Morningside Cuesta skaiplei

there was no hope of heda taking a deer alone. she watched wistfully as a herd of them passed, then a scattering of elk. today's accompaniment was rain, something she had come to hate. rivenwood held its own herds and own resources, but in unexplained defiance she had come here.
the aspiring huntress explored the cuesta, gasping a little as the drop almost took her over the edge. an hour into her search had given the rain enough time to churn the ground below into thick mud studded with sharp boulders.
an idea came to her.
if she could just — if she could stampede some of the deer and elk over the earthen cliff, she might wound one or two on the stones below. it would be hard to do alone, to keep them guided and terrified enough not to veer. an enraged animal would strike ardently, and one blow would more than likely be her end. failure would cost her the day and frighten every other prey animal within several miles with the vibrations of the running herd.
but success would mean life and no hunting for a while. two would be veritable wealth. she wouldn't have to leave druid's side, once the meat was cut up and brought home. the antlers could be toys. the guts would be restorative.
yes. she glanced up toward the high walls of the bypass, knowing her sister lay there healing, surrounded by growing pups. heda needed to succeed.
in the downpour she stood, thinking.

Another hunter skirted the herd, keeping low and out of sight.

Hanze didn’t typically hunt large prey, as he preferred to boast of his skills as a harechaser and birdsnatcher, and he had no intention of doing so this day. Still, he skulked because he knew it would do him no good to spook the herd and thoroughly empty these many square miles of small prey. He was also after the birds that tended to hang around grazers, providing him choice hunting grounds.

Except, there was a wolf here already.

He paused mid-stride, blinking rain from his eyes. They seemed to be overlooking that cliff he had seen from below many times. Slowly, he approached, chuffing for the flamespine’s attention when he was close enough to be heard. He stood back a ways, entirely unwilling to put himself in harm’s way. There’s a chance the fall wouldn’t kill you instantly.

"i'm hoping it kills," heda retorted with more sharp coldness than she felt. he had startled her from her thoughts, this stranger. because he was unknown and because he was a man, heda found herself both paralyzed with fear and desperate to fit him into the role glaukos had been torn from.
he was not so much larger than her, less to fear, she supposed. in small pieces of awareness she grew painfully conscious of her rippled belly and its loud announcement of motherhood to all she met.
she should be in the den, with the pups. it was the place she knew to be. studying him a moment longer, heda gestured to the herd. "i want to run them off the edge here. do you think you could help me?"
this time, her voice carried a touch of apology.

Only when she spoke did he realize he was talking to a she-wolf.

Hanze retreated a step – sensitive to even the insinuation of womanly scorn – though his gaze held fast to hers. The rain trickled down his brow, framing lusterless eyes and a dark face, before falling in tiny rivulets down the length of his downturned nose. He saw that the sag of her belly was not from age or infirmity as he might have guessed, but from a recent whelping. And where she had once appeared thin by his estimation, he now saw a drained mother, muscles visible under fur slick with the rain. She was wiry; she could hurt.

He had questions, too many to count. Still, his eyes cut toward the deer, narrowing thoughtfully. There didn’t seem much to lose here, only gain.

Long as you share, he decided. Her plan was already clear to him, as they shared a true hunter’s clever mind and cunning heart. She needn’t explain, and he would not waste time asking which role she preferred. This was not a sport to him. I will retrace my steps and press them this way. You must be ready. It wasn’t a question. His focus had narrowed to a laser’s point.

feel free to PP him disappearing + starting the chase out of her view!

just gunmetal and silverkiss, all the way down from what she saw. no sooner had heda heard his voice than the stranger was accepting, and moving off with enviable assurance. her eyes saw him no more, and she watched the herd uneasily.
had he just gone off?
doubtful.
clenching her clawed toes against the muddy earth, heda drew strength from its thrumming core and from the anger she carried now from day to day.
off in the left, the herd started, a ripple of alarm coursing through the ruminants. the rivenwood woman trembled as the wall of sharp hooves wheeled and started to gallop directly for her.
she dodged to one side, snapping at the nearest unguarded flank, yelling and barking to harry them on.
a ribbon of crimson and white, she gained more and more speed, until she was all but caught up in her dodges of the swinging antlers, the hoarse lowing of doomed beasts.
the cliff loomed.

Selfishly, he had taken the safer task. But he would execute it to the best of his abilities.

Hanze was a silent shadow after the first strike; nothing but the snap of the hunter’s teeth and his panting to alert them to his position. His tactics caused a peak level of confusion and panic in the herd as they fled, uncertain where the danger was.

The redspine’d wolf made a racket that further jarred the fleeing ungulates, and their escape became clumsy in a desperate attempt to find a path not plagued by wolves.

It had only taken the two of them.

From his point of view: suddenly, the herd cut back sharply to the left, sprinting along the cliff’s edge and out of danger. At first, he could not hear anything, but then, under the fading thunder of hooves, Hanze could faintly detect the shifting, clattering sounds of loosened rocks and dust falling down below. Had any deer gone with them?

He loped after the she-wolf, tongue lolling, eyes wide to see their work.

with a wrenching cry, heda leapt free just as the first elk cow plunged over and down upon the stone. dust rose in high plumes, forming a cloud that wreathed around she and the stranger.
a stag had staggered after, trying desperately not to follow but doing just that all the same; she heard his bleating cries of pain out of eyeshot.
her own wide gaze swept to the man; her sides heaved with exertion and surprise. gingerly heda prowled to the very edge of the precipice and glanced down.
a dead elk cow. a deer stag who tried valiantly to rise with two broken limbs.
heda's breath came harder, and she began to laugh in disbelief, soft and then building in volume, a sound of shock and worship and pride.