(wc: 451)

Theodoric was hunting today.

Generally, when he and the eagle owl went out together, the agenda was more pleasure than business. Since traveling to the new world, Theodoric had developed a fondness for long walks that gave him a chance to stretch his rather lanky legs. On those trips, Wynne would generally fly off on her own to hunt for the mice and voles that were the staple of her diet. Theodoric would follow at a comfortable distance, a cloak thrown over his shoulders to keep out the chill. Sometimes if they got lucky the owl would attack an animal bigger than she could kill by herself and Theo would finish it with a small, sharp knife that he always kept tucked in his belt loop. He never planned on meals from such encounters, because they happened rarely, say one day in ten.

Today, the pair meant business. A particularly unlucky streak meant Theodoric hadn’t had fresh meat in a while, and he was uneasy about dipping into the winter’s stores so soon. So he did his best to communicate what he had in mind with Wynne. The owl was surprisingly intelligent and understood the high speeches well, even though she spoke them poorly. An owl’s voice lacked the versatility of a corvid, say a magpie or raven. She was teaching him the low speech, though slowly, given his lack of talent with tongues. Between the two of them, the owl and the wolf managed to settle on a prey item and a strategy, and set out while the day was still young.

Theodoric had not donned a cloak for the excursion and rather wished he had. But they were way out in the boondocks now, far from the AniWaya border and there was no point in going back. Wynne had found a flock of turkeys and Theo had been tracking them for most of the morning. They were almost there, Theo thought, and struggled against anticipating the night’s menu. He and the owl were resting before the final stretch; he leaned against a sturdy elm tree; she rested on a leather gauntlet strapped to his wrist.

A crunching of leaf litter startled Wynne out of some private avian reverie, and she flew up to a nearby branch rather more noisily than was flattering for a member of her species. Theodoric, flustered because she was nervous, cast about for the source of the bird’s disturbance. Although it was difficult to see through the forest branches, the grayscale luperci caught a flash of white against the otherwise monotone landscape. He headed in that direction, calm now but curious, and the owl followed slowly behind, branching from one tree limb to the next.

no worries! (wc: 259)

Theodoric hesitated. Every moment he and Wynne spent pursuing phantoms in the undergrowth allowed the flock they had been tracking time to move on again. He paused, looking toward his winged companion for her opinion on the matter. In the equivalent of an avian shrug, she turned and flew silently back the way they’d came, dodging low-hanging branches with ease. Theodoric hesitated a moment longer, then quietly followed the bird, vowing to finish the investigation later. Now, though, their goal was near, and to stop now would be wasting a whole day’s worth of work.

A short while later the quiet forest exploded with the raucous alarm calls of turkeys. Wynne dove straight into the grazing flock, tackling a full-grown bird that was nearly three times her size. Her screeches added to the din. The owl wounded the fowl, but the fight was far from decided. Although not a predatory bird, a turkey could do serious damage to an attacker with beak and claw and wing. Now came Theodoric’s part. He ran in, ignoring the other turkeys as they fled. With a knife in hand, the grayscale male waded into the fray, dodging the flailing limbs of both birds until he was able to grab the turkey’s neck. Wynne flapped off and the other bird struggled until Theo ended its life with a sure knife stroke.

Silence fell.

Wolf and owl looked at each other, breathing hard from their respective exertions. And then Theodoric grinned and Wynne clapped her beak together in appreciation. They would both eat well tonight.

-loveson anyways- Also, let me know if anything Theodoric says doesn't make sense. I'm playing with trying to write out his accent, and I'm bad at it XD (wc: 246)

Theodoric’s breathing had just begun to slow when sounds in the underbrush drew his attention away from the freshly-killed turkey. The mystery of what he’d seen earlier was solved when another wolf stepped into the clearing, a large eagle clinging to his shoulder. Before Theodoric could respond, Wynne reacted suddenly and vehemently to the presence of the other bird. A full grown female Eurasian eagle owl is a force to be reckoned with, but even Wynne was smaller than the other wolf’s eagle. Instincts took over. She abandoned the carcass of the turkey to fly noisily to a nearby tree, where she puffed her feathers in a threat display, chattering all the while. Theodoric could only make out some of what she was saying, but none of it was polite.

He couldn’t blame the owl for her behavior. After all, he would probably do the lupine equivalent if confronted by a large feline or aggressive bear. So he made no apologies on her behalf, although his expression was a little chagrined as he turned to the other male. “Nice t’ meet yeh’, Niro.” His voice was a pleasant baritone, well seasoned with Scottish overtones. “I’m Theodoric. That there’s Wynne.” And this here is dinner, he finished in his head, unaware that a smile was still plastered on his face. “I ‘ope we didn’t mess up yer huntin’” Theodoric’s attention was mostly on the owl and the eagle, and he hadn’t yet noticed the turkey Niro carried.