Blue blinks her eyes again, her brain trying to process the massive, strange creatures in front of her. Instincts acquired through millions of years scream at her that the soft, squishy thing in front of her with yellow fur on its head was its Caretaker, and that she should stay as close to it as possible in order to survive, until she can take her rightful place at the top of the food chain.

  Satisfied with the current hierarchy between herself and her new guardian, Blue considers her next move. With a brain the current stupendous size of a walnut, her contemplations were short and consisted mostly of “Is food? No. Can be food? Maybe. Look for food? Yes.”

  She shakily stretches out her elegant, long neck, sniffing the air for any morsel of food that she could scarf down. Tilting her head from side to side, she catches a whiff of something that smells like delicious, succulent meat. She looks around and manages to spot her target: A soft, leathery thing lying on the ground. Completely vulnerable and completely unaware of the threat that is Blue. For a moment, she feels gratitude towards her Caretaker for providing her with an easy kill and a succulent meal, before she goes back to feeling ravenous and murderous.

  With a small chirrup of satisfaction, she stretches her mighty wings and jumps up to her feet, her long and muscular legs carrying her swiftly over to her prey before it could even notice that she was there.

  Using instincts that have been perfected over millions of years but that she has never used once, she pounces, her wings outstretched to guide her descent and her talons spread open, prepared to rend and tear into the soft, leathery hide.

  She lands on her prey with force, pinning it down. She lets out a mighty, victorious cry, her talons sinking deeply into its hide. The sensation of her claws sliding through the hide like butter giving her a sense of satisfaction unlike anything else, a sense of rightness, like her talons were designed for this very purpose. With her prey immobilized and clearly dead, she starts tearing into it with her beak, seeking out that delicious-smelling meat.

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  She rips and tears into the creature's entrails, finding it much more tough than expected. Instead of the meaty, salty taste that she craves, her beak is instead filled with a soft, dry thing that’s clearly inedible. She spits it out with distaste and then rears her head back to go in once again, but is suddenly stopped by the grasping hands of her caretaker.

  With a surprised cry, she’s hoisted into the air, a perverse sense of wrongness coming over her. Nothing should be able to separate her from her kill this easily! How dare her caretaker pull her away from a meal! Shouldn’t they be proud of how efficient she is?! It didn’t even have the opportunity to fight back! Is her Caretaker trying to steal her kill? That must be it! Well, if her Caretaker wants her kill, she’ll have to fight her for it!

  Blue twists her head around and clamps down onto one of her caretaker’s wobbly flesh bits. The tang of salty blood fills her beak as Caretaker lets out a cry of pain, and once again, Blue’s instincts flood her with a sense of rightness. This is exactly what she’s supposed to be doing! She was born to fight, she was born to win!

  Blue starts to wriggle, trying to break free from the grasp of her weak and pathetic Caretaker. She should show her Caretaker who’s boss, and establish her dominance on them! Then, she could rule this forest, as is her right! Who needs a Caretaker anyways? They’ll just slow her–

  Caretaker lifts one of her fleshy, wiggly appendages and gently-but-firmly taps Blue on the beak. Blue stops struggling, the shock of the boop causing her brain to short-circuit. Caretaker lifts Blue up and they lock eyes, as Caretaker babbles incoherently at Blue in an admonishing tone.

  Blue stares back at Caretaker as her brain slowly kickstarts itself back to life. You can almost see the moment the hamster starts spinning on its wheel deep within her psyche, and it is mad.

  With a furious cry, Blue starts her counter-attack.