Flight or Flight
@sucuretcannelle
TW: Blood, violence, animal death
A twist, a turn, and the bird launched himself further into the air. His large and powerful wings beat as he flew higher above the jagged rocks of the canyon below.
The bird exhaled, spread his wings, and began to glide. Eyes stayed trained down below, watching for any sign of trouble.
Alexi didn't really want to be here, but his mother had asked him to do some surveys of the Basalt Canyon after there were reports of a Ventatrox in the area causing trouble for the inhabitants of the canyon.
"Venatrox aren't even meant to be here!" Alexi grumbles to himself, flapping his wings to keep momentum. "The area is too dry. Why is it coming around here-?"
The god had no more time to question the strangeness of the situation before his body was slammed into, sending the bird flying into a rock formation. He let out a small cry of pain before flying away from the formation. Alexi looked in the direction of where he had been hit, and his eyes narrowed.
A wyvern-like creature with two legs and two wings flew a distance in front of him. Its lower jaw is split into three sections with a pointed light-green tongue in the middle. Its head had 4 eyes on each side as well as antennae. Spikes can be seen on its neck, tail, and back, and on the lower part of its tail is a fin that reaches to almost the end of the tail. Rows of spikes were on its hind legs.
"Alright." Alexi shook his body before flying towards the Venatrox. "Let's handle you."
The jaws of the creature snapped at him, trying to bite off his wings. Easily, Alexi dodged, and he flew forward. His talons latched out and sunk into the gills of the Venatrox. The creature screeched, hoarse and loud, and Alexi winced. He quickly raked his talons down the gills, flooding them with blood.
The Venatrox began to cough and sputter, but continued to lash out at him. Green liquid seemed from its mouth, falling to the rocky terrain below. The god and the beast exchanged blows, with Alexi managing to get in more hits.
Narrowly, Alexi dodged a lash from it's tail, and he spared a glance at it's tail.
Pale. It was dehydrated.
"Of course." Alexi groaned as he flew forward, he latched his talons into it's head and yanked them down, watching as blood of the beast fell down the back of it's neck. It shrieked, pain echoing through the canon.
Eyes turned to slits as Alexi listened to it's pain. It thrashed around, trying to bite him, but made no effort with him still on it's head. He removed his talons and latched onto the back of the Venatrox's neck. Quickly, he pulled them down, watching as blood poured from the wounds.
The creature flapped its wings, trying to fly, but it had lost too much blood. It fell down, down, down, with Alexi tucking in his wings and following it.
He snickered to himself as it fell onto a stalagmite, the rock piercing it's body as it fell on. Blood stained the dark gray mineral, dripping down it like a waterfall. Alexi landed on another stalagmite and watched the Venatrox as it slowly died on the rock.
Instincts that were less easy to control in Alexi's bird form reared their head, and slowly, the bird tilted his head as he looked at the fallen beast. He flew forward and dug his talon's into the flesh of its side, keeping a tight grip.
Alexi's eyes narrowed.
"So, how'd it go with the Venatrox?" Perhonen asked, looking at his brother. "Mother was super confused when she saw it in the canyon."
"The thing was dehydrated." Alexi shook his head. "Even if I was to get it to the ocean, it wouldn't be able to recover. I had to kill it, unfortunately."
"Poor thing.." the older mused softly. "Do you think it got lost?"
"Probably." the younger shrugged, taking a small bone out of his pocket. He picked at something in his teeth before running his tongue over them. "I took it back out to the ocean, though, at least it's spirit can successfully pass on."
Perhonen tilted his head. "Your teeth are stained red," he pointed out.
"I was eating star cherries again." Alexi snickered, pulling out a red, star shaped cherry from his jacket pocket.
"I swear, you're addicted to those thing!" Perhonen laughed.
"I'd addicted to my fiance's baking, actually." the younger god corrected with a grin.
"Speaking of her, when do we get to meet her?" the older god wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "From what you said, she sounds so nice!"
"Soon, I promise. When I find the time." Alexi assured him as he tossed the bone off of the edge of the cloud.
The blood staining it froze as it fell to the world below.