Otatso Wetlands eight

@Echelon! i can roll for our hunt success later. hope we get sommin gewd

The ground was mushy with melted snow, shooting up dried stalks of grass that crunched or bended under his step. The male slowed his earth-eating trot. The wind began to pick up, a soft whirr over the brown landscape, traveling over the coarse hairs of his spine and ruff, bringing with it scents to his finely tuned nose.

Dovev's trot had settled into a meandering but purposeful walk, his footfalls quiet and placed against the hardened mud of the northern wetlands. The small inlets and streams had sunk to puddles that were icy around the edges. There wasn't enough ponds and swampish lands here that Dovev had to swim, but his paws were quickly becoming trenched in cold mud. Stopping on a patch of dried grass, he glanced over his shoulder to see if the ebony Iqsi was still behind him.

Sounds good to me! Winner winner chiken dinnar~

The path that they had taken from their former setting had taken a bit of time, but Echelon was more than set on leaving the scraps behind. She trailed behind him with watchful eyes, unable to keep from being leery. He could have been leading her into a trap, she supposed at some point on their journey. But it was also perhaps as likely that he was keeping his word as well. So she played it out by ear, hoping that her trailing and awareness was merely coming off as preparing for their supposed hunt.

As he came to a stop, she chose to join him. Her smaller, darker frame stood out against the scenic drop of their locale. There were plenty of tantalizing scents on the breeze, tracks evident through the many trails set before them. And with them, there were also the tracks and marks of their canine brethren. The cold and damp, in spite of their sinking into her bones, did not deter the sharp-eyed gaze she cast before bringing it to her taller temporary companion.

"Our dinner likes this mud-hole?" she said with peculiar disdain.

He shrugged, not knowing why she was questioning his choice.
There's unfrozen water, marshes to slow down predators, and uncovered grass. Not much else to ask for in the winter, Dovev threw back, watching as she sledged through the mud. It was in their best interest to shoo whatever animals they found out onto the plains, because in the winter, wolves had the advantage of being quicker in snow, and many elk and deer were pregnant.

His nose swept the ground, picking up the aroma of other wolves, snowshoe hares, wintering birds, and then, mule deer. He trotted forward, following the faint smell, until he came upon a smattering of hoofprints molded into the cold mud.
Here. Dovev's eyes glanced around- they were still several miles away from the herd, but he wanted to see if anyone else had picked up the scent.

As he explained, she supposed that it was true — these were prime hunting grounds. Without the deep drifts of the open plains to slow them down, they would definitely have an advantage. Yet it surprised her that the herds hadn't stuck to the flatlands, but she dismissed the thought. Maybe they were traveling to them, now left to the fate and waiting jaws of the wolves in the woods. Flicking a clot of mud loose from her foreleg, Echelon trailed quietly once more behind Dovev, coming to join him where he had found the tracks.

And she too, joined him momentarily in the investigate that there were no others to be following. She checked behind them, wondering if somewhere hidden in the ridges and forests they had emerged from that there weren't more scavengers lurking. No doubt once they had made their kills, those scavengers would be out and about. "Have you scented any bears here before?" she found herself asking, aware of the threat a grizzly would have against just the two of them. It was a mutual threat, however. She knew they could handle coyotes and the carrion birds, but now found herself curious of the other predator she had seen before.

now i just gotta remember how to roll >.>

Bears. He glanced to his right where the female was standing, grinding his lower teeth a bit before answering. Wondering if Iqsi was more concerned about being approached than pursuing hunting, he decided to try and head her question off.

I've seen bears before, but not out here.
It was hard to tell Dovev had been wounded by such a beast if one didn't know where to look- but the telltale scars across his left hind-leg had created furrows under his pelt. The skin was pink underneath ivory fur, four long line of which the bear had dragged her claw across. He remembered his immobility that had followed him for a week or so, although the Creek's healer, Esperanza, had done a fair job of assisting their healing. He was lucky the clawmarks hadn't impeded his movement, but the memory of it all did further Dovev's hate for the shortsighted and dimwitted bear.

He walked along the trail for a bit, leading them along a long stretch of a pond's bank, the hills dotted with small aspens devoid of leaves.
I think if there were any threats out here, it'd be wolves, the male canted with a flick of his ear. The sky was beginning to sink into a slate gray, only allowing a minimal amount of pale yellow light to seep towards the ground.

/boop 1dX -- replace boop with roll and X with whatever number you want to use. I also just realized how redundant my second paragraph in my last post was to the ending of the first paragraph lmao. Pretty clear I wrote that in two different mindsets and did not reread... >_>;

If there were truly no bears there, then good. Perhaps they avoided the bogs altogether, again, making that place a rather prime hunting spot. Dovev moved on, leaving her to follow once more. The fact that he did not elaborate on what he knew stirred a bit of temptation to pry in her, but she avoided it. She wanted his aid in hunting; Echelon wasn't there to peek into his past.

And then, as he mused into the crisp air, she was struck by a certain mirth that went unreported. Yes, if there was any threats out there, it was liable to be them. It was better that they rested at the top of the food chain in that region for a reason. She cast her gaze soon thereafter to the hills that began to rise up ahead of them once more, hopeful that somewhere along the fringes of the timberline there would be deer preparing to hunker down for the cold night.

o right on, thank you! ill roll once they get closer to a deer

The sun had long reached past it's zenith when Dovev finally stopped, pleased at their location. Their path swung in an arc, turning back west as they criss-crossed some of the cold, hardened mud, stalking among bent wintry ferns and over small drifts of snow. Now they stood on a low ridge that heralded a stretch of gray tundra that provided a buffer between the woods and marshes.

His nose twitched as he paced the ridge a bit, ears flickering as he heard the faint chuffs of deer, who were hidden underneath the pines. Dovev could smell no more than ten with his current position, and guessed it was a group of young bachelors and their mothers, so there was little point and trying to single out a yearling.
We should try to move them out of the trees, he suggested, stopping to investigate the earth at his clawtips. The deer had trudged up this ridge and their smattering of hooves had churned the muddy berm. Nothing alerted the white male to the presence of a sick, old, or wounded deer, and so their hunt was already facing significant odds.

cocky deer be cocky, but then again, so is lonlon.

At his suggestion that they move to push them from the trees, Echelon started forward. She did not need to investigate the earth before them and ahead. The terrain was nothing new to her and she felt without speaking that the easiest way to suss out the weakest of the herd was to get them moving.

It didn't take long for the herd to notice the dark sentinel moving upon them, but it wasn't enough to get them to move. They instead continued about their pace, nonplussed about a single wolf following after them. After all, they were many and for the moment, Echelon was the bold one. But they did keep moving on, well aware of the fact that one wolf often meant several were close by.

LONLON

His ears followed the female's movement, and eventually, the ivory beast walked after her in a cautious manner. The deer had spotted her and continued their slow movements, slowly drifting in the way of the icy wetlands. Although they weren't startled yet, both wolves needed some sort of way to get them to start running.

Dovev stopped only to glaze over the herd. There was about twenty, and it was necessary to split off a chunk of them to single out a target. He trotted past the ebony wolf, farther down. The deer were beginning to shy away as he approached, although their brazenness was an obvious test to see how far the wolf would come before striking out. He was wary of their hooves, but if hunting wasn't such a risk, they'd all be fat and happy. As he edged closer, the string of deer began to thin and separate, with him in the middle.

lmao, yes! tonravik is tonton, echelon is lonlon. this started because steph called tonravik tonton to me and so i responded that we have tonton and lonlon and their adventures. >__>;

When he came up and ventured onward, Echelon held her position as she surveyed the herd. They split cautiously and Dovev stayed between the two halves. She watched with lurking mirth at how they tried to push together again and yet wouldn't dare too much, wouldn't tempt the larger beast that now rested in their midst.

As they pressed forward, Echelon found that she had to move herself to keep them in her sights. The terrain was varied enough that it didn't give her long opportunities to survey them openly, but there were many chances in which she took advantage of. Finally, something began to stand out to her, a modicum of hope resting in the robust herd. She barked once to Dovev to draw out that she had spotted something, and started off to push through the left hand flank.

What she had spotted was nothing more than a minor defect in an otherwise healthy young bull; something was off in his gait, as though something had happened to one of his legs that he had for perhaps all of his life. She couldn't pinpoint what it was nor did she care, because if the immature bull was lame in even the slightest way running, they'd have him with some degree of confidence. At least that was the plan.

nothin like good ol tonton n lonlon on a derpy adventure. ok, ill roll after your next post

As the seperated part of the herd began to move at a relatively springy pace, Dovev doubled back and trotted up beside Iqsi. After a moment, he noticed what the ebony wolf had her sights set on- and began to move into position. The male deer was young, with stubbly antlers, and looked to be good shape until he spotted the discretion in the deer's gait.

The animals were rapidly fleeing as Dovev picked up his walk, merging into a gallop as he followed them up the hill and towards the wetlands. He could hear the pursuit of his companion, and the vibrations of hooves through the trodden, icy ground. Although the deer were bunched together, their combined speed grew and the buck began to fall behind. Even if Dovev wasn't a fast runner, he was starting to catch up. With a few bounds, the wolf avidly dodged a small hole in the ground and used his momentum to leap up at the deer. He missed, but the prey animal slowed and began to trot in a circle, its head lowered and antlers exposed to the two wolves as steam coursed from its nostrils.

editing in a conclusion because it's been a while without responses.

As the stubbly-antlered ungulate circled on them, Echelon closed in dangerously with a snarl.  She had little qualms of goading the bull and simply dared him to charge her; to do so would have been his swift end at the jaws of her lighter counterpart unquestionably.  But he did not, instead holding his ground bitterly and huffing.  All for show, biding his time on the off chance they were joined by or blindsided by attack from another.  They were but two wolves with a small herd regrouping on the fringes of the hollowed wood beyond.

Whether or not the hunt was successful is anyone's guess.  A certain contentedness had come about to Echelon however and as darkness fell across the wilds, she eventually ventured off without so much of a parting set of words to her new found companion. Such was the way of the wild she was from, and whether or not they would ever meet again was another story altogether.