Bramblepoint With all of the faces

@Korei Julia - making assumptions that they have already left the Moonspear together.

It had taken two days for Wraen's sore foot to heal and, though it was not 100% perfect on the day three, she thought that she could not postpone the promissed hunting/scouting/exploring lesson for Korei. The need to help her and that way be useful to the pack as well, had grown stronger ever since she had decided to take the task and this was going to be the day. 

She had howled for her apprentice and together they had left Moonspear's borders. Wraen thought that by being away from the familiar premises and the chances of running into any of the Cerberus or the parents were very low. And neither she, nor her student needed any distractions. "Bramblepoint," she told as they padded together. "Nice stretch of uninhabited forest - by wolves - I mean."

Korei Julia followed behind Wraen while looking about the area, being quite easily distracted. "Does anything inhabit it? Anything bad?" she asked curiously. She didn't want to meet with anything bad, or something that could absolutely ruin their day. "What are we doing here, again? Are we exploring?"

"I have been here quite a few times and have never seen anyone more dangerous than a fox," Wraen explained, deciding not to mention that one time, when she had run accross the scent trail left by a bear. Since they were nomadic creatures, the young wolf did not believe that it had stayed in the Bramblepoint, nor would it ruin their day. 

"We will see, what the woods have to offer," she replied. "Smells, sights, things to hear, maybe - if we are luky - we can get our paws on a small rodent or a hare. In that case you might be able to practice the art of chasing," that would be very lucky indeed. She recalled, how Osprey had taught her kids to hunt, by bringing back a live (and tired) hare once and letting the trio have turns in running after it and pinning it down.

"Can you guess, what you begin with, when heading out for a hunt?"

Korei had seen a couple of foxes, mostly from a distance. She could definitely believe that it was safe there, if there was nothing worse than a fox there. "Foxes aren't too bad" she remarked. "We can take 'em, yeah?"

She had to think about the question posed by Wraen. "Um, catch a scent?" she asked. "Yeah, catch a scent trail, and find the prey."

"We can take foxes down, as well as eat them, if there is nothing better around," Wraen agreed. She had eaten the smaller canid few times in her life, but it was not her favorite meal. The flesh of other carnivores had an odd taste.

"In part - yes - but tracking and following a scent trail requires more energy than, when you use your ears and eyes first. So, what I usually do is - start by looking and listening and, if it's worth it, go for using my nose," she explained. "And - funnily enough - looking sometimes gets you the food you would otherwise never been able to smell. Have you eaten anything else besides meat?"

Korei could agree to that. Foxes weren't wolves, a food source rather. However she could never kill another wolf, or attempt to attack one, unless her very life depended on it. She always depended on others to do so for her, though.

"I...do bad tasting herbs count?" she asked. And she didn't generally mean it as a joke. "So what should we look out for first? Rabbit tracks? I know what they look like." And she had attempted to catch rabbits out of fun and games by herself. They never did go well. 

Korei's mind drifted onto a different question, one her mind urged her to ask. "Do you...do you have any family that...looked down on you?"

"They definitely do. Though I have yet to find a herb that does taste good," Wraen laughed. You did not get a complex meal with all the necessary nutrients and vitamins provided every day. You were lucky, if you had it every second, every third, therefore eating plants just to keep hunger at bay and have your stomach something to work on, was the way to go. "For instance," she stopped to point out at a cluster of grass and then, since they were at the margin, where the tree line began, to the moss and rare bilberry bushes. "You can eat those, if you are desperate and there has been nothing better for days. Though they won't keep you going for long - mom used to say, that - you can eat those, but that means that you will simply die later of starvation than sooner." A morbid joke, but something to keep in mind. 

"Roots and berries, however, are totally different thing. Too bad it's winter though," because in that case - boy - how much would Wraen have to show to Korei Julia. "Rabbit tracks are good - we can start with them or... with any tracks for that matter. See, what they look like and decide, who left them behind," Wraen was not too sure, if they would run accross a rabbit, but she did not want to dampen her friend's spirits. 

"Me... well, I had my differences with my sister Sarah and she did not agree with a lot of things I did, but then again... maybe the pack was too small for two big personalities and one of us had to leave," she told. Now that time had passed, since she had left her family, all of the hurt feelings towards her more ambitious and serious sibling had lost their sharp edge. Now they were more like a memory and nowadays she often wondered, what had been the exact reasons for them not getting along.

Korei didn't know of any nice tasting herbs. After tasting rasberry leaves, she set a goal in her mind; find nice tasting herb. "I'll find one, one day. And I'll be sure to tell you all about the herb" she added.

Korei put her head toward the ground with the intent of picking up any scent trails. She didn't pick up any yet, and she lifted her head after Wraen answered to her question. "So...what's it like? To run away from it all? To put it all behind...To-" As she had been asking, she caught the scent of something. "I think I found something, that way" she pointed with her nose toward the right.

"Please, do, though be careful with plants that you are suspicious of or don't know, what they do. All plants are edible, but some of them - just once," Wraen warned. She was rather good at picking out the ones you could eat and they would benefit you, but that list was very short and she avoided any experiments. "Though I suggest you try berries - bilberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, crowberries, cowberries, cranberries or cloudberries - most of them are sweet and make very nice treats," again - too bad it was winter and she could not show them to the girl. 

Wraen was happy that she did not have to reply right away - she would need to do some thinking first of how to make it sound as the most rational and not emotional decision. "Oh - wonderful," she was all game, when Korei told her that she had caught scent of something. She first examined the "upper level", because some scents liked to travel through air, especially if it was a dead animal, which did not care to move around much. Then her muzzle dropped to the ground and she began to sniff out either a trail or a footprints someone had left behind. 

"This is interesting," she glanced up at Korei Julia. "Could be a beaver or something like it," she suggested, though she could not quite remember now, if these mammals went to sleep during the winter.

Last post for tonight

Korei took Wraen's warning of plants to heart, she understood exactly what Wraen meant by that. She had yet to come across such a plant, however. 

"Beaver? Never hunted a beaver before. They an easy catch?" she asked. She hadn't seen a beaver before, either. Were they large, small, she had no idea of knowing until they came across it. She pictured it being something small, something they could hunt easily.

"Beavers are perfectly edible and tasty as well. They are not too big either, yet they are not easy to take on," Wraen explained. She had seen, how her parents took one down only once, and even then it had been a fearsome sight. The creature, who appeared to be chubby and slow, could become quite vicious. After the kill, Osprey had explained to her that the two weapons this animal posessed was it's heavy, leathery tail (you did not want to get slapped accross the face) and the massive, orangey-brown teeth that could easily snap a wolf's leg in two. 

"Tricky animals, but, if you have not seen one before, this will be a good opportunity to do so," she said. "Lead the way," since it was Korei's first lesson, Wraen decided to give her first-hand in tracking. She would follow, of course.

Korei Julia was worried about that part, of how they weren't easy to take on. Now the picture in her mind was see something with teeth as well. Sharp, pointy teeth. And she was a bit afraid of this when she was asked to lead the way. 

But she put the fear in the past eventually, and went along to lead the way as best she could. After some time, she heard something snap, and almost followed along with the urge to turn and bolt. Peering over a bush she saw a rather small furry thing, and it looked to be eating a branch. "Awww" she couldn't help, until it turned and she ducked out of fear when she saw such large teeth.

Wraen was right besides Korei Julia, while she did the tracking (and she did very well) and therefore she was also next to her, when the girl first caught sight of the beaver, who was busy chopping a big branch away. It was definitely less imposing than the one Osprey and Dante had taken down that one time, yet she did not let the looks deceive her. Beavers were a food source that had to be respected and not undermined.

"Don't worry," Wraen told Korei Julia, when she hid away from the creature, who had decide to look at her. "They usually don't attack unless we provoke them first," and even then - they would be able to outrun it. "What do you want to do about it - let's try to hunt it or leave it be and find it's mound. It must be further down in the woods on the river somewhere."

Korei Julia thought on it. She didn't feel like being chomped on today by a furry beaver, so she shook her head. "We can find the mound...those are big teeth" she said, not liking the sight of such the big teeth. "Um, which way is the river?" she then asked, looking to Wraen for guidance. Which way would they be headed now?

"They are not so dangerous, if you know, where to hit the guy and how to pinn it down," Wraen explained, remembering, how Dante had grabbed the offending creature by the scruff and how Osprey had aided in finishing it, by well-aimed bites. But hunting like that required team-work and if Korei was not up for it today, then Wraen would not risk it either. In the end the Ostrega girl would fine and it would probably be the teacher, who would end up with missing fingers or broken foot.

"Alright - leave it be then," she nodded in agreement. "Let's go that way," she beckoned in the direction, where she thought was the most likely place the beaver's home was located.

Korei followed along behind Wraen, toward where Wraen thought the mound to be. As they went along, she felt like continuing the conversation before. "So, you ran away from home. How did it feel? Did it feel like you were free?" she asked, trying to keep up with Wraen. "Do you ever still think about it?"

Wraen did not give much thought, when she replied Korei Julia's inquiry about leaving. A thing she would regret few days later, because, though she knew that the girl was underappreciated by her family and did not fit in, she could not imagine the scope of her troubles and how hard they were affecting her. 

"Yeah. Scary as well - you know - first time, when I was entirely on my own," she told. "I remember that on my first nights I woke up from the slightest sound and once I got scared by a tree," now she could laugh at the recollection, but at that time it was downright scary. 

"Do I think about leaving? I am homesick sometimes. Miss my mom and dad... but I guess that's the way life goes. You have to say goodbye to those you hold dear at some point," she revealed.

Now that she thought about it, it did seem like it would be a scary experience, being alone out there. And she had never thought about losing Moonspear, or those closest to her. She couldn't find any sort of response from herself, thinking it over. As she did, she spotted ahead the river through the trees. 

"Wraen, the river!" She rushed out onto it, and then got to looking around. "So, what's in the mound, that we are looking for?"

Wraen was glad that Korei Julia did not press the subject about leaving further - she did not want to plant any ideas in her friend's head that she would later regret. Therefore she was happy to concentrate on the more important task at hand, which was locating the beaver mound.

"They look like a big pile of dirt, twigs, roots and leaves in the middle of a flooded area," she explained, now walking along the river bank, whose banks were overgrown by tall grass and reed stalks. "See anything like it?"

Photo for reference - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/96/7b/...e1f393.jpg 

Korei listened to the description given by Wraen. She went looking for mound, but she had some difficulty. That was until she made it further up the river, and she saw it. "Wraen!" she tried to shout quietly. She pointed with her nose for the mound, and got down just in case there was a beaver inside.

While Korei Julia made her progress along the river in one direction, Wraen explored the opposite one, though by the look and shape of the banks it did not seem likely that the beaver had built it's home in the vicinity. But the Ostrega girl had been more lucky - after a moment she heard her call and responded to it immediately, running towards the source of the sound.

"Good job," she praised her friend, when she had acknowledged her find. It truly was the kind of mound they were looking for. Even better, because it was surrounded by ice and, since a week ago the temperatures had been very low, Wraen was pretty sure that, if they were to walk on the surface, it would hold their weight. But before that...

"Don't worry - the entrance to the mound is underwater - that way the clever animal can escape the predators. We can go over there and explore it or... we could check the surrounding area, just in case there is a hole or break in the ice, where he exits the place," the choice was up to the student.

She got wagging, glad to hear she did a good job. She got looking around the mound, looking for a way in before Wraen spoke of the entrance being under. "Is there one inside?" she asked, thinking they were after another inside. "Do we dig into it?"

"Digging into it from above might not be that bad of an idea," Wraen agreed, having not thought of that earlier. She had thought along the lines of a "cat and mouse" game, where the cat waited at the hole until the mouse peeked outside. 

"It might be a bit hard to do, now that all the twigs and mud and everything else is frozen solid," she pointed out. "But we could walk over to the mound on the ice and see, if there are any footprints around and, if so, if there is another secret entrance besides the one under the water."

Korei had to think about it, and after a bit she nodded. "All right, let's get to it then" she said, then she got down ang went about looking for any set of footprints around. She found a trail nearby, and thought it might be it, so she gave a light bark to signal Wraen. "This it?"

"Hmm..." Wraen examined the trail moving first along the tracks in one direction than in the other. They could be, but it was hard to tell for sure - snow had it's way of changing the appearance of the footprint. Besides it did not smell right either.

She followed the trail accross the ice covered pond to the place where the tracks continued on the other bank and further in the woods. She would have turned around and repeated the examination, had she not noticed a thin, black and white and long needle in the snow. Happy about her find, she picked it up carefully and returned to Korei Julia.

"This was not a beaver," she told the girl, after she had put the object down. "Do you know, which animal wears needles as a coat?"