Redtail Rise XLVI

a deluge of water had washed down the ridgeline, courtesy of full-bellied stormclouds traveling in from the sea.

below the burned place, this small impromptu river divided into two streams, which now raced one another around the curve and toward the taiga.

it had attracted a singular number of frogs, perhaps emboldened by the newly soaked ground, and here augur found he was hardly agile enough to catch one.

Saturday’s Sunset had learned to love rainy weather. Mist, thunder, clouds, wet, and all. After a storm, she discovered that the damp air enhanced the forest’s many smells… as if they had been released from the soil. Today, she explored the fringes of the rendezvous site quietly.

Then, she found the trail of her father.

Curiously, the young juvenile blindly followed her nose until she caught Augu’s great silver form on the bank of a new river. A great chorus of frogs croaked happily.

A forest song! the spirit chimed.

Urged forth by the spirit, Saturday’s Sunset sidled up alongside her father as her large ears turned like satellite dishes, unaware that the creatures making the noise were edible.

sunset was with him.

augur rumbled a greeting to his daughter and then gestured with broad muzzle to the frogs thereabout.

would she like to try?

he demonstrated a forward hop, lunging for the nearest and missing again. now his yellow eyes found her with encouragement in their depths.

Her gaze followed Father’s gesture. She spied bubbles on the water’s surface, green amphibians, and dark, beady eyes. Like a snake, her tongue out and licked her jowls – a sign of both anticipation and uncertainty.

Then, Father showed her the technique.

We hunt! the spirit sang with glee.

Saturday’s Sunset positioned herself methodically along the bank as her feet sank into the mire. She was quiet, calculating, and careful – a mature austerity for a girl so young. Then, she imitated Father with a quick hop in an attempt to catch a frog, but her unpracticed movements guaranteed a miss, and the critter submerged and swam away.

Her skinny tail curled over her back with a wag. Amused! She was ready to try again.

omg so sorry D:

he looked to her with the same amusement and licked his jaws.

again.

this time his leap caught a toad underpaw; it croaked loudly and scrabbled in the mire.

now you try, was the message in his low growl; he kept his prey trapped for now, demonstrating how his daughter should hold one of the amphibians once it was captured.

Father was patient with his little hunter.

He demonstrated again, this time ensnaring a frog between his paws. Saturday’s Sunset felt she gleaned a new nugget of information and readied herself to attempt again.

You must be fast, her spirit guided.

Saturday’s Sunset tensed her body and became very still. Her pale face, full of youth, turned statuesque and predatory. She watched as the water broke - a frog’s slick skin and beady dark eyes interrupting the glassy surface. Then, she launched!

With a splash, the girl felt the critter’s squirming body beneath her toes. It struggled hard for something so small and so, in a fit of hasty excitement, she stuck her snout in the water to bite at it. Like some kind of underworld Ariel, Saturday’s Sunset reared her head back in a flowing motion with the frog’s foot caught in her teeth.

However, she moved with such force that the frog’s limb detached from its body! With a croak, the amphibian, now one arm fewer, went flying across the pond and all that the girl was left with was one long, slender frog leg limp in her teeth.

love that gif omg <3

before his eyes she became a hunter.

augur watched with no smallness of pride as she melded with the dark waters, dipped beneath them.

she surfaced as a sea-snake with a frog and a flourish.

a laughing bark of encouragement broke from his chest; he leapt for the three-legged amphibian flailing in the air as it scudded back toward the water, and leapt to catch it, one, two, three steps of his long legs.

presenting it once more to his girl, he chuffed a chuckle and a wordless congratulations.

The severed leg dangled limply from her teeth as Father descended upon the rest of it in three easy strides. She watched in awe. How could any creature his size move so quickly? She didn’t think such swiftness was possible.

She rallied around him when he returned with the body. Pride rolled her shoulders back and she stood a bit straighter.

She gave the leg a good, hard, playful shake before devouring it with a crunch.

Delicious, the spirit raved.

Then, she inspected the reward with a curious wag of her tail as she began to understand the true power of teamwork.

augur licked his jaws of frogblood.

would huntlead come to her or her sister one day? he enjoyed the idea of each.

the man turned, gesturing toward the rest of the landscape. would she want to explore now? or hunt another frog?

The girl helped her father finish the rest of their amphibian snack. She licked his jowls – both in reverence and to help him get a bit of food he had missed.

She followed his gaze when it cast across the wetlands. Her ears perked and she readied herself. What else was there to learn in this biome?

Like a magnet, her nose became drawn to he ground as she sniffed in small circles.

do u want to fade this one? <3 we can have another!

slugs. snails. the quick coils of a ratsnake. fish beneath the oozing surface. and twice, a salamander. herons stalked away from the hunting wolves.

augur showed moon runner these things and others; the flickering of raccoon prints, the dragline of a nutria's tail, marsh rabbits hiding in the shadows.

at long last, he turned their path for home, but would allow moon runner to set their pace, ambling peaceably beside her.