A Hunting We Will Go [Private]

[Nidassasyae]

Fall 56, Early Morning Nidae yawned, strolling down the darkened street. Syna's light would illuminate the world in half a bell, and already the sky was shedding its black coat in favor of a dark blue, and grew steadily lighter with each passing second. The Kelvic girl walked faster, not wanting to waste time. She knew perfectly well that the humans wouldn't wake for some time, but she wanted to be finished hunting as soon as possible. She had considered stopping by the Inn that Sel worked at, but quickly dropped the idea. He probably wouldn't appreciate being distracted by her presence, and neither would his boss. Wandering the city didn't seem like a very good way to spend her afternoon either. What wild animal wanted to spend a perfectly fine day trapped inside a huge stone cage, surrounded by strange people? Nidae couldn't think of anyone, but she didn't really know that many Kelvics in the first place. One of the few that she actually had met was her idea of an appetizer, and she would have liked eat him and make the experience as painful as possible for him. Sadly, he had escaped into the crowd, and she had been restrained by her friends' words. How she would have loved to clamp her jaws on his scrawny neck... Nidae shook herself, getting rid of the lovely bloodlust that had been so present in her mind these days. The Hunt was on the top of her priority list at this very moment. She needed to make sure that they could continue to afford staying in these cities, while still quenching her thirst for blood. The Kelvic nodded to the two guards on duty, giving them a small wave before running out onto the road. Stepping outside the city always made her feel better. The press of the stones was suddenly gone, and the world opened up before her. In that moment, she felt a bit more kindly towards the sleepy humans, and gave them none of her usual glares. The landscape was a brief taste of freedom, and she hoped that one day, she'd have a real chance to experience it. To just run as far as she could go, to not plan ahead, to just live in the moment. However, whether or not she could do this depended on how her Bondmate felt about it. Of course, if Seliarus did not wish to travel in such a way, then it would never happen. Nidae would not subject him to getting lost in the wilderness if he did not wish it. The guards cast a curious glance at her, but didn't do much except yawn. It was much to early to have a proper reaction to this sort of thing. The Kelvic headed straight for the woods, not looking back towards the city. As she reached the treeline, her gait became less relaxed, more business-like. After all, she had a job to do.

[Nidassasyae]

Nidae walked among the trees, letting her fingertips trace over their gnarled trunks. As she walked through the forest, her eyes darted over each tree, checking to see if it was the one she was looking for. Her blue eyes lit up when she saw the correct one. A twisted and elderly tree, that looked as if it had been struck by lightning, or was the direct cause of a Reimancer's anger. Its trunk was black, and the leaves that still managed to cling to it were long dead. Walking over to the tree, she knelt beside an extremely large bush positioned beside it. She reached inside and pulled out a bundle of wooden parts, all wrapped together with a deerhide tie. Nodding to herself, she placed the bundle back where it was, then began to undress. It didn't take long, she was only wearing a loose shirt, pair of pants, and boots. Once she had placed the clothing into her backpack, she put the backpack into the bush, right beside the wooden sticks. Arranging it carefully, and sprinkling some leaves over the items, Nidae was pleased when it seemed like a perfectly normal bush, without someone's belongings hidden inside. Standing back up, the Kelvic closed her eyes and focused on her true form. Bright lights began to glow around her body, sparkling in the early morning darkness. After a moment, the lights had completely enveloped her, obscuring her from view, not that anyone was indeed looking. In that short moment, Nidae had returned to her normal form. Standing at seven feet, eight inches, the massive Talderan Snow Leopard didn't resemble her human form at all, except for her eyes, which hadn't changed a bit. Stretching luxuriously, the huge cat sighed. She hadn't gotten much sleep in the city, and the shifting was tiring her out. Nidae couldn't hunt like this, and manage to stay awake to shift back into a human and lug a deer back on her sled. After a brief and furious fight with herself, the leopard relented. There was simply no way she was going to hunt something while half asleep. With a great yawn, she walked over to a huge oak tree and leaped into one of the lower branches. It groaned a bit, but seemed stable enough. The leopard only plopped down on the branch in typical cat fashion, and was fast asleep in a matter of seconds.

[Nidassasyae]

Around a Bell later, a butterfly landed on the sleeping leopard's nose. Nidae opened her eyes sleepily and glared at the insect, willing it to move off so she could continue to sleep. The butterfly, oblivious to the cold glare of the cat's eyes, continued to perch on her nose. After staring at the bug for a few moments, she shook her head vigorously, trying to get the bug off. The butterfly simply flitted off into the forest, slowly making its way through the trees. With a annoyed growl, Nidae leaped off the branch, landing lightly on the leaf litter. She had already wasted a bell, and wanted to have brought the meat to the butcher before the crowds set in. Of course, only now she realized that this would be an impossible task. Even if she did manage to catch something soon, the crowds would already have blocked her path. She briefly considered just walking through town as a leopard, her prey in her jaws. That would surely scare the people away. Of course, it would also cause a commotion. That was something Nidae definitely didn't want to do. Commotions meant more people. Though they might give her a wide berth, the number of them would still increase. Sighing, the leopard stretched once again. It was inevitable, she'd have to go back to Syliras anyways. It was only once she had accepted this that she let go of the worries and began to enjoy herself. The rich smell of leaf mould filled her nostrils, and the dappled sunlight that managed to fall upon the forest floor swirled about as the leaves shifted when the wind coursed through them. A bird trilled somewhere in one of the trees around her, and she whipped her head around, surprised by the sudden noise in the midst of the silence. Relaxing when she realized that it posed no threat, the Talderan cat padded forwards, sniffing the air for prey scent. A few chimes later, she spotted some prints in the ground. Slowly, disturbing as little of the leaf litter as possible, she made her way towards the tracks. Nidae sniffed them delicately, mouth wide open, to let the scent glands tell her whatever information that the faint prey smell could. It was faint, but most certainly deer. A bit of a waste of time, since the tracks before her already told her the general species of her prey. One pair of tracks looked around five inches. Her eyes glittered in anticipation, and her mouth watered. She had to remind herself that this wasn't her morning meal, that she needed to sell the meat. Five inch tracks meant a buck, though not a full grown one. If he was younger, then his herd would be relatively small, and easier to sneak up on. Carefully, she examined the others. There were about twelve more, an extremely small herd, considering that these woods were fairly teeming with deer. Most of the tracks were around four inches or less, which would mean that the young buck had a few does in his herd. Three of the remaining tracks were tiny, the little fawns. She wasn't interested in the little ones. To hunt down all the younglings would ruin the herd. Without the fawns, the deer population would go down, putting the balance in danger. Humans didn't care about this, they hunted and killed what they liked, for sport or food, it didn't matter. They didn't understand the precarious balance that was nature. Being an animal, Nidae had been taught to only take what she needed. The group could spare a doe, perhaps even two. The tracks were deep, well defined in the soft dirt. As the leopard examined the tracks, her eyes brightened at one specific pair. Small, but too large for a fawn. They were a doe's tracks, but one hoof seemed to press deeper into the ground than the other, and the other hoof had scuffled the ground. This deer was limping. The perfect prey.

[Nidassasyae]

Nidae hurried along, keeping her path to beside the tracks, not disturbing them. As she ran, she could feel the thrill starting to seep into her veins. The Hunt was beginning. There was no need to step back and let her instincts control her, they already were. They always were. Where some Kelvics might have some measure of humanity, in how they talked, or how they acted, Nidae had only one thing. The ability to feel love. Other than that, there was nothing. No pity, no remorse, and none of the charismatic traits that humans so valued. While another Kelvic might be able to stand talking to humans, to engage in the intricacies of their conversations, Nidae could not. Though to some this might be considered a weakness, for how could you survive in society without the ability to make even the smallest civil conversation with someone, Nidae scoffed at that. She'd like to know how long those conversationalists would survive in any environment but that of their own making. Her instincts and actions were her strengths, and after all, one did not have civilized conversations with one's meals, especially if the meal had been running about the forest just two minutes prior. Her furry paws carried her forwards, the scent of deer growing stronger and stronger. She moved swiftly through the forest, but carefully, trying not to make a sound. Nidae avoided the large piles of fallen and dried leaves, instead leaping from one patch of empty ground to the next. Her wide paws absorbed her weight and muted her landings. Now was not the time to move slowly, since she had already found the trail. The leopard had to close the distance between her and her prey, not simply follow along at the same pace. There. She abruptly stopped and sank down, the fur on her belly touching the ground. The smell here was strong, and behind the bushes right ahead of her, she could see a pair of proud antlers. Creeping slowly, pressed against the ground as far as she could go without lying down, the massive leopard stalked towards her prey. It appeared that the tracks were from last night, when the herd had gone back to their bedding place. The deer were still here, though starting to rise. Not all of them would make it out of their sanctuary alive.

[Nidassasyae]

The leopard crouched in the bushes, observing the family of deer with slitted, intelligent eyes. Downwind, and making not a sound as she stood stock still, the prey were unaware of her presence. She knew the danger of her white coat, knew that here in the Fall, it provided very little camouflage. That was why she stayed behind the bushes, using them to conceal herself, letting the shadows cover her up. From her spot, she silently watched the deer. They were getting up, the does waking the three small fawns. The female deer nuzzled their young, and the fawns stood up on unsteady legs. Quite soon they were bounding all over the bedding area, and even went to go look for the buck. Nidae disregarded this. She wasn't hunting for the buck's antlers, just for deer meat. He had obviously chosen a well concealed spot, since she could not see him from the bushes. If she wanted to find him, her eyes would have followed the younglings. Instead, she just watched the females all start to wake up, picking her mark carefully. At that moment, one of the frolicking fawns got a tiny bit of wanderlust, tracing the boundary of the bedding area. Its head held high, it wandered around the bedding area, searching for something interesting. The does ignored it, secure in the fact that their bedding area was safe from intruders. Nidae didn't spare a glance for the fawn, watching the does, until she realized that it was right in front of her. The young deer had found her. For a brief moment, their eyes met. The young deer's wide and brown, full of fear and surprise. Nidassasyae's were cold blue, slitted, showing both concentration and savagery. Her eyes briefly softened, the fawn had no reason to panic. It was not he who was her prey. Then, as the fawn turned around to warn his family, she leaped from her hiding spot, launching into the air. The leopardess landed in the middle of the small bedding ground, her eyes locking on the closest doe. The deer froze for a split second, fear welling up in her dark eyes. Nidae snarled, her blood pounding in her ears, long tail twitching in excitement. Her heart beat faster at the power she felt, the power that only the Hunt could give her. The deer trembled on nature's delicate balance between the instinct to lie motionless, to be unseen, and the desperate desire to flee: the ancient dilemma of the hunted.

[Nidassasyae]

Nidassasyae bared her teeth at the deer, launching herself at her. The doe didn't stand a chance, having only been a meter away from the spot where the leopard had landed. Nidae grabbed the deer by the neck, holding it firmly in her jaws. The doe flailed about, trying desperately to escape. The Kelvic could feel the blood running down her fur, covering her mouth. She could see the deer's eyes stray to one of the fawns, looking desperately as if to try and tell her offspring to run, to run far away. A brief surge of pity tugged at Nidae's heart, and she shook her head in one swift and sharp motion, snapping the doe's neck. The crack sounded loudly in the meadow, a clean break. As she dropped the deer to the grass, the rest of the herd, frozen by the violent and bloody events that had taken place over the past few seconds, finally sprang into action. They bolted, leaving their dead female. However, one straggled behind, limping heavily. The slow doe's right hind leg was broken, twisted at an angle that made even Nidae sick. How had the pitiful creature survived this long? The doe moved at the pace of a child toddler, but was stubborn, still convinced that she could move fast enough. That she could evade the jaws of the cat. Calmly, Nidassasyae left the carcass of the deer on the grass, sauntering up to the wounded doe. She enjoyed the fear that the doe excluded, breathing it in like an exotic perfume. But today was not the time for a game of cat and mouse, not the day to waste time torturing an already wounded animal. The leopard quickened her pace, walking abreast with the deer. It kept moving, and Nidae wondered if this was normal deer behavior. Was the female simply so filled with pain that she'd gone mad? Carefully, almost gently, the Kelvic girl clamped her jaws over the deer's neck and shook again. It was dead by the time she was done shaking it. Nidae sighed at herself, she had so wanted a chance to play with them first, to let out all the anger and stress she had been feeling at being cooped up in the city. Grabbing the dead doe in her mouth, the leopard walked over to her other prize, and laid both deer beside each other. Nida sat down, bowed her head, and offered a thanks to the deer's spirits. She didn't know if that was what humans believed in, or if this made any difference, but it was what her family had done. It was what she would continue to do. Nidassasyae thanked the deer's spirits for their meat, hides, and bone, promising them that it would not go to waste.

[Nidassasyae]

Silently, the leopard Kelvic latched her fangs into the deer's necks, carrying them as a mother leopard would carry her young. With a bit of difficulty at first, since Nidae had never had young, and had only seen her mother do it, she carried the bodies forwards. Following the trail to back where she came from, Nidae dropped the bodies beside the lightning struck tree. By now it was late in the morning, the sun already creeping to reach it's zenith. The leopard let out a sigh, she'd have to battle her way through lunchtime crowds. She decided that it was no use skinning the deer here, that the butcher was probably much better at that sort of thing. Maybe she could ask him for the hides, if he preferred to skin them himself. It seemed more likely that she should just ask him for the use of whatever room he did the butchering in, if only for a minute so that she could collect their skins. Her massive form disappeared in a flurry of swirling lights, illuminating the already bright forest. In a matter of seconds, a seemingly eighteen year old human girl stood in the cat's place. Her raven hair was in a bunch of tangled mess around her head, and she opened her mouth in a great cat-like yawn, exposing long fangs in the place of canines. Pushing her hair out of the way, the girl pulled out the bundle of wooden parts from under the bushes, and began to assemble them into something. In the course of a few minutes, it looked like she was putting together a sled. It was indeed a sled, her only means of transporting the deer while in this smaller form. Once it was completed, Nidae hoisted one of the does onto her shoulder, then dropped it onto the sled. She did the same for the next one, and secured them both with some rope. Nidae was about to sling her backpack over her shoulder and pull the sled out of the forest, when she realized she hadn't dressed yet. It was a common enough mistake, since Kelvics had no concept of modesty. However, she knew that nakedness made humans either very uncomfortable, or affected their emotions in ways that she'd rather not think about. She was certainly not the most beautiful girl, but she was bound to turn some heads if she strolled through town without clothes. The Kelvic girl quickly pulled her tunic and pants on, slipping her boots on after that. Satisfied that everything was in order, Nidae slung her pack over her shoulder, and began to pull the sled towards the city. In a few minutes time, she had made her way towards the gates. The guards recognized her from earlier in the morning and waved her through, but with a few odd looks. She didn't understand why people moved away from her, the crowd parting easily, until she licked her lips and discovered the reason. Her mouth was still covered in the deer's blood. Not really seeing any reason why she should wipe it off, and pleased with the benefits of looking like a savage, the girl continued her walk through the city. [END]

[Ataraxia]

Nidassasyae Iskedarst XP Observation +2, Tracking +3, Camouflage +2, Wilderness Survival +2, Stealth +2, Hunting + 3 Lore Maintaing the Balance | Restraining animal urges | Hidey Holes | Taking a cat nap | I think you have something on your chin... Comments Wonderful. I really liked this thread, both for your description of a Kelvic living in a human world, and the way you described the actual hunt. I awarded a plethora of wilderness skills because I feel they were all used here as well as wilderness survival because of Nidae's understanding of nature and her ingenuity in getting the slain deer back to Syliras. It seems like your writing is getting better too! The descriptions you used were great, everything was easy to follow, and as a mod and a player I became a lot more interested in your character and her development after reading this thread. Kudos to you, and if you have any questions you know the drill. Peace out!