Two Rivers Isle Nobody loves no one

@Adylaide

Now that Ulrich and Adylaide had spent time scent marking the borders and doing a bit of exploring, he felt it was time to start hunting if they could, to make caches. It was a bit backwards, seeing as how caches were normally created earlier in the year to be used in the winter or other lean times, but he didn't see the harm in being over-prepared if they could be. Also, this would allow him to continue teaching Adylaide how to hunt, which was always a plus.

Now, he said, as she stood beside him, you should know the drill. What can you smell?

Small body ached from the day before. She hadn't ever marked borders like that. Constantly scratching and squatting and rubbing. She felt deep aches in those joints. However, there was a sense of pride and happiness in the fact that she had done it. 

She met Ulrich on the territory line for a new lesson, stretching her body gently at the pain there. She nudged him. 

Hello Ulrich.

Then she tilted ears forward to listen, and sniff. She took a deep breath. All she smelled at first was snow and dirt and trees, and well their new scent markers. She tried again, underneath it she got a sense of something. 

I don't know. It smells dusky, like soil and birds. But it isn't birds.

She Smells Weasel

Ulrich nodded as she picked up the scent of a weasel. That's a stoat, he said. A weasel. A long-bodied, short little creature that follows its prey into their tunnels underground. It eats rats and rabbits and things. If you want to hunt one, we'll have to be very clever, because weasels are clever, too, and they're vicious when cornered. Most likely, it'll be underground, hunting, or sleeping. I don't know if digging it out will work like with the rabbits, but it might. What do you want to do?

a long bodied, short creature?

Was it similar to a snake, but with fur? Had she eaten one, surely she had. She just couldn't remember. It was a tricky, clever beast. Okay how could they entice it out in the open.

What else might work?

She didn't want to destroy the ground if it wasn't going to be fruitful.

Not to mention the tips of her paws hurt from teh scratching and the digging yesterday and she could do it again, but it wasn't going to be easy. She still had rather soft paws, and paw pads.

Ulrich sat down to think. Weasels were carnivores like wolves. We might hunt down easier prey first and use the meat as bait to draw out the stoat, he said, slowly. Although, admittedly, that sounds like too much work. Still... if we did that, we'd have two kills instead of one for our caches. Or... we could simply track the stoat for a time, wait for it to be out in the open, and trap it between us. We'd have to be very quick. Weasels are fast and it would bolt fast as a rabbit the second it sensed danger. If it got to a hole, the hunt would be over.

He looked at Adylaide to see what she had to say.

Many options were given and she sorted through each and everyone. The first option did sound like more work, but it was also twice the reward. That seemed to be their best option a the moment. Given that they needed to fill caches quickly and soon.

I think i smelled a rabbit. Let's catch one and lure it out. This way. We can fill the caches with more meat. You said we need good caches to survive right.

White head leaned down and dainty nose perked and tilted forward as she walked anxious to get the rabbit and then this slippery, fast creature.

Ulrich nodded at Adylaide's decision and stood up again, intending to follow her. Yes, I did say that. As he followed along behind her, he couldn't help but wonder if she had, throughout her life, listened to every word he'd ever said. How did that affect her now? In some ways he felt more like her father than any sort of lover, and that thought made him feel extremely uncomfortable. How was he meant to court her if he felt so responsible for her--her safety, her upbringing... Still, perhaps teaching her to hunt, and eventually, to fight, might release him from this emotional burden. She would be more grown up then, less naïve. He could hope.

She rolled that she didn't catch anything. Poor girl.

Ady hard the quietness in his voice and wondered at it, but she was too intent upon her mission to think too much on it as it were.

Had he voices his concerns, she very well may have laughed at him. She had indeed listened to his every word, followed his actions. But it was not because she felt daughterly to him. No. It was because she cared about what he had to say and show. He treated her like a creature worth learning everything, not just what everyone else saw fit to teach her. And above all else, she cared about waht he had to say, because she loved him.

Ady caught the scent of rabbit and she followed it around for a bit until it grew stale and she growled a little in frustration.

I lost the trail.

Ulrich, distracted by this thoughts, had not noticed when the trail had gone cold until it was too late. He sniffed about, trying to pick it back up, but he could not find it either. Ah, well, that happens sometimes, he said. Cheer up! We can simply go back to the start and try again, or find another scent trail. Hunting isn't always easy. Sometimes you go weeks without finding anything at all, or losing a chase when you do find something. So. Which would you prefer: to go back to the start and try and find the rabbit again, or try something else?

She whined a little disappointed. She had wanted to catch it and now she had possibly caused them more issues. She frowned as she worked through what to do. But Ulrich's voice reached her ears. He claimed it was alright. 

Though that comment about weeks without game, that was reason for worry. A big reason. She shook her head. A defiant gleam lighting up her brown eyes. She pressed a foot down really hard. 

I refuse to give up, Ulrich. I'll get the rabbit. Come On.

She strode past him, a nudge of her footpaw ot his footpaw and then she would be off after this rabbit.

Ulrich smiled at Adylaide. He admired her determination and also found it adorable, if he was being honest with himself. And she'd called him by his full name. No Ully this time. That must mean she was very serious. He chuckled as he fell in step beside her, longer legs keeping up with her easily even as she sped up. You're attractive when you're so determined, he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. So much for worrying about whether he was her father figure or her lover.

Ady placed one foot in front of the other, nose twitching. As she  moved from one shadow to the next and back the way they had come. She found the trail and began to follow it with a fervor that even surprised herself.

At his next words she gulped and stopped at him and stared. A tilt of her head and a wag of her tail and she leapt up on tiptoes to nuzzle him between the eyes with a gentle thank you.

Then four feet were firmly planted back on the ground her task was underway again. This time, she would get it, she was sure of it. Or well she hoped at least.

Ulrich was surprised at her sudden nuzzling, but he enjoyed it, and when she dropped back down to all fours and turned away, he smiled shyly at the side of her face. He'd have to compliment her more often if he got this kind of treatment for it. They went along for a few minutes silently, Ulrich scenting the air and the ground to try and help in the hunt, as well. Eventually, he did pick up on the rabbit's trail again, but all he said to Adylaide was, Have you found it? If he gave her the answers every time, she would never learn.

Ady found it pretty easily the second time and she continued towards it. Finally, she crouched over a hole, her tail standing erect, while her ears were straight forward. She snuffled around it, and found a place to begin digging. Luck was on her side, this time as a plump rabbit rocketed from the den and seh grasped it with sharp teeth and a quick shake. It hung limp in her teeth. She did a little dance two front feet lifting and then going back down, with head held high.

Well, Adylaide was getting pretty good at hunting rabbits this way, digging into their burrows until they fled in a panic and snapping them into her jaws quick as lightning. He nodded in approval. Good! Now just remember not to eat that. We need it as bait for the weasel. He looked around, getting his bearings on their location. Which means... we need to go back over there, he said, pointing with his snout. That's where we found the stoat's scent. Come. And he led her off in the right direction.

[Fade here because this is 15 posts long. Will pick up immediately in next thread].