Phantom Hollow Under The Burning Sun We Fight For Our Place

Moonlit Hills' first pack hunt! This takes place before any of Malice's pregnant symptoms show up. A lone deer has made it's way close to the borders and is sick. Everyone is encouraged to participate, because not participating means that your character did not have a good meal in comparison to the others (Absent members get excused, of course.) We will do this twice a month with no particular date or schedule. It is way more realistic to do it not scheduled yet just a bit if that makes sense. I will always tag all the members, so don't worry that you might miss them! This is also good for hunting trades!

Tags: @Sage @Mitanni @Issun @Silver @Orgin @Belle Blue Wolf

Malice had been back for around 2 days after her "meeting" with Burke. Her weird feeling that was "being in heat" had slowly decreased, and today felt like a good day to come out of her den. She dearly hoped she was pregnant with Burke's pups. She quite adored the male, simply because he was so blunt. But what would he ever see in her? She was a joke, a dull creature compared to him. She had yet to learn much of being a leader while he had already mastered the art. Things would never work out between them, unless Burke got a sudden change of heart that would make him fall in love with her. But that would never happen, although Malice liked to believe it.

Malice wandered to the borders, but this time her duty was not to guard them. Because this time, in the distance, a deer was standing all by itself. It looked sick, it wasn't eating the grass. Malice stayed hidden in the bushes and tip toed back to the dens where everyone was still sleeping. She howled, just loud enough to wake up the others but not to scare the deer away. Whoever would come would be her hunting team and would get a nice meal today. And so she waited, eager to see who was willing to check this possible meal out with her.

The past couple of days had been taken easy with the occasional dosage of medicinal plants to keep the pain of her injury at bay, and Mitanni was starting to see an improvement. She still moved with a limp--though that might have been her reluctance to fully strain herself and cause undue pain--but she was managing to get around better, and the torn flesh of her left foreleg was starting to mend itself together again. It still looked in disrepair, and likely could have done with the attention of a trained medic, but the little wolf was feeling encouraged by its slow and steady progress.

Enough so that when she heard Malice calling out for them, intent within her voice, the mottled black and brown female drew herself out of the healer's den and toward where her leader stood. She walked slowly, trying to mask her limp as best she could, and with her customary respectful posture offered a tentative smile as well as a subtle tail wag. All things considered, she was in a particularly good mood today, and she didn't feel like letting her condition bring her down. No matter what Malice had in store for them.

A howl that rang through brought Silver towards the area of the den. She was just out and about, but the noise made Silver heed the call. Wanting to respond quickly, she started her way over.

While on her way, she could see in the distance that there was a deer present. It was a lone, but it did not act normal. It was not eating, and it had a sickly look.She licked her chops before moving close towards the queen and what seemed to be Mitanni.

"That deer looks like a quick hunt" she whispered towards them, feeling her stomach give off a little growl.

Belle perked up her ears when she heard the howl, and soon ran over to see what was going on. She saw a sick deer not too far away. This must be why they were called, she thought, as it seemed the others had already spotted it. Belle knew this was a chance to prove herself, so she eagerly sat down with the rest of them, waiting to hear what Malice wanted them to do.

A cameo post

Judas knew that although he was not in the call, it was better than sitting in his den the whole day. For a second, he contemplated running. Then remembered that they would most likely track him down. Though that wasn't the whole reason. Part of him wanted to stay, to try and rebuild his life. 

He came out into the open and found where everyone gathered. He sat off to the side, just watching glumly. The wolf side of him wanted to join in. But logic guessed that would be impossible, as he doubted all of them had forgiven him yet. He was still unsure of what they had in mind for him.

This'll do for now. Next round will begin on 11-4-16 Whenever everyone has replied. Till that, everyone is free to join. When that rounds begins (With my post) I think we'd already be hunting the poor thing down.

Malice waited a bit, but she did not have to wait long. The wounded Mitanni was the first to arrive, and even though she was probably not completely healed, she did a darn good job with walking. Mitanni made her way to the edge of their territory, hidden by bushes and all the cover Phantom Hollow could provide them. Malice smiled at her, but was soon distracted by her leg. She could see the wound still, just like her wound was still visible, but it didn't look infected. Not that she had any knowledge of it whatsoever, she simply knew what an infected wound looked like. Welcome, I hope you feel well. She whispered, not wanting to scare the sick deer away.

But after just a few seconds, the silver girl came also, and it seemed she had already spotted the prey. It looked like a nice and easy meal indeed, and they wouldn't take more than they should. Besides, maybe they would even though the poor creature a favor by killing it. No one liked to be sick. Malice nodded to Silver, but before she could say anything, the new recruit came.

She didn't greet, just simply sat down to await orders. Malice had seen this before, in her former pack, and she now looked like a true soldier. The queen didn't know whether that was intentional or not though. But as soon as she wanted to give the orders, Malice spotted Judas. Her heart jumped, not sure if he was planning on escaping. But after a while of strangely staring at him, she believed he was just here to see them hunt. Perhaps he wanted to join, but Malice was sure Mitanni wouldn't be comfortable with that. She didn't know if the two of them had already spoken about it and if she would be able to forgive him, but for now it was the best he would just wait there. He would get something, for sure, Malice wasn't so cruel as to starve the insane being.

Right, as you can see, that poor creature there is not well. She whispered. I think we'd be doing it a favor by killing it, and we'll be rewarded with a nice meal. The fastest will sneak around at the right and scare the creature this way. I'll go left and one stays here so we can surround it. If you can kill it, do so, I do not want it to suffer, so no dibs on the killing blow. She whispered, explaining her little plan. She had missed giving these kind of orders, it felt good to do it again.

sorry I'm late :o

When Malice had called for the pack, Issun was reluctant to answer at first. The last encounter with her had left him in a weird and quite terrifying position. The male didn't know that his body was not ready for pups, nor did he know that she was messing around with Blackfeather's alpha. So that left him very worried about the possibility of pups. The yearling wasn't ready to be a father and didn't want to be anytime soon.

After a few moments of debate in his mind, Issun decided that it would be just rude to ignore the alpha's call. He came running to the scene, right in time to hear Malice explain about a sickly deer. The brute approached slowly, sitting a little ways from Malice.

Any other day Mitanni would have been excited at the prospect of a pack hunt, but given her condition she couldn't bring herself to feel any particular enthusiasm. The thought of chasing game and bringing it down was already making her want to favor her injured leg more noticeably, and she fought the urge to lift it a little higher so that it didn't support her weight. I hope I can do this, she worried, but kept her misgivings to herself.

Her amber eyes strayed in swift little glances as other pack wolves arrived, and their headcount was rather small. It only added to her uncertainty, but even that was minuscule compared to the rush of anxiety she felt when she noticed Judas enter the scene. What was he doing here? Was he allowed out of his den? Her ears tipped back and she sent a nervous glance Malice's way, but when the leader said nothing about him and instead went on to address their meeting she uneasily settled in to listen.

She barely resisted the urge not to continue peeking over her shoulder at the one who'd attacked her, but managed to gather the gist of the plan. Runners to herd the prey, others to ambush, and anyone to bring it down. It was simple but guaranteed to work, and because she wasn't the strongest or biggest and could still move on three legs, Mitanni voiced in a whisper, "I can herd it this way."

The queen's statement was quite true, that deer didn't look like it was fairing too well. Killing it now would be a gift of mercy, and a gift of food for the Moonlit Hills Wolves. Happy with her explanation, Silver stayed quiet to hear instructions. Malice would go left while Mitanni would try to herd it this way. 

Silver wanted the glory in the hunt, but she would listen to the queen and follow instructions. No dibbing who gets the kill, just do it and make the creature suffer no more. Silver looked towards Malice. "I will go with Mitanni and herd it this way with her."

Why not have 2 wolves herd it rather than one? More of a chance to get a better direction with the deer and drive it into a quick and painless death.

Belle listened and then spoke "I'll go too, it would be good to have three wolves there so we can make sure it doesn't get around us." She waited to see what the others were planning to do, but stayed quiet. This was her chance to prove herself useful to the pack - perhaps she might even get the killing blow, though she imagined some of the others did too.

Sage arrived to the hunt and watched as the others did, she decided to be more of an observer and would pass on the meal if told so. She wasn't in the mood to hunt, in fact her appetite was rather faint lately, likely because Issun's affair, but she knew that would fade soon enough. She wasn't in sight of the deer, but eye contact and nodded wth Malice to announce her presence.

The queen grunted loudly as they all volunteered to go to the back. Were they scared of the deer's front hooves? They needed wolves up front, to bite through the thick hide on it's neck, not teeth marks in it's butt. She was in no way a hunter, not even a little, but she had had her fair share of hunting time. Plus, it didn't really look like the poor creature would even fight back.

She thought that Silver, who seemed pretty though, would actually rather stay here. Silver, please stay here with Issun. She said, nodding as the young warrior approached them. We need wolves at the front more than on it's back. She said. Wat the girl wanted to do was up to her, she was just requesting really. After the pale woman would give her answer, she would nod.

The queen made her way to the left, setting her plan in motion. There, she waited for the others to get into their places, surrounding the sick deer that was going to a better place. She smiled at it. Don't worry, We'll get ya outta here quickly... She whispered to herself, it being aimed at the deer.

Instead of making suggestions of what he could do, the yearling stood in silence, waiting for any role to be bestowed upon him. Yes, he wasn't the type to take orders, but authority was exception.

Soon enough his roll came to him. Stay and wait. Issun nodded, excepting the job.

After she spoke up, others did too, and for a moment it sounded like half of their hunting party was ready to go with her in herding the sickly deer toward the rest of the pack. Mitanni's ears folded doubtfully, certain that they didn't that many just to get the creature running, but Malice was on it. The little mottled wolf relaxed as their alpha took charge and designated duties as was necessary.

With jobs divvied out, there nothing left to do but act. She glanced around all of those present and fixed her gaze on the blue-eyed Belle. You and me then, she thought, and with only a nod to signify she was ready Mitanni turned and began to stalk through the woods, still partially limping, around their sickly prey in order to sneak up on its other side.

Even with a limp, the mottled black and brown female moved fairly stealthily, slowing in places where it was necessary as she journeyed in a wide arc to the deer's other side. When she finally felt she'd moved far enough, she glanced around and sought to catch Belle's eye, waiting for any signal that she was ready and in place to begin the charge.

Silver didn't mind not having the kill, though it seemed almost all the wolves would rather chase than kill. Instead, Malice asked Silver to stay with Issun to end the life of the helpless deer. She nodded at the request, going beside Issun and smiling before looking ahead at the sick deer.

"On your mark Malice" She said, looking patiently at her.

Eeeeep, sorry for such a late post!

Belle nodded to Malice then followed Mitanni through the woods, turning and glancing at her after they found the right spot. She nodded her head to Mitanni, to show she was ready.

She waited, thinking about where she would run to chase this deer. She glanced at the deer, grazing, unaware of the wolves that were stalking it.

Short post because I wanna finish this!

As soon as everyone was in their right positions, the young warrior and the silver hunter at her right and the limping woman and the beauty behind the deer, Malice watched the sick deer closely. She moved forwards ever so slightly, making the deer aware of what was going on. It started looking in all directions, but didn't flee just yet. It merely stood up, weak and tired, and stumbled in the direction of Mitanni and Belle.

Now! Malice barked at them, giving a last glance at Issun and Silver before moving protectively at her side of the battle, making sure there was no way for the deer to run.

I think I'm out of posting order, but wanted to keep this moving.

With Belle in place, Mitanni caught the subtle nod the other female gave and released her breath slowly. This was it. No going back now. She turned her attention to the sickly deer, felt her lean body tense expectantly, and mindful of her injured leg stalked forward only a couple more steps.

Malice signalled--unexpectedly loudly--for them to begin. The surprise of the bark shot through her tense frame, and not wanting to lose whatever element of surprise they still had on their sick target, the mottled brown wolf shot forward, giving up her stealth, and noisily confronted the deer.

Barking loudly, trying to spook the sickly creature into turning back, turning around, Mitanni charged forward. Her tail curled, her hackles rose, and her lips exposed threatening fangs, but she didn't dare get close. Instead, she moved with Belle to create a dangerous, noisy wall to prevent the deer from getting through and charged in short rushes toward it in order to herd it back toward the waiting pack.

pp to wrap this up!

Everyone knew what to do, and they did it splendidly. The group of moonlit wolves surrounded the poor, sick deer with Belle and Silver biting it's but and Issun and Mitanni looking to bite it's throat. Malice saw how well it was going, and left her position for she didn't see a way for the creature to escape.

She sprinted at it, and as soon as the deer was distracted by Issun's jumping and biting, Malice jumped at it's throat. She tasted blood, not her own luckily, and soon realized the life was slowly ebbing out of the sick creature. She bit harder, the deer almost hanging limp as it fell to the ground, giving some last kicks that everyone could avoid.

She let go as soon as the deer stopped kicking, and hungrily started ripping pieces of meat off the carcass. She swallowed them whole until his belly was full, and then she stepped away to let the rest eat in peace.

When everyone's belly was filled, Malice sat down to lick the blood off herself. There was still some meat left on the carcass, especially on it's legs, but the middle part was as good as done. It seemed they really were hungry. Not wanting the meat to go to waste, Malice ripped off it's leg to take it with her to the caches. Everyone, take what you can back to the hollow. Leave the rest to the birds or the loners that roam here. She commanded, starting to walk back to their home. And with that, everyone left the scene with a chunk of meat and bone in their mouth from their first kill as a group.

The team of MH was in sync, for the deer kill seemed effortless. They worked together with ease as the deer came falling down at Malice's paws. She began to take her share, soon others began to come in. Silver went right for the tender chest, ripping off what she wanted and felt needed.

After taking her share (with minor cleaning), Silver looked at everyone with a happy expression. What a family, working together so well. Malice instructed that they were to bring back food to the caches, then leave the rest for the birds. She did as she was told, taking off a leg and dragging it back.