d3rlord was used to Avery by now.
having the little caterpillar by his side. it was a little odd, sure, for a fledgling bird to be hanging out with a creature such as him… but d3rlord didn’t quite mind. he liked it, really.
the King in Yellow often teased him about it, whenever avery wasn’t around to eavesdrop.
“my little fledgling is making acquaintances with a worm,” the King would snicker, teasing d3rlord about avery being his friend—his only one, at that. “he should be food for you, really, yet you choose to make an ally of him… how odd.”
d3rlord’s feathers would stiffen at that final statement.
it was odd.
avery was a caterpillar. he should’ve metamorphosed into a butterfly by now, but his diet had been so abysmal that his body hadn’t developed enough to reach that point yet. & d3rlord, he was a bird. a carnivorous one. he’d been transformed into a bird—a fledgling, in the King in yellow’s words—by the King himself, just so the King could have a sort of child to look after, given that the King was a specie of massive bird himself. d3rlord had been granted six large wings, ones that still took time getting used to.
he’d had a relatively lonely life down in the caves until avery had come along, falling down into the deep caverns with nothing but his jacket & a lousy wooden pickaxe to his name. d3rlord had rescued avery from falling to his death onto the cold, damp stone floor, & from that moment on avery began calling d3rlord “angel”.
just because of his wings & act of salvation.
in becoming a bird thanks to the King in Yellow’s grace, other predicaments soon began to pop up in d3rlord’s life with avery’s arrival—ones that had nothing to do with his extra winged appendages, nor the discomfort that came with feathers blooming out of his skin.
hunger.
oh, he was hungry now. carnivorous. the banquets of food that the King in Yellow offered for d3rlord just didn’t appease him, because he sought flesh now instead rather than fruits & vegetables. he often caught himself staring at avery, & the caterpillar’s little plump body. he had gotten far healthier with his arrival in the caves, & since he wasn’t leaving anytime soon—the King in Yellow wouldn’t let him—d3rlord… started to get hungrier.
it got so bad that at times, whenever he glanced at avery, his stomach would growl. loudly. his eyes would shift colours, the crimson of his pupil burning into his skull, & his mouth would begin to water uncontrollably as fangs sprouted out of his mouth, where they were meant to be kept hidden.
he managed to hide this from avery, with some success. avery seemed oblivious so far, just brushing & playing it off whenever d3rlord acted up around him. yet, even if avery had the combined iq of a stag beetle & a worm, he wouldn’t remain oblivious to it for long.
“me & avery, we’re going on a scavenging trip.”
he spoke true to his word. he really did mean for avery & he to go scavenge for some items; mine some coal, maybe, kill some mobs if they came across any. just the usual. d3rlord had done this with avery for fun many times before, so it wasn’t anything really unusual. avery certainly didn’t seem to think so.
d3rlord let avery go off ahead, swinging his wooden pickaxe at mobs to fend them off. avery was more of the fighter of the group, whereas d3rlord usually tended to lag behind to actually gather the items they wanted to find.
but not this time.
this time around, as d3rlord watched avery dash off in front of him, fending off mobs as he went, d3rlord’s feathers began to twitch. his pupils dilated. he couldn’t help it. he could feel the crimson of his eyes swelling up, showing more of the vicious colour than he would’ve liked. his mouth began to drool again, not from sleep, but from just… avery. he felt his wings expand behind him, not having much space to do so in the rather cramped tunnel so they instead drowned out all of the light that came from behind him with their mass. he cupped his mouth with his hands, already beginning to shake. no. not now. not when avery was right here, right in front of him-