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It was early in the morning, the sky barely starting to lighten before dawn. The birds were up and starting sing, stretching their wings and calling to one another. Birds weren't terribly interesting conversationalists. Most of what they chirped consisted of 'I'm here!, Food!, Fuck off!, and 'Hey Sexy.' Petra had gotten sick of this particular flock of crows trying to move in on her roof and had gone up to the roof to take matters into her own talons a few days ago. In her preferred form, a sharp-beaked ground finch, native to the Galapagos Islands, the hematophagic bird had made good use of her titular sharp beak to peck at the crows, get breakfast, and reclaim her roof. What followed was war. The battle raged through the neighborhood and Petra had the flock of crows on the run. This morning she was perched on a telephone pole some blocks away screaming invectives at the flock while they were still waking up- just to assert her dominance.
[11:31 AM] Laura/Atalo/Harmony: Mary rolled over in bed, groaning and covering her head with a pillow. It didn't help. It wasn't that the Thrysus didn't love birdwatching, but it was less enjoyable first thing in the morning when she just wanted to snooze. And this conflict had been going on for quite some time.
Enough was enough. Time to bring a gun to this knife fight of theirs.
Forcing herself from her cozy bed, the mage weaved two spells in succession, chanting quietly as she granted herself first the ability to understand all beasts. Which meant she too shared in the various announcements. The second followed her opening the window and led to an agile, grey cat prowling through after her shapechange. Looking about for the source of the racket, or the nearest participant at least, she spotted a finch on a telephone pole. Excellent.
Climbing to the roof she slunk down to keep a low profile, working on padding ever so slowly towards where the finch perched.
Petra fluffed up to her biggest and raised her wings to help increase her size- an owl trick but she wasn't above a little interspecies appropriation. "And Fuck Off Today or I'll Food You!" She shrieked cheerfully, then looked down to spot the cat climbing up the pole towards her. Petra flapped at the feline. "I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!" That was usually enough to chase off the ambush predator.
There was a hiss and a yowl in response, that translated itself roughly as. "You're Food!" And then the cat fluffed herself up in response to the wing flapping, leaping higher up the pole towards the finch that was totally behind a disrupted lie in.
Petra barely hopped back in time and shrieked in outrage at the attack. A few of her feathers got left behind before taking to the air. She didn't go far. It wasn't terribly finch-like but Petra was feeling combative this morning and if the crows were throwing in the towel a cat would do. She dove, lethally sharp talons flashing out with the objective of removing a stripe of fur to repay the lost feathers.
Alright, that was unexpected. Having expected to drive the finch away, Mary was unprepared to be dive bombed. She yowled as a good amount of fur was parted and several tufts sent spinning out into the air. This meant war.
With a battle yowl, the cat hurled after the bird following the pass, claws swiping at tail feathers before Mary landed back on the roof.
The bird twisted and dodged. She laughed at her, cackling and following her back to the roof to sit on the opposite edge and preen her ruffled feathers to a semblance of order.
'Bird Roof,' she shrieked, hopping in place threateningly.
Mary canted her head, letting mage sight take over. This was odd enough birb behaviour to warrant a closer look. Still, she wasn't taking this lying down and with her tail flicking from side to side she bounded to the top of the roof, glaring at the birb and parking her butt down on higher ground. 'Cat roof!'
Petra turned her back to the cat, deliberately taunting it, trying to lure it in, and lifted her tail feathers to release a stream of nature's territorial marker.
Mary's eyes widened slightly. Alright, no eating or serious harm to be done. Fate meant a possible Changeling. Eating the neighbours would not go down well. She did consider letting the birb be, but then.. oh.. that was a taunt and a half. It was on.
She lowered her head, stuck her butt and tail in the air and then pounced. "My rooooof!"
Petra had been waiting for it. The butt wiggle... the leap... Petra pulled on the Wyrd and between one breath and the next shifted into a significantly larger tan caracal cat with adorably tufted ears. She yowled and rolled, scrambling with her back feet to toss Mary off her. 'Cat Roof' she agreed, finding her feet and tail raised jauntily.
Mary was tossed back, landing with cat grace but an angry hiss at the change in the game. She eyed the now larger cat, tail contininiug to twitch angrily. A moment's reflection as options were considered and discarded and then.. Well, she could go for a bigger creature, but let's try something worse. With a faint sound of pain, the cat is now...
A skunk.
Walking ever so slowly towards Petra.
The caracal narrowed its eyes at the skunk and hesitated a moment, considering running, and then decided that the threat was worth the risk of the entertainment. She yawned dramatically, showing off her teeth and derision for the threat. Skunks could spray but they had to be positioned 'properly' to aim.
The skunk eyed the bored appearing cat. Well, the warning had been given. And so she turned, raised her tail and.. well, if the caracal didn't move, a faceful of skunk spray was coming her way.
Petra catleaped straight up and off to the side, snarling at the pungent odor staining the roof now. She scrambled after the skunk, bowling into it from the side- though she kept her claws sheathed now that she knew the cat was another shapeshifter.
There was an angry, well, whatever sound a startled skunk makes when a cat bowls into it. She's rolled over and considers options, even as she tries to stumble back from the large cat. What's big and has more range.
Alright, now she's a bald eagle, flapping wings at the large cat. "My roof! My roof!"
Petra considered the huge eagle- and the coming dawn. She tilted her head, giving Mary a distinctly catlike girl. 'Bird Roof?' Then she sprang up, rather improbably trying to pounce the eagle.
Mary dived backwards. No more shapeshifting. For one, she was somewhat bruised. For another, dawn meant people being able to see them. So she simply took herself off the roof, flapping to try and gain height for a dive, screeching at the caracel all the while.
Petra twisted in mid air, missing the eagle and immediately ducking behind some of the air conditioning equipment to avoid the deadly predator's strike. She hissed, crouching down and butt giving off the telltale wiggle of a plan forming.
Mary gained some altitude, landing on a chimney and watching carefully, waiting in the still dark light of pre dawn.
She shifted again, this time into the form of a doe- not any sort of creature that could take on an eagle by any means. A prey animal even. Petra poked her nose out from her hiding spot and sniffed the air, then took a hesitant step out. A peace offering?
Mary considered, then hopped forward slightly, wary, but not showing any signs of going for an attack just yet.
Petra took another step, ears on a swivel and looking a bit twitchy like she wanted to take off and leap to an entirely different rooftop.
This caused a faint degree of caution and Mary stopped. "What are you plotting?" She asked warily in beast speech.
She came out entirely to the center of the open space, and scraped a hoof on the roof. Tap tap tap. 'Bird Roof?' she asked, a bit of mischief glimmering in her eyes.
"Bird roof." She confirms, wings spreading and ready. Just in case.
She shifted then into a huge quetzacoatlus, standing on all four limbs and opened her frighteningly long beak to laugh. "Bird roof" she cackled. Shrieked. It was a strange sound, lost to extinction millions of years ago.
That was it. Too much to counter without taking some severely bad risks.
She spun and took off the roof, quickly flying from sight and fleeing. Well played birb, well played indeed.
Petra chortled and shifted back to her preferred little finch form and flapped her wings to take off just as the sun started to rise properly. At least the display had scared off the crows entirely. Smart birds.
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