Blacktail Deer Plateau Giving Thanks

@Easy Backdate Nov 19th ~ 20th ish Let’s get some turkey for Thanksgiving

---

Pema had crossed over catfish pond from the rendezvous site and was now prowling the area of sparse trees next to the meadow. It was early morning just after sunset, and a light layer of last night’s snow was still on the ground. She had hunted while she was out on her scouting trip, but oddly enough she was craving turkey. Something she didn’t often hunt, and something she couldn’t track down while she was out. But she knew that there were a few turkeys within Blacktail Deer Plateau, it was just a matter of where they were.
 
So instead of sneaking around and waiting for one to some along, she thought she might try out her tracking skills. So far it had gotten her to this area, not nothing more precise.

Easy had spoken to Pema since she got back - of course she had! - but they hadn't had much one-on-one time just yet. That was understandable, since Pema was busy tending to Lavender, but Easy still wished they had more time to themselves. Still, she'd tried to do what she could to help her sister as well, and that meant leaving Pema to do her thing in the meantime.

But now Pema was hunting, and Easy could hunt, too. It seemed like the perfect opporunity to hang out with the older girl while still helping Lavender to get better.

"Hey, Pema," Easy said quietly, coming up beside her friend and giving her chin an affectionate nuzzle. "Whatchya lookin' for? Can I help?"

At the sounds of Easy's voice, Pema's tail began to race. She had seen and spoken to the pup since her return, but she was still just so happy to be home and see her and the others again, she couldn't help but still be excited. When Easy came up to nuzzle her, Pema replies saying, "There she is." and nuzzled her right back and gave a few kisses to the top of her head. 

"Of course you can help." she answered. "I was just thinking about how I would need an experts help to track down some turkeys." she said trying to flatter Easy. But in all seriousness, Pema wanted to see how much better Easy's hunting skills had gotten. She knew that Cat had worked with them a bit on scents while she was gone and wanted to see how well they were picking it up.

Easy excepted Pema's nuzzle with a happy giggle, glad that the older girl seemed as happy to see her as she was to see Pema. Her eyes brightened at the mention of turkey's, but tightened a tiny bit when Pema talked about calling for the experts. Hadn't Pema heard?

"Daddy says he can't hunt for a while, until his missing eye heals over," she said, shooting Pema a wide-eyed look. "But I can help you, and maybe we can call for Cat or Kieran." Easy wasn't the best of hunters just yet.

It was kind of scary that Daddy was missing an eye, now. Easy was worried that someone would come to hurt them again and Daddy wouldn't be able to see them well enough to fight them off. Cat would help him, but she'd been there last time, too, and he'd still gotten hurt. So had Lav. What if he lost the other one?

"We gotta protect Daddy, now," Easy said to Pema, sounding frightened by the prospect.

Then the conversation took a turn Pema wasn't expecting, towards the loss of Day's eye. It was still fresh in Pema's mind, at least hearing about it. She had been with Lavender earlier that day to look over her wounds and to see how bad the encounter really was. But Day had taken the worst of it, losing his eye and with it his past ability to hunt for the time being.

"I was talking about you honey." she remarked before changing her tone to one that was more serious and careing then excited or playful. "But you are right. We do need to protect your father." she said lowering herself a bit more to get down to Easy's level. "But he's going to be ok. He has you, me, and everyone else in the pack looking out for him. He should be back to his normal self soon." she tried to assure her. It was true that the loss of an eye right away could be rather daunting, but wolves were very adabpable to only having one eye. Able to run and hunt almost no time after their wounds healed. 

"Tell you what. If we get a turkey we can go give it to him if you like." she offered thinking that Day hadn't been hunting he might have been eating what was left over in the cache or other things. Getting a fresh meal from his little girl would surely cheer him up. 

Easy perked up at this suggestion. "Okay," she chirped, picking her paws up a bit more as she trotted along. Her leathery nostrils flared as she tried to catch the scent of their prey. She still wasn't great at tracking, but she was doing better every day. 

"I... I think I smell something over this way," she said uncertainly, looking to Pema for verification. She wondered if noses got better as wolves aged, or if wolves just got better at using them. What a conundrum - she'd have to make sure and ask someone later on.

That seemed to convince her, luckily. What had happened had effected Day and Lavender, but that wasn't something Pema thought Easy should have to worry about. She needed to know that in the end both of them would be fine. As far as the more stress and concerning issues about the pack, Pema thought that those things Easy shouldn't have to worry about till she was older, or still she absolutely needed to. It was enough stress having all the adults worry about it, understanding the severity of it all, but someone so young who might not grasp it all. Pema was sure it could be blown out of proportion in Easy's imaginative mind. 

She trotted along with Easy as they began to track down some turkeys. Easy had picked up on the scent Pema had a few minutes ago, but said it with some uncertainty. "I think you're right." she said lightly with encouragement. She then gestured with her head to keep heading in that direction. Pema lowered herself to the ground smelling that they were getting closer and closer.

Then, up ahead through a few trees she spotted them. A group of three turkeys, pecking at the ground. "Which one should we go after?" Pema whispered to Easy, giving her the chance to pick which bird they would give to her father. Unlike deer, all turkeys for the most part seemed to be fare game.

"That one," said Easy, pointing her nose toward the biggest of the bunch. She wanted to impress her dad with a really good kill, and she was confident she'd be able to bring the tender, slow-moving animal down, even if it was a bit bigger than her.

Silently, the young huntress stalked forward, ears pointed high upon her head. Her steps were slow and timed with her breaths as she drew near, her dark pelt hiding her in the shadows of ferns.

She knew where she had to attack - Daddy always said that the neck was the weakest spot on any animal, but especially so on birds. She knew that if she could just get one good bite, the prize would he hers.

All at once, the girl shot forward, pouncing on the clumsy creature. Upon contact, it exploded into a ball of motion, fury, and feathers, and Easy found herself quite confused. She bit onto something, but it was a wing. Something else, but it was only meatless plumage. The turkey was trying to get away, so Easy pounced again and threw her weight onto the thing, only to have it drag her along!

"Pemma-ah!" Easy yelped, shocked by this turn of events. It was flapping wildly with the wing that Easy had not pinned down.

It wasn't surprising that the young Easy had chosen the largest bird out of the flock. It wasn't uncommon for her to bite off more then she could chew, or hunt in this instance. But it was for her father and she had Pema at her side if she needed any help.

Pema followed behind Easy as she crouched down to stalk thier prey. She let Easy take the lead, get some experience of her own and be there to help if she needed it. When Easy shot out from the ferns it was a cluster of flapping, feathers and gobbles. A few moments later and Pema could hear Easy calling out to her with a mumbled voice as she was being dragged inch by inch.

"I gotcha." she called out rushing towards the large turkey. With Easy holding it rather still it was easy for Pema to clamp down to the large birds throat until it stopped flinching. Pema spit out a couple of feathers stuck in her mouth before looking over to Easy and complimenting her saying, "You picked out the biggest one. Your dad won't be hungry any time soon."