Blacktail Deer Plateau 'Lesson Number One' - Mulan 2 Reference

@Grayday, simple start

Pema rose from from her den, which she had finished the main chamber of the day prior. Stretching out her front and back legs, she prepared herself for a training lesson with Grayday. When she had first joined the pack, and spoke with him, he had offered to do so and Pema was not about to let that opportunity pass her by. Always eager to learn new things she was excited for what was to come. Trotting over to the rendezvous site where she had seen Grayday before.

Grayday was just turning the care of the pups over to @Kieran Adrien when Pema arrived on the scene, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. His tail, which had already been idly swishing in contentment, picked up the pace a bit at the sight of another pack member. "Hey, Pema," he greeted. "How have you been settling in?"

He'd noticed her digging the other day, and had been suitable impressed by how quickly she'd finished digging out a place to sleep. Grayday preferred to sleep in the open, of course, but he didn't care if other wolves didn't. Besides, the kids had spent hours playing in the dirt pile she'd created. The same thing was probably on the agenda for them, today.

At the sight of seeing Grayday she smiled and swayed her tail, "Hey. How are you doing today Grayday?" she asked once her greeted her.

Pema had had a few rough spots here and there at first when she joined the pack, but every since then everything had been going great. "Really well actually. I thought it might take some time, but I feel like a part of the family almost." Even though the pack wasn't truely made up of a family, the way everyone looked out for eachother was exactly the same.

"Are you ready for that training sesson?" she asked in an inquitisive voice, her tail now even more excited.

"I'm doing good," the male replied, heading away from the rendezvous site and indicating that Pema was welcome to come along. "I'm glad to hear that. Some wolves take longer to adjust." And some wolves never adjusted - wolves like Gwen and Sunspot, he supposed. Maybe they just weren't cut out for pack life, and maybe Morningside just wasn't the pack for them. Either way, he was glad that Pema didn't seem to have that problem.

"Sure, we can hunt," he agreed with a wag of his tail. "I was just going to check out a herd I scented the other day. Maybe we'll take one down."

Pema followed along as Grayday began to walk away from the rendevzous site. He agreed that this would be an ok time to hunt and he seemed to be just as excited as she was. After all he had said that it was one of his favorite pass times. He mentioned a herd near by "Sure, after you." she nodded in agreement indicating that he could move at a faster pase to get to their destination if he wanted.

Taking down bigger animals were hard, but much easier when you were doing it with another. Pema was decent as hunting fish or small radents by herself, but when it came to herd animals, she might be below par. Luckily for Grayday Pema was a quick learner and good listener, so whatever he guilded her to do, she would do it.

Grayday was not in a hurry to reach their destination, but he moved ahead of Pema all the same and led the way to where he'd last scented the small herd of blacktail deer. Although their trail - which had been weak enough when he'd last been here - had long since faded, Grayday could still smell his own scent marker, which he'd left behind so that he'd be able to find it again.

"This is the last place I smelled them. It seemed like they were headed west, out into the sparser trees," he explained, scanning the area with his limited vision. There were no deer in sight, and no signs of where they might've gone. It was up to fate and perseverence, now. "How good is your nose?" he asked Pema, a peculiar glint in his eyes. "We're going to have to track these guys down. Let's spread out and see if we can find anything - but stay within shoutin' distance."

We're going to play a little game! Go ahead and reply to this thread with your roll.

Grayday lead the way to the last place he had caught a whiff of the herd and said they were heading in a western direction when he last scented the area. He asked how good her sence of smell was which brought up a fun memory for her. "I think my nose is alright. But I'm not sure if I have a 'magic nose' like Easy tells me you have." she said playfully emphasising a somewhat exaggerated tone on the word magic. 

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll let you know if I think I'm on to something." Seeing as how it had been a few days ago, the herbs scent was faint and along with it being hard to smell in the first place, it wasn't the scent of one individual. One could have decided to venture off for a bit while the main part of the herd went in a different direction, which is what most likely happened to Pema when she began to smell something towards the north. It didn't feel right seeing as how Grayday had thought they were heading west when she smelled them north. "I think I might have something over here, but something doesn't feel right." she was smelling deer, just not the bulk of the deer they were after.

Grayday laughed, recognizing the reference. "I come from a long line of trackers," he explained. "But that's more perseverence than magic, I think."

They splot off, noses to the ground as they searched for signs of the deer's passage. Grayday found a few places where he could still smell them, but they were only spores and not trails to follow. It seemed like the herd had rest here for some time and had moved all over the area, rendering the information useless. He logged away what he could surmise of their numbers and health before heading toward Pema, hoping she'd found something better in her direction. It seemed hopeful at first, but they soon discovered that it was only a wanderer, split off from the herd to graze in another direction before its scent doubled back to join the rest.

"No luck here," said Grayday, moving away from the area.

Grayday seemed amused by her reference and explained her had come from a line of trackers. "My family had alittle bit of everything in it." she explained. Her pack had been made up of all types of wolves with differing skilled trades. When she was younger she tried to learn everything, but soon found that in her attemp she limited her ability to specalize in any. But now she had a few more focused goals, one of which was finding this herd.

The wonderer she was following eventually seemed to head back to where the herd had began, putting her back at square one. This time knowing not to follow the wonderer she followed the other scents of the herd in a more south western direction. She kept walking and sniffing the ground getting a little ways away from where Grayday was smelling where the herd had taken a rest. A few feet infront of her she could see little black pebbles. "There's some scat over here." she called out to him.

There's scat everywhere, Grayday wanted to say, but when he got closer to where Pema was, he realized that they were again headed away from where the deer had gathered. Perhaps this would lead them to a fresher trail? It was more in the direction he thought they'd be in, so the leader was hopeful.

"Let's see if there's more futher out," he suggested, shooting her an encouraging look. He kept going for a bit, stopping to sniff around every few yards, but it soon became apparent that the deer had not kept going this way for long. "Let's double back a bit and see if they might've turned somewhere," he sighed, his voice a bit disappointed, but his trot still cheerful and springy.

Even with Grayday here it didn't seem like the two were having much luck pin pointing where this herd was heading. It made Pema feel alittle better knowing that it wasn't just her that seemed to be stumped. This herd wasn't being very nice. It was a good way to not be tracked down, but as she imagined how all of this must have looked in real time when they had been here last she laughed a bit saying. "They just don't know how to walk straight do they?"

She listened to Grayday's advice and headed back to where she had last scented the scat that had lead them in their previous direction. She was having a hard time finding other trails from there and decided to double back even further to where they had originally started. When she came up empty she asked Grayday, "Are you finding anything over there?"

Although Grayday was beginning to think this area might be a lost cause, he soon found a scent spore that smelled a bit fresher. They'd passed through this area alright, and did seem to be heading in a westerly direction. Heartened by this discovery, the male called Pema over with a happy, "Yeah!" and began moving quickly through the brush, never letting his nose leave the ground.

They got quite a ways before Grayday realized they'd reached another place where the deer seemed to have stopped and rolled around over every inch of the forest. "These deer are pretty canny," he sighed, but his tail was waving high over his back as he searched for more clues, invigorated by the small success.

Grayday shouted out that he had found somthing. Pema followed behind with her nose to the ground following the same trail he had. She wasn't rushing as fast as Grayday was and was taking her time to follow ever little change in direction. When they got to the herd's other resting site, it seemed as though Grayday hit a dead end. It seemed like they were making progress one moment and then having to turn around the next. But Pema didn't respond at first, she had to lightly brush past Grayday to follow the scent she was on. She made alot of circles as the deer had  whenever they had been in this area.

After alittle bit of still following the twists and turns she began to follow the trail out of the little resting area. "Not quite canny enough." she spoke into the ground. "They headed over this way." she stated and continued on. It lead her to a tree with its bark beginning to fall off due to the antlers of the deers rubbing against it. Thats where the scent seemed to stop for her.

They eagerly followed the deer trail, feeling closer than ever to a breakthrough - but right when it seemed like things were heating up, the trail seemed to go cold once more.

"Damn it," Grayday huffed, plopping down on his furry butt. "What awful luck, huh? What's wrong with the dice today?"

There was a rueful smile on his face as he stood once more, shaking the tension from his muscles and taking a deep, calming breath. "Okay, let's go out from this spot in a spiral. That way, we won't miss where the scent picks up," he said, sharing one of his better tactics with Pema. Sometimes, you just had to sniff everywhere.

They had come to another dead end and it seemed that even Grayday couldn't find it again. He spoke about how irritating it was and how luck just simply wasn't on their side today. Letting out a sign and then sitting down, Grayday suggested another tactic that they might try. Even though it seemed Grayday was still somewhat invested Pema no longer was. They had been serching for awhile and they had gone in so many circles and found so many dead ends that it seemed like a lost cause. 

"I just don't think we will be able to find them today. I appricaite the training and I like the strategy your suggesting, but I just don't think it's going to be in the cards today." she said almost as though she was delivering him bad news, but wanted to show some sort of silver lining with it. Perhaps another day they would come across a more fresh scent of the herd.

Grayday let out of a puff of air, looking around the forested area with a critical eye. They'd had a lot of ups and downs, and while it seemed like they were getting closer, Grayday knew that Pema was probably getting tired. They'd been at it for hours, after all.

"We'll come back in a day or two with a few more sets of teeth," he agreed, lifting his leg and marking the area, so that he'd know where they left off. "C'mon, let's go see what those kids got up to while we were gone."

With that, he led the way back to the rendezvous site, wishing he had something to show for the day, but knowing that not every hunt could be successful. At least he'd taught Pema a bit about tracking.