It was like hitting a wall. Kipling continued to press into the wilds, but only got so far before she found herself climbing up the slopes of mountains. So she backtracked attempting to find some break or tunnel that she could cross through. The mountains were intimidating to an inexperienced traveler such as herself, though she wondered constantly what she would find on the other side. Tilting her muzzle upwards to squint at the peaks in the distance, she slumped back onto her bum.
She still had time to figure it out, that's how she reassured herself. The land here was still rich with resources. Though the meadow did lack shelter, a lesson she'd been taught by the rolling thunderstorm that had passed the night before. Kipling sent out a memo to herself: try to scrap out a den if you're not passing through the mountains anytime soon. But not the creepy forest to the south, try to steer clear of that place.
What she first thought was a shiver at the memory turned out to be a grumble from her stomach. She'd eaten some berries that morning, but the need to hunt was still present and would not be shaken. Not that hunting was impossible for her to accomplish, but it was like winning the lottery in the way that luck wasn't always in her favor. Still, with the noon sun high and an overcast wave casting a cool shade over the meadow, she set out to pull a lucky ticket, swinging her nose to the ground.
Now here she was, watching another wolf while hiding in the grass, as if she were contemplating eating her, which was absolutely ridiculous. Soon enough, Red came to the decision that she would never learn anything about this female unless she went up and began a conversation. Of course, Red’s conversations mostly consisted of body language and barking, as opposed to speaking. Speaking, she thought, was completely unnatural and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. She rose to her paws and let out a bark in greeting, hoping she wouldn’t startle the other wolf, whose nose was to the ground nearby.
The coywolf trotted forward, wagging her tail to show she was friendly, and tilted her head to the side as if to ask, “What are you searching for?” Obviously, the female was looking for something. Why else would she be sniffing the ground with such interest. Red got it in her head to help with whatever it was. She had figured out a few weeks ago that her amnesia was probably never going to go away, and was now one-hundred percent determined to make as many memories and meet as many wolves as possible, even if it ended up with her in a bad spot. If she couldn’t have her old experiences back, she would simply make new ones. And so, with each new face she came across, her submissive tendencies were slowly slipping away.
Maw popping open with surprise, Kipling shrunk back a step when her attention was called to an approaching stranger. She was cautious more than suspicious, and waited neutrally until the visitor came forward with a friendly salute, the tautness in her body released with stifled sigh of relief. Kipling paused for some greeting or acknowledgement and was surprised at the simple gesture she was given. The idea of a helpful stranger was hopeful, or rather she could've been curious, either way Kipling was not opposed to the company.
Um, hey. There's rabbits here.
She only thought there were--they smelled like rabbits. It seemed the right type of environment for them? Kipling actually hadn't seen any rabbits, and the small whiff she had caught had been a few hours too stale be certain they were still in the area. Yet she was reluctant to admit she wasn't actually sure about what she was doing, instinct only went so far and her skill was lacking severely. She fueled herself on intuition, eyeing the meadow and reassuring herself that wildflowers were a sweet treat for such creatures.
Jerking up a small confident grin from the edges of her maw, she shrugged her shoulder adding after a moment, So I mean... if you're hungry too, we can... you know? Pack animals and all that.
When the wolf mentioned rabbits, Red tilted her head back and let out a laugh, which was somewhere between a bark and a growl. Then she looked back at the female and shook her head No. Not rabbits. They wouldn’t be enough for the two of them. Besides, what fun would they be to hunt? No. The coywolf wanted bigger prey, something substantial. She looked around, following her nose. Perhaps there would be a herd of deer nearby. This meadow was certainly the right kind of feeding ground for them.
Aha! Not too far away was a herd of pronghorn. They were still far enough away for them to not notice the two wolves, but close enough to be mildly easy to hunt. Red pointed her muzzle in their direction, and then dropped into the grass out of sight, with every intention of having her new-found friend help take one down. Slowly, she stalked through the grass closer to her meal. This wasn’t normally how wolves operated during a hunt. But normally Red would have an entire pack to help her. This time it was just the two of them, and little did she know that Kipling was pretty unexperienced.
They would have to be quiet and careful, and act more like cats while hunting than wolves. Normally, a few members of the pack would surround the herd and corral them into an area where they would be cornered, and then a couple more would pick off one who straggled. But this time, with the two of them, they’d have to be quite lucky to catch anything at all. Of course, Red didn’t let that get her down. On the contrary, she liked the challenge. She just hoped her companion was up for it.
It was difficult for her to decipher the non-vocal cues, she never realized just how much she relied on words to carry her own conversation. The obvious gestures were easy to follow, but when the wolf seemed to be making a complex statement Kipling was left squinting at her not quite catching the name though she was sure it was some type of introduction. Rather than admit her lack of understanding she nodded as if she'd caught that, replying with a simple, Kipling.
If the wolf didn't talk much (maybe perhaps she couldn't at all?) that'd be fine enough with her, it meant there was probably less of a chance for Kipling to be caught in her faults. Though she did succumb to a flush of embarrassment at the simple laugh, feeling personally stabbed that her suggestion wasn't quite what the wolf was game for. Controlling herself from snapping and asking what was the better option, she went stiff lipped at receiving her silent answer: the pronghorn.
It was the better option, especially between two wolves. But it seemed far from her own league--there were so many other things to consider when taking on a herd! She'd always relied on others to do the planning for her when it came to such things, but now and it was just the two of them, and loathing the idea she'd be found out as novice there had to be mutual decisions between them.
Hesitantly following the coywolf's lead and dropping into the grass, she followed suit not entirely sure where her position should be in this.
Slowly, and carefully, Red backtracked a bit to lie beside Kipling. She studied the herd for some time in utter silence, watching their patterns. The does were grazing on the grass nearby and not really paying attention to what was going on around them, while a few fawns played around their legs. The males, however, with their long and slender black antlers, would take turns keeping watch. They would look up every now and again gaze out in all directions to check for danger, and then go back to grazing for a minute or two. Red would need a distraction to keep the males busy so that one of them could nab a female. She wasn’t going to deal with the bucks and their antlers. Or maybe… she could use a scare tactic to corral them towards her. Actually, the more she thought about it, she shouldn’t be the one to take down the male. She was smaller than Kipling, being half coyote, and might not have enough strength to drag even a female down. At least, not by herself.
She looked over at Kipling to start explaining this all to her, and then realized with a cringe that she would probably have to speak in order to get her points across. Sighing, she leaned in and whispered simple instructions: “I go around the herd to the back, scare them so they run in your direction. You wait here, and grab a passing female when they run towards you. Got it?”
So she spoke after all! Taken back at the new development, Kipling briefly wondered why she hadn't said anything before but her attention was quickly diverted to targeted herd. I'm not sure about this plan. That was a lot of pressure, and what if she fucked it up? There were about a dozen different ways that this could go wrong, and several of them involved getting a hoof lodged inside of her. She wished she wasn't so concerned about what the she-wolf thought her of, otherwise she would have had the willpower to reject the request.
She reassured herself that this wasn't her first hunt involving big game, and that she was capable of pulling this off. So Kipling forced herself to nod enthusiastically, bowing herself low and tensing herself to spring. Throat dry with anticipation, her breathes came in shallow sips between her teeth.
Finally, she was facing the exact opposite of where she had started. She couldn’t see Kipling because there was a great distance between them, not to mention that the herd was blocking whatever view they might have had of each other. She sent a silent prayer to whatever gods or goddesses might be watching over them at the moment, and then lunged forward, barking like mad and charging directly for the herd. Most of them scattered around the area where Kipling was, but some were heading straight towards her. Red just kept running and barking, hoping that her hunting partner would be able to take a female down, or else this would all be in vain. There would be no trying again, since now the herd was very aware of their presence.
When the pronghorn were too far away to snap at any longer, Red just stood there in the grass, waiting on edge for the result, whatever it might be.
The coywolf's departure from her side was like a air whizzing out of a balloon, Kipling felt that she could at last breathe normally. She wouldn't have minded as much if she didn't feel like she had been put on the spot, especially with such short notice. It wasn't easy going from rabbits to this. Suffice to say, caught up in her own self centric whirlwind of thoughts a lot of Kipling's focus on the hunt drifted while Red took care to skirt around the herd.
Then the Earth began to pound around her, and that really did the trick when it came to catching Kipling's attention. Frozen in place she watched as the small wave of beasts came swiftly towards her, the other she-wolf certainly hadn't forgotten her duty in all of this. I'm going to die. There was still hope, despite being locked in a state of shock her body shakily emerged from it's hiding place in the grass.
She'd popped out much too soon, and several of them took the cue to dart around Kipling which she was helpless to stop. Bounding forward in a blind scramble to cut off at least one of their paths, she ended up playing "this way or that way" with a single doe. Still too far to snap and wrestle, which was meant to her responsibility in all of this, she managed to feign herself closer but was exhausted from all the hopping at that point.
So when she moved to snap her teeth onto the prong's side, her bite fell short, the panicked animal quickly dislodging itself as flew by. Toppling Kipling over the in the process. FUUUCCCK!
Frustration howled out of her panting mouth, not bothering to watch what direction it flew to as she struggled to roll onto her feet.
The coywolf trotted forward, meeting her friend where she was panting in exhaustion from the work she had been put through. She attempted to nudge the girl’s side good-naturedly, to let her know that everything was all right. Then she pulled back and sighed. Okay, she thought to herself. Basics. Grimacing, because she knew this would require speaking, she began.
“Rabbits instead?” she asked, deciding that using as little words as possible was probably for the best, considering her level of speaking skills. “Next time, choose one target before the chase. Then stick to same target. Less confusion that way. Drink?” The last word was a question, indicated by pointing her muzzle in the direction of the small stream nearby. Words, as useful as the might be, still felt completely weird in her mouth, like trying to hold a wriggling, flying bug inside her mouth before finally releasing it. Still, it was a skill she begrudgingly admitted she needed to learn. At least with those wolves who seemed to have been born with some instincts missing — namely, the ability to read wolf body language. Red sometimes wondered how any of these wolves had survived for as long as they had if they couldn’t read the bodies of members of their own species. If she’d had the words, she might have thought something along the lines of, What the fuck, evolution?
Still, sometimes speaking just couldn’t be helped. She smiled at Kipling before trotting forward and dipping her head down to the water for a quick drink. The real lesson would begin now.
Attempting to catch her breath Kipling was about to boil over with another string of curses when she froze at the nudge, instead releasing a long winded sigh. To say she was ashamed was an understatement, she felt like digging a hole and sticking her head in it until Red disappeared. She wasn't some pup she was a full grown wolf who'd never bothered to master her own instincts, it was a miracle she hadn't shriveled up and been left to be picked apart by the crows at this point.
She expect a lot worse, for some sly remark but then her new friend wasn't much for words, and was pleasantly surprised at how passive she seemed to be about the whole thing. It did a lot to put Kipling on the track to feeling better about the whole ordeal. Red's advice was valuable to her, and she acknowledged it with a respectful dip of her head, it was obvious then one of them knew what they were doing and Kipling held her in high esteem.
Flipping back onto her paws, she shook out the stray petals and dirt that clung to her, taking a step towards the pointed stream. Yeah, I could definitely use a drink.
She managed to get out through the gasps of air she gulped between pants. Had she been more adept at body language and caught the girl's name she would've added a grateful, "Thanks, Red." But for now all she could manage was a subtle smile to her welcomed company, dipping her head down for a much needed drink.