Honeyed Pasture Meeting Cadeau

The sky and clouds colored itself with blues, pinks, and purples as the sun slowly set. Kita was on the hunt. Not having eaten much the past few days, she was ready to scope out the deer in the fields from afar for signs of weak prey to take down. Since it was dusk, it was the best time to hunt. The prey would have a harder time seeing her hiding among the tall grass.

Kita hid behind a old tree to watch the group of deer. Her light grey eyes carefully observing as small fawns stayed close to their mother's, and bucks keeping watch out while the doe ate their fill of grass. "Hmmm...how am I gonna get to know which is weaker prey? I can't chase them to find out without help. Otherwise they would be alerted of my presence. And then I'd never get to eat." She thought. She lowered her white ears in annoyance. "Even if it's not enough to fill me completely. I wish I came across a rabbit right about now." She mumbled to herself.

Cadeau took to wandering once she and Illidan made camp for the evening, the sky was growing dark and so they were resting for the journey to come tomorrow. The halfling left to her own devices, planning to return before it got too late. She was mostly on the search for anything useful, whether it be herbs or wild life to hunt that could be a late dinner/early breakfast. Hunting wasn't something she was entirely comfortable with, only doing it because biolgoically she couldn't survive without fresh meat. Killing brought her back to the past and it was something she didn't like thinking on...

Through the forest she walked, nose touching the ground as she sniffed about for anything of interest. She twitched a large dark brown ear and lifted her head up, hearing what sounded like deer nearby. The whiff was enough to confirm it now that she let herself focus, Cadeau peering through the green foliage to see the herd enjoying their own supper time of grasses and other leafy whatnots. It must be nice to be a herbivore, food was everywhere and didn't require so much work to catch...

Nearby an old tree Cadeau saw movement, instinctively she tensed, mind reeling back to her encounter with 'the beast', which seemed so long ago now... still the memory was fresh as the day it happened, wandering when the wolf attacked her out of nowhere. The wolf was white as snow and Cadeau wondered how the deer hadn't seen the wolfess lurking over there yet, puzzled she peered through the inky darkness. Even then she was stark, least in her eyes. Cadeau could see the lupine bitch was hunting and she took a step back to avoid accidently messing up her catch by stepping on a stray twig or something. Last thing she needed was a hungry stranger barking at her tree for scaring off the deer. A rumbly belly made tempers fly.

A light breeze blew Cadeau's scent on the wind towards Kita alerting her of the wolf's presence. She looked away from the herd of deer and looked to where the scent was coming from. Another wolf? She could tell even by the silhouette of the stranger as the sun set that it was another wolf. Hey! Maybe they can help me out hunting? 

The white wolf slowly walked over to Cadeau. The tall grass parting as she tried to go greet her. But she noticed the newcomer was slowly backing away. Was she afraid of her? Surely Kita wasn't giving off that impression was she? She would of yelled out to say she wasn't gonna hurt her, but then she would of alerted the prey in the distance. So she decided to just keep quiet and hoped the wolf would realize she wasn't gonna harm her.

Cadeau saw the white stranger suddenly begin slinking her way quietly towards her, the halfling looked on in confused dismay if perhaps the female were confusing her with prey. It wouldn't be the first time it happened before, after all. However her stance didn't appear to be hostile, more so curious and Cadeau furrowed her brows as she debated letting her guard down or not. The wolf bitch paused and Cadeau kept her voice soft so the deer herd wouldn't hear her talking to the stranger. "Can I help you with something?" Her tone wasn't hostile but leveled to be polite, unsure of where to progress with this encounter so far.

"Actually, yes. You could help me something." Kita replied. She nodded her head in greeting at the stranger, a smile quickly beaming upon her face. "My name is Kita." Her light grey gaze looked over at the herd of deer before glancing back at the dark brown wolf. "I was wondering if you could help me determine the weakest out of those deer by approaching them? I'd do it myself, but problem is once they see me, they will be on the alert of my presence. So I need assistance." Of course Kita knew she couldn't possibly leave her without payment for her help. That would of been rude on her part. Her mother had taught her manners as a pup. "I will share the prey with you in return for your help."

Cadeau hadn't really been expecting the request, part of her thought the stranger was going to ask her to go away because she was a distraction to her hunt. She wasn't one to turn down someone in need, it just went against her nature. Even if her social circle only included one wolf but she was making progress... kind of. "Oh? What can I help you with um..." Cadeau fished for a name, arching a brow curiously at the wolf. Kita. So het name was Kita, that was good to know. "I'm Cadeau," she introduced herself with a smile.

Kita wanted her help hunting? Well that was a foul and a half, Illidan already did pretty much all the food gathering, considering they were still fine tuning her technique that was rusty from a lifetime of misuse. It wasnt that she couldn't hunt it was just she was not the prodigy like most wolves were, she'd scrapped by her wits and luck alone before meeting her traveling partner. Her frame was still thin and scruffy from the poor diet this winter had inflicted on her, only steadily was she getting weight back. Cadeau eyed the deer herd with cautious eyes before turning back to Kita. 

"...I think you're asking the wrong wolf for that advice," Cadeau said with an embarrassed frown.

Confusion flashed through Kita's silver gaze. "What do you mean? Don't you hunt?" She asked curiously. Kita wasn't one to notice details very much. She hadn't even noticed that Cadeau's appearance wasn't full wolf. But she only knew her mom, and Illidan. Whom she had recently run into while heading to the pastures. So she didn't have any other wolves in her life to compare her too.

Cadeau inwardly groaned in her head at the question, already predicting where this conversation was most likely heading. She was getting tired of dodging inquiries concerning herself, despite Illidan cautioning her she needed to be more honest about it if she wanted to move into a wolf pack eventually. "I can hunt," Cadeau said, unable to hold back the small defensive edge the words had. "I'm just rusty," she added with a quiet huff.

Cadeau's response made Kita feel bad. She flattened her ears against her head and frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I was just curious..." She looked over at the deer as they continued to graze unaware of their presence. "Perhaps it's just not the right time to hunt big prey right now." 

Kita looked back a Cadeau, ears perked up again and smiled. "I'm sure their is something else i can find out here to hunt. Something smaller." Her white ears twitched as she listened for any rustling in the tall grass for prey. She sniffed the air trying to pick up any scents, but their were no fresh ones. "I might have to check furthur in the pastures." She got up and slowly walked by Cadeau starting to creep into the tall grass. She stopped and turned glancing back at the brown wolf. "Have you eaten yet recently? Cause if not, my offer still stands to share anything I catch with you. I really don't mind."

Cadeau hadn't meant to come across as harsh like that, the halfling pinning her ears when she realized the hard tone she had used on the stranger. Insecurity isn't an attractive trait, Cad. She told herself in her head, frowning. "You didn't offend me," Cadeau told Kita with a rushed smile, gesturing her paw. 

When Kita said she could always find something smaller to hunt in the fields, Cadeau thought back to the flush technique her father Snowy had taught her as a pup to hunt rabbits. She was too big now to crawl into burrows but there were other ways to scare them out of their dens. "My friend feeds me well enough," Cadeau told the white wolf, shaking her head as she declined the free food. "If you still need help... I know some tricks for catching rabbits and mice in tall grass. Even burrows." 

Kita was happy to hear she hadn't offended Cadeau. Hearing the brown wolf had someone helping her out peaked her interest. But she decided not to ask. Instead she jumped to Cadeau's offer on how to get prey. She cocked her head to the side, a surprised expression on her face. "Really? What's your trick?"

Cadeau couldn't help the swagger that seeped into her muscles as she began to step, instead walking passed Kita and into the tall grass like the white wolfess originally was headed. She cast Kita a look over her shoulder, giving a smile. "How about I just show you? Talk is cheap sometimes, yanno?" Her husky-like tail swept behind her as it wagged once and twice.

Kita couldn't help but laugh at Cadeau's comment. Talk was cheap. Actions speaked louder then words. Kita nodded as she came up standing next to Cadeau. A spark of excitement in her grey gaze. "Ok, lead the way." She said happily.

Cadeau lead the way into the open pasture, the grass tall enough that it barely passed her shoulders. It offered the brown female decent coverage, Cadeau using her nose to try sniffing out a meal ticket. "First order of business is... find a burrow or something small hiding in the field," she told Kita, looking at the white wolf.

"Oh. Ok. That's not to hard." That said, Kita took her time smelling for any prey lurking nearby. The smell of a rabbit caught her attention. Crouching just a little to hide her white fur in the tall grass, she carefully followed her nose til seeing a rabbit outside near a burrow. 

She patiently waited for the rabbit to go inside before standing up normally among the tall grass. Her silver gaze looked for Cadeau. Once spotting her, Kita looked towards where the burrow was and then back at Cadeau, silently letting her know she found something.