#skull kid: being aware of mortality isnt enough i need to tap into my ancient sabertooth brain

[randomwriteronline]

Skull Kid stands perfectly still, completely tense, looking about to kill something.

“Do you ever feel an unquenchable zest for violent murder,” is rather coherently the first thing that comes out of their mouth.

Sky sighs: “All the time,” he nods.

The imp turns towards him: “You should bite meat then,” they suggest, ignoring Warriors and Twilight’s very worried look at the skydweller. “And get a lot of spit in the back of your throat.“

“How would that help?” Sky argues. “Also, that would be very gross.”

“It’s to make the growl wet.”

“How is a growl wet?”

“Shut up and listen.”

The kid bares their teeth and gives a long, dull ‘grrrrrrrrr’.

“That growl sucks,” they say then, “Because it’s dry.”

They then repeat sound, but now it seeps out of their fangs with a sort of ghoulish gurgling noise, making it seem like they’re going to start foaming at the mouth at any moment.

“That’s a wet growl,” they explain, “Because I have all the spit in the back of the throat and I do gargarisms. And if you open your mouth--”

“Don’t you dare spit that.” Twilight warns them.

“I wasn’t going to!”

“What else do you do with a lot of spit and an open mouth?”

As an answer, they start growling again, making biting motions without letting their teeth meet: the result is a long string of angry gibberish clicking and rumbling menacingly at the three men.

“You sound possessed,” Warriors comments.

“That’s the point,” Skull Kid replies.

They get down on all fours, back arched, pupils like pinpricks: “I am a beast,” they hiss, and turn their side to them a little, like a cat, “I am full of claws and teeth!” and they jump closer to them a little (exactly like a cat - a kitten trying out ambushes) and gurgle another chittering growl, searching for their knees with swipes of a hand all posed like a fiersome paw full of daggers: “I’m a beast!! I want blood!”

They give a sound like a ‘grrra-ra-ra-ra’ and fall on the ground, contorting like a ferret before fulmineously standing back on all fours, almost surprised at their own actions.

They look like a domesticated predator, notes Twilight in his mind, not frightened in the slightest.

“What’s the meat for, then?” Sky asks.

Skull Kid answers: “Mauling.”

“Mauling?”

“All beasts maul! You gotta grab it and swing it around and kick it and kill it!”

“It’s already dead.”

“You gotta kill it!!”

Warriors fetches one of Hyrule’s old, old meats and chucks it weakly somewhere close enough to the imp: “Maybe it’s better if you show us.”

Skull Kid flattens on the ground as soon as the stale food touches down: their pupils grow huge for a single second, and then go right back to being near nonexistent. Their body wiggles as their droning hum rises in volume and raspiness until they leap onto the ration and sink their nails into it, maw opened like a bear trap clasping closed around it with what is almost a full on roar. Their momentum makes them bounce on the dirt as they energetically shake their head to tear the cooked muscle apart, and soon enough they’re rolling in the dust in a frenzy, boots kicking angrily at the food as if to cut open its stomach, and they just never stop making positively furious noises. They let their prey go, grow quiet and perfectly still; then they’re right back on the offensive.

The three heroes observe them without a word.

“This feels weirdly cathartic,” Twilights comments at one point.

“It does,” Sky echoes him with a slight nod, completely engrossed in the action.

All three then proceed to keep watching intently and in complete silence as Skull Kid ferociously continues to kill the meat.

Eventually Hyrule comes back with Four, and upon taking the scene in and processing what exactly he’s seeing and hearing he asks: “What the hell is going on here?”

Warriors turn to him: “Enrichment, I think,” he replies.

As soon as he’s finished, Skull Kid snaps the bone in half and howls a victorious gurgle of war. Four pales a little.

“You killed it?” Sky asks.

“YES.”

They arch their back as high as they can: “I AM A BEAST!!” they yowl.

Then they sit down on the tip of their toes, grab the killed meat, and stuff it in their mouth, loudly saying ‘gnam gnam gnam gnam gnam’ as they chew openly.

“You definitely are.” Twilight agrees.