Bramblepoint oh dear lords above

ANYUNNNN preferably from RHC though. Also, don't need to match the length - tl;dr, Ash is being a grump and he is too short to get to his antler-prizes

The woods were dark, deep and full of thorns, and Ashmedai Noctis was gladly above it all. Sure, he got nicked and scratched by the damnable things, but he had been tracking a scent he'd found in these parts leading from the Caldera all the way down - and it was a rather pleasant one too. It was not very fresh which did make sense, but it carried the telltale smell of elk - perhaps a small baby one Ashmedai could singlehandedly fell without breaking too many bones or killing himself (seriously, he knew the dangers, but he could risk minor bone breakage. Wasn't like he hadn't dealt with it before). Sufficiently encouraged, the male continued, picking off berries every now and then.

And since the author wished to time skip further, along the way, Ash had somehow ended up with two large sparrows, a tiny, floppy-eared rabbit, and spider webs clinging to his nose. Then again, he was small, and he didn't get to leap over the pesky things.

He'd followed the smell all the way across, letting his white-ish nose do the work for him while his legs followed on instinct and body lost itself in rhythmic motions once more. Eyes fixed attentively on the ground while he thought, Ashmedai was hoping that it was worth the journey. He'd recently been demoted (probably due to arseholeish behaviour he'd never really been taught anyway), then scolded by the resident Fox, and had done his best to avoid the (probably smug) Shrike. And yet, he never once shirked his duties, determined to fix his mistakes.

To hell with his age; he could still walk, run and irritate, so he was fine.

When the scent came to an abrupt halt, Ashmedai saw only bones picked clean and bleached in the sun. Worthless, white shards broken for the marrow possibly by vultures and the carrior-pickers. He would have been raging by now, if only for the prize he saw gleaming a deep, dark brown. Smooth and bearing a polish-like quality, so brown not even the tree trunks could match up, lay a glistening piece of bone - or two, for there they were, kept safe like treasure in the achievable height of a... tree branch that had split from the main trunk.

There was no way Ashmedai could jump that far.

Thus began his journey to collect all the rocks he could find so he could stand on them and be rid of the embarrassment that came from not being able to reach something like a child.