Excitement and adrenaline had thrummed through the Goufa's veins when she'd unintentionally cornered a lost, small and sickly fawn. A runt, no doubt and not long for the world Eske couldn't help but think. Wildfire was still healing and though experienced enough to keep herself well fed she was still an aspiring huntress and her inexperience with game bigger than a rabbit, fox, etc showed. She chased it, snapping her teeth at empty air, so close that she could smell it's fear but in the end somehow the sickly fawn managed to escape her. Disheartened and utterly ashamed that a small, sickly little fawn had managed to avoid her, her ears slicked back against her skull as she let out a low noise of frustration. Her annoyance bubbled up and seethed beneath the surface of her skin as her tail lashed behind her.

She'd gotten arrogant because she was stronger and healthier than her prey. Arrogance, she realized, had no place in her world. Confidence was healthy, and it worked well for her on the borders and in time, with proper training, it would work well for her when she hunted. Arrogance, she was coming to learn, was something very different than confidence. She cursed lowly under her breath and took to pacing, wondering if she should try her luck with hunting something else or if she should just slink to the borders. She would not pretend that she hadn't failed because Eske knew that she had to learn from her failings or else she would be doomed to repeat them. Slinking to the borders felt like surrender and that wasn't a word the warrior princess had in her vocabulary.

It was Eske bent her head towards the ground to sniff out a trail of a different creature to hunt that she heard approaching footfalls, her ears perked and alert atop her skull. Her head rose and it swung to face the familiar form of Freyja as her silver sister came to rest in Eske's blue-green view. It took all of Eske's willpower not to roll her eyes. Of course it would be Freyja. The set of Eske's lips was terse for a moment as she contemplated giving up her hunt all together. As far as she was aware Freyja wasn't aware it was her choice in secondary trade as Eske had only told Wildfire and though she did not the Bandrona well she didn't think the fire kissed woman would betray her confidence like that; and what was she going to say to Freyja? She certainly had no current intentions of telling her sister that she was trying to fulfill the homework Wildfire set out for her. For now, her pursual of the hunter trade was her (and Wildfire's) secret.

Except Freyja hadn't asked what she was doing, which was a relief. Instead, the silver girl had apparently been on the same trail of the sickly fawn as Eske. At least, that was what Eske had came to assume as she did not think Freyja ignorant enough to go after a full grown deer all on her own. “Strik? Nou os? Sha, ai op em.” Eske told her with a lazy gesture of her muzzle in the direction she'd lost it.

Eske had thought that Freyja would follow the lazy cant of her muzzle and leave her on her way to suffer through her own failures — though her first mistake had been going after it on her own and in this ignoring Wildfire's rule to not go after anything bigger than a rabbit on her own. She was eager to step out of Freyja's shadow and prove to the Bandrona and Heda that she could shine just as brightly as their golden child. A scowl had unconsciously began to form upon her lips, though this likely worked in the warrior princesses favor to keep her true ambitions and why she knew about the exact fawn that Freyja had been hunting herself.

As Freyja turned back to her, a hopeful look in her eyes Eske had not quite managed to scrub the fierce scowl from her face. She'd always been bad at controlling her emotions and her aggression. Sparring, training and patrolling helped: it gave her a healthy outlet to release all her pent up aggression but Eske was just a fierce and aggressive young woman by nature though whether this stemmed from her father's culture or it was the viking in her she would never truly know. She was not dainty. She was not elegant, nor gentle. She was sharp edges, cutting glares, blunt words and feral. Eske almost rejected Freyja's offer. The no was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't really want to turn it down. The want to reject it was a knee-jerk thing, afraid that if she accepted Freyja might somehow find out that she aspired to take on huntress as a secondary trade. Which was silly, Eske knew. Unless her sister could read her mind there was nothing to give it away. Hunting was crucial to her survival and she did know how to hunt for herself as all wolves did.

“sha.” Eske finally agreed with a light nod of her head, gesturing silently for Freyja to take the lead.

Eske didn’t particularly want to turn away an opportunity to (secretly) work on her hunting skills. They were passable, of course, but they were not those of a master huntress. She had yet to decide if she was going to master the hunting trade as her primary concern would always be mercenary but she figured that she had plenty of time and first thing was first: she had to earn the trade before she could think of a specialty and become a master at anything. If Eske were to let them her ambitions might get the better of her and she was quick to reel them back in under strict control. Eske noted Freyja’s smile as her sister looked at her but the warrior princess did not return it. Instead, the agouti warrior offered her sister a slight twitch of her lips not quite a smile but not any real improvement from her concentrated look, either. Though she followed Freyja’s lead in this she deigned to take some mental notes. Eske’s ears twitched as Freyja’s question hung in the air. “Ai laid ku.” Eske responded, pausing to draw her salmon pink tongue across her lips. “Shopta?” Eske repeated the question to Freyja an ear cocked in her silvern sister’s direction to hear her response.