Golden Glade Could've been the Willie Nelson

He had a good feeling about hunting in the woodlands to the south of his pack's claimed territory, and it turned out that it hadn't been a bad idea at all. He circled around the glade as the morning sun shone down through the branches in tall beams of light, and he could smell rabbits- plenty of them. It was possibly a warrn, he thought, of wild rabbits who were much more concerned, presently, about multiplying and eating the rich, green grasses that were beginning to grow again, shooting up through the dead leaves from the previous fall. This would be an excellent place to hunt. 

He stalked along, trying to gauge from a distance what might have been his best point of attack. He considered the fact that he should have returned to the pack, found Wraen or Figment or someone- to take hunting with him, so that he might have better chances, but he was too hungry. There were too many rabbits. He was like a fox eyeing a hutch of barn rabbits, or a coop of chickens...He had the opportunity here to make more than one kill, if he placed his cards right.

It was a good thing that Bronco had not turned around and taken off to find Wraen, because in that case he would have missed not only her, but the entire hunt. The Sovereign had gone on a hunt the previous evening, stayed out late and therefore camped near a lake to resume her search for food the first thing in the morning. And that's in brief, how she ended up in the Golden glade and approached the rabbit haven from the opposite direction than the young man.

She did not notice him in the beginning, too focused on the furry, long-eared lagomorphs before her and coming up with a strategy on, how to get the most out of the hunt, without failing it entirely. And just as she was about to take action, wind changed and brought the scent of her packmate. Carefully she leaned up from her crouch in the grass and searched with her eyes for the earthen-coloured pelt.

Bronco was, for the most part, crouched down as he gazed over the glade, and knew fully well that he had to stay vewy, vewy still if he was to catch a wabbit. He looked from one to the next, and they moved around a bit, making it more difficult for him to pick one out...But then, he supposed- any sort of injury or weakness might be a bit less obvious on a smaller creature. In this case, then, he figured he may as well go for one of the larger creatures- one of the ones whose pelt was healthy, and had already turned completely back to its summer colours- and was waffling back and forth between a couple of them- before he realized that there was a pair of eyes looking straight at him. 

He nearly startled- but he held his composure. It was Wraen- holding perfectly still, though he assumed then that she might have been staring at him for some time simply waiting for him to notice that he was no longer alone on the hunt. He didn't want to use ptero- lest the rabbits see the motions he made, and he also wasn't sure how much ptero Wraen even knew. So he gave her a very slow, barely perceptible nod, and scanned the area until he found what he was looking for. 

A line of bushes formed a thicket, a bramble of branches and leaves so low to the ground that it would make it very difficult for a rabbit to see, if they ran through it. But if one of them hid on one side, and the other chased the rabbits toward the thicket...They could potentially, simply, snag them as they burst through the thicket on the other side before they even realized they were running right toward an enemy. He brought his gaze back to Wraen, and intently stared at her for a moment, to convey with the sharpness of his gaze that he had a plan. He then looked from her to the thicket- and back again, a few times, hoping she might understand what he was saying. That thicket could be the key to their plan- and he wanted to take advantage of it.

Good thing Bronco did not use any ptero on Wraen, because she had never learned more than a simple "hello" and preferred to use the common tongue of canine body language in the meanwhile. Hunts were about cooperation and using as few words as possible. Her packmate and friend seemed to share this opinion, when he looked pointedly at her and then let his gaze travel to the thicket nearby. 

The Sovereign blinked in agreement and moved slowly and soundlessly over to the ambush site. Once there, she lied down and pressed her body against the ground, while remaining on high-alert and ready for action, in case Bronco made any move.

While he'd been prepared to make a move himself, and circle around the thicket, he could see the slate-grey of Wraen's pelt slip out of sight in the right direction, so he assumed that she'd both gotten the message, and had gone to find a place to hunker down and wait. He licked his lips while he waited, as he inevitably started drooling. This would be a piece of cake, he thought. All he had to do was spook them in the right direction- and then Wraen could snatch a meal before they even knew they were headed into her dangerous waiting spot. 

He gathered himself, crouching and readying his muscles before he leapt forward and zoomed toward the rabbits. In a mad dash, they fled in all directions- so he zig-zagged as he approached, sending at least a couple rabbits off into the thicket where he hoped Wraen was waiting. Only one rabbit took a moment to thump the ground with its hind foot- and the hesitation, warning its bretheren, ended up costing it a moment of time which Bronco used to his advantage. Alerted to the hare's position, he bee-lined for the creature and after a few sharp turns and nearly going arse-over-tea-kettle, Bronco swept a paw forward, knocking the fleeing creature's feet out from under it, and into his embrace.

Bronco wasted no time - Wraen did not see him move, but heard the mad dash of rabbits everywhere. Unfortunately, none of the flock went directly at her, so she chose the next best option, turned to the right and went after a leaner subject of the group, who had not yet been able to find a suitable burrow to slip in and disappear. 

She was on it's heels, but any time she made a move at it, the feisty animal changed it's course abruptly and the hunter was forced to adjust her tactics again and again. Wraen attempted to corner it, when they arrived near a fallen log, but the rabbit was very bent on staying alive today, it slipped through a small crevice between the log and the earth and did not re-emerge. Which meant that she was left frustrated and unhappy, pacing, whimpering and sniffing around the spot, digging at the place, but not making any progress.

Finally she left the activity altogether and padded back to see, how lucky Bronco had been.

He held onto the rabbit for a few moments after he'd caught it, having been taught to do so after having lost previous catches after letting them go as soon as they went limp. He wouldn't lose another catch to the old technique of 'playing dead,' so he kept the rabbit ensnared in his jaws as he lifted his head to look for Wraen. Over the grey-beige fluff of the rabbit, he saw his Sovereign, and huffed a soft sigh when he saw that she had not been successful. Perhaps he should have done a better job of herding the rabbits directly toward the thicket, and maybe he should have pursued them a bit further to make sure they were driven toward her. But at the end of the day, at least something had been caught. 

So while he did feel a bit discouraged by the fact that his plan hadn't worked out 100% in their favour, he was pleaed to have caught something at least, and was still cheeky and childish enough to flaunt his success as soon as he caught Wraen's eye. He held the rabbit up high and grinned, high-stepping as he proudly touted his catch, giving his Sovereign a very coy side-eye as he huffed- making absolutely certain that she'd noticed that he'd been successful.

I am such a lazy bone! Sorry for the wait!

If Wraen had not seen Bronco as a tumbling, awkward toddler or endured him as an arrogant teenager, she might consider herself to be in danger now. Niamh's son had taken the best of both parents - being handsome, self-confident and cheeky to the point of being amusing - and despite that Sovereign's spinstery-self could never unsee the humble beginnings of this dashing young specimen, who was prancing around her, shamelessly boasting about his catch, and not feel the superiority of a parent.

But this did not mean she did not enjoy the attention he was giving her. She sat down and followed him with her gaze, crooked grin playing in her lips, while she tried to find the most appropriate thing to say for the occasion. "Well, champ," she began. "You do know that keeping the lady waiting is rude?"
 

Bronco playfully uttered a gruff bark in response to Wraen's comment, which he took as a compliment. Champ? Yes he was, yes indeed! So he pranced over to her, shimmying sideways so he might maintain his playful side-eye, the corners of his lips pulled back into a teasing smile as he momentarily held the rabbit out toward her- but a moment later he jerked it back, with a chuckle, before he offered it again- trying to see if she would catch on to his game and make a grab for one of its dangling appendages. He'd surrender it to her gladly- but only if she was quick enough to snatch it from him!

"I am too old for such games," Wraen replied to Bronco's invitation for an uneven play. Being four times his senior (human comparison: she was Queen Elizabeth I and Bronco was some feisty 20-something-year-old) she thought she was entitled to gain access to things on her own terms. Hopefully - easily and for free.

Rather than engaging in the game, she lied down and began to groom her paws, pretending to have lost all interest in the rabbit in her subbordinate's claim. Only occasional glances in his direction indicated that (just maybe) this was not the case.

Like a disappointed dog, he tilted his head to the side and let his ears droop at her comment. She lay down and like the elegant lady she was, she began to preen her fur, which naturally made Bronco begin to utter a series of frustrated, yowling, whining sounds, like a husky begging to play. He flopped down onto the ground and groaned, still holding his catch in his mouth, which muffled the ridiculous sounds he was making. He rolled over onto his back, and used his hind feet to push him toward her a bit, which had the surprisingly amusing effect of also pulling back on the fur and skin of his neck, shoulders and back- making his grin wider and wider with every scoot, and pulling back on his upper eyelids so he looked like an absolutely goon. He uttered another loud, frustrated whine and reached out to touch her paw with one of his, still grinning at her like a lunatic over the rabbit he wanted her to try and steal from him.

Wraen watched Bronco's childish shenanigans with a crooked grin in her lips. He was creative in his own particular way - you had to give him that - and she guessed that this kind of attention seeking strategy had to come from the Blackthorn side of the family, because she could not imagine for the world that sunshine-golden Niamh would lay in the dirt like this just to make an impression. 

She let him scoot closer and closer, the smile disappeared, her gaze grew focussed and those, who knew her well, would easily guess that there was something cooking inside her mind. The moment Bronco's paw touched hers, she sprang to her feet and pounced at him, aiming for the loose fur around his neck, eager to grab him and hold him on the spot just for a moment. It was not every day you got to tackle a Blackthorn.

With a goofy expression, he grinned over the rabbit's fur, assuming that Wraen would make a grab for it and they could play a game of tug-o-war. He issued one more low, pleading whine, and suddenly, she disappeared from his sight. His expectations were foiled when she suddenly grabbed him by the baggy skin near his shoulders, and he uttered a soft woof of surprise. He was caught, sure- but that didn't mean he wasn't going to take complete advantage of the situation to grab Wraen right back. 

With her head lowered, he figured he could use his prone position to pull her to the ground as well, reaching out with his legs and hoping to grab Wraen about her shoulders, and with a brawling heave, he rolled to the side- figuring that if nothing else, he could drag his Sovereign both to the ground, and to his side where he could bathe the soft fur between her ears with slobbery licks of his tongue.

Bronco proved not to be an easy target to hold down, but Wraen was not born yesterday and guessed his plan of action just three seconds after it had come to his mind. Without loosening her hold she growled playfully and danced nimbly away from his embrace. She had been "pancaked" by her two other siblings during her childhood so many times that she no longer wished this to happen to her now that she was old and respected and had a certain level of pride to defend. 

Instead Wraen decided to change her tactics - she let go of the heap of fur she had caught earlier, and plopped down near Bronco's head to nibble playfully on his ears.

She wasn't as easy to wrangle as Meerkat, Quetzal or Alyx- but he shouldn't have figured as much anyway, given the fact that Wraen was an adult, and she knew how to get out a hold she didn't want to be in. He growled disappointedly when she slipped from his hold, but flopped down beside him. He still had the rabbit in his grsp, but now knowing that Wraen had settled down with him, he used his powerful jaws to split their meal in two, offering the more generous half to his Sovereign, before tucking into the rest of it for a snack for himself.