Screw it
Trying to make a coherent timeline is hard ;_;
there should probably be something between these but... I will probably get there?
Moon was hungry. He had eaten the day before they were captured. Then they were in transit for a few days. The day after arrival, the humans gave him a cold dead rabbit. The naga only ate it after Sun continually shoved it in his face. The rabbit was tiny compared to him, definitely not a meal. In terms of weight, the rabbit was less than what Sun ate in a day. Sun usually ate daily unlike Moon who only ate once or twice a week depending on the size of his meal. If he was only given rabbits, he would probably be eating twice if not three times a day at least.
If Sun didn’t know Moon couldn’t digest fruit well, he would have shared his meals in a heartbeat. He made sure to bring Moon water when needed. The harpy made sure to ‘patrol’ the enclosure despite that normally being Moon’s duty. However he made sure to spend most of his time in the cave keeping Moon warm so he could conserve energy.
-
“I can’t believe the harpy is still alive.”
“I know, it’s been five days already.”
“There is no way the rabbits can be enough. The naga is huge!”
Sun looked at the window where the pair of humans were watching. He was scratching pictures into the dirt while Moon sunned himself on the rocks by the little lake. Did the humans think Moon was going to eat Sun? Was that why they tried to bribe Sun out? It seemed silly to Sun at first. Then he thought about it a bit longer, most predators would have made a meal out of Sun.
Actually, thinking back, he was supposed to be a meal. Moon’s older brother, Eclipse had taken him to be Moon’s practice prey when they were hatchlings. Moon’s vision had been weak so he couldn’t track prey easily. Sun was a brightly colored target with a broken wing; should have been easy prey.
At the time, Sun had thought it was a game. Moon chased him around while Sun tried to get away. Moon would catch him and Sun would praise him; telling him he was cunning, showing excitement when Moon could catch him faster, laughing at the ‘tickles’ from Moon’s tongue. The only other person that had shown Moon affection was his brother, so the little harpy immediately won Moon’s favor. Reluctantly Eclipse let Sun live, but grew fond of him shortly after.
Sun shook his head, focusing on what the humans were talking about again.
“He doesn’t move around a lot, so that helps conserve energy?”
“Even so, wouldn’t it make more sense to have eaten the bigger prey by now? The harpy is only like half his size, it wouldn’t be hard to swallow.”
“The harpy has sharp teeth and talons, it could do quite a bit of damage. As far as we know, he isn’t venomous so he probably decided it wasn’t worth the risk when the rabbits are so much easier.”
Sun flew over to Moon, blocking out the light on the naga’s face. “Snuggle me!” the harpy demanded.
Moon blinked a few times before he scowled. “What?”
“They think you are dangerous to me!”
Moon sat up tiredly, still processing what Sun could be talking about. “I am dangerous, Sun.”
“Yes,” Sun agreed. “But not to me.” He flapped up onto Moon’s stack of coils to get them closer to being face to face. “They think you will eat me, so if we show you won’t; maybe they will get you more food.”
“It’s been days, why wouldn’t I have already eaten you?” Moon asked, shifting them so he could curl himself around Sun.
“I’m bigger and stronger than rabbits, so I’m a more difficult meal,” Sun said as he cuddled closer to the naga. “Well you could ‘eat’ me now, take a nap, and then let me out in a bit?” he suggested after a moment.
“Maybe later, I’m tired,” Moon mumbled, eyes already closed.
“Moon-”
“Later!”
“Okay...” Sun pouted. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Satisfied for the moment, Sun closed his eyes as well. In or out of the pouch, naptime was always nice.