Morningside Cuesta Drive slow

They only spent a few hours scouring Bitterroot Valley before their trail led them further south, onto the cuesta. Wildfire remembered hunting rabbits here with Magpie. She decided the three of them could use a snack and told @Freyja to keep tracking their lead under @Gavriel's watchful eye. Meanwhile, the Bandrona broke away from the pair to go fetch a meal that would feed all three of them.

She regrouped perhaps ninety minutes later, two rabbits tucked haphazardly in her mouth. Upon reaching her companions, she dropped them at her feet and then spent the next minute readjusting her sore jaw. "Dinner's up!" she quipped. "How's the tracking going?"

With the first day of their journey behind them Freyja already felt as though she had been given an immense amount of information. But, despite this, she had never felt more confident in the specialty that she was seeking and that this was what she was meant to do.

Wildfire had broken away from the duo quite some time ago and Freyja was starting to wonder where the prey had taken her. The prey they were currently tracking was driving them South and Freyja could tell that they were getting closer, but the herd was still out of their grasp.

It was upon realizing this that Wildfire had returned to them. Greeting her mentor with a wave of her tail, Freyja drove her snout to the leaders cheek and nudged her lovingly. “Thanks,” she said as she pulled back and eyed the morsels. “We’re getting closer to the herd, but we’ve still got some distance to go.” She sat then, waiting for the adults to dig in.

One of the rabbits was significantly larger than the other. After returning Freyja's greeting, Wildfire carefully rendered it into two roughly equal halves, sliding the anterior portion toward Gavriel. She kept the other part for herself, then nodded toward the smaller rabbit and glanced at the youngster. Once dinner was served, the Bandrona dropped down onto her belly, her legs framing her share, and began to eat.

Between bites, she peered at their surroundings for a moment, then trained her attention upon the young tracker. "Have you picked up any scents indicating that one of the members of the herd might be injured? Or sick?" she asked.

Freyja watched on carefully as Wildfire took care in separating the much larger rabbit in half before dispensing the portions out to the group. When she received her share, the child quickly sat began to eat. She did not pay much mind to what was going on around her and instead focused in on her meal. It was only as she was addressed that she looked up.

“No,” she admitted with a frown, easily recalling how healthy the trail smelled. “Everybody seems raring to go and healthy, unfortunately.” Her ears flattened in that moment at the fact. “But, I did smell some young,” she offered with a twang of hope. If all else failed they could go for the young.

The Bandrona chewed thoughtfully as Freyja answered, mentioning young ones among the herd in lieu of any sick or injured. Her observations lined up with the yearling's own. Most of the spring fawns would be fairly grown by now, though some of the latecomers might still be easy prey for a group of three wolves. Wildfire smiled and dipped her head approvingly before helping herself to another large bite of rabbit meat.

When she finished her spoils, the sat up and licked her lips. Gavriel was still eating, as was Freyja. "When you're finished, I'd like to focus on looking for signs other than scent." There were all sorts of other indicators they could use to track prey, even if scent was certainly the primary one. "Hoof prints and droppings and the like are some obvious ones. But if you really want to sink your teeth into it"—and she could already see a passion developing in Freyja—"then we'll have to cover the more subtle ones too. Now I'm no expert but I'll show you everything I do know."

Wildfire gave Freyja an agenda for the next stretch of their journey. Nodding to the words eagerly, the child drew her tongue over her lips as curiosity got the better of her. “What else could there be?”

Though curiosity had driven the question out of her, her hunger soon took over again. She took advantage of every nook and cranny that the prey had to offer and she did so in a very un-lady like manner. Bloodying up her face as she enjoyed the delights of her meal, Freyja looked up to Wildfire with a fire in her deep chestnut eyes once she had finished her meal. She was ready to get back at it.

She watched, mildly amused as Freyja savaged her dinner, waiting until she was through before continuing the conversation. Naturally, the child wanted to know what she meant. There were a lot of subtle signs prey animals left behind, whether they were large or small, aside from the more obvious ones.

"The way a blade of grass is bent or whether bark is chewed off a tree—these can be the less obvious things other animals leave behind, signs you can track just like scents or footprints. Here, let me show you," the Bandrona said, nodding to Gavriel before leading Freyja toward a stream she had crossed while bringing back their supper.

"Okay," she said, coming to stand beside the trickling water. "See these paw prints?" She nosed at some shallow imprints in the soil beside the small brook. They belonged to a rabbit, squirrel or other small mammal. "Now we could follow these or try to catch a scent. But if you look closer, there are other signs too, to tell which direction it went." She bent down low, waiting for Freyja to do the same. "See?"

Where the silt gave way to the grass of the cuesta, there was a very slight swatch that was bent to the ground. It vanished as the grass grew longer and thus less malleable. But hopefully it illustrated what Wildfire meant about more understated signs of prey. Freyja was a quick study; doubtless she would not only grasp the concept but quickly use it to expand her tracking repertoire.

As Wildfire explained the subtle signs, Freyja licked her lips clean and listened. As savagely as she had eaten, she took in the information in this manner.

As she was beckoned, the Fesiripa pushed herself onto her paws and fell alongside Wildfire. When she was shown the evidence, she let out an intrigued “Oh!” as she crouched down to turn towards the leader.

But, despite how neat it was to see such proof, a concern overcame her. “Is it easy to mistake a sign with the wrong scent trail?” Her brows rose in that moment and she looked to her mentor to the answers she needed.

It was an astute question, which the yearling weighed for a moment before answering. "It's all sort of contextual, meaning that all these little details come together to paint a bigger picture. Knowing about these subtler signs just gives you an extra edge, not to mention helps when conditions are otherwise poor. For instance, you could be in the middle of a hunt and it could start raining, washing away scents and footprints. But there might still be other things to track."

Wildfire sat up a little straighter and surveyed the plain around them, noting that the sun was sinking low in the sky now. "Your nose will always be your strongest asset, though," she said to Freyja. "So show me where you last left off the herd's trail," she requested, readying herself to follow the girl back toward where Gavriel was finishing off his meal.

There were so many hidden factors in the sport of hunting to remember but Freyja did not feel intimidated by this. “I see,” she replied when Wildfire had gone into detail on how the markings could give one an advantage. Going forward she would use all the information she gathered to her advantage.

When she was asked about the herd she stood and motioned for Wildfire to follow with a jerk of her head. She lead them back to the area where Gavriel ate. She regarded him with a smile as she approached and stood a few feet before him when she paused.

Taking in the smells by inhaling deeply, Freyja pinpointed their trail again and turned her head in its general direction to motion where it was leading them. “Should we go?” she asked as she looked to the duo. She knew she was ready to go.

When they arrived back at their feeding spot, Wildfire bumped her muzzle against Gavriel and then turned her attention back to Freyja as the girl proposed, "Should we go?" "Absolutely," she replied. It was getting late in the day but that was just as well. They had just eaten and so there was plenty of energy to go around. And her pupil could use the experience of nighttime tracking. They could keep at it through night and hopefully make significant progress by the following morning.