A Different Way of Tracking

[Ixzo]

87th of Winter, 515AV

Much to her disappointment, Ixzo had waited until the sun had risen to go out to hunt. Iollu was snoozing as usual, the child was never awake while she was away, yet by the time the world outside the tent had lightened, the rain had stopped. Heavy clouds still shielding the sky above her and the grass was wet. All this was not her ideal hunting conditions. The dry grass would be too slippery to run on, even if she used her claws for grip. And any scent she wished to find would be washed away with the night showers, that was if any animals were out at all.

Although the soft snoring of the Drykas in the tent reminded her why she needed to go out and hunt. She didn't need to hunt every day, the Allegiance hired many more, and well experienced, hunters. They didn't demand something from her every day, yet she knew that with the showers stopping most hunting, her game might bring in some extra coin. There was still a light drizzle, but Ixzo heaved herself up from her crouch at the opening of her tent. The rain quickly fell on her hair and shoulder, more of a soft misting rather than any real wetness, and Ixzo stooped to grab her new bow and traps.

Tying the tent closed behind her, Ixzo set off as a human. It felt odd to walk out of the boundaries of Endrykas with the clothes on her back and the dulled senses of her human eyes, let alone in the light of day. She was not inexperienced with hunting in this form, she simply didn't have a bow to do so until now.

The thought excited her a little bit. She had only shot at targets with bows recently, and craved the excitement and accomplishment of taking down a live creature for once.

[Ixzo]

By the time she was a few hundred yard out from Endrykas, still able to see the tips of the tents over the hills, Ixzo slowed. She had headed south, keeping off the trail of the city's past encampments. Any prey that was there was too wary of the track of civilization to be an early hunt. She had also chosen not to head west, assuming that other hunters may have the idea to go where the city had not yet touched, where the creatures were still unaware. North and South were probably in similar states, but she wanted to stay as far away from the possibility of another hunter's trail if possible. She didn't have the luxury of her lion nose to identify the scent of a human that she may pass, even if she could she doubted she would recognize it after the days of downpour.

Checking how far she was from the tents. Ixzo assumed she would be nearly two miles out by now. Iollu would be up, likely raiding their food for her breakfast. Ixzo had a brief worry that the child wouldn't know where she was, but she was sure the Drykas was plenty capable of fending for herself, although the morning chores may not get done until she came back because of it.

She pushed the distracting thoughts away, suddenly wishful she had chosen the simpler, more instinct driven mind of a lion to hunt with, but she knew she wouldn't catch anything doing so.

After a few chimes of distraction, she finally began to look around her. The particular hill she stood on had a few of the short stubby trees of the plains. There were some patches of dry shrubbery surrounding them, but otherwise the long thick grasses of the plains had taken over. It seemed plain, but the lioness knew what to look for if she was ready to track. Casting her silver gaze down, she looked at the grass. There were tunnels and paths woven by the small animals. And large patches that were trampled by the larger herbivores. She was never able to identify a certain path through the grass, although most of the time she used her sense of smell for that.

[Ixzo]

With no such luck on that, Ixzo stooped to the grass beneath her, eyeing one particular trampled path. Visually, ti didn't seem large enough for an Eland, the strange creature she had hunted previously, nor was it light enough for gazelle. IT was clearly a small creature, but heavier, was it an herbivore? She couldn't tell.

Staying on that path, she slowly crept forward, her thighs complaining with the unfamiliar movement. She would have thought this was similar to her stalking crouch as a lion, but it appeared her bipedal form was not so well equipped for the movements. In only a few ticks she had to raise herself to stand, crouching only slightly to continue forward. The path through the grass continued for a short few yards, before it was obviously joined with many others of similar patterns. She wanted to make the connection that this must be a predator, traveling in a pack. Perhaps a coyote?

But something had caught her eye where the trails met. It was the perfect evidence for tracking, unfailingly sharing of what she was following: feces.

A little too eager at the sight, Ixzo skipped lightly to the pile, forgetting her need to be quiet for a moment. A few yards away from her three birds immediately took flight. They were small, too small to hunt. Finches, perhaps. But the sudden disturbance of the tranquil morning reminded her to be careful.

[Ixzo]

Working to lighten her step once more, she stopped by the dung, trying to get a closer look. She was not visually familiar with what sort of feces each creature left behind. Horses and cows, she could identify those in a heartbeat. She often used their dried dung to make bricks for her fire. But Ixzo rarely tracked with sight, so trying to look for the trial of her prey rather than smell or hear it was an interesting twist. At least she knew the basics in order to track this.

Crouched by the pile now, Ixzo reached forward, pinching two beads between her hands. They were soggy and wet, crushing easily between her fore-finger and thumb. The lack of utter pungent scent tipped her off that this was no carnivore. The dark beads were simply enough, but when she sifted through them, seeing the thicker grasses and shrubbery that hadn't been completely digested, she knew this was an herbivore.

Running through her mind, she tried to think of what creatures she knew would leave this trail. Any bison, eland or cow was out. Their dung was too large, too light for this. This creature ate more than just grass, else why would their feces be so dark. A gazelle perhaps? But those would be very large as well.

Her mind flitted back to one of the first animals she hunted for the Drykas and it clicked. This must be an ibex. It would explain the small but heavy trails that had interested her.

[Ixzo]

It didn't take her long to continue tracking the heard. Unable to rely on her scent, she took mental notes on the trails that lead her towards the Ibex. The darker, bead-like dung. The small but heavy trails in the grass. And as she followed them, she found some of the grazing habits of the creatures.

Although with the golden stalks of the tall grass shielding them, the light green stems of the spring's change were already shooting through the roots. The paths she followed tore up the longer ones but left the shorter ones. Although she didn't notice it while she was walking, she knew she was on the right trail when she stooped down, pawing the crushed bottom of the trail aside to see the torn up buds of grass. It was so little, it was too small for a bigger creature, nor was it the torn up roots of birds looking for bugs rather than grass.

She was following them for a few hundred yards before she saw evidence of their change in appetite. First, when she caught sight of the bushes, she worried that she had found the trial of another hunter or forager. The berry bushes before her were nearly completely stripped of their new budding leaves, even their lower stems had been taken. Curious and a bit wary, the Kelvic looked closer to the branches. She could see the parts that were eaten where only up to a certain level and nowhere near the center of the bush, where she could easily reach. This was no human foraging. Even if it had been, the bush was completely void of berries or flowers, nothing of interest to a forager.

Yet she saw the teeth marks on the older stems and decided it must be the goats still, this did directly fall in their path. To confirm her suspicious, Ixzo looked around to make sure the trails were here. After a few chimes of not being totally sure, the lioness decided they must have all stopped here, hence why the individual trails mushed together and made it hard for her to recognize.

[Ixzo]

But something else caught the huntresses eye as she confirmed her suspicions. There was another pile of dung. A few actually. Interested, she pinched a bead of the one closest to her, trying to figure out why this pile had caught her interest. She had been seeing their feces the whole way, it was hard to miss. It was one of the main things she was able to track them on, actually. Yet, as she picked through this pile, it took her a few ticks to realize: It was fresh. Utterly fresh. No, it wasn't warm and fresh out of the popper, but it was not drilled down and soggy by rain either. It was harder and held its composure a little more, this meant it was dropped after the rain, but still long enough to cool.

They must not be far.

With a new vigor, Ixzo pulled an arrow from her quiver, taking the bow from her shoulder and fitting it together. Stalking a little lower now, Ixzo painstaking made her way to the top of the next hill, and found the rewards of her tracking.

There they were. A beautiful small heard of wild goats, seemingly waiting for her arrows. Ixzo froze, still far enough away to properly collect herself. With a good hundred comfortable yards and an entire hill between them, the huntress checked her arrow head quickly. It was the smaller piercing kind for bigger game rather than smaller. She knew that if she loaded with the heavier arrow she would hit it, but might have to hit her target again to truly take it down. Instead she hoped the large, sharp, hunting arrow for her longbow would take one down quickly enough.

Making sure her pack and quiver were secure, Ixzo began creeping forward.

[Ixzo]

This time, when her thighs complained about the unfamiliar effort, she ignored them, enduring the pain until she was close enough to shoot.

Had she been a lion, she would have been less cautious, knowing her limits on stealth. Instead, Ixzo took much more effort than she needed to be as quiet as possible. She may be a good archer, but a running goat would be incredibly hard to hit. She hadn't much practice with moving objects, especially over such a range. Only forty yards away from them now, Ixzo slowed, bringing up her bow.

At this point she didn't need to focus on her stance or aim so well. She had practiced shooting from a crouch, as she was, but Ixzo was confident enough to stand before she shot, sure the goats would not have time to react. Instead she prepared, tilting her bow slightly so the arrow could sit on the ledge. The herd still grazed, completely unaware of her.

Taking a few steps forward, as quietly as she could, Ixzo decided she was ready. With the fluid and stealthy movement of a hunter, she stood. The grass was at her waist and her bow completely exposed. Power was on her side, since the goats were not too far away. Aiming just above the closest goat, she let the arrow fly. Not giving herself time to react, the bow was around her shoulder in a second, and she had pulled the game-knife from her belt.

With bleating cries and screams the goats dispersed. Her target was flailing, her less than perfect aim having lodged into its shoulders. In an interesting way the arrow was keeping the creature from properly using its front legs, although it was trying anyway. IT was by no means a kill shot, but she had a knife for that. Glad it was a female and without the massive horse of the males, she was on it in an instant.

[Ixzo]

With a more experienced movement, she had the goat by the head. Her poor arrow was liekly snapped in half by all this creatures thrashing, although she didn't really care for the sacrifice of one arrow. Locking her muscled biceps on the creatures neck, she slowed its thrashing as much as possible, yanking the creature's head up by its jaw. With a quick and powerful swipe, her knife opened the neck of the creature. The cries gurgled and cut of, and within a few ticks, the creature had stopped thrashing.

She grimaced, letting go of the now bloody goat. It was still alive and she hated to think of it as suffering. She knew a trick that her mother used to stick a knife in the creature's temple, but she was unsure if she knew how to do it. Thinking the poor thing could not be in more pain, she took the chance.

Spreading one large palm over the goat's cheek, Ixzo cleared the soft membrane of the temple. She didn't have time to cringe while she lined up the knife. With a quick sickening crack that sent her heart racing, she slipped the knife in. Life continued on, and Ixzo immediately felt bad.

Caiyha, forgive me, I've failed you. She thought, wiggling the knife around the temple until she was sure it was dead.

She felt the heavy weight of defeat when she fell back on her haunches, looking at the bloody mess before her. It was a successful kill, but a brutal and messy one. She wouldn't have made the creature suffer so much if she had her teeth and claws, but she knew she would have to learn to be more efficient, at least for her prey's sake. She understood the necessity of the circle of life, but she hated to be so cruel to such an innocent creature, even if it was not with intention. Priskil had affected her too greatly that even non-sentient creatures quickly found her remorse.

[Jasmine Stormblood]

Very cool read. It's always nice to watch Ixzo hunt something she is unfamiliar with

 

Ixzo

XP

• Observation: 4 XP
• Tracking: 3 XP
• Hunting: 5 XP
• Stealth: 2 XP
• Weapon-Longbow: 1 XP
• Weapon-Hunting Knife: 1 XP

Lores

• Dry grass is hard to run on
• Ibex:females do not have near as big horns
• Longbow: an arrow through the shoulders makes the front legs nearly useless
• Ibex: do not eat from the middle of a berry bush
• Ibex: has a smaller feces trail than most of the larger herbivores