"Jigano!" he cawed back, his corvid's voice harsh and his tongue limited to what it could shape in succession. As Melita turned to the gourd the raven fluttered his wings in concern, wondering if he dared change his shape to something more suited to defending the girl, but the predatory pumpkin seemed more interested in attacking the bouncing insects that tried - and failed - to flee from its malicious attentions. The last thing he expected was for the young lady to introduce her cackling companion with a name and a resigned sort of fondness usually reserved for destructive puppies and aloof felines that invariably knocked inkwells off desks at every opportunity.
Was it possible that she had bonded to one of the carnivorous cucurbits? It clearly wasn't tame, exactly, but it was at least being helpful... though that might have been accidental on its part. His part? Did gourds have genders? A philosophical question that would keep him up that night, but for the moment he was just glad to have Melita's enthusiastic assistance in hunting down The Enemy. And despite her human size, her human fingers were entirely clever enough to prove a valuable ally in the fight against the diminutive foe.
Jigano fluttered a little ways away as his crows brought more flinthopper legs to drop in his basket, the ground around the post becoming littered with bodies that not even the scavengers would swallow. He pinned a 'hopper beneath a taloned foot while he cocked his head at the girl and marshaled his limited words. "'H'lint legs," he tried, cawing the words out though his lack of lips. "Make h'fire." He flapped up managing to encompass the spread of the fields with his wings before he circled back to strip the legs off his prey and drop them in the basket, tossing the body aside. "H'fire bad!" He cocked his head at Melita to see if she had caught his gist, or if the drawbacks of his current form were just too much for an understandable explanation.
Was it possible that she had bonded to one of the carnivorous cucurbits? It clearly wasn't tame, exactly, but it was at least being helpful... though that might have been accidental on its part. His part? Did gourds have genders? A philosophical question that would keep him up that night, but for the moment he was just glad to have Melita's enthusiastic assistance in hunting down The Enemy. And despite her human size, her human fingers were entirely clever enough to prove a valuable ally in the fight against the diminutive foe.
Jigano fluttered a little ways away as his crows brought more flinthopper legs to drop in his basket, the ground around the post becoming littered with bodies that not even the scavengers would swallow. He pinned a 'hopper beneath a taloned foot while he cocked his head at the girl and marshaled his limited words. "'H'lint legs," he tried, cawing the words out though his lack of lips. "Make h'fire." He flapped up managing to encompass the spread of the fields with his wings before he circled back to strip the legs off his prey and drop them in the basket, tossing the body aside. "H'fire bad!" He cocked his head at Melita to see if she had caught his gist, or if the drawbacks of his current form were just too much for an understandable explanation.
