Once upon a time, there were four Hellmu: Sharpbeak, Stomper, Evil Eye, and Larry.
They lived with their flock out on the plains, not far from a village of Humans. They roamed through the forest during the summer, and in the winter nights they hid under a huge pile of bushes to keep warm and during the day stalked and prowled in a constant effort to get enough food to keep them warm inside.
One winter day the four Hellmu went out to hunt. Their mother told them "You may hunt any of the forest creatures, but stay away from the stone dwellings of the humans, for they have rifles and will turn _you_ into food!"
Then their mother gathered some of the other matrons of the flock and said,"We are going out to slaughter prey. You children behave and do not get into mischief while we gather food."
Larry looked confused at Mother and asked, "Why is it that we hunt, and you go to slaughter prey?"
Mother looked down her long beak at him, and said sternly, "'Hunt' implies a chance of failure."
With that, Mother and six other matrons went running to the east, away from the human settlement, following the trail of a herd of Beefalope
Sharpbeak, Stomper and Evil Eye were good Hellmu, and went north and found a swarm of Morcust, and jumped all around, stomping on them and stunning them, then ripping their shells open to get at the tasty meat inside.
But..
Larry was embarrassed by the way Mother had implied he could only hunt and not slay like a grown matron, and went west, intending to take one of the human cattle.
Larry went quite a ways, and then he came upon the human cattle herd... and as he was preparing to run one down, he heard the sound of barking, and saw the human hound-pack chasing towards him. Larry was unused to the idea of being hunted rather than the hunter, and this was even more of an insult than what Mother had said, so he charged the dogs! He wanted to snatch one of the hounds up in his beak, snap its spine and then run home and show Mother how fierce a hunter he was.
As he ran at the dogs, though, they spread out. and each time he lunged at one, the ones behind him would bite and nip at his legs. They even ripped feathers out of his bright and beautiful tail!
Then Larry caught a scent on the wind - the scent of oil and steel, and a chemical scent that he never sniffed before... but he knew enough to know that it was the scent of humans, and the scent of the rifle. He knew it was time to leave!
Larry turned east, toward home, and he ran as fast as his bleeding legs would go - and then with a mighty leap jumped clear over the dog in his path and kept running!
Just when he thought he was clean away, there was a sharp tug on his tail, and a loud thunder behind him.. and when he looked back, the human's rifle was smoking, and worse, the brightest, longest, most flamboyantly green of his tail feathers was gone! Pieces of it were floating in the air behind him as he redoubled his efforts to run away.
The human, concerned that the Hellmu normally hunt in groups, like dogs, stayed with his herd to watch for other attackers... and thus did not pursue Larry who ran all the way home without slowing down at all.
When he got home, he saw that his siblings had laid out their kills.... and Mother looked at him, his tail, and the black smudge marks on what was left of his best tail feather, and turned him over her knee and gave him a sound thrashing.
