Last week's snowfalls had inspired her to hunt more. She had busied away the hours chasing rabbits on the Spire, and occasionally branched off into the Vale when the hunt called for it. Much of her quarry found its way to caches, or dropped off for the healing Vienna. She was devoted to the cause of keeping their stocks.. well, stocked. Winter would not clip their wings.

But her head was still feeling bleary -- too weighed down by everything all at once. She had devoted the morning to attempts at meditation, only to deem them a failure when she could not settle, so she loped down the mountainside. This had been a longstanding trend, so she did not find herself surprised. It was why she chose, instead, to exhaust her energies on the physical.

First it had been a patrol, but she had wrapped it up quickly when nothing was out of sorts since she had last seen to them only a few hours prior at dawn. With that said and done, she pushed past her boundaries and soon found a deer trail picking its way through the mud (courtesy the day's earlier rain). On a whim, she tracked it towards the lake to see what may await there, all while keeping the Sunspire close to her thoughts; she would not travel far.

She roved on with her nose low and gait lengthened out to a rangy slink. Now, out here in the expanse of the flatlands, she felt the biting chill of winter more glaringly than before, and fluffed out her coat to buffer it. A lifetime of mountaineering (and of a bloodline that had once done the very same) did grant her a dense, wild coat to help her combat the elements, and for that she was thankful.

The trail angled more and more towards the lake, so much so that she could smell the waters plainly now, however she had yet to see the animal. The trail was fresh, at least, so she doggedly continued until she found the shores.

She picked her way along and before she found the deer, a differently shaped tan-coated being caught her eye. A wolf. Her senses keened in a different way now as she observed him from afar.. soon realizing that they were likely tracking the same thing. She chuffed quickly and loomed steadily closer to the sizable male, with her green eyes darting forward towards the path in silent inquiry -- looking to confirm what she suspected. Was he on the hunt as well? Had he seen the quarry?

Her ears switched, first quivering towards him at the sound of his voice -- strange, distinctly accented as it handled the simple words. Ame nodded, and let her ears splay to the sides briefly; it had sounded familiar. Vaguely. So she set to listening. Have you been tracking it for long? she asked in a hushed voice. Her tones were not nearly as underlined as his were, although there was always a faint hint if one were to listen, or to know what to listen for in the first place. She had worked hard to make it so all throughout her youth and many recent months of hardly speaking her mother's tongue made it even more faded. Although, perhaps it may be enough to lure more words from him so that she may confirm (or deny) her suspicions... all while the notion of the deer remained important.

She kept to the trail, too, eyes shifting between him and the path ahead as he spoke. Probably unlike many, her ears quivering knowingly towards the foreign words. While she did not speak it often, she knew the language well, and often only referred to it as her mother's tongue, and nothing else. It had traveled from her mother's mother then eventually down to her, although her father did know it as well -- it was not him she had learned it from, though. Ame had wondered before if she may ever teach it to any (such as daughters, but the notion was so faraway) before her time here ended. Watashi ga yaru koto, she answered quietly, with a knowing smirk curving her features just briefly. Koko de okonau ōku wa arimasen. Ame murmured as she looked down to the fresh tracks, and smelled the deer well. Female, most likely, and although she could not smell illness on it just yet, there was a vague flicker of hope that maybe she was lame in one leg, or better..

Watashi wa sōzō surudarou, she quipped, sympathizing briefly. She was thankful for her dual-teachings. Since she encountered so few who did speak it, if anything, her skills grew rusty. But, she often found (as had been the case when speaking with Leaf), she could still fall back into her old groove swiftly. Her tail twitched thoughtfully.

And soon after, her sights were set on the deer. She paused on cue, shifting a look towards the male. How good of a hunter was he? His skill? His luck, even? She guessed.. decent enough to be surviving alone in the winter. Ame was curious how this would pan out and wondered if he was bold enough to attempt a chase. At worse, they failed. Best case? A warm meal.

Peering at him intently, she silently gestured that she could approach from on wide. Dark, sleek and fast, she could engage the beast first to be joined by him -- the taller, bigger wolf -- soon after. Of course, if this was at all along the lines of his plan, too. It would take both of them to increase their odds enough to make this worthwhile, and it had been a time since she had hunted cervids in tandem with a stranger.

Pending any kind of signal from him, she would then settle into position to lunge forward.

But it seemed the hunt would not come together as well as she planned. In mere moments, the deer were off and their chances were blown before they could even settle into proper formation. Evidently, it was not meant to be. She was on her way not long afterward, even if the Japanese-speaking wolf was an interesting curiosity -- she had to make good use of her time abroad, anyway.