Hunting Fail

Kiara Amarok · 10-22-2011, 06:12 PM

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In the ethereal eclipse on the 20th just north of CD. It had rained the previous day so the ground is muddy.

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A shadow crouched within the forest between two large bushes in an attempt to keep itself hidden from an aging sow. The sow had wandered away from the rest of the group and was currently digging its way into the mud in search of roots and grubs. Using her powerful snout like a shovel, the old girl had caused a large amount of damage to the nearby plants in her quest for food. The shadow kept low and waited for the pig to get just a little closer. As the rust colored pig crept closer to the bushes, the more tense the shadow became.

Kiara waited in the bushes with her ears flat against her head; praying that she would not be seen. Her brilliant white coat was not conducive to hunting in the forest. Luckily the aging pig did not seem to notice Kiara's presence. However, just as the young wolf was about to spring, her quarry looked up and spotted Kiara. The pig let out a high pitched squeal and turned tail. With a mighty leap the arctic wolf began her pursuit across the muddy terrain. As the sow ducked and dived through the forest, Kiara followed on nimble and well trained feet. That was, until the pig turned sharply to the right. The young wolf tried to follow, but the muddy ground would not allow the maneuver. Instead, Kiara careened towards a rotting tree and crashed through its soft wood. Whatever part of the tree that had managed to stay vertical after its death now came crashing towards the earth with and ear splattering smack.

The young wolf could only watch with defeated eyes as her prey escaped unharmed. Kiara rolled over on her stomach and rather than get up, simply rested her head in the mud. Although there was a slight pain in the arctic wolf's side, Kiara was no worse for the wear. Now her biggest problem would be her empty stomach and muddy coat. Kiara chuckled to herself realizing how silly she must look as both brown and white. Just hope I didn't disturb the neighbors.

Amaris · 10-28-2011, 08:52 AM

Amaris was nervous. She had never been in this place before, and she did not know who lived here or whether it was safe. The little Arctic Fox was all too conscious of her pure white pelt, sure that it stood out so much against the woods as to make her a sitting target for anything that might see her as prey. In short, she wasn't happy. She kept going, though, paws light on the muddy ground, in search of... well, she wasn't quite sure what. She was a bit lost, so maybe just somewhere to make a den. Maybe a friend. It had been all too long since she'd seen another creature of intelligence anywhere near enough to speak with her.
A high pitched squeal darted through Amaris' consciousness. She stopped her nervous ducking and diving and looking around and paused, ears and nose and eyes straining for hints of danger. The fluffy white fur on the back of her neck stood up straight and she bared her teeth in a snarl. She scented pig. Food.
Then she scented wolf.
The wolf came into view, her pelt the same colour as Amaris' own. She was chasing the sow. The small white fox watched, interested, as the wolf pursued her prey; Amaris was not above scavenging and if the wolf caught the prey then Amaris could ask her for some of it, or scavenge the remains after the wolf had left.
The sow turned sharply and Amaris blinked, disappointed, as the wolf crashed into a rotting tree, which promptly fell over.
The wolf rolled onto her stomach and rested her head in the mud. Amaris continued to watch, sharply interested. She was still new and unknown in this land and she would be pleased to begin making friends. Though then again... this was a wolf. Much bigger than Amaris, and probably faster too, and maybe even it had friends - Amaris knew wolves liked to live in groups, strange creatures. Then again, the ground was muddy and the little white fox would be much faster over it; her weight hardly pushed her into the earth, whereas the wolf would - hopefully - be bogged down. If all else failed, she could try the same manoeuvre as the fox.
Making her decision, Amaris trotted down towards the wolf. She made slight adjustments to her bearing as she went. Amaris was a confident little thing and had absolutely no intention of 'submitting' or whatever it was wolves did, but she didn't want to appear arrogant, even if she maybe was able to admit to herself that she kind of was arrogant. She sloped her shoulders a little and lowered her tail a notch. There.
"Bad luck," she called to the wolf. "Terrible ground for it today, really. Care for some help? Two sets of claws can be better than just one."

Kiara Amarok · 10-28-2011, 11:23 AM

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sorry for the short post Tongue

Word Count → 264

As Kiara laid in the mud an astonishing thing happened. An arctic fox trotted over to Kiara and actually addressed the arctic wolf. Kiara was from the north so she was used to seeing arctic foxes, but she was not used to having one actually try to talk to her. Foxes were scavengers and would often try to scavenge off of wolf kills. However, unlike coyotes, their presence was tolerable. As the little fox approached Kiara, all she could do was lift her head and stare. Although the wolf's nose had picked up on the foxes presence, Kiara had ignored it assuming the fox would go away. The fox did not show any signs of proper submission, as a wolf would have done. But Kiara could forgive that because fox values and wolf values were different.

When the fox finished talking Kiara sat and burst into laugh. A fox? Help her hunt? The idea was ridiculous and downright hilarious. The young wolf had to work to keep her laughter under control and eventually she managed to end her escapade with a chuckle and addressed the fox seriously. "I'm sorry, I mean no disrespect. Any help you can give me would be nice, although," Kiara's sapphire eyes examined the little fox. "we might have to change our quarry. My name is Kiara Amarok. What is yours little one?" The young wolf tried to give the fox a friendly smile. Foxes were cute, though they could be annoying at times. What an arctic fox was doing in a forest this time of year, Kiara couldn't guess.

Amaris · 10-31-2011, 09:49 AM

Amaris' fur bristled slightly across her shoulders as the white wolf stared at her. From the look of the wolf's white pelt, she was from the north too. You would've thought that she would've seen an arctic fox before.
It lifted even more as the wolf laughed, the usually fluffy fur standing up in jagged spikes. She had offered to help, and the wolf was laughing at her?
Though Amaris supposed she could forgive that - she knew it was somewhat unusual for foxes to not mind talking to wolves - she was still offended. Foxes didn't tend to laugh at her. Perhaps the wolf thought it was untouchable, being a wolf, and Amaris being a fox, and all. Sigh.
Finally the wolf was able to address her seriously. "I'm sorry, I mean no disrespect. Any help you can give me would be nice, although we might have to change our quarry. My name is Kiara Amarok. What is yours little one?" The wolf smiled at her and Amaris smiled back, happy that she'd stopped laughing. She was glad the wolf hadn't been trying to insult her, though with that possibility out of the equation, Amaris had no idea why she might have been laughing. The little fox counted herself a good enough hunter, even if she couldn't take down big prey like bigger canines.
"I'm Amaris," she replied. Kiara Amarok.... that was a strange name, but Amaris supposed wolf names would be different to fox ones. And she knew wolves liked having surnames. "So, um... Kiara, we can change our prey if you want, though with you involved, we can probably take down whatever you normally hunt, or, well, unless you want to try something else, or, well, yeah."
Amaris shuffled her feet awkwardly, unsure of her place in the situation. She was less nervous now, pretty sure that Kiara wasn't going to try and eat her or anything. Amaris was not great socially and was even less great when the person she was talking to was of another species. She was slightly unsure of herself in this situation, slightly unsure where she stood, and that made her uneasy.

(OOC: Sorry, I did a short post too.... I have no muse)

Kiara Amarok · 11-01-2011, 11:32 AM

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NP.

Word Count → 379

Kiara listened patiently as Amaris stumbled through her greeting. It was obvious from her behavior that the confident little creature was uncomfortable talking to the arctic wolf. It was only to be expected though. If the she wolf felt like it, she could snap up the fox with ease. However, Kiara was not in the habit of eating foxes and generally avoided hunting anything that could use high speech. The young wolf stood up and shook herself free of most of the mud. She flexed her muscles slowly to make sure that no serious damage had been done. Kiara could feel a slight pain in her side and back where she had hit the tree and landed. Although she would feel the bruises in the morning, the pain was minor and would not impede her hunting ability.

When Kiara was done with her check, she turned toward Amaris. "Nice to meet you Amaris. I still think we should switch to a different prey. Pigs are strong and dangerous, not to mention we have lost our element of surprise. The sow I was chasing earlier has probably returned to the group and it would be dangerous to go at them with only...the two of us." Kiara eye'd the little fox and went through the list of prey that she thought the two of them could take down. Perhaps rabbits. If you can chase the rabbits to me, I can kill them. Together we should be able to catch several hares. Kiara started out without waiting for Amaris to answer. She faced her snowy muzzle to the ground and began to search for scents that could lead them to game. The arctic wolf wandered a little this way and that before picking up the scent of a hare. The scent was fairly fresh so Kiara followed the trail, hoping that Amaris was right behind her.

When Kiara finally came across the source of the scent she could see a small rabbit a few meters away, munching on the leaves of a nearby bush. The brown hare would look up every few seconds and fliped its long ears back and forth, trying to detect any danger. Silently, the arctic wolf crouched down and turned her head to see if Amaris had followed.

Amaris · 11-02-2011, 06:35 PM

Amaris watched, slightly tense, as Kiara stood up and shook the mud off. Standing up, Amaris could tell just how much bigger she was. Amaris watched the wolf flex her muscles and found herself relaxing. So far, no attempts to eat her, and the wolf seemed nice enough. Amaris stretched on her toes and then leaned forwards in a luxurious stretch pulling all the muscles throughout her body. Too much tension was never particularly conducive to warm, loose, long muscles and hunting required quick, fluid movements which in her jerky-nervous-jittery-horrible condition Amaris just wouldn't be able to cope with. She forced herself to breathe long and deep and was surprised to find a smile on her face. It had been too long since she'd talked to anything intelligent. And wolves were.... very intelligent, though the little fox's pride wouldn't ever allow her to think of them as superior to her, even the Luperci variety.
"Nice to meet you Amaris. I still think we should switch to a different prey. Pigs are strong and dangerous, not to mention we have lost our element of surprise. The sow I was chasing earlier has probably returned to the group and it would be dangerous to go at them with only...the two of us. If you can chase the rabbits to me, I can kill them. Together we should be able to catch several hares."
Amaris felt herself bristling slightly again. She was small, yes, but she was sure she was capable of catching whatever any wolf could catch. She was a fox but foxes were awesome, right? Resourceful and agile and all that. She was perhaps rather arrogant, and she had a prickly pride. Somebody - anybody - dismissing her abilities in such an important subject as hunting insulted her very deeply.
The wolf had set off, though, and there was no time to take offence in a hunt, especially no time to take offence at somebody quadruple your size or more. Well, there was no time for much of anything in a hunt, and Kiara was getting further ahead, so Amaris pulled her paws into a quick, silent trot after her.
Amaris followed Kiara down a trail. Her nose, so used to picking clear, defined scents from cold northern air, was confused by the jumble of scents in the forest, but she could scent the hare and she knew vaguely where she was headed.
Amaris spotted the rabbit eating leaves off a bush and instinctively crouched down behind Kiara, carefully slipping out into the bushes behind the white wolf. She was all too aware of her light pelt and kept low, slinking through the undergrowth, her paws, used to snow, easily clearing the leaves and twigs and coming down with no sound.
She flicked an ear at Kiara as a signal. I'm ready. Then she took several steps very quickly towards the rabbit and jumped for it. If she hit, game over. If she missed, it would run towards Kiara. Hopefully, this was a win-win situation.
Amaris decided she liked hunting with wolves. Already.

Kiara Amarok · 11-02-2011, 11:07 PM

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Sorry for controlling Amaris a little. If you want me to change it, just send me pm.

Word Count → 508

With the little fox next to her and an unsuspecting rabbit in front of her, dinner was ensured. Kiara had never hunted with a fox before and found that it was surprisingly rewarding. The arctic wolf's weight just made her sink into the mud and Kiara found it difficult to move as the mud swallowed her paws. However, Amaris was small and light, so she could run across the mud without it impeding her movement. The small fox had managed to skirt along the forest floor and catch up to Kiara as she tracked down their quarry.

Amaris flipped her ear towards Kiara to signal that she was ready to hunt. The arctic wolf sat back and observed the small fox as it lunged towards the rabbit. The little fox somehow managed to catch the rabbit off guard an her claws sunk into the hare's brown hide. Despite their obvious color, the remaining leaves managed to give them enough cover for a surprise attack. Kiara had moved forward and was ready to pounce if the rabbit managed to escape the little fox's claws. A sudden movement to the left alerted the snow wolf to the presence of another rabbit. As the small hare made a panicked dash Kiara thrusted her hulking body forward and caught the hare by its neck. With a quick shake of her jaws, Kiara snapped the rabbits neck causing it to go limp.

A flutter of wings in the tree's told Kiara that Amaris was not the only scavenger to follow her today. With the rabbit still in her jaws, Kiara turned her sapphire eyes skyward to find two crows in a nearby tree. The tree had lost most of its leaves, and made the black birds easy to spot. Kiara placed the hare under her paws; if she was going to yell at the crows, she wasn't taking any chances. Returning her gaze skywards, the young wolf yelled "Get lost you rats with wings, there is no food for you here. This is your only warning. You come down here, then your going to be lunch. GOT IT?" Kiara had never liked birds, especially crows. The arctic wolf would often terrorize any birds that were unfortunate enough to be close to her, though she rarely ever ate them. However, the young wolf knew they would try to steal the rabbits and wasn't willing give up her kill.

Kiara's warning managed to keep the crows in the tree for now, but they didn't fly away liked she had hoped. Kiara returned her gaze Amaris and the other dead rabbit. "Good job Amaris. As expected of a fox from the north. I should team up with foxes more often. Sorry about all the yelling, I don't really like birds." Kiara gave the little fox a friendly smile before turning her attention to the rabbit under her paws. The she wolf laid down in the mud and began to work loose the rabbits flesh. After a steady diet of fish, the rabbit was a refreshing change.

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