Gloam that tricked her into catching the female's scent on the wind, mingling with the smell of blood. She hadn't actually seen the other acro since Gloam had left the Alpha Labs, and didn't expect to see her again. Of course, that had been when she'd been set on staying in the Morpheus facility, herself, but now that she was wandering this..."Isla Pera." Maybe their paths would cross once again, and they could hunt together.

---

Gloam tore into the flesh of her most recent kill, swallowing back a lump of meat. This was more than she'd be able to eat in one sitting. A "shunosaurus," as she'd learned the long-necked oddity was called. She'd have to watch over it, eating it over the course of many days and defend it from scavengers. She could just leave it here, of course, but why would she abandon such a bounty? Especially one that she had to do virtually no work for. The old thing was tough and chewy, but it had been almost dead when she'd found it. Wounded already, it hadn't been able to fight back.

She angled her head to scratch an itch on her muzzle with a hind claw, eyeing the small, solid lump at the end of the shuno's tail. It was a relatively small weapon, compared to what a dacen wielded, but she imagined it could still do a significant amount of damage. Her head still ached from time to time after...the incident that had left her without a hunting partner.

Gloam huffed and returned her attention to her kill. Why was she thinking about Rime, anyway? It wasn't as though she was ever going to see the massive acro again. Even though the doors had opened, revealed this lush landscape of fat prey...Rime had elected to stay in the dark depths of that prison with her bones. She didn't doubt that Rime would be down there until the day she died, "destined" she'd said, to join the souls of the ones who came before when her bones were added to the grave of the ancients. What a crock.

The feeling of heavy foosteps alerted her to another dinosaur's approach before the sound did. With the wind blowing away from her, she couldn't catch scent of who - or what - it was, but she didn't doubt that it was another carnivore following the scent of blood. Gloam pushed herself to her feet, prepared to defend the kill. Though this was a veritable land of plenty, she wasn't going to give up such a large meal so easily. She hadn't survived the harsh realities of the Alpha Labs just to turn her snout at the first sign of trouble.

She bellowed a warning in the direction that the footsteps came from, and heard a roar in return.

It was...odd. Gloam cocked her head. If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought that that voice sounded almost familiar. Not that it could be Rime, of course. She was going to rot in the dark with those dusty old bones and never see the light of day. Gloam rumbled in her chest, a sound of warning to let the approaching stranger know that if they continued in their approach, there would be trouble. She was not sharing.

But when a familiar, quilled silhouette stepped into view, the warning died in Gloam's throat. She could hardly believe her eyes, but there was no other acro that she knew of that looked quite like...

"Rime?"

The pale acro was similarly surprised, standing in silence as she gazed at Gloam. She didn't know where to begin, what to say. All she knew was that seeing her hunting partner again after so long apart made her heart hurt. They'd spent so little time together in the facility after the accident pushed Gloam to go after prey that neither of them were prepared to take down. Rime had gone out of her way to avoid Gloam, even, angry and ashamed that Gloam had gotten hurt because of her actions. Their actions.

Gloam's tail swayed slowly behind her, a mark of uncertainty. "I...didn't think that I'd ever see you again." If Rime hadn't intended on ever leaving the facility, Gloam certainly didn't intend on ever going back. There was nothing for her there, it was a cage. A prison. Had Rime finally seen it as the same?

"I didn't either," Rime admitted after a moment. Her eyes, always chips of eyes, were unusually soft as she tilted her head towards the dead shuno. "You found my kill."

"Your kill?" Gloam scoffed. Despite the question, there was a laugh behind the huff in her voice. "It was still walking when I found it. Poorly. I killed it, like I always did when..."

When they hunted together. Rime was the muscle that took the brunt of the attention, Gloam was the speed that struck the killing blow while their quarry was distracted. The shuno, of course, hadn't needed distracting. It was too badly hurt to do much more than give up.

Rime turned her head away slightly, guilt and anger both mixing and burning in the pit of her stomach. It hadn't been her fault that Gloam got hurt. It was just...the fallout after that had been her fault.

Gloam spoke up after a moment of silence lingered in the air between them. "I don't mind sharing it."

A little surprised, Rime turned back towards Gloam again. The smaller acro settled back down beside the kill, with enough room for Rime to join her. Rime made an agreeable sound in her throat, closing the space between them in a few uncertain steps. While Rime hesitated, Gloam continued tearing off another bite from her kill. Rime settled down beside her, hesitating a moment more before tearing into the kill as well.

The pair ate in silence, sharing a meal between them as though no time at all had passed since they'd parted ways. As though there had been no rift torn between them. When they had both eaten their fill - Rime taking more than Gloam, as ever - Rime naturally fell into familiar patterns. She rubbed her muzzle against the ground, cleaning it of scraps and blood, then turned to Gloam to brush against her and clean her muzzle as well.

She paused, her eyes widening when she realised what she was doing. "Um..."

Rime snorted quietly, but before she could turn away, Gloam huffed in amusement and tilted her muzzle towards Rime. "You don't have to stop."

"You...left Zone C?" Gloam asked when Rime continued to tidy the remnants of their meal.

"Not by my choice," Rime admitted with a snort. When Gloam eyed her questioningly, Rime continued. "There was a...weird cryo. He'd gone down to Nidhogg's lair to reclaim some wounded little scrap of meat to bring it back to the surface. Basalt...encouraged me to help them. To take them up to the surface and then to explore a bit. If I hated it, they said I could come back."

"You haven't gone back," Gloam mused, turning to nibble at the underside of Rime's jaw. It made Rime's heart swell.

"No," Rime admitted with a sigh, "I haven't gone back. It's...strangely beautiful, here. When I left, the whole island looked like one big cold room."

Gloam snorted. "But more alive."

Rime made an amused rumble in her throat. But more alive. There were no tubes of ice to encase the dead here, unless an unfortunate dinosaur became trapped beneath the ice of a lake that had frozen over. But now with melting-of-snow, that was less of a threat.

Gloam sighed and leaned against Rime, closing her eyes. "I'm glad you decided to give it a chance. Even if it was because Basalt told you to," she laughed quietly. "What happened to your 'scrap of meat'?"

Rime was still, processing for a moment that this was actually happening. It really was as though no time at all had passed, like nothing had happened between them. It felt as though her heart skipped a beat. Maybe...she had another reason to stay outside the facility, now. If Gloam wanted.

"I don't know, I left before he woke up," Rime murmured. She rubbed the bottom of her jaw gently on Gloam's crests. "The dacen seemed optimistic that he could help him, though."

"Dacen?" Gloam laughed and sat up, giving Rime a teasing look. "You have been busy. You'll have to tell me about all you've been up to since you left."

And since we've been apart. The words went unspoken, but Rime could still hear them.

Rime sighed quietly, her eyes uncharacteristically soft. Her heart hurt for the time that they hadn't spent together. Maybe they could make it up.

"I'm sorry...about what happened," Rime rumbled.

The apology seemed to take Gloam by surprise, and Rime didn't blame her. It was rare that the larger female ever admitted that she was in the wrong, even when it was obvious. This time, though, it wasn't just her.

Gloam nibbled at Rime's muzzle. "You aren't the only one who was in the wrong," she replied. Gloam leaned back, studying Rime with an equally soft gaze. Rime could get lost in her eyes. The colour that the grass was turning as the air warmed and the days grew longer.

"Stay," Gloam said quietly. "Not just for now, but...with me. Hunt with me again." There was amusement in her voice as she nudged Rime. "We'd be the fiercest pair on the island."

Rime couldn't argue. She...

"Loved" was still a strong word. She firmly enjoyed the thought of hunting with Gloam again.

"Tell me what you've been up to since you left," Rime rumbled, lifting her chin so that Gloam could nestle against her again. "Then I'll tell you more about the dacen." Annoyingly chatty little thing that he was.

Gloam's eyes were light. She leaned against Rime once more. "Deal."