The taste of death stuck to Scorpan's tongue no matter how much he washed it.
"Don't be such a wimp!" Tirek scolded, lightly smacking the back of Scorpan's head. "We need food to survive, we found food, we didn't even have to kill it ourselves! You could stand to be a bit more grateful."
"I know I need to eat meat," Scorpan hissed back, "you don't have to keep reminding me." He scooped up more water from the river he was kneeling by and rinsed out his mouth again.
"Then stop making such a fuss every time we feed." Tirek kicked a rock into the river, watching it sink to the bottom. "You always do this. You won't even go after any prey yourself!"
Scorpan spat the water out before responding. "I can't help it. I'm drawn to eating meat, but also deeply repulsed by it. I suspect it has something to do with the mix of creatures that I came from."
Tirek scoffed. "You're mostly lion. Along with, what, a scorpion and a dragon? What in you wouldn't want meat?"
"I'm not sure if we fully know what dragons eat," Scorpan said. "The most I've heard is that they'll sometimes eat gems, a trait which I know I don't possess, at least. And none of those creatures would account for my horns. Well, some dragons have horns, but not like these." He gestured vaguely at his own head. "All that I've learned points to me being part sheep, cattle, or goat, all of which are herbivores. That would explain my distaste for eating flesh. Especially of creatures that... may be like me."
Tirek didn't bother with a response beyond a "hhmph." He knelt down by the river as well, drinking from it. Scorpan considered rinsing out his mouth again, but decided that at this point it would be fruitless. He watched the water flowing by, splashing up against a few rocks, swirling up sand beneath its surface, letting his mind wander.
“You know,” he said after some time, “I don’t see how you would eat meat either.”
Tirek turned to him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing about your composition suggests ‘carnivore,’” Scorpan explained, broadly sweeping a paw in Tirek’s general direction. “You have horns like me, and I suspect you’re part goat, maybe part pony as well. And definitely part ape, which I suppose may be an omnivore? I’m not certain. But even then, you would be primarily made of herbivorous beasts, and no true carnivores.”
“Who cares what I’m made of!” Tirek roared, picking up another stone and throwing it into the river with a great splash. “I am who I am. I don’t see why you’re so invested in picking us apart.”
“We are more than the sum of our parts, yes,” Scorpan mused, “but it might be helpful for us to know some of what makes up our physical forms.”
Tirek stood up, walking away and yelling back to his brother. “If I had your strength, I’d spend more of my time hunting and less of it wasting my energy on thinking up useless thoughts.”
It was the perfect cave to stop and spend the night. High enough in the mountains that no other creatures could come to attack them, but not so high that the air would make them dizzy. A spring was a stone’s throw away from the entrance, flowing with fresh water, and the inside of the cave was nice and cool as opposed to the bitterly cold winds that roared outside.
If only it wasn’t so small.
“I saw this cave first,” Scorpan growled, staring down his brother.
“You see everything first, flying around with those stupid wings of yours!” Tirek yelled back.
“I wouldn’t be calling me stupid if I also relied on me to navigate, you know,” Scorpan said.
“Yeah, you do all the easy stuff, and then I’m the only one who goes after our food!” Tirek said. “You won’t even track down the already dead stuff! I have to do everything around here!”
“That’s the only thing you ever do for us,” Scorpan said, “just because you can’t think for more than two seconds at a time to make any of our big decisions!”
“Maybe I could if you-” Tirek started to retort, until Scorpan grew tired of their bickering and tossed him over his shoulder, plopping him down on the ground outside.
“You’re the one who always goes on bragging about how you never need sleep or warmth, that you can persevere on through anything,” Scorpan said. “You can prove it now. Good night.”
He pulled over a large stone that sat by the entrance to the cave to drive home the point, curling up on the small stone floor. Tirek was cursing at him from outside, but Scorpan knew his brother would be unable to gain entry. As strong as apes usually were, Tirek had always been rather small and weak, perhaps limited by the other creatures that made up his body. The stone would remain unmoved.
He closed his eyes, and found himself back in the ravine where he was born. He remembered being little more than a lion cub, with the wings of a full-grown dragon awkwardly protruding from his back. Then he was older, encountering another being that had just been born from the ruins. He remembered this young being stumbling over a pile of dry bones, looking up to him for help.
He sighed, opening his eyes again. The sounds of cursing from outside had stopped.
Perhaps he should go out for a drink of water. He was thirsty, that was all. Yes, he would go out to the spring for a bit. The air in the cave was rather dry.
Scorpan carefully pushed aside the makeshift door and flew over to the spring. In the corner of his eye, he watched Tirek stir awake and dash into the cave, struggling to pull over the stone to seal the mouth behind him. He succeeded in getting it about half closed before presumably giving up and settling down for the night.
The spring had satisfied Scorpan’s thirst. He found the most comfortable pile of rocks he could and made his bed for the night. At least he could see the stars better out here.
“Predictable.”
Scorpan rolled his eyes and put another handful of berries in his mouth.
“Shall I go out and find us proper food again, while you sit here eating tiny bits of plants?”
“Something tells me you’ll do it either way,” Scorpan said.
“Fine then. I’m off to hunt.”
“Predictable.”
Tirek glared at him, but said nothing more as he stormed off. Scorpan plucked the rest of the berries from the bush and ate them one by one, slowly savoring the sweet taste. Much better than eating other creatures, and he was certain that nothing could change his mind on that.
If only this could be enough.
He stood up and flew just a few feet above ground, searching for a stream to drink from and perhaps to wash the berry juice off his paw before it stained. Not that he’d mind too much, but he knew Tirek would make a fuss about “looking less powerful” or whatever it was he went on about.
Sunlight cascaded over the scales of his wings, bestowing upon him the warmth that the dragon in him craved. He hummed in contentment, allowing himself to play with the breezes blowing around him as he flew, flowing from side to side still in search of a stream. Something glistened in the corner of his eye, and he alighted near it, to see if it was water.
He was met with another bush full of berries, except these berries were… glowing?
The hair on the back of his neck prickled. He’d never seen glowing berries before. His paw reached out to touch one, pausing and hovering just a breath away from one of the strange fruits. Though the berries themselves were red, the light coming from them was more of a violet hue.
“Strange. Very strange,” he muttered to himself.
“What’s strange?”
Scorpan jumped as Tirek shoved aside a fallen branch and emerged from the thicket.
“You’re not still hunting?” Scorpan asked.
“No sign of anything good near us. We’ll have to…” Tirek stopped as his eyes found the bush of glowing berries.
“That’s what’s strange,” Scorpan said.
Tirek knelt by the bush, reaching out a hand to it. His fingers traced the strange light.
“Do you feel that, Scorpan?”
“Feel what? Do you know why they’re glowing?”
“Magic.” Tirek plucked one of the berries. “This plant itself is imbued with magic. Can’t you sense it?”
Scorpan picked one of the berries for himself. “Not really? I don’t know if I have the same ‘sense’ for magic as you do.”
With a shrug, he popped the berry into his mouth. He figured even if the magic was some sort of curse, he would be safe with only one. To his surprise, Tirek did the same.
“And how much time have you spent complaining that plants aren’t worth eating?” Scorpan teased, lightly elbowing Tirek.
“Most haven’t been,” Tirek said with an unnerving smile. “But this…”
His eyes began to faintly glow, the same glow that came from the berries, and Scorpan noticed what seemed to be that same light rippling faintly through Tirek’s arms.
“This… might be worth it,” Tirek finished, looking down at himself. “Didn’t you say that there was a possibility that I could absorb other forms of magic?”
“It was no more than a wild guess with nothing to substantiate it, based on what little I know of the makeup of the ravine,” Scorpan said. “But maybe… maybe you really can.”
Tirek grinned, scooping a handful of berries from the bush.
“I’m not even sure what this magic is supposed to do,” Scorpan mused.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s mine now.”
