Moonspear have you ever considered being a farmer.

Since arriving at Moonspear and learning from Terance how much her new packmates valued contribution to the pack, Liffey had been working hard at doing just that. In spite of the tension since Galaxy's death, she remained immensely appreciative to Charon of the kindness he had shown to her and Rannoch. She was grateful to all of them in different ways, truth be told, but none more than him, and so she strove to pull her weight. It seemed to her that there was nothing more important in that endeavor than to improve her skill in hunting, which had always been lacking.

The iota was actually rather proud of the improvement she'd shown in the past few weeks. She had yet to take down any significant game on her own, but her success rate with smaller prey was slowly improving. More than that, Liffey was pleased with her tracking skills, which had lead her to the predicament we begin this thread with.

Liffey had climbed high that day to search the upper slopes and cliffs for game. She'd been rewarded with a promising trail, which she'd followed for a few hours before finding herself along a high ridge, peering down the vertical wall the nearest ledge a good 90 or so feet just below. That is where she found her prey - an old ungulate of some kind that had fallen somehow to its death below.

From this vantage, she couldn't tell what exactly it was - just that it was large with a good amount of meat on its bones. She frowned thoughtfully, her gaze trailing along the cliffs in search of a way down so that she could claim it for the Spear. She couldn't take any credit for having been the one to end it, but she certainly wasn't going to let that stop her from bringing it home, if she could just figure out how to manage it.

Determined to do herself a favor and not to furiously obsess over their edges at least for a few hours, she pointed herself up and a vague sort of hunger kept her going higher still. Since she was good at trekking the upper limits, she did often find decent success there. Knowing of a few very frozen, secret stashes up that way if all else failed was her fail-safe, too, so really.. she had no reason not to as she prowled up the elevations in spots she had not visited very much lately thanks to everything going on.

She lowered her nose and soon found her way onto Liffey's trail. This could be good enough distraction for a passing encounter at least, so she went after her to close in as the heights climbed to a ridge. Ame followed anyway.. starting to get curious of what she had come upon up here. With these slopes, it could be any number of things.

When she spied the young ranger, Ame said nothing as she strode up to attempt to join in beside her. In doing so, her nose wiggled and she noticed the object of interest here down below. "Ah, did you see it happen?" she asked eventually when she stepped back to glance over the silvered yearling.

When no path immediately presented itself, Liffey began to silently consider what she did know of her surroundings in an effort to pinpoint the most promising place to start. It was in the midst of this thought process that she heard someone approach and turned to see a black wolf creeping along the ledges towards her. Her heart froze when for a moment, she thought it was one of the cerberus. The lines of reddish fur along the woman's features and the frosted green eyes upon her face put Liffey at ease, though. It was just her alpha. How odd to feel relaxed around an alpha who was a near stranger to her when the woman's daughters sent her heart racing with anxiety.

Liffey's posture fell into one that showed her respect, her muzzle dipping in greeting. She followed Ame's gaze down to the broken animal below them as she parted her lips to answer the question posed, "No, I didn't. I can't tell from here if its body was damaged by an attack or just the fall, though I haven't picked up any scents to suggest it even was attacked." It seemed likely, all things considered, that the old beast had just wandered away from its fellows, stumbled and fell, but Liffey was a careful enough creature to refuse to just assume there were no other hunters around.

Ame was not privy to the entire depths of what went on between her daughters and the other yearlings. Sometimes, she did find it out, since they extended from her in many ways, but lately.. it wasn't really something the alpha had extended much effort towards when it came to the minor details. She did know tensions were dialing up sometimes. There was something at play and plus, her pups were about ready to ascend to the adult ranks. A shift was coming.

But she operated well above that most times, and licked her lips as she looked down again. Without knowing exactly how it got there, it was still a free meal for those that could get to it. "Hm. Well, there are a few old ones that have been around here a long time.. and a few young stupid ones too. Would not surprise me if it fell, and with all this snow?" she clicked her teeth and shook her head. She couldn't see any wounds, or any overly distinguishing tales on it from here either. Mysterious death had been in the news here lately after all. "Still pretty heavy though," she sighed downward, trying to muster a smirk at the lucky find anyway as she tried to scheme up a way to make getting this work. This far, so good this wintertime in Moonspear as their food situation had been though. "I think.. wide.. there may be a skinny path down.." she gestured off after a pensive look around to figure out exactly which patch of ridge and rock they were dealing with. This time of year it was all bound to be a little slippery and sometimes things even changed without her knowing every single little rock. They would just have to look around some more.

If that was the kind of approach Liffey may want, Amekaze was glad to support the notion so far. There was always the thought to call in more power to help lug it up if they just found a favorable route. She knew they had the manpower if so.

Amekaze seemed to agree that the animal likely hadn't been attacked, but fallen as Liffey suspected. She nodded, stealing a sidelong glance at her alpha as the woman spoke. She'd been nervous before when thinking of spending time like this alone with her. There was something mysterious and almost.. otherworldly about her. But Liffey's logical side recognized that that was a product of her imagination, most likely. Ame was just a wolf. An alpha, but a wolf.

Probably.

"That's just what I was looking for - a way down," she responded, following Ame's gesture towards the hidden path, "Preferably a safe one, though I think safe-ish works fine. I'm not as familiar yet with the landscape this high up." Liffey paused before she started rambling, switching tracks to the more important matter at hand. "I was hoping once reaching it, a solution for bringing it back might reveal itself," she ended, smiling slightly, "One step at a time, though, my mom always said. I'll follow you?"

Like some of the old goats and rams she'd seen on the mountain for so long, she'd been very much the same and roving these trails for years now. She knew the inner workings in the most general sense the mountain would let her, and on the tail-end of a good, long summer that had given her plenty of time to prowl endlessly, she had been granted a good understanding here. With a lifelong devotion to having these kinds of places underfoot to keep her every move smooth and confident, she could make herself quite at home over even some of these iffy trails. Maybe one day this overconfidence could cost her, like it may have for the fallen beast below, but until then, she was practically just as much an element of the mountain as its stones and breezes.

"Yeah, how safe may depend a little on luck," she smirked and started to turn on her heel when approval seemed inevitable enough. With so many factors out of their control, it would be up to nature. Next, she nodded knowingly. "It takes time," she assured the silver-furred yearling. "And it can change often up here anyway. Plus, winter is not really the easiest time to get to know the heights either," Ame shook her head. Exposure was all that would help. She had no better suggestion, none she knew to be more effective, than to just experience it all firsthand.

Content with that, and ready to take the lead, she nodded. "Sound enough advice. We can find out," she said before lengthening out her stride more to head for the route she suspected. When she could narrow it down, she began working her way down. It looked slim.. but passable as far as she could see, and as she went, all was well. A little bit sharp with certain edges of stone underfoot, and of course wise to be mindful of anyway, but nothing she couldn't just get over with quickly. So far, so good. She strode eagerly for the kill, nostrils flaring to investigate its nearby--just in case it had been something besides a fall that had felled it.

i rolled a 1 outta 3 on a scale of how good the path is on disco so safe travels :D

Ame words didn't exactly suggest confidence in their choice of paths, but her demeanor seemed to be. That was enough for Liffey. She smiled at the reassurance her alpha provided. She was determined to get to know the Spear's higher ranges just as she had come to know the lower regions. There was clearly reason for it, considering the find she had just made. Liffey may not have been the greatest hunter, but she tried to make up for it by being able to lead the good hunters to to decent prey.

Liffey said nothing as she followed Ame along the path. She was glad now more than ever for the time she'd spent training in the Sunspire mountain range, for while the pass was thin and treacherous, it was no worse than others she had taken. The snow did make it a bit more interesting, but the Blackthorn was sure-footed enough and kept up with her alpha well.

The mountain path let them down without incident, and she was surefooted and curious of what may await once it began to open up and the worst pass. When footing was solid, she lifted her head and watched the carcass loom closer. Really, a lucky find. They would fatten their caches well with this, and no one had needed to chase or rally the creature even. Easy.

"It would not surprise me if it had been chased off this way or wounded itself before, as well.." she considered as for potential aids in this death before Liffey had come upon it. "I have seen them do some real damage to themselves, mostly among each other.." she added, well aware. "Either way, makes them easier for me to eat," she smirked, having tried to match pace a little better to the sterling yearling on the way. Once closer, she bounded off for the dead beast.

Liffey took care not to slip or do anything to embarass herself on the way down. If she was being honest with herself, she wanted to desperately for Ame to like her. She considered that perhaps this would win her some points with the whole pack, and she was eager to win as many as she could.

Liffey trotted eagerly towards the carcass, rounding towards the opposite side of the animal from her alpha. She glanced at the woman as she commented and nodded along. It was what made the most sense to her as well - that it had fallen mostly of its own accord. When Amekaze picked up her pace, the Frostfur was quick to do the same until they reached it finally, and she slowed to inspect it.

"Is this a bighorn sheep?" she asked, squinting at the horns that curled around its bloodied head. She'd only ever seen them from afar when she was very young. A small group had wandered near the Caldera, but her family had been unable to actually catch one. She turned away from the carcass then and sniffed around at the ground surrounding it. "I don't smell any other predators here either," she said, looking back at her alpha, "It must've just fallen. If something had been hunting it, they wouldn't have just left it here, I don't think."

She sniffed around and nothing was suspect. Looking to the fallen ungulate, its horns mostly, then the white fur lining the thighs and rump next, she nodded to confirm. "Mhm, a bighorn ram." she detailed as she admired how big the thing was up close. "A pretty good-sized one too. Their horns are surprisingly heavy.. and turn down more than a mountain goat's do," she added. She'd seen them get bigger in all of her many years, but knew that these were not easy beasts to bring down casually. "Same here. No signs.." Of a scent or a struggle. Just bighorn, that very distinct scent they and mountain goats usually had a variation of. She sniffed at it once more, not noticing anything suggesting illness either. It hadn't starved, or seemingly wasted away somehow.. that she could discern.

"I do not think so either. That path was not so bad, and that is a lot of fresh meat." her tail waved at the prospect. If she'd killed it, she would have kept an eye on it at least. This ram hadn't been dead that long, either. "And so far, no one is complaining about us..." she said, this time looking around once again to a still, quiet swatch of mountainside. Another pause, another slow metronome sway to her tail, and another moment passed; still nothing but the two of them. "It really is a lucky find," she appraised.

"We should call the guys to help carry it down a bit," she snickered to Liffey. Unless they were planning to eat a whole lot of it here, Ame wasn't hauling anything that big anywhere.

feel free to fade if you'd like to <3

will do!

A bighorn ram, Amekaze corrected. Liffey nodded as she looked it over. It was truly an impressive specimen, which made it even more of a mystery what had happened to cause such an untimely death. It shouldn't have mattered all that much to her - meat was meat, and she knew they should just be grateful that whatever had happened actually had happened. Her curiosity, however, would likely be debating the possibilities for many days to come.

It wasn't important, though. Her alpha redirected her focus to the task at hand, which was finding a way to get it back. From this vantage, she could see that there was indeed a path that would lead them safely down to the lower slopes where the pack more often frequented. But the ram did look awful heavy, even if it didn't have those massive horns weighing it down. She laughed lightly at Ame's comment before tipping her muzzle back and calling to the rest of the pack. In the end, they would drag the beast to safer ground together, and then it would be time to feast.