King Elk Forest let's set the tigers free [pack hunt!]

hey!! figured a lil pack hunt would be a fun way to get everyone together! this is not mandatory but highly encouraged! round one will end december 1st! @Mato @Burke @Sunflower @Matteo @Anatha @Jomyo

the king elk has run off most of the old herd and delight has left the old god-creature and his cow mostly alone. but there has been some lingerers, some, the nénar supposes, that have been unthreatening enough to not be attacked by the resident living spirit of the forest, past their prime or otherwise unable to make it with the rest to the relative safety of the sweep to the north.

well - all the better for them, then. with their numbers bolstered, delight awakens with the surprisingly reasonable idea to take one (maybe two, if they're really lucky) down. the king elk won't mind, obviously, and their cache could use a little fattening before everything is blanketed in snow. this is the sort of thing his old home used to do before the first great tragedy of his life. buoyed by uncharacteristic enthusiasm, the nénar makes his way to the clearing where, not so many months ago, they first founded, and lets loose a sharp call for the rest of his pack - unusually excited for the androgynous wisp. 

things have been rough but now, now they're going to turn a corner - and a nice fat elk in their cache is gonna be the opening sign. delight holds himself high - higher than he ever has before, echoing a faint hint of morwinyon's stately nature (what a change from his days of slinking about, a morose shadow! he saves that for tuesdays), his expression as faintly sullen as ever even as he greets his arriving fellows. "there's some elk still lingering from the king elk's herd," he explains, keeping an eye out for morwinyon (and ready to quickly avert, blushing fierce), "that are fair game to us now. and i figured we have enough numbers to take down at least one." delight cracks a rare smile - faint and small as it is, it's genuine, and his tail wags behind him as he looks over tindómë.

Sunflower has begun to fall into a routine, spending a good portion of her time exercising her hunting kills. Most of the things she hunts are small game, the occasional bird, and a lot of the time she turns up unsuccessful. She doesn’t know this land as well as she knows her home. Eventually, she’ll know everything like the back of her hand, making it easier to manipulate to her advantage. Half of what she catches, she eats, and the other, she adds to the cache but apparently their numbers have grown over the few weeks and they’ll need more. The elk Delight has found, and introduces the wolves to, causes her feet to subtly dance on the ground. She’s itching to get going but she lets the leader sort things out, occasionally glancing around to those that have joined in on the hunt.

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She had been laying low and keeping to herself as she settled in, but Delight's call had lured her out and eventually into their midst. Together, they gathered for the first time since her appearance on their scene, and he presented the chance of the elk before them all. Jomyo's expression quirked in interest, although she remained otherwise quiet and still on the edges of the gathering as she observed this. Eventually, she wondered how this might play out.

"Any of them pretty young or old?" she piped in with when a pause in the info seemed to suit her enough, since she had to know what they were. Honestly, she had no idea who were the primary hunters here, or what the strengths of the others would be and neither had she taken the time to extensively study the selection of elk here--assuming them out of her league (and therefore worth leaving alone) since she was so accustomed to thinking like a single, lone wolf.

in which brienne is depressed but still shows her face.

since her return she had isolated herself, her heart a prisoner in the walls she'd built up since her sudden and uncalled for disappearance.  the caring girl that had once stood in these bones had vanished, and a cooler, more calculated woman stood in her place.

when she heard delight's pack-howl to the air she wasn't even sure if she should go.  was she really still part of this forest?  did she really still matter?  but she went anyway, because somewhere she was still dedicated to the pack she'd done wrong.

she limped in, and as delight explained the reason for their gathering the light barely flickering in her was forcibly sucked out.  a hunt.  

how could she participate when she was injured?  she cast a glance at her wounded leg and the deep gashes on her side that burned as her breathing hastened.  

useless. useless. useless.

she creeped back as far as she could while still being "present", away from the bright new faces.  she didn't need to dampen their spirits.

She arrives, but is silent, glancing to the faces around her, recognizing only some. One of the strangers speaks, and Anatha offers her a glance before turning her attention to Delight, tail sweeping the ground behind her in nervous twitches as she sits and waits for instruction, eager for the hunt to begin. She would rather move and hunt than sit and talk, as the latter took far too much energy.

*waves* sorry i'm late! if anyone who missed the first round wants to jump in still feel free (or if you just want to cameo thats fine too). round 2 will end dec 10th!

well. it's not the whole lot of them but there's still something magical in his packmates showing up to his call. delight's pleased to see the full roster of núros -- sans matteo, but he hasn't seen the albino since he joined and he suspects he's drifted away from them -- and brienne, lurking. the nénar knows she can't hunt with them, not with her leg the way it is. drat. delight's not a tactician (or even a hunter really) but he doesn't want to completely leave her out either... 

anxiously he notes mato hasn't shown yet but tries not to worry about it. it's not like he needs morwinyon's presence. it's just. nice to see him.

jomyo's the only one who speaks - delight looks at her and shrugs. "i think there's a couple of older ones, yeah," he says, glancing around. right, he has no idea what he's doing, but they don't need to know that. "jomyo, you and sun take the lead and anatha and i will take the rear. we can use the trees to our advantage to get it seperated from the others, they'll probably try to move toward the sweep."

he hopes that makes sense (it sounds pretty reasonable in his head anyway). pausing, he glances back at brienne and adds, "bri - can you come with us and - help scout for a good one?" that way she can follow along but not have to hurt herself in the actual hunt, he figures.

game plan in motion, they get moving.

Without knowing what was meant to be a good turnout, she stayed hesitantly neutral about this as her first gathering with any number of the pack here. It didn't seem like many at first glance. She wondered who the female on the outskirts was, and where Mato may be.. among a great many other things, but maybe their numbers wouldn't matter and they could make up for it with cohesion somehow.

When he answered, she nodded, though. Noted. Old ones weren't the tastiest, surely, but maybe they could easily get an edge on the elderly. Then again, she couldn't say she had much experience hunting elk. She also wasn't sure which face of strangers was Sun, but the go ahead to be forwardly placed here suited Jomyo very well. When her main strength in the hunt was sheer speed, that was probably a wise move.. but no one here really knew that, and neither did she know what anyone else was good at, or not. Good thing she'd be finding out soon enough as Delight moved them onward to the next step towards their potential feast. Accordingly, she slid forward into a jog to warm up and get ready for this pace to pick up.

Sunflower glances around at the other wolves and tries to figure out the course of action, listening as Delight gives out instructions for them to follow. She’s able to determine who Jomyo is by knowing Anatha but her eyes rest briefly on the fifth wolf the leader speaks to but she doesn’t give her much attention, redirecting her way to the female she doesn’t know. She picks up the pace, falling in line behind her, and letting everything fall into place as they set up to separate one in particular from the rest of the herd.

she figured it would be best if she at least made an appearance, but was beginning to regret the decision now.  she nods curtly at delight's pitiful attempt to include her and speaks nothing, instead waiting for the others to lead and limping behind.

as they spied the herd, she watched for a moment as they grazed in the comfort of their home, unaware of the fate that lay ahead for.. one of them.

slowly, she inclined her head at a particular individual, careful not to make noise as to not alert the herd to their position. there, she mouths, was the old elk they'd bring down.

Only once or twice in her short life had the girl hunted deer; and thus she said nothing but follow the rest. Already a lurking fear of failure overshadowed her excitement at such a pursuit; being small and fast she never hunted anything much bigger than a fox. Still, she would do her best, even if when Brienne pointed out the elk they would hunt, her gaze moved quickly to its potentially deadly set of antlers.

HELLO HELLO. round 3 by dec 20th s'il vous plait! /pic of me pretending i know how to write hunts

it is a shitty compromise but it's the best he can do in the moment and he's grateful brienne plays along, however reluctantly. he mouths a quick thanks at her and makes a mental note to go check on her later. the whole situation with them and mato is miserable at best -- but he puts it out of his mind for right now.

the little group heads out, delight at the back with anatha. it'd be nice if they were slightly bigger in number, he'll admit, but the advantage of their small formation - it's quiet and sneaky. he waits until they seem to be in a decent place and nods to sunflower and jomyo, signalling them to move out.

She's happy for any forward progression (hoping that she'll fall into stride with it) and as soon as they have their targets locked on an older one, she then felt that weird pre-hunt anticipation wanting to coil. It was a sizable beast, far larger than her usual prey, and with that thought she resisted the urge to take stock on her few fellows again. At least age had worn it down and she knew they'd at least be worth something all coming at it, together.

At the signal, she gave a little nod, first to Delight then Sunflower next, and began to move towards it with the last bits of cover she could keep to get in closer. She had all the prefacing she'd need, she supposed.. because no more was leaving her any more prepared than this. With the trees in mind, all she hoped to do was control the prey's flight once nearer. If they could keep it away.. even better, and hopefully in the chaos of fleeing and the maze a forest could make, they could potentially land some blows. This was, of course, an ideal situation playing out smoothly enough, so she did her best to envision this happening for real.

She arced along with the scenery, closing in and when it was time, she was ready to gain her speed. Now and then, she kept up with glances sent towards Sunflower.. hoping she was on the same page, somehow, as well. With the goal easy enough, and laid out before them by Delight, it was now theirs to take, or at least try.

She hoped she hadn't imagined it, but since she had a feeling her alone wouldn't be enough, she had tried to make some sort of signal to Sun before she went surging forward, aiming to speed ahead and get between their chosen elk and the rest of his lot now that they were bound to find out about the encroaching wolves. It had to start somewhere.

Everything begins to fall into place as they managed to lock onto their target. She missed the exchange on how it had been chosen but with one final look to the other wolves in tow, she hopes for the best. From there on out, she sets her sights on one thing. She keeps the other wolf in her peripheral and glancing over each time something changes with her companion. Her speed continues evenly, not as familiar with this forest as perhaps the others (unbeknownst to her that two of her three comrades are also unfamiliar), and waits for the right movement. 

She notes the opportunity just a beat after Jomyo, turning to catch her glance and signal to begin speeding up. The other wolf surges forward and Sunflower does the same, with only a little space gained between them so she can help drive the older elk away from the herd just as they hear them coming.

so sorry for the holdup on my end! pping brienne & anatha as requested -- let's get one more quick round in and then we can archive this! thanks yall <3

--

the little group moves surprisingly smoothly, and delight feels a warmth in his chest. pride, maybe, some sort of affection for his (his?) little motly crew. @Brienne makes the choice - he shoots her a grateful look, glad she's at least willing to play along despite the uncertainty between them now - and jomyo brings them forward. @Anatha and him surge forward with sunflower and jomyo, timed just so, so that jomyo and sunflower can get the older elk split from the herd before the smaller pair is at its heels, nipping and driving it into the front guard's jaws. buoyed by adrenaline, the androgyne surges forward and hooks his teeth around one wobbling leg, tearing with the best he's got.

When she finally unfurls her stride in full, she makes good use of it and gains her ground quickly. She tried to pay the others half a mind, but when her goal became more singular and she closed in better, fewer elk were pertinent and only Sunflower really registered. They cut the older elk away from the rest, stirring up the expected upset from the beast who now had to know what would come next, and with another quick shift of her stride, she didn't let it veer wide around them to return to the safety of its numbers.

Her heart raced. These were big beasts.

Soon, though, in a big rush she noticed the others again and how everything so far was falling into place. The Eizokusei had no opportunity to let her heart waver. Determined, she rallied the chase into the oncoming teeth with everything she had, where its end should await, along with the promise of their full caches and bellies tonight.

Somewhere in the midst, she started to scent the blood and everything was an even bigger blur from there on out. When the time was right, she closed in enough to hook her own teeth into its flesh before it could be felled entirely. With their little assortment of wolves hunting together for the first time, even she had confidence that they could do it.

sunflower is leaving the game so i'm gonna go ahead and get this concluded! thanks for participating guys ❤

it's quick and messy and a little exhilarating, he'll admit. for a moment the buzz of drama and anxiety that fuels him is gone, replaced only by the taste of blood and the instinctive movements of him and his wolves (his wolves!) in tandem as they bear down on the elk. brienne chose well -- already weak, it stumbles under their onslaught and goes down, leaving a red smear in the snow-dusted dirt.

delight's grinning as he pulls back enough to survey their work, jaw stained red with blood. they will feed and then they will store the rest. tindómë will thrive this winter.