After my encounter with funny prey, I started looking for it when we went out hunting, but I could never go too far from Mother or Father, which really limited my search capabilities.

I’ve explained to them that I wanted to go exploring, but they would never let me go alone. I thought about it, and realised that when I was doing the hunting, I could go wherever and Father or Mother would just follow me.

I waited a few days until I was hunting alone with Father to really start my search. First, I went back where I first encountered the funny prey. The smell was faint but still there. It really was unique among all the other smells. I followed the trail on the ground for a bit, until I reached a river.

The funny prey’s smell was all along one side of the river, so I guessed it just followed it to somewhere. The river is very easy to follow from the sky so I stopped walking and flew instead.

I followed the river for a while, looking for any hint of funny prey. Then a strong smell entered my nose; blood. I landed and examined the scene.

The left side of the river had funny prey’s trail going straight, until it met something and crossed the river. I sniffed around a bit and recognized the smell. It’s those pesky jumpers!

They’re small and weak, standing on two clawed legs, armed with sharp teeth and two small clawed arms. They also have a tail, and are a distinct orange color.

They are no threat alone, but they always travel in small groups. What is annoying is that if you catch one of them they won’t run away but attack you instead. Also, they don’t taste good and like to jump around.

Did funny prey get attacked by jumpers? Probably, even a jumper can catch such a weak prey. But the blood smells like a jumper’s… Strange.

I smell more blood on the other side. Looking at the sky, Father did not have any reaction to what I did, a lot less worried than Mother. I was free to do as I wished!

I took off and followed the blood’s trail, it would certainly lead me somewhere interesting. I thought it would be easy enough, but the trail went everywhere and nowhere. First it went right, then left, right again, then it went in a circle…

A few times I even backtracked without realising it. I was getting annoyed and thought of dropping the search when I picked up noises. I headed for the source, and found jumpers making a racket around a large stone.

What is going on? I circled around out of sight while looking more closely.

The stone had a small opening on one side, and the jumpers were crowding around it. There were traces of blood near the crack, and from time to time a jumper tried to go in the crack, only to jump away dripping blood.

Are they fighting a stone and losing? I need to investigate this stone.

I counted, and there are 7 jumpers, not that I would be scared of any amount of jumpers, but it’s important to count the targets.

They were focused on the stone, not paying attention to their surroundings.

I picked a good angle, and dived. As a few of them turned to look, I was already on top of them, extending my wings in a flash.

The two closest ones lost their footing and fell, the others braced against the wind. I landed roughly on the closest one, my left foot crushing his neck. Right after landing I jumped on the next one before it got up, tearing off his head with my jaw. So weak!

That got the rest all riled up. They ran at me from the left, front and right.

I used Mother’s technique; first I stabilized myself on the ground, then twisted my body right in a circle violently, sending a strong tail swipe on the jumpers.

I hit three of them, the last two jumping out of the way, but of the ones I did hit, one stopped moving and the other two walked weird. They didn’t try any more attack and fled after that.

I couldn't care less where those pests went. I approached the stone to study it. The blood was fresh here, different from the dried blood on the trail. They definitely only got here recently.

I sniffed around the stone, and recognized funny prey’s smell. Ah! I get it now. The jumpers were fighting funny prey, not the stone. Is it hiding in the crack?

As I moved closer, I saw funny prey peaking out. Our eyes met and it cried in surprise, jumping back in its hiding spot. Found you! I ran excitedly and peaked inside the crack.

Danger! I jumped back, a shiny spike narrowly missing my left eye. Wow! Funny prey is not as weak as it looks. I must be more careful. I really, really want to catch it now!

I looked inside the crack from a few steps away. Funny prey was huddled at the other end of the crack, the shiny spike on one of its hands. It was also shouting weird noises but I ignored it, focusing on the spike.

Did it grow a spike on its hand? Very strange. I took two steps to look closer, agitating funny prey. It was waving the spike left and right, giving me a better look.

Ah! It did not grow a spike, it was holding it. Did it pick it up somewhere? That’s really smart, I never thought of holding something and hitting stuff.

This prey is really too interesting to eat!

But how am I gonna make it come out? I can reach it easily but I don’t want to get hurt. Think, think, think… Maybe I can pick up a spike too?

I looked around but did not see any shiny spikes. Use something else? But what? I would need something long and narrow to reach inside. Long and narrow…

But of course! I took off and approached a large tree nearby. I landed on a long branch, narrow enough to get inside the crack, but big enough for me to hold. I held it firmly with my feet and started wobbling up and down.

Crack! The branch couldn’t bear it and broke neatly from the tree. Happy, I landed near the crack, with the branch in tow. Funny prey looked really scared now, making random noises and shaking.

Standing on one leg two steps from the crack, I picked up the broken end of the branch with my right feet and stuck it inside. I pushed it back and forth, eliciting funny noises from my prey, but it was not working.

I need to push the prey out, not in. Hmm… I took another look at the crack, and noticed it was also cracked open on the top, although the opening was a lot smaller.

I can push from there! I picked the branch with both feet and jumped up, landing on top of the stone. I held my branch with one feet again, but it was really hard to stick it inside the crack.

It took me a while, but I found the trick. I moved the branch left and right, eventually pushing funny prey out. It scrambled away in panic, shouting.

Time to play catch! I took off and landed in front of it, before it reached the trees. In its panic, it tried to change direction and run away, but tripped and fell on its back instead.

It scooted backwards, waving the spike and screaming. I made a strong flap, sending dust, wind and dirt flying on the prey. It shielded its eyes and couldn’t see me.

I jumped and landed on it, trying not to crush it. As I expected it tried to hit me with the spike; I bit it and threw it away. The funny prey was struggling and screaming loudly, hitting my head with its weak arms. Annoying!

I breathed in, and roared to its face. See how it feels? The prey went stiff and stopped struggling, just protecting its head with its arms, making weak sounds and sniffing.

This is too funny! Why is it sniffing? Is there a nice smell? I sniffed around but there wasn’t anything noteworthy. I focused my sniffing on the prey, sniffing a bit of everything. For some reason it made more noises.

Then I sniffed its right leg, and smelled something different. Something tasty. I put my nose directly against its leg and took deep sniffs.

The smell came from a small bulge on the side.

As I nibbled at it, funny prey tried to push my head away with its weak arms. Yes, there’s something tasty there! I got rougher and shook my head holding its leg, in an attempt to get the tasty out.

Funny prey screamed and screamed, until a ‘crack!’ rang out. Funny prey flew a few steps away, tumbling on the ground, while I held some green-brown patch of fur in my jaws.

Ah! Did I hurt it? I looked at funny prey and it seemed alright, still making a few sounds. It didn’t get up though. Eh, looks ok enough.

I looked left and right, and found the content of its fur: a bunch of long red, tasty smelling things. Tasties! I ran over excitedly and ate them one by one.

It tastes like meat, but dry with a special taste to it, and it was really crunchy. Delicious!

In barely a few moments all of it went down my tummy. This food is really good, I want more! I looked at funny prey, who was trying to get up, and jumped on it.

It made a ‘poof!’ and fell back down. I sniffed it all over again, but there was no more tasty smell, only its own bad smell. Ow, no more tasties?

Kinda bummed out, I stepped off its back, just keeping a foot on it so it doesn’t run away.

Funny prey breathed in large gulps, while I raised my head high up to look around. I took some sniffs left and right, but didn’t pick up anything except the few dead jumpers; the blood was masking any other prey.

I looked back down at funny prey. It doesn’t smell good, but maybe it tastes good? Let’s investigate. I approached the back of its head and licked the white bits.

Funny prey cried out while I reeled back in disgust. Bah! How can something taste so bad? I am never eating this thing!

Suddenly, I felt something. I stopped and focused. Bump. I felt it again; it’s the ground. It’s shaking. Bump. It increased. Prey stopped struggling to look at me with wet eyes. Bump. It increased again. Something is approaching.

I jumped back and nervously looked around the area. Bump.

I heard something crack. My eyes darted to the other end of the clearing, and that’s when I saw it.

A massive, pink and black jumper-like creature, breached into the clearing. It was even bigger than Father or Mother. The trees looked small next to it!

It first saw the dead jumpers, then us. Danger! Danger!

It opened its huge jaw and let out a roar before sprinting towards us.

All kinds of alarms rang in my head, and I was about to take off when I remembered prey. It was scared stiff on the ground. I knew if I left it there it was dead for sure.

I took off and roughly grabbed prey with my feets, hopefully not killing it but I had no time to be careful. I looked right and saw the massive figure just a few steps away. I flapped and flapped as my life depended on it, increasing the distance between us.

When I thought that was it, the big scary jumped towards me, its huge jaw about to close on my legs. I put my entire focus on my left wing, and made my strongest flap ever, narrowly dodging the jaw as it clacked shut.

Devoid of wings, the big scary fell back down to the ground, while I was already flying up high when it turned to roar at me.

Phew! That was too scary! I was going to look for Father when I heard his massive roar of anger. I turned around to see him coming down on the big scary.

Father was pissed. I never saw him so angry before. I looked at the big black, and it looked scared of Father. There were claw marks and missing patches of black fur on its back.

Father was hovering above the big black, and they roared at each other,

whenI saw something amazing; Father reeled his head back a bit, then spewed down super bright stuff on big black’s head.

It cried out in pain and I smelled a delicious smell even from there.

While the big black was blinded, Father turned with a strong flap and violently shoved the big black from the side, sending it falling down.

Before it could get up, Father dropped on its back and firmly held it with his talons. It looked painful. Father made rapid and powerful flaps, lifting the massive thing off the ground, before throwing it away in the trees.

Crack! Crash! The big black tumbled in the trees, breaking a few and roaring in pain. Father reeled back his head again, and spewed a ball of super bright stuff at it.

Boom! The entire area echoed with big black’s painful cries and the cracking of trees. Father roared at the retreating figure of the big black, but did not pursue.

That will teach you! Father is amazing. I knew he was the strongest, but not that strong. And what is the super bright stuff? I must know!

Father landed and called out to me. As I got closer I smelled the delicious smell of the big black, and felt the area was hotter.

Before I landed, I dropped the prey on the ground to not crush it. It was alive but not in the best shape.

I ran to Father and we touched heads, while Father cooed and licked my head. As the tension went down, I really felt relieved. In only a single, tiny moment, had I messed up or been too slow, the big black would have caught me.

I should never have saved funny prey. It slowed me down, and I almost died because of it! Why on sky did I save it? In that moment it made sense, but looking back I don’t understand at all.

We were interrupted when shouts and the rustling of leaves came from the other side of the clearing. A group of similar creatures to funny prey entered the clearing, around 6 of them.

Father jerked his head in their direction and made a warning roar.

They stopped in their tracks, letting me get a look. They were completely different from nice prey, and I felt danger from them.

Each one had a different appearance, holding some kinds of ‘spikes’.

They did not approach us, and Father signaled me to take off. As we flew away, I looked back and saw them gathering around nice prey, before it was too far to see anything.