Silence was absolutely necessary for hunting mice in the snow. Not only hearing them, but pinpointing them precisely and aiming the pounce to plunge through fresh, fluffy powder and the crisp crust beneath, to even more snow between crust and ground before sinking narrow jaws on a tiny, warm, squeaky body. Isuma had started to try and copy his elegant (ridiculous) leaps, but the little fluffball lacked the simple mass required to punch through to the ground. She had grown to a double-handful on a steady diet of fresh meat and could get her head and forepaws in now, at least, but her little wings fluttered in excitement whenever she tried to pounce, and she never quite got them closed in time, so she would get stuck shoulder-deep and tip over with a squawk of dismay every time.
Jigano had just procured her another snack (and she had just shaken the snow from her feathered head after her attempt to mimic him) when he heard footsteps approaching through the fresh powder. He had paused, ears cocked, as Isuma bounced and tried to get beak or claws on the fieldmouse tail that dangled from his mouth. The footsteps came to a halt just the other side of a drift of snow that formed a low, artificial hill in the normally-flat fields, and a voice Jigano only faintly recognized carried to his ears on the light breeze.
Curious, he couldn't help but creep to the top of the hill, Isuma still bounding along at his side and trying to reach her snack, to look upon the man and his... was that a dragon? But so small, a miniature of the mighty reptiles from his own world... not unlike Isuma was. He tilted his head in fascination as he watched the silver lizard flapping its wings, inadvertently pulling the tail end of the mouse a little higher and completely out of the gryphon's reach. She let out a little Reep! of protest, oblivious to the man and his dragon when food was so tantalizingly near at hand.
Jigano had just procured her another snack (and she had just shaken the snow from her feathered head after her attempt to mimic him) when he heard footsteps approaching through the fresh powder. He had paused, ears cocked, as Isuma bounced and tried to get beak or claws on the fieldmouse tail that dangled from his mouth. The footsteps came to a halt just the other side of a drift of snow that formed a low, artificial hill in the normally-flat fields, and a voice Jigano only faintly recognized carried to his ears on the light breeze.
Curious, he couldn't help but creep to the top of the hill, Isuma still bounding along at his side and trying to reach her snack, to look upon the man and his... was that a dragon? But so small, a miniature of the mighty reptiles from his own world... not unlike Isuma was. He tilted his head in fascination as he watched the silver lizard flapping its wings, inadvertently pulling the tail end of the mouse a little higher and completely out of the gryphon's reach. She let out a little Reep! of protest, oblivious to the man and his dragon when food was so tantalizingly near at hand.
