Fiction Friday #4

Time To Hunt

When Fietheral woke up, her mate was not there. That was alright. He'd come back to her, or he wouldn't. He was alive, or dead. Wherever he was and whatever he was doing was no longer any of her business. She'd taken from him what she wanted, what she needed, and now there was no reason for him to stay.

She uncurled herself and started stretching. First her neck and front leg. Then she arched her back before flattening and spreading her wings as far as they could reach in the cave. Her back legs came next, the claws easily passing through the treasure and scraping into the stone beneath. And finally she uncoiled her tail as far as she could. The stretching wasn't perfect, but it was a good way to slough the sleep from her body.

How long had she been asleep? It didn't seem like a very long time. Four, maybe five, years, she thought. A nice nap.

Fie turned and carefully felt her way around the dark cavern. The treasure beneath her sounded musical as it shifted with each movement. That was her favorite part about sleeping on gold and diamond, the music they made together. She wasn't listening to the music, though; she was searching for the exit, a pool of water that was really an underwater cave large enough for her to crawl through and into the lake outside. Usually when she slept, she kept it off to her left, but there had been so much thrashing around before sleeping this time that she had no idea where it was.

She groped around until she felt the cool water on her toes. She slithered into the water and dove down using her feet to grasp the rock beneath her to propel her faster. The tunnel changed direction; it became more level and then started to curve up. The lake was dark above her. It was night. The perfect time for hunting. She started to swim faster, pulling her wings in tight to her body and using her tail to help propel her forward along with her legs.

She broke the surface with a roar, spread her wings as soon as they were clear, and started flapping. She rose up and swung her body around, looking for the Lonely Star and she saw lights down near her lake.

"People," she sneered, resuming her search for the Star. Before her nap, people knew not to come near her lake. How short their memories were. She'd have to take care of them later. For now, though, it was time to eat, time to hunt.