Noctisardor Bypass I like me...

Spook had wandered to the northeastern borders, bringing a bone to the corner of the territory where the land started to slope upwards and make it hard for strangers to wander in. It was the humerus of a hare -- not a big loss to anyone if it didn't end up in someone's stomach.  Here at the edge, he looked around once, and spotting nobody, looked back to the distant still-kinda-smoky mountain, then dropped the bone at his feet. Spook dug a quick hole, buried it, and then headed away.

He hurried away, quick to leave the scene. Spook had other plans in mind and once he was well into the heart of the territory, he lowered his nose to the ground and started searching for scents. He still hadn't felt like he really had proven himself yet, despite the work he'd done. He just wasn't as enthusiastic about fighting as his siblings, and he was still thinking it was the ultimate failure in his mother's eyes.

He was pretty sure there was a nice place to find some rabbits or voles or something up ahead.  He could maybe hunt some of those... Prove his worth.  Or uh. Something.

Ashlar and Gannet had agreed to join Terence's new pack, but with baba's trade, they'd established a habit of wandering some.  Today baba was off but Ashlar was here.  He wandered aimlessly and took in the place, and as he did he wondered at how different it was from the Hollow.  He missed the trees the most, but the cliffs were beautiful.

When Ashlar spotted Warlock he was shy, but he remembered the wolf.  Umm, hi! he called out brightly, then his ears tucked.  What... is it okay if I....  He didnt know what to ask first, so each of these petered out almost inaudibly.  The boy almost stopped, then he resolved.  He wanted friends and he had missed them!  Can I come?  This time he projected his voice so that Warlock might actually hear it.

Wait, who--?  He looked over his shoulder and there was that brief pause as Spook slowly recognized Ashlar, finally wagging his tail happily. It was good to see him!  And they'd both grown a lot -- heck, Spook was probably taller than him at this point.  He turned and trotted back to meet him, Yeah! Do you wanna go hunting? I was gonna try and catch something for my mom maybe. -- And how was your trip and stuff? It was always good to have more people around that weren't one of his siblings. He did wonder how it would work if they caught one thing so how would they split it, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Oh wonderful, he was remembered and welcomed!  It was good! B... Da and I saw a lot of places, and he showed me plants n how to track.  Ashlar had truly enjoyed the quality time, though he missed his mama. And I met this wolf who taught me how to trick rabbits!  His eyes lit up as he recalled Dauntless.

What does she want?  He asked as he came alongside the other boy and smiled.  He was definitely in to help! He was more than thrilled his friend hadn't forgotten him.

Was Spook allowed to go wandering away yet? He wasn't sure. It had been a while since his mom had warned them not to go, so maybe it would be okay now. Either way, Ashlar had provided a nice reminder of it. He wanted to go home -- well, not really home at this point, but back to the hollow. That really must have been fun... I hope I get to go on a trip soon. I wanna go back to the forest, I left some stuff there.  But trick rabbits? Like how? That was totally relevant to what Spook was thinking, y'see!  

Uh. I dunno. Like she wants us -- me and my brother and sister -- to be... Self-sufficient, she said. So I figure if I brought her a rabbit or uh. Something like that then that'd be proof I am, right? A pause. I don't think she'd mind if you helped -- you're my age, so that's fair. It'd be like hunting with his brother, but more agreeable. Pause, What do you think?

Ashlar could have taken pride in the fact that he knew something that his friend didn't, but that wasn't who he was.  Instead his tail waved enthusiastically and he shared the method with no reservations.  We found their holes an we buried some of em!  An then when the rabbits tried to leave, we caught em!  It still made him a little sad, thinking of the rabbits trapped and scared, but he was proud too that he'd been able to help with the hunt.

I can help!  Do you know where any rabbits live?  If he didn't they could no doubt find it, but while Ashlar had learned how to catch them once found, he wasn't an expert at tracking.  He'd always tended to drift off into daydreams and songs when Baba tried to show him.

I don't see why you gotta do it alone, it's more fun hunting with friends, Ashlar added happily.  He couldn't imagine Gannet or Mona ever being upset with him for choosing to have help, but it had been a long time since he'd seen Treason.

Well, more has been because with mom and dad helping, we really needed to catch everything, so we didn't get to practice as much. But now stuff was better! So just like.. Not with an old person I guess. Someone who probably knew about as much about hunting as him was probably okay.

But yeah! I'm pretty sure there's some up where I was going, so c'mon! Unless he was totally misremembering, but the scents would tell them soon enough, they just needed to get a bit closer. But he did start back on the route he was taking, making sure Ashlar was coming along. We can maybe try that thing with burying them? He wanted to see how that worked. It sounded kind of like a variant on what Arbiter had taught him, so it sounded like it would, at least.

Okay, yeah.  Ashlar nodded as what he said made perfect sense.  Then he felt a flush of happiness and comraderie, because he'd never been hunting without an adult and with peers only his age.  Baba or Mama or, recently, tutors like Dauntless had always been around.  He and Warlock would bring back so many rabbits!

Yeah!!  It was easy, you just gotta dig n bury the holes.  Then watch the other ones.  Cept I don't know why they don't dig out the holes we bury?  Ashlar wasn't aware of the way panic made a creature forget itself, and if he had thought of it, it probably would have made him sad about the process again.

Well, that sounded easy enough! They could dig and bury stuff all day -- catching the rabbits would be the hard part. He could see this going quite well -- they were both excited and it would benefit everyone. Maybe they could even catch a few and then they could take a couple for their families and then the remainder could go in the cache. The ground moved quick beneath them, and the short distances were closed. Then he started to slow down, looking over to Ashlar, It's just up ahead. Like right there, you can maybe see a little of it. A few slight dips in the snow, entrances to the warrens.

There was a sudden concern as he thought of something, Ummm. Do you know if there's special ones you have to bury and some you don't or is it just whatever? Look, Spook was always very concerned about doing things wrong, so he wanted to make sure they were gonna do it right. He was somewhat nervous about it.

That was a good question.  He had beamed as they reached the place described, but it faded to a thoughtful look as Ashlar pondered the question posed.  He didn't say, the boy finally answered, a little dubiously.  That means prolly not.  Ashlar shuffled his paws a bit, as he found it easier to think as he moved.

He waited while I buried and he caught them as they came out.  If you wanna wait, we could try it?  Ashlar added, and moved to stand near the first hole he would cover.  Warlock was the one who needed to catch something.  Ashlar just wanted to be there and help.

So it wasn't too complicated at all then! That was good. Spook was pretty sure that more often than not his parents just got lucky or didn't and the hares were out. But then again, when things were really awful, the kids weren't exactly invited along that frequently. Okay!

But now it was time to get started, Yeah umm. Lemme go find another one. He skittered off then, trying to figure out what would be the farthest one away -- he figured that'd be the best place to go at least. It made the most sense, at least. Then Ashlar would be able to just move towards him (sort of) instead of going all over the place and maybe somehow messing it up. Reaching what he was pretty sure was the right entrance, Spook crouched, down, wagged his tail, and nodded back to Ashlar. Let's do it!

Wow, they were doing his idea!  Ashlar took a moment to appreciate it, and Warlock, because he felt a little confidence boost as his friend moved to follow the idea.  This was how it had gone with the man too, except Ashlar knew he was in no way near as impressive.  The boy was working towards it but had a lot of growing to do.  He would never carry confidence, perhaps, but he wanted to do well by those he knew.

Ashlar beamed back at Warlock and gave a little nod, partly to relax.  He hoped this worked!  He began to dig in earnest and buried the first hole quickly... after that, he hopped, collapsing any entrances as fast as he could spot them.  Some of the rabbits might escape from entrances he couldn't bury quickly enough, but hopefully a few would chose the exit his friend was waiting at.

Rolled, got passing but not great, so.. :P

So the plan was a go! Waiting had to be the toughest job in all honesty, but maybe that was just Spook having issues. A few ducked out of another entry he had passed by. Spook flinched outwardly, almost chasing after the first one that sprang out of the earth. It was so very tempting! But he held strong. But it made him especially twitchy -- he saw Ashlar moving through his periphery and every once and a while and then when the occasional sound echoed up from the hole...! Augh.

He tried to focus. His ears pitched forward again, sounds. He coiled up like a cat ready to pounce, and then commenced waiting a little longer. Louder. Then a rabbit busted out of the hole in front of his nose -- Spook jumped at it immediately, but as the amateur he was, this was no instant kill. He'd managed to grab on to the back half of it, it kicked and flailed and screeched which was not what Spook was expecting at all. He tried shaking his head once just to see if it would stop, it didn't, it just flailed more wildly for a moment. A high pitched whine to Ashlar as he tried to figure out what to do with this because this was not like his practice.

Oh... OH!! Ashlar was so intent on his digging that he nearly missed the instant the rabbit sprang forth.  It was repetitive work but the boy was no less dutiful than he had been when it was the man watching.  He wanted to impress Warlock as well.

It was the scream that made him start and look to his hunting counterpart.  Spook had the rabbit by the hind end, and Ashlar's ears twisted as it let out a series of horrible shrieks.  How awful!

Ashlar hesitated, tempted to whimper and remain where he was, but Spook's whine settled things.  He might have hated the rabbit's distress, but he disliked his friends' even more.  Ashlar abandoned his half-filled hole and grabbed at the rabbit's front.  He didn't bite to kill or maim - he just wanted to help hold it so that Spook could finish what he'd begun.

Yeah he'd have a lot more practice to do. Spook was glad it was Ashlar here and not his mother, for sure, that'd be all colors of embarrassing, possibly even more so than missing entirely would have been. Noise and flailing drew so much attention to the fact he wasn't exactly the cleanest hunter.

When Ashlar grabbed on to the rabbit as well, Spook carefully let go once he was sure that Ashlar had a good grip. He quickly moved to get a better position that might allow him to kill the rabbit. He was pretty sure his new hold was going to make it easier to either crunch something or shake it to death, whichever. He tightened his grip and gave it a light tug to say he was ready to try to end this. Through it all, his ears were still pinned back on his head.

Between the two of them, the rabbit didn't have a chance, though the double team meant they'd only nabbed one.  Ashlar didn't mind.  He was here to help Spook out, not to hunt something of his own.  He made it look easy, Ashlar said, panting a little.  The digging and the running had left him a little short of breath.

Was that... all she wanted though?  He asked.  He didn't want his friend to have to go back home without fulfilling whatever his mom needed him to do, so if there was more to be done, he'd help!  He just might want to go grab a quick drink first.

But it was done, it was solved. And for once in his life he was actually looking forward to running into his mother and showing her what he could do. It made him feel genuinely accomplished. Sure, Spook might not be the best fighter or the most strong-willed or what-have-you, but he tried to do what he could! He put the rabbit down, his own tail wagging, and looking a good deal happier than he ever did, But we did it! It did work! He'd have to remember it for the future, it was maybe more work than the way his mother had shown them but it didn't rely so much on luck, even though hunting always did.

He nodded, I think so! I'm really looking forward to seeing what she'll say. I'll have done a better job than either of my siblings, I think. It'll be nice to be like... be doing the right thing for once. A broader smile, Thanks for helping. I'm glad it all worked.

Me too!  He paused for a minute, then, and smiled.  I should probably get back too.  Umm, good luck!  He hoped that Warlock's mom was impressed with what they caught, but he bet that it would be better if his friend brought the present himself.  Ashlar didn't mind if he wasn't a part of the telling either, since it had been a lot of fun either way.

See you later?  He was sure he would, but couldn't help but phrase it a question.  He waited until his friend confirmed, though, before darting off to return to Gannet.  Likely he was on the verge of being missed.

He grinned, wagging his tail yet again, Definitely! We should try it again some time. Maybe they could find Pheiros and the trio of them could try hunting something big. That'd be cool if they managed to take down a deer or something all on their own.

Spook would take a little bit more time to sort of clean up the hare (if such a thing were possible) before he took it off to Arbiter -- he wanted it to look as perfect as possible, that there were no mistakes or mishaps in the act of catching it. Once he was satisfied, he'd haul it on off to hopefully prove his worth. Waiting to find out would prove to be a whole different sort of anxiety.