Splinter

OOC WARNING: Graphic content ahead

He laid on his stomach, eyes wide as he watched the small peeping chicks scurry in and out of their nest. He had found the quail nest some time ago but he had no concept of how rare it was to see baby quails this late into the year. The hen herded her chicks before they strayed too far from the den but kept a wary eye on the fluffy wolf cub that had taken an interest in her children.  He had been coming to the nest for some time, with the intention of watching them, and learning from them, and was interested in one chick in particular.

He settled in further as a fairly hoarse cry came from the nest, and a single, stumbling form limped from the mouth of the underground den the quail hen had dug. This is what he had come for. Although he was too young to grasp the concept, because the eggs had been laid so late they had a greater potential to be born malformed, and while most of the chicks had avoided this fate, one chick hadn’t. The toes of one leg had fused together making it almost impossible for it to walk properly and causing it to limp noticeably when it walked. The chick stumbled toward its mother with it’s hoarse cry, but the mother refused to go near it, it’s siblings however, did. The other baby chicks surrounded their malformed brother and began to peck at its head incessantly. The deformed chick, crying for help began so limp away from the mob but the mob only followed.

As young as he was, what he was witnessing hadn’t escaped him; The chick was weak, and would only make their survival harder, it was a threat to them because it would hold them back, and no doubt, it would die on its own anyway. The chick limped further and further away until it had come too close to the slate wolf for the others to follow. The baby bird settled between his paws and shivered, the thin and patchy feathers on its head ripped to shreds by small sharp beaks. He felt a strange mix of empathy and disgust for the creature, and realized that because of its disability it had no place in the world. The world was meant for the strong and pure and the weak were a scourge, only entitled to a swift and merciful death. His eyes narrowed before his jaws snapped closed around the small bird, and crushed its frail bones. He chewed and swallowed while the other chicks watched. Almost as though they were satisfied by the outcome, they dispersed and resumed playing with one another.

Abridged details: Tyranis finds a quail nest with a deformed chick, the chick is attacked by its healthier siblings until Tyranis kills it.