Honeyed Pasture keep your heads held high.

The journey thus far had been uneventful, which was truthfully a little bit of a bummer to the young wolf. The largest part of his desire to join the group in their hunt for Wildfire was born of a yearning to actually be helpful in the search. He missed his mom, and it had been terrible painful to sit back at Drageda and do nothing when the first group had gone. It soothed and invigorated him to be involved with this search party, and he had been diligent in the attention he had given to their surroundings, searching for any sign of the missing matriarch. Even though that wasn't really the point of this trip.

The second part of his desire had been 100% about the adventure of it all. Artaax had never before stepped outside of the boundaries of Drageda. As much as he loved his pack and his home, he was fascinated by the world outside. The idea of getting to experience it was thrilling. He'd barely slept the night before their departure from excitement, and it was this feeling that had overtaken him when first they'd departed.

But that was (insert length of time here) ago. It turned out that the world outside of Dragoncrest Cliffs wasn't as impressive as he thought it would be. It was much of the same, and then even more bland and lame.It didn't occur to him that he was super biased in his opinions, but each hour that passed made him feel less and less excited about the "adventure", and more and more back in tune with his original purpose for being here.

But even that purpose had come to no results thus far, and Artaax was young and impatient. When the order as given to hunt with @Dio, the boy was thrilled for the change of pace. It wasn't often he spent time with the wocha on his own, but he admired the man just as much as he did any other high-ranking adult of the pack and so he was excited for the opportunity to show off his skills for him. He ranged to the far right of the man who looked so peculiarly like him (not that Artaax had ever noticed), his nostrils twitching as he swung his head low across the golden grass, looking for a scent to follow.

The field spread wide open around them as the light-coated duo splintered off from the main camp, setting out to hunt for the group--a decidedly important task with so many with them on this trek. It was truthfully more mouths to feed than he had anticipated, but in true Drakru fashion, they were adaptable, and strong. Together they were all making good time towards the south anyway and everything had gone on, undisturbed. His outlook was still quite favorable and energy good, although a nice meal would just make it better for the next leg of the journey that would steer them further inland.

He breathed deep, smelling that distinctly autumnal crispness to the golden grasses and a smattering of other scents, both pertinent and not scattered throughout as they tracked. He was thankful for no other pack presences catching his eye or nose, though, but he was still keenly on watch as together they ranged further out still. Now knowing what he did about Arlo's end (and hell, possibly Wildfire's), he'd trust no one not of their own lot. He would not be having the same befall any others, especially not Artaax while out under his own watch.

The wocha went skimming his sights over to find his companion hunter, and truthfully, among the softly swaying golden grasses, he fit in. Dio woofed a low, soft note to catch his attention without a large commotion. When he had it, he asked with a hush to his voice: "Any good leads?" 

Artaax moved in an arch across the field, slowly turning to aim his trajectory back towards Dio. At the sound of the wocha's call, he lifted his head and sucked in a breath. He wanted to impress his companion, but he really hadn't found much of anything. The scents of birds and vermin were all he could locate, unless you counted the barely noticable tracks of deer that had passed by days ago. But, the boy was not capable of telling a lie. At least, not verbally.

"Nothing good," he admitted, continuing to move towards the other male as he looked out across the plains. "Birds and squirrels. You?" He looked hopefully at Dio. He might not manage to impress the wocha with his tracking skills, but that didn't mean they couldn't still work together to impress the rest of the pack. And to feed them. That's important too.

Nothing good, and unfortunately, he did have to agree as he peered across the way to the boy who looked so much like him. "Yeah, a lot of birds.." he mentioned with a long sigh pointed off to the grassy expanse of wide open pasture--which made him poignantly miss the cliffs suddenly. Evidently, a long while sticking close to home had made him more of a homebody than before. He wasn't sure if he liked this realization all that much, or he just wasn't cozy with the circumstance here.. all torn between the search for Wildfire and deciding what to do with his freshly-minted branwoda son back home.. while he watched the Wildfire's kids rise to their occasions here.

While undoubtedly a meal, fowl wasn't exactly the heartiest sort of prey to roam these landscapes. He'd possibly be a little more convinced if it was guaranteed turkey, or at the very least something bigger and juicier than just pheasant. They had a whole little traveling party to feed, not just themselves. That added need made this difficult. "How good are you at bird catching..?" he asked, knowing good and well how hit and miss it was, and neither was it exactly his favorite hunt. "Deer sounds best, of course, but I think we'd be here until nightfall if we wanted a good lead on something," Dio said, meaning with odds in their favor. Two wolves? They'd need someone weak, wounded, or otherwise lame or it would likely land in a big waste of their time.

Dio seemed just as disappointed with the ungulates as Artaax, but after a moment of quiet deliberation seemed to deem birds a worthy enough prey. The boy's ears perked at the question posed and he stood a little straighter as he nodded. "I do a lot of bird hunting," he answered, lifting his chin slightly with pride. Birds were his chosen prey. They didn't provide much of a meal, at least not for a crowd. But they did provide a challenge, and the boy very much enjoyed a challenge.

His dual-toned eyes shifted across the tall grass, nose twitching furiously, taking in every last speck of information his senses could gather for him. He had no interest in song birds or small prairie fowl, of which there were certainly plenty. He was more interested in the scent of wild turkey that was buried beneath it all. Artaax pointed his nose back down towards the dirt and began to move forward a few yards, veering this way and that for a few minutes until finally he stilled as he came upon a promising trail.

Artaax lifted his head to look around for Dio, his ears falling back and his head bowing when he caught the man in his sight again. He hadn't meant to be so bold in taking control of the hunt. He hesitated now, allowing the older, higher ranked male to take control of the hunt, now that he had found a promising trail.