Bitterroot Valley [PACK HUNT] Moose Antlers

Welcome to the first pack hunt for Great Sky! Their target is a moose. No posting order. Second round begins a week from today: Dec. 11.

Tagging members for visibility. @Angel Oak @Ezra @Sky Eater @Elowyn[/url] @Vanja @Miska @Etienne @Dreamgirl @Ravah @Barrett @Katarzyna

a deep, rolling call left his chest. it echoed off the basin walls, rising through the pines, summoning every ear that bore the scent of great sky. this was not a simple outing, not a routine patrol. this was a hunt that required all of them, shoulder to shoulder, breath to breath.

a bull moose had been trailing the northern edge of their land, massive and alone, its prints deep as a cupped paw. a beast of that size was no easy kill, but the winter caches must swell and the young must learn how a true band hunts.

as the last of his call faded, sega stood atop the drifted ridge sun-gold eyes sweeping for approaching shapes, tails, familiar faces. his posture was tall but welcoming, snow brushing against his pale legs.

come, he rumbled when the first forms began to gather. big hunt today. bull moose. we take him together.

his gaze warmed, pride quietly threading through his tone.

great sky hunt as one.

Perhaps it was because she kept such careful track of him at the edge of her mind that she was one of the first to arrive. He came out of her periphery and into sharp focus at the sound of the call, and she turned away from what she was doing at once in order to need it. A few short minutes later, she arrived.

At the hunt for her return.

She nodded at him once, silently, and took up a post nearby. When it came time to follow, there she was, quiet and ready and alive in her anticipation.

Etienne did not particularly like hunting, but it was something that must be done. So he heeded the call. Golden gaze taking in the area amd their quarry. Though his gaze went to the girl Angel.

Noticing again she seemed keen to meet the approval of their leader. Was it a girlhood crush or deep respect Etienne didn't know. But he filed it away and returned his gaze to the man in question.

He preferred to run.

Dream girl bounced with quiet excitement into the clearing. Her first big group hunt. She and her brothers had hunted smaller game,but this was larger. And she had been too late for the one on the glen.

A small open smile, yellow eyes flickering with delight and curiosity. The small lights of wariness too. After all she was not untouched from her travels.

When Elowyn heard the call, her ears perked and she made her way there. When she arrived, she nodded once at Sega, curious about the rest of the pack. Their first pack hunt.

She walked over to Angel and nodded. "Hey there," she said watching as everyone else started to arrive, ready for this first hunt.

The outlaw approached from the lake, pelt halfway through drying once he had gathered amongst the other pack-wolves. There were two new, unfamiliar faces that he had not recognised nor heard of before, but, nonetheless, he directed friendly nods towards them and found his place closer to Sega, the band-chief. He found seat upon the earth, tail flicking.
There was more than enough space besides him, he realised now, if Twitch wished to sit with him. Part of him hoped that she would.
He looked to Sega, clearing such thoughts from his mind.

Such a hunt would require the utmost focus from the man.

sega rallied the rest of the pack, group hunt? kasia asked herself. she'd never been on one of those before. all her life, even when she was with others, she had to fend for herself. things were different at great sky.

her tail hung low as she trotted over to the rest of her packmates, many of whom she'd never met. she saw callahan and sega of course, but she was unsure of the rest. they probably had no idea who she was either. she stood somewhat on the peripheral as if she was waiting to be included. kasia was never one to jump into anything without knowing, so she waited and observed her fellow packmates. she wanted to adapt to great sky's dynamic as best she could.

she trotted a little closer and wondered if anyone would ask about her.

ezra heeds the call, patrol cut short as he follows sega's call to it's origins. others were gathered by the time he arrives and his golden gaze passes over each wolf, touching upon them briefly. before a ghost from his past holds his gaze captive.

etienne.

a friend of his father's ... but notably absent the familiar figure of anselm or gideon.

disappointment and the urge to rapid-fire questions lay heavy upon ezra's tongue. it is only the presence of everyone else that keeps his paws digging into the hardened earth. it was not the time nor place to interrogate the older man.

ravah came down from the ridge in silence, her silver pelt near vanishing in the overcast light as she moved across snow-pressed stone. sega’s call had pulled her like a thread drawn tight; though she still bubbled with agitation for the man and how he had behaved.

yet, this was the first true hunt since she'd joined, and she would not miss it.

she stepped into the gathered wolves without sound or announcement, sliding in near the rear and off to the side, but not hidden. her eyes found sega first, and despite her aforementioned annoyance, they glistened with a warmth she only knew for him.

how proud she was. it glowed deep in her chest, blossoming like a great forest fire. this is what he had been born for, she believed; to lead a band of hunters and huntresses alike, and what joy she felt to live and witness it.

the young caribou hunter is one of the last to arrive, perhaps born out of some burgeoning defiance. it was hot coals laid firm across him, feeding and festering.

he makes sure to avoid the gaze of the chieftain as he appears from the nearby treeline, shaking off briars and winter thorns from beneath his pale undercoat. and those pale, dull eyes of his poke and prod through the crowd.

he wonders how many of these wolves can actually hunt. some of them look lowsy, if you asked him. he snorts his brooding, teenage discontent as he passes by @Ravah most notably.

(to which afterwards she fixes him with a disapproving glare.) his ears pull sideways on his way to stand near the other one close to his age, @Ezra.

When Miska arrived, pulled from a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a plump little snack, the place was positively crawling with wolves. Or wolflings, perhaps - they were almost all offensively young, with defiant looks in their eyes and attitude that he could almost smell.

Miska wound his way through them like a black eel, grinning his ugly shark's grin at the newcomers, nodding at @Elowyn and @Angel Oak, and finding himself for a moment quite transfixed by the silver woman he did not yet know as @Ravah.

He took a spot near @Sega, communicating with brows and looks: tribe grow.

Veteran arrived at a lope, one of the last to join the group after having to pick his way down the slope of the Dragon. He had spent the last week or so perched at the northern edge of the territory, keeping his eye on a particularly large bull moose that had been flirting with their border markers. He wondered if today was the day Sega had chosen to confront the beast. Was their pack ready? Were they large enough..? 

And...it seemed that they were. The number of wolves that had gathered around Sega was easily twice the number Veteran had expected. There was a pawful of yearlings, ranging in demeanor from bright-eyed and eager to aloof and critical. A healthy mix of older wolves had also been recruited. His gaze was drawn to one woman: large and dark furred, light-eyed, and scarred-- strangely similar to himself. He wondered if their stories might be similar as well. He shot a small smile to her before he pulled his gaze away. Sega was speaking. 

As he had suspected, Sega named the bull moose as their target. He led the group northward, and Veteran fell into step near the woman who had caught his eye earlier. 

"Hey, um, we haven't met. I'm Veteran." He directed his speech to @Katarzyna, but his introduction would be audible to any nearby.