Wakefulness came to her in a surprisingly gentle manner via a delicious smell wafting across her nose. She cracked an eye open, blinking a few times to rid herself of the last vestiges of sleep before standing up, letting out a wide yawn filled with teeth.

Despite her somewhat limited attention span, she didn't fail to notice her father behind her as he waited for her, nor did she miss the attention-grabbing, deliciously salivating, horned rabbits all held tightly within her father's claws.

He seemed to notice her sudden attentiveness, and with a jerking motion, he allowed one of the bunnies to escape his grasp. She was briefly surprised at seeing the bunny still alive and able to escape, but she didn't waste any time and immediately threw her clumsy self after it.

It took a few attempts. The rabbit was far larger than she remembered them to be (Remember what?), but it was still a great deal smaller than her. Furthermore, considering she'd only been out of her shell for a day at most, her body was completely and utterly unable to move as efficiently as she wanted it to.

However, rather than frustrate her, this all just excited her. Despite missing more times than she could bother remembering, the rabbit was unable to truly escape her home clearing due to her father's attentiveness. He would trail after both her and the rabbit, stopping either of them from getting too close to the raised edge and whatever lay beyond.

Finally, after one particularly unlucky dodge in which the rabbit accidentally slipped on a small patch of ice, she succeeded in sinking her hungry teeth into the rabbit's backside. She enjoyed her moment of triumph for a moment, and only for a moment because the little horned bastard immediately started struggling viciously, evidently having turned to the fight mode of its fight or flight instincts.

She was careful to keep her front limbs safe, the leathery skin still developing into actual wings a far too vulnerable target for her to do otherwise. Almost automatically, she felt a strange sensation in the teeth still holding tightly onto the trashing rabbit. It was almost like peeing, but also... not. (Gross!)

Evidently, whatever she did had quite the effect, since the rabbit's struggles were quickly cut short. Oh, it wasn't an immediate effect, but it still took less than a minute for the rabbit to go completely still.

Although, saying that it was still would be inaccurate. It was extremely tense, but to her, it seemed as though it had completely lost any capability for movement. (Paralytic agents?)

Slowly, she allowed herself to let go of the rabbit, careful to keep herself able and ready to bite once more should it prove not enough. However, after a few seconds of continued immobility, she felt satisfied enough with her caution and pounced forward.

The rabbit was bleeding quite harshly, the fur on its backside torn and bloodied from the fierce struggle the two had undergone. It let out a small, pitiful whine when she bit onto its side, fully intent on eating it. She was thus quite surprised when she felt her father's wing-claw gently nudge her away.

She was hungry enough to consider resisting but quickly abandoned the idea. She didn't want to disappoint her father. A small part of her rebelled at the thought of letting food go, but she easily ignored it.

He moved her to the side of the rabbit, letting her see whatever it was he wanted to show her. And show her he did, as he quickly and efficiently stabbed the small claw-like ending at the tip of his wing-arm into the rabbit's head, killing it in one quick and efficient motion.

She tilted her head to the side before a sort of realization dawned on her. (Don't hurt needlessly), (Playing with food for the sake of pain is wrong). Her head throbbed for a moment as strange, there-yet-not-there whispers of semi-incoherent thoughts and emotions assaulting her mind and causing her skull to pulse painfully.

She shook her head with a grimace, suppressing the whine that wanted to escape. She wasn't sure why she didn't want to whine, but since she didn't want to, she didn't. Simple as that.

It only took a dozen or so seconds for the pain to finally leave her alone. She couldn't quite comprehend everything that had just happened, but that didn't mean she didn't at least understand what her father wished to teach her. He looked up at his eyes, so much higher up than her own, and let out an understanding chirp.

Seemingly satisfied, he stepped back and allowed her to feast on her kill, which she did with great gusto. She tore the flesh from bone, slurped the entrails, and nibbled at the bones that remained. She could have been satisfied with what she had just eaten, but compared to the day before, it was certainly quite a lot less.

That strange and oh-so-pleasurable feeling was back as well, although the warmth flowing into her chest was smaller by quite a noticeable bit. She didn't really understand mind though, as it wasn't like this was bad or anything.

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When she'd finally finished her meal, she turned back to her father, not-so-discreetly eyeing the three remaining rabbits still held by his claws. He eyed her with an expression that was almost too human on his reptilian face, amusement clearly visible as she licked her bloodied and scaly lips.

Without much preamble, he allowed one of the rabbits to free itself. As expected, the lithe animal immediately took off in the opposite direction the two reptiles were in, with the younger of the pair immediately taking off after it.

Compared to her first 'hunt', she'd clearly gotten a lot more comfortable in her own skin. She was still clearly clumsy, her body not truly designed for ground-based chasing as shown by her method of traveling consisting of something akin to quick yet short hops using her back legs for propulsion and wing-arms for stability.

Despite that, she actually held a rather uncanny advantage over her prey. She was faster than it, reacted with much greater speed and precision, and a single bite of hers was enough to severely injure it. Furthermore, with her long and flexible neck, she also had a much greater reach than one would expect.

All of that, plus her previous experience, allowed her to catch her prey much faster than before. After cutting it off at an unexpected moment and not missing her open-mouthed lunge, she managed to sink her teeth into the poor critter after only a single minute.

This time, she tried her best to immediately kill it and prevent it from feeling any pain. She... wasn't quite as efficient as her father, and she was fairly sure the poor thing felt that her attempt at being merciful was anything except that, but it was the thought that counted.

Her father's proud visage certainly seemed to think so.

She spent half an instant puzzling over how she'd suddenly become able to recognize her parent's expressions before shrugging it off and diving into her latest kill. She was as messy as ever, and despite feeling full after eating half the rabbit, she sucked it up and finished it all anyway, unwilling to waste food (Think of those who starve).

She frowned briefly at the passing thought that felt both foreign and familiar, so fleeting that she wasn't actually sure whether she imagined it or not. Her stuffed belly made her drowsy enough to drop the line of thought, instead choosing to trot over to her father and curl up right next to him. He responded in kind, absentmindedly swallowing the two remaining rabbits whole before he too curled up around her, quite literally in his case.

She could feel the warmth of her meals slowly seeping out from her chest and all through her body. The sensation was... itchy. It was like a whole colony of ants had started nibbling at her insides, and yet, despite the analogy, it actually wasn't all that uncomfortable.

On the contrary, despite her sleepiness, she actually felt better than ever. Not that she had much of an 'ever' to compare this to, since she'd only been alive for a day and a half at most.

(She remembered the gentle embrace of her lover, the lovely taste of cake, the sweet sensation of victory)

A small headache came and went through her drowsy mind, the half-awake, half-asleep state not even registering it. She wasn't sure how long she was in that state, but by the time she came out of it, the sun had already started setting over the horizon, as compared to the late morning it had been beforehand.

The cause of her awakening quickly made itself clear as she picked up the familiar smell of her mother, the large reptile having just landed in their clearing. She squeaked out a greeting to go along with her father's welcoming, deep-throated rumble.

The itchiness had also left, she noticed. Furthermore, when she tried getting up so that she could go and seek affection from her returning mother, she found herself moving much more smoothly. She was by no means grateful, but a lot of her earlier clumsiness had left her, giving her a rather pleasant surprise.

She didn't waste too much time thinking on it, though, as she quickly waddled her way over to her waiting mother, who was waiting for her with an amused expression.

She rubbed her head onto her mother's scaly chest and wings, purring lightly. She was rewarded for her actions by her mother rubbing her own head on her back, a move which she greatly enjoyed, her purrs only growing in volume.

Her mother also took the opportunity to give her a quick tongue back. She squirmed in place a bit as her mother's long and dexterous tongue made quick work of all the bloodstains and dirt clinging to her.

When the matriarch of their little family was finally satisfied, she retracted her head back, examining her daughter in a way that made her squirm a bit. Her gaze was more intense than the newborn was used to, and she didn't exactly like it, almost making her feelings known with a low whine.

She held back, however. She wasn't sure why she did, but something within her told her that, no, she would not whine. Not now.

It was akin to the voice that she had woken up with, the one screaming at her to claw her way to freedom, but it also bore a semblance to the whispers she'd been hearing as of late. Combined, they held much greater sway than they would individually, and so the newborn obeyed and simply squirmed uncomfortably.

Seemingly satisfied, her mother pulled back from her intense-mode. She lowered her head so that her forehead was touching her child's, and then spoke.

~You are Silvana. Daughter of Rissa and Variel~

The newly-christened Silvana blinked in confusion at the sudden intrusion of her thoughts. It wasn't exactly words that she heard, but something more akin to an unholy mix between feelings, ideas, concepts, and sentences all wrapped up into one, a package delivered right into her head.

She was broken out of her confusion when her mother gave her one last nuzzle before going over to her father, the two of them wasting no time in showing affection to their mate.

Silvana still felt horribly confused about what just happened, but considering her lack of answers, she didn't really know what to do about it. The whispers were back, louder than she was used to, and they were clearly unhappy about something. (Was that telepathy? Dragon magic?)

In the end, she supposed it didn't matter what she felt. With a loud squeak, she quickly meandered her way to her parent's side once more, quickly getting down to acting like a child her age, demanding attention and love like there was no tomorrow.

Her parents were only all too happy to oblige her.