Chatterbox: Inkwell

Zephyr
trudged past a crumbling skyscraper, overgrown with brambles trees
and poison oak, mud squelching beneath her feet. Before the
Apocalypse, the skyscraper had been a scientific development
building, and her home.

Zephyr had been an orphan for as long as she could remember, and had
been used to looking out for herself. She didn’t know why her
parents abandoned her, but her main theory was that it had something
to do with her claws and sharp fangs where “normal” humans had
canines. Not that “Normal” humans were normal anymore. In fact,
they had been extinct since the Apocalypse, but for some reason,
humans who had “Mutations” had survived.

She came to a stop in front of a shallow cave. Casting her gaze
around to check for those who would harm her, she knocked three times
on the boulder at the back of the cave, whispering, “cockroach
clusters”. The boulder rolled aside, revealing Athena, her twin
sister, her eyes blue and red striped with relief.

“You were out there for hours!”
she exclaimed once the boulder was back in place “We were about to
send out a search party!” “Athena,
you better than anyone know that I can take care of myself” “I
know no such thing… And as I recall, I got you out of plenty of
scrapes.” they turned the
corner and walked out into a
large cavern filled with
people, all with mutations ranging from pointy ears and webbed hands
and feet to tentacles and wings.

Lupin walked up, bandaged,
limping, his arm in
sling,“What happened?!” yelped
Zephyr. “Manticore attack” he said grimly and
with some satisfaction
“They’re getting closer… and if you think my injuries are bad,
you should see the manticore.” Athena
smirked “Yeah, it’s laying in the kitchen getting cut up right
now.” “Yum, manticore meat for dinner.” said Zephyr with a
grin, “Why does it taste so good again?” “I dunno, but it’s
sure better than that sea serpent meat we had last week.”

“In my defense,
I had read that snakes taste like chicken, and I figured that,
sea serpents being giant water-breathing snakes, it would taste like
chicken too!” “Whatever, it still tasted like roast stinkbug”
“You know what roast stinkbug tastes like?” “ZEPHYR!"
“Soooryyy"