Moonspear Random Acts

@Mintaka @Mira @Sialuk @Meerkat @Caelum Bronco's spruced up the Rendez-vous site for the kids. Aiming to put this toward his caretaker trade.

It was difficult to find a time when the Rendez-vous site was empty. It more or less meant having to wait nearby for the kids to go off with their parents, and once he felt fairly sure they'd all been tucked in for the night, he disappeared off into the woods nearby to pull out all of the things he'd had stashed away, just for this moment. He was surprised that the idea had never come to him while he was living with the Firebirds- and maybe Alyx, Prim and Quetzal would be too old for toys and such by the time he saw them next...But he figured he'd treat the kids here while he was here, and incapable of doing roper border patrolls due to his injured ribs. 

He'd fished a couple good-sized branches out of a stream, and they'd been drying in the shelter of a cave so that their white, barkless wood was revealed- perfect for chewing on and getting rid of those baby teeth- if any of the kids still had their baby teeth. Those he placed here and there in the clearing, and he'd half-buried treats for them too. He'd caught a rabbit and a partridge, so those had been torn into smaler pieces and were buried in obvious mounds here and there, mimicing the caches they would learn to make on their own as they growed. Feathers from the partridge were scattered all over. 

The real surprise was a rabbit he'd caught, and now held onto with his limber front legs. He howled for the kids to come and meet him in the rendez-vous site, as the sun began to rise, ready to let the rabbit spring up- and give them a bit of hunting practice.

Sialuk had already been awake, though she'd stuck close to her family in the early hours of the morning. She had a habit of watching them as they slept. There was something decidedly peaceful about it, and she was still too drowsy to wake anybody up. However, when she heard somebody familiar call for the puppies to get together, she tensed. Saviguk still seemed fast asleep, but her mother's eyes opened briefly and gave her the go-ahead nod. That was as much as the raindrop needed. Kissing anaa goodbye, she crept from them until she was sure she wouldn't wake the others before tearing off in the direction of Bronco.

There were all sorts of things laying out when she arrived, but her attention was narrowed in on what Bronco held between his two front legs: a live rabbit. Sialuk blinked at it, wanting to spring for it, but knowing that she likely shouldn't do so until she was told. What if she scared it off? Her impulse control was fairly good, but she couldn't bring herself to sit down, eyes laser-focused as it squirmed beneath the older wolf's feet.

Bronco waited- nearly losing control of the rabbit twice when it sensed that he'd potentially relaxed enough for it to make a mad dash and squirm away from him. He yawned, and continued to pin the rabbit to the ground, grateful that it at least wasn't putting up too much of a fight. It was smart- it likely knew that the mre it struggled, the shorter and more painful its life would be. 

Soon enough, though, came the first of the Moonspear youth, one that he recognized as the daugher of Kukutux and Jarilo, a pale, eager little girl. He smiled, glad to see how fixated she was, already, on the rabbit. She'd taken a brief look around to see the new objects scattered around the grassy rendez-vous site, but was most interested, obviously, by the live rabbit he held captive. "You wanna try an' catch the bunny?" He asked enticingly.

Jess said more can join at any time! Lax posting order, too.

When he asked if she wanted to try and catch it, Sialuk's eyes grew wide and she took a step back. She wasn't even sure she was capable of such a thing. She was just shy of three months, and while she considered herself an adept at hunting bugs, a rabbit was an entirely different beast. Then she thought about what Mira might do, and she gritted her teeth. Mira wouldn't be afraid, and neither would Saviguk. Both would take this sort of challenge head-on, so why shouldn't she?

Furrowing her brow now, she took a bigger step forward than the one she'd taken back, closer to the wriggling long-haired creature than she'd been before. Now resolving to make her mother and father proud, she gave Bronco a curt nod, tensing her muscles as she prepared for... well, she wasn't exactly sure. Whatever that rabbit did, she intended to murderate it.

She didn't even speak up, but she nodded- and remained tense, as though waiting for Bronco to release the rabbit at any moment. She looked a bit nervous, to be honest- but maybe that was simply because she was focusing as hard as she could on the rabbit, and trying to figure out exactly what she should do. He didn't see any reason why she shouldn't at least be introduced to what hunting was like, even though she was still quite young. He doubted very much that the rabbit could do her much harm, so he felt at ease letting her at least try to take it down. 

Naturally, there'd be no way for her to even have a slight chance against a healthy rabbit. And while it'd been terrorized by being held down by a wolf for so long, and had mostly just become sort of frozen in panic, he knew that as soon as he let it go it would bolt. Taking a page from his mother's book, Bronco compromised the rabbit's mobility so that Sialuk would have a chance at catching it- and even if it did manage to outpace her, there was no way it could get away from him again. 

"Okay, I'm gonna let him go. Rabbits can run reeeeally, really fast- and they zig-zag a lot so you gotta be quick on your feet; don't forget to use your claws to help you change directions, you can really dig 'em into the ground when it's soft like this," He said. "You ready?" He asked, just as the rabbit gave a slight twitch. He held it down, though- wanting to make sure Sialuk didn't have any questions before he let it go.

Sialuk listened intently, even though it was likely her instincts that would take over once the prey was released, just as they had taken over when Mira had attacked her. Swallowing thickly at his "You ready?" question, Sialuk braced herself and tried to get herself ready for... well, for whatever this was going to be like! She'd chased small, slow things, but this was a whole new level. Already, she was wishing her mother and father were here to watch. Maybe not Savi, because he would want to steal the spotlight... but if her parents could see, they might be proud of her. Then again, if she couldn't catch it, them not being here would save her from shaming them.

She sucked in a breath and nodded once more, her answer clear: she was ready.

It was kind of adorable, seeing just how focused Sialuk was on the rabbit, fixated the same way a cat will focus with deadly intensity on a laser point. He wasn't sure she was really listening to him- though she was certainly staying silent and still, and not fidgeting or interrupting him with questions...She was a fair bit different than his siblings- but he found himself adoring her all the same. He wasn't surprised, either- Kukutux was a gem. It simply made sense that her children would be, too. 

She nodded, so Bronco slowly lifted his paw up a bit, and then suddenly pulled it away from the rabbit, assuming that it would try to bolt away, despite the fact that Bronco had already made sure it couldn't go too far or too fast. Instead, it simply stayed where it was, crouched against the ground with its ears flattened. "C'mon," He prompted with an almost gentle tone to his voice, and he reached out with his muzzle to poke at the rabbit once, twice- and he went to nip its flank when it finally seized the opportunity and hobbled into motion, spurred by fear but hindered by its wounded hind end.

He had said it would be fast, but Sialuk was expecting it to be so much faster. Not that the rabbit was slow by any means. As soon as it finally began hobble-hopping along, Sialuk took after it, her oversized paws slapping the ground as she attempted to close the gap. Her whole body practically buzzed with excitement as she did so, and she could have sworn she was floating above the actual ground.

When the raindrop finally caught up to her prey, she realized with sudden horror that she had no idea what to do with it. Sialuk was practically on top of the rabbit now, but she froze and watched as it scampered further away from her. She had only ever chased things before—she'd never tried to actually capture anything.

He was pleased to see Sialuk bound after the rabbit, even though he'd possibly injured it enough to give the youngster too much of an advantage in terms of speed and agility. That didn't matter- she could learn with something like this now, and he could always find something more challenging for her later. What he did notice, though, was that she- like many others- lacked a bit of know-how in terms of what to do with the creature once she'd caught up with it. And that was fair- he couldn't expect her to know what to do with her instincts right off the bat- but he wasn't going to give her all the answers, either. 

He stood up and picked up a gentle lope, looping around so that he could confront the fleeing rabbit. Like a cattle-driver, he had to pounce this way and that to correct its direction, before he was able to send it back, roughly in Sialuk's direction, with a few snaps of his jaws. The rabbit wasn't keen on running directly toward another wolf- but it seemed to prefer taking its chances with the small, fluffy one rather than the large, toothy one.

Thankfully, Bronco was a good mentor about it. He wrangled the rabbit back in her direction, and Sialuk did a better job this time as it camp hop-hobbling toward her. Instead of freezing, she awkwardly tried to grab it in her mouth. She managed to do so... sort of. Sialuk held onto its head, the rest of its body wriggling and writing in protest and surely wondering what it had done to deserve such a horrible, slow death.

It was hard work to keep her jaws on it like this, so she wrestled it to the ground, her front paws pressing on its chest and flattening it out. It was so squirmy, she thought, and Sialuk readjusted her grip on the large-eared creature so she had its neck this time. That gave her some better purchase, and she began to shake it rapidly back and forth, likely breaking its neck in the process.

What Bronco witnessed was simply nature, and the roles of predator and prey playing out as they naturally would. The kid caught the rabbit and much like she would have when she played with sticks and wrestled with her parent's paws when she'd been nothing more than an infant, she wrangled the rabbit to the ground, bit down, and shook it. She wouldn't have had the bite power to simply do the job as quickly and effectively as Bronco had, but this was all a part of the learning process- and she was doing what she could with the strength she had. She seemed to grasp the concept pretty quickly, and instinctively adjusted her grip, allowing her to finish the rabbit off. 

Bronco meandered up and sat down, panting softly as he smiled proudly at the pale girl, not bothering to interrupt her or tell her she didn't need to keep shaking it. He yawned softly, and slid to the ground, laying on his belly with one foreleg curled against his chest, content to let her continue worrying her catch while he bathed in the satisfaction of having begun training another young hunter.

When she finally realized the rabbit was actually, totally dead, she pranced up to Bronco with her prize. It was covered in slobber all around its neck, and the poor thing's body was all but destroyed, likely not having a single unbroken bone in its body. Her instinct to kill had been strong, but the instinct to chase and play had been much stronger. Perhaps that would change in time. Sialuk dropped the rabbit at his feet, wagging her tail and panting with a wide smile.

Maybe she could take it home and show her family what a good hunter she was! Surely they would be proud of her, yes? But... how was she to ask for that? Contemplating that for a moment, with her brow furrowed as she worked through a plan, she began to put it into action.

First, she picked up the rabbit from where she'd dropped it in front of her mentor, then she tried to use her eyes to make a question, raising her eyebrows and looking at him. She'd seen her parents exchange glances like this when they were asking each other things without words, so maybe it would work with her new friend, too.

"Yeaaaaah you did it, you did!" Bronco said, applauding the little one as she jigged around, proudly showing off her catch. Probably not the cutest little parade in the world, given how the hare's limbs dangled and swayed, but Bronco saw past that and saw a very chipper child showing off a kill that she was quite proud of. And she had every reason to be- she'd caught it and killed it on her own, without him telling her what to do. A bit of guidance, sure- but she'd mostly come into her hunting instincts on her own. The kid was a natural. 

She seemed to pause, though, and look at him with soulful eyes that begged some sort of question. She came back to pick the rabbit back up- he hadn't touched it, as he figured she might want to play with it more- and simply held it, as though asking permission. He chuckled. "Go on, sweetie. That's yours- you caught it, you killed it, that's 100% yours." He said.

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Relief and gratitude washed over her when Bronco said she could take the rabbit with her. She was certain that @Jarilo and @Kukutux would be proud of her. And why shouldn't they be? She'd managed to hunt rabbit! Sure, Bronco had done a lot of the work, but it still felt like a major accomplishment. Prancing back to where her parents would likely be, she would let them decide what was to become of the badly-bruised meal.

The little pearl seemed quite satisfied that she was allowed to keep her catch- and ran off with it, her spirits high, no doubt to show it off to her siblings and parents. Bronco watched her go, having come t the conclusion that the sticks and half-buried bits of food he'd brought were all fine and good- but that these kids were definitely more interested in live bait. He'd remember that for the next time he surprised the Rendez-vous site with another little spattering of gifts. Yawning, he stood up and shook his coat out, content to leave the other gifts to be discovered without having to take credit for it, and padded back to the den he and Meerkat shared.