Hamonike wasn’t ever a very clean eater. Polite and well mannered, as anyone including herself could tell you, wasn’t her strong suit.

  Not even before the loss of her arm, utensils would be pushed in her direction and she’d merely tell the person bold enough to offer —rather pushy enough if you asked her— to back off and let her enjoy her food in peace. Now she used her remaining hand and claws to pin the food in place so she could rip it apart with her teeth, and that worked perfectly fine to get the food in her mouth. She never understood the importance of having to eat as if she was trying to impress someone, like there was some quota of gracefulness she was being expected to meet with each bite.

  If she was back home, this meat would’ve been sliced and skewered, bathed in sweet glaze, before being rested on the edge of a fire to cook and char just enough for the perfect mouth melting texture. Fire was rare in the jungle of endless rain, but underneath the rocky overhangs that the village rested beneath free from the downpour, bonfires cooked food and dried clothes and let them experience warmth and a break from the wet sogginess. If she was back home, she'd be listening to elders tell stories about long gone eras not even they had been alive to see as flicks of water were drizzled onto flame heated stones for sizzles and steam to add some flare and excitement to their tales.

  If she was back home, she reminded herself bitterly with a harsh bite into the flesh of her prey, ripping away the chunk of meat with her orange iron infused teeth, someone no doubt would be trying to tell her to stop chewing so loudly even though she absolutely wasn’t. Or to stop making a mess. If she was back home she'd be in some way reminded that she was an invasion to the peace, a burden to the others in some way or another. A problem that they were getting tired of having to try solving when the answer was simple, leave her alone, stop bugging her. Here! She was free, and she had caught this all by herself! With only one arm too! Her ego was frankly thriving, and she had the audacity to think that maybe, just maybe this wasn’t all that bad.

  And the wilds of Jargala, oh they decided they were determined to try and make her watch her big mouth.

  Shadows loomed overhead, and she snapped her gaze up to look at the source. Oh. The feathered beasts were back. Great, she huffed as they swooped above in lazy circles, before finally landing on the sandy, silty valley floor, scaly clawed feet leaving a messy scattering of foot prints in the reddish purple sand. The scavengers kept their distance at first, pretending to prune and preen their feathers with their long tooth lined beaks as she ripped another strip of meat free, followed by a rib she cracked between her teeth and swallowed done to try and relay to these pesky beasts that she’d do the same to them. Testing her with each mouthful she swallowed down, sizing her up as she was all too familiar with. Hamonike caught sight of their beady, bright red eyes as they peered through the gaps of their feathers and over the edge of their wings, redating cocksure energy in abundant quantities.

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  One hopped closer, and Hamonike gave a low, warning hiss.

  It didn’t heed the warning, creeping ever closer, beak clattering a little as it reached out for a fin.

  “GET! THIS IS MINE!” She spat, whipping around to smack at it ight on the top of the head with her claws. No sooner than her claws released her prey, with no other claws to hold it, another of the invidious beasts darted in from the other side and grabbed the tail of the unagi and started dragging it away. “TEMEE! DUSTY MITE FILLED THEIVING SCORCHING FODDER!”

  The feathered beasts practically exploded around her in flapping and pecking, the valley filled with the echoes of skull rattling cawing.

  The shadow hunter swiped and fought with angry snarling, but the tori beasts had numbers. When one toothy beak snapped far, far too close to her eye for her comfort she retreated back, panting as she watched the remains of her hunt get ripped to shreds until it was impossible to tell from sight what it had been. Even if she had the means to take them on, there wouldn’t be much to salvage.

  She huffed, teeth tightening as she sucked in breath between them and grimaced at the dusty feathery scent of the scavengers and thieves, and with a roll of her eyes and a stiff rotation of her aching shoulder (ow) she turned away.

  “...I was full anyways.” Hamonike scowled to herself.

  It was the easiest conclusion for her pride to make, that she had eaten enough to not be hungry, and she could continue onwards.

  Onwards to.. Where, exactly, was the question. She had slunk back to the shallow pools of water to wash her claws and face clean and assure she hadn’t been hurt worse than a few smacks and pecks.

  A simple glance at the thin streams trickling through the sand told her which way the water had come from, it had come from...that direction she deemed confidently, Hamonike’s gaze following the walls of the valley until she could see no further. Had it not been for the water it would look no different from the other direction. The rainforest was kita ni and if she followed the river, she could return to the Soraame Clan.

  Where she could already hear Kitoge mocking her for losing to some scavengers. Her face crinkled with displeasure and her claws balled into a fist, prickling her palm.

  This didn’t prove she needed the clan. She was still better off without them. And they were better off without her to mess everything up.

  Her gaze swung over to the other end of the valley as she tried to think back to her geography classes. If that way was back to the Soraame Clan, then the other way would be the Haisu Clan, or the Kagamikemuri Clan, depending on how far the floods had taken her. A stir of curiosity followed, she could go wherever she wanted now couldn’t she? Nobody was here to tell her what to do.

  The young shadow hunter pondered for a few moments, and after gathering herself she turned and headed down the valley, further away from the rainforest.