She pecks the flesh with her long beak, dried blood from her last meal still rimming her maw. With quick, violent motions she pulls at the meat until it is freed from the decaying carcass. Beaded eyes look around, fearing another predator might come and steal her dinner away while she is in the midst of a swallow. She caws when she feels the coast is clear, just after she’d finished the majority of the animal, signaling for another bird to join her. He crawls from the shadows and looks at the flesh with the same sharp eyes, examining it for a morsel large enough to satisfy his hungry belly. In a moment, he pushes his beak into the rotting meat and pulls a substantial amount of muscle from the bone. Tilting his head back, he lets it slide down his throat. He’d never before known how delicious such things could taste.
Once the two birds had eaten their fill, they let out another piercing call to signal the others. Another bird came out and began to indulge. She was younger than the first two by a significant amount, but she was strong. She ripped a tough hunk of meat from the chest of the animal, and let it slide into her stomach. She wondered where the others were, but assumed it wouldn’t be too long before they grew the courage to step into the open and feed their carnivorous side.
In just a few moments, the bones of the animal were all that remained.
The three birds flew away together, fearing some larger or more agile beast might pounce while they were preening themselves. With a single glance, the smallest bird looked back toward what used to be her sister. There was nothing now, but she was no longer hungry.
CaliStray 