Bitterroot Valley lfg temple of ahn’qiraj

Hunting thread for anybody! Paging @Rebekka, @Freyja, @Gavriel, @Buchanan, @Grayday, and @Valette. Of course, not everybody has to join in; I’m just adding people who are working on this trade and I may have stalked a profile or two. ♥ If you’re not interested or it’s not feasible for your character right now, just toss me a PM. ^^ The wind is blowing in a northerly direction; the prey is elk; the herd is traveling south toward the Morningside Cuesta. I thought we could decide how many there are after this round. Feel free to share your thoughts on this because I could not decide!

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Being a new father was both exhilarating and terrifying — more than ever, Szymon was determined to provide for his cubs and for the pack, and his search for large game brought him further and further northwest. It was midmorning when he reached a valley of brown-edged and dying flora, the muffled rumble of an ungulate herd drawing his attention almost immediately. Churned soil and the clipped remnants of plant matter littered the earth; he bent his head, breathing deeply of the soil, and guessed that the herd — upwind from him and moving south — had just passed by the mineral deposits at the base of the large mountain he’d seen. The tracks were too haphazard to tell how many there were, and Szymon was an angler by nature. He knew that the animals were elk, and from the sound of it, the herd was a sizable one. Pitching his howl low, he called out to any hunters in the area who wished to get a successful kill or two in before winter dug her teeth in.

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Valette was on her way back to Easthollow when she heard an invitation howl. The female perked up her ears and turned around to listen to the invitation. First she assumed that is was in invitation for pack members of this wolf. However, later she realized that it seemed more of an open call seeing these were all neutral territories. She howled back in response, to give the other a sense of her position before she came trotting over towards the caller.

Valette stopped before the other with a curious expression. He didn't smell entirely like a lone wolf. The female never heard this type of call before, a call to hunt, a hunt with strangers who were not a well oiled machine as a pack would be. Still her ambition thought it was interesting perhaps she could learn something from their techniques. "Hello," she greeted politely. "I'm Valette from Easthollow," she introduced.

The call was raised and she called back; the woman had little wish to hold back the desire to hunt. Traveling not by a rush but not snail pace, she journeyed to where the call had echoed, coming to a stop just a little while later in the face to two wolves she had never laid eyes on before; neither was their smell any familiar. Perhaps it was for the best, afterall, the woman had no intention of keeping connections; her purpose among the fellow kind was to hunt what she could not manage on her own. With a nod of her head, neutral eyes scanned the group of its worth. The man looked the part if not a little skittish, however, seemed no older than she. The woman, however, seemed rather normal if not bland in the aspect of things; Rebekka was a closet judger although her opinions were not the kind of thing anyone really cared for.

As she waited, the woman herself did not offer a name but simply stared, waiting to carry out whatever the man had in mind. 

Going to get this moving! Sorry for the delay; I just wanted to make sure I had everyone in here who wanted to join.
Let’s say one bull and two cows to make it easy on these guys. One of the cows has an injured leg.

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Although his first response was always wariness when it came to strange wolves, Szymon was pleased that his call to hunt had garnered some interest. He was not a particularly experienced tracker, but he thought he smelled blood when he bent his head to the flurry of tracks. “Szymon,” he said quietly, drawing a careful breath, “Blackrock Depths.” Producing the consonant-heavy words without a hitch gave him confidence as he looked to the charcoal female with a brief cant of his scar-riddled muzzle. The other female seemed less inclined to give her name, but that didn’t trouble him in particular; she was an odd color, appearing to have white fur over a black undercoat, and her pelt was marked with various marking that he simply assumed were scars. “I am f-from the bay,” he uttered, his bass timbre guttural and husky as he tried to keep his voice down, “and your p-prey is new to me.” He gestured toward the tracks with a quizzical expression, his golden eyes shifting from one female to the other.

One set of the tracks bore deeper imprints than the other, denoting a heavier animal.  Of the remaining two, only one seemed to be a pristine set of tracks; the other was oddly patterned, often missing the left hind print.  He had no way of knowing that it pointed to an intermittent limp in the animal.  Nor could he decode the reason for the occasional left hind print having a strange shape: it was most often the cloven tips of the hoof itself, revealing that the animal was loathe to put full pressure on it, and the tips dragged listlessly in some areas to express fatigue.

“Can you r-read these tracks?” he asked helplessly.

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Valette was greeted by a male and as she introduced herself the other did too. She was not familiar with him or with his pack. How curious! Perhaps it was in the regions that she hadn't explored yet! But then he must have come from far? Valette was curious about him and his pack. He explained he was from the bay, which meant the beach. She had not explored that side at all. Only once she had been close to it. Then another female joined but she did not really introduce herself. Still her name was not needed for the Ranger. She recognized the scent of sleeping dragon. She knew that she had to be cautious with that one especially if she was as feisty as their alpha was.

Valette stepped closer to the male when he asked about tracks. She was not sure if he was insecure or that he just had a stutter. "I can," she nodded to him and quirked up her lips. She looked at them, and noticed how the other was deeper than the other, meaning the animal was heavier, there was also another set of prints that kept missing one leg. It seemed to be the limping or not wanting to stand on it. "Okay, so. These ones are heavier and bigger. So that is probably a male. The others are probably female. But notice how it is missing a print in the pattern. So that means that one of them in lame and can't run as much," she explained to the male. "Which is a very good sign."

sorry!!!

 

Rebekka nosed the tracks, gathering the scent of prey, effectively ignoring the blabber of a wolf she did not know. She was usually a sole hunter; it was painstakingly obvious she did not know that courteously meant in a public setting, nevermind that she did not even know what they were saying. Instead, she gathered her own intel. Something big, possibly dangerous, but a well enough meal. The prey of the Wilds were unlike Trigeda's, and still, some were unknown to her but she did what she could to learn in the split second she could, all there was to know about the targeted animal while attempting to take it down. Turning to the pair, she waited for an indication to continue on; she had already found her heading. She was ready, perhaps impatient, and she did not hide it. 

Want to wrap up in the next two rounds? Feel free to powerplay Szymon and the elk to get this moving. ♥ ^^

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Szymon listened raptly as Valette explained the meaning of the tracks, stepping forward to acquaint himself with their appearance and haphazard pattern. Registering the silent female’s impatience, Szymon nodded assertively and, with a collective glance at his companions, began to move silently in the direction of the miniature elk herd. With a low chuff, he shifted into a lope, keeping the tracks in his sights as his nose hovered slightly above the ground — the pattern had grown more and more uneven, with the dragging of the cloven tips becoming increasingly prominent. Now and again, drops of fresh, purulent blood began to litter the prints, smacking of infection. When the shapes of the three ungulates came into view, Szymon dropped to a hunting stalk, looking to his impromptu hunting partners to see how they wished to proceed. The elk were sheltered in a sparsely wooded area, giving the wolves some room to hide, but not much.

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Valette knew they needed to run down the deer. Eventually the injured one would be too slow to catch up with the others, and perhaps they could even separate her even before she grew tired. The dark female was confident enough and ran forward as the male was done tracking the deer. The scent of blood enthused her even more. The hunt was on.

Valette lowered herself to the ground and started to skirt more around the group of deer. Then she sprang forward startling the elk in a direction they would run past the other two so they could join at her sides and start tiring her out. Valette decided to be the back driver and make sure the elk would know they were being followed. Now it was all about endurance. Valette caught up to the left side of the injured elk and started nipping towards her belly and chest, anything to tear her open and wound the elk even more.

Rebekka actually passed away in a different thread so we have permission to powerplay her and close this. Want to fade with your last post?

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The hunt would be successful; as Valette began nipping at the injured elk’s abdomen, Rebekka and Szymon worried at her flanks. The pace was practically leisurely given the situation — there was no sense in the trio tiring themselves out while they bled the elk weary. It was a game of endurance now, and Szymon rumbled, a bloody grin splitting his face as he leapt and held on to the juncture of the elk’s neck and shoulder. He was not a large wolf, but he used his weight to his advantage anyway, humping his back to drop as much of his weight as he could every time she took a step. To help tire out the deer, Rebekka did the same on the other side, taking another tactic entirely: she darted in and snapped at the elk’s three good legs, trying to fell her. When Szymon judged he had expended enough energy acting as an anchor to the swaying, stumbling ungulate, he dropped back and mimicked Rebekka, snapping harshly at the elk’s heels. She was growing clumsier and clumsier, and the light in her eyes had dulled significantly. At this point she wasn’t even fighting back anymore. It was only a matter of time, now — a waiting game, so to speak.

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of course! <3

Valette watched the male hang from the deer's neck. The other female's tactic was wonderful. Valette really felt like a team for a moment, even though she was hunting with complete strangers. It was a pleasant experience for her. She paid attention to what the others did so she could learn from them. The female jumped up once more to bite pieces from the elk. The elk stumbled and soon it was over.

Even through the male had let go of the prey's neck it didn't do anything to fight back anymore. It was stumbling over and Valette was quick to bite her jaws down into the elk, closing down her windpipe and suffocating the animal. It was not a swift death but the deer had left this life never the less. She let out a woof in victory.

After that the kill was divided and Valette took her share home after saying goodbye to the other wolves. She liked to think that they created some sort of bond but she was not sure if she was ever going to see them again.

-end-