(Job Thread) A nights hunt

[Victor Marivaldi]

2nd day of Summer 516 AV

The moon shone bright above the trees, revealing all the hidden details of the forest at night. Victors pupils grew wide, adjusting to the night, allowing him to see almost as if it were the middle of the day. The forest was quiet. Only the silent hunters of the night were out. The rest of the wildlife had returned to their homes to wait out the night. Victor planned on an easy hunt. Planning to track down one of the many sleeping animals. Victors light frame allowed him to stalk quietly through the foliage with only minimal noise. Victor had been following some medium sizes tracks for some time. He would occasionally lose them and have to retrace his steps to pick them back up again, adding extra time to his hunt.

A few hours passed without Victor coming across his prey. He had expected to find a sleeping deer at this point but these tracks just keep on going. Evidently whatever he was following was still on the move. Victor paused briefly to closer examine the tracks he had been following. Victors eyes widened, they were paw prints. Just as this realisation hit Victor a howl echoed through the night. It was loud, it was close. Victor reached for his furled up lash keeping it in his right hand, ready to be used at a moments notice.

Victor had been frozen in place for what felts like an eternity. In reality it hadn't even been a minute. The surrounding brush began to move. The wolf he's been following must have caught onto him. Victor panicked and looked to the tree tops. Leaping towards the nearest tree trunk, Victors hands gripped either side of the tree trunk pulling him up in an almost gliding type fashion. Victor quickly reached the tree top and perched himself on a branch where the leaves were thickest in hope of hiding himself. Moments later the wolfs nose pokes out of the bushes, sniffing left and right, zoning in on its soon to be meal. Creeping out its nose scanned the area where Victor had once been stood. Sniffing ever so closer to the tree where Victor had taken up hiding. The wolf approached the base of the tree and his head shot up to attention looking towards the distance past the tree. The wolf bolted past Victor, it seems he wasn't the prey the wolf was after. Moments letter Victor could hear it barking and the sounds of it bringing down his prey with a large thud.

[Victor Marivaldi]

Victor moved through the tree tops, carefully moving from one tree to the next. The sound of the wolf tearing into its prey getting louder and louder. Victor could see the wolf down on the forests floor. A deers neck hung limp and lifeless in its jaw. The rest of the deer still looked in fair condition. If Victor could get rid of the wolf that deer would make a great haul. The only question was how. Victor knew he couldn't take on a wolf in an open fight, it would rip him to pieces. Victor scanned the surrounding area looking for anything that would give him an advantage. There were a few large bushes surrounding the wolf that Victor could possibly sneak up in but the risk of the wolf spotting him were to great.

There was a large tree with a branch overhanging above. If Victor could position himself there he would have the perfect position to surprise the wolf from above. Getting close to the tree wasn't an issue. This part of the forest was quite dense allowing for easy movement through the tree tops. However the tree Victor needed to be in seemed to be alone. Standing just proud from the rest. Looking down Victor could see the wolf. It had started to bite into the deer, tearing the flesh from it and eating up the valuable meat. Victor had to be quick before the deer was rendered useless to him.

Victor gauged the distance he had to jump. It was a long distance but Victor reckoned he could make it. Edging himself slowly across the branch in hopes of lessening the distance Victor readied himself to jump. Pushing his weight down beginning his leap a large crack echoed out. Victor was falling. The branch beneath him gave way. Victor hit the ground in a crash, pain shooting across his entire body. Before he had time to check if he was okay he glanced over to where the wolf was. Its attention now on Victor. It was hunched over growling at Victor. Victor barely had time to bring his hand up to defend himself. The wolf was upon him snapping at his neck. Victors hands outstretched around its neck barely stopping it from tearing into his face. He couldn't hold it at bay for much longer, Victor still felt week from falling from the tree. Victor gritted his teeth and dug his claws into the back of the wolfs neck hoping it would flee from the injury. The blood running down the side of its neck only proved to make it angrier. Victors claws weren't long enough to do any real lasting damage. The wolf snapped harder and faster inches away from his face which was now covered in wolf saliva.

With his left foot Victor frantically tried to take of his sandal from his right foot. The sandal easily slipped off revealing more sharp claws on his feet. Keeping one leg straight and bringing his right one up beneath the wolfs belly Victor kicked at the wolf creating small puncture wounds in the wolfs belly. Yelping the wolf jumped off scattering into a defensive position.

[Victor Marivaldi]

A moments respite. Victor scuttles to his feet. Breathing heavily with adrenaline shooting through his veins, his shaking hands reach for his lash. Padding at his side where it should be he finds there's nothing there. Cursing himself for dropping it he stares the wolf down slowly circling each other. Victor can't help but think to himself is this it? is this how i go, to some mongrel out in the woods? He didn't understand why it hadn't fled yet. A lone wolf wouldn't usually stay in a fight after being injured. It must be starving. It did look a bit on the skinny side.

The wolf lunged after Victor. Barely managing to side step it victors now barefoot gets caught up in some branches on the floor nearly causing him to lose his footing. Only it wasn't a branch. It was his lash. Relief pours over him. Moving as fast as he could his hand swiped towards the floor, gripping his lash in his hand he spins to face the wolf. Its already coming for him. Seconds away Victor brings his lash round with all his strength behind it, hoping to strike it on its side. A glancing blow strikes off of the wolfs nose. It seems Victor threw his lash out a little too early. The wolf yelps in pain regardless. A large cut has opened up where the lash landed. It seems to be about all the creature can take, fleeing into the forest away from the panting Symenestra.

With the wolf now out of sight Victor collapses to the ground trying to catch his breath. With the adrenaline starting to die down the pain from falling out of the tree begins to set in. Even with his delicate frame he hadnt realise just how injured he was. His back felt like it was on fire. Removing his shirt to try and check out the damage he noticed there were some small blotches of blood scattered on the back of his shirt and it was ripped in places, he thought to himself he must have landed on some rocks. Victor flexed around his shoulders trying to make sure nothing was broken. For now it just looked like a few cuts but there would definitely be a fair amount of bruising later.

[Victor Marivaldi]

Victor sighed and looked over to the corpse left behind by the wolf. "Well i hope all this was worth it" Victor looked over the corpse inspecting the wound left by the wolf. There was a fairly large chunk taken out of the neck and some scratches running along the hide. It wasn't totally ruined but it certainly wasn't in top condition. "Well i suppose i better get you back before anything else comes looking for its dinner" With the weight of the deer combined with the pain from falling from the tree Victor struggled to lift the deer. Only barely managing to get it over his shoulder without collapsing to the ground.

It was going to be a struggle getting back to camp. Victor had been following those tracks for miles and in the fight lost track of his bearings. It took Victor just over an hour to find any landmarks even remotely familiar to him. There was a large tree that had fallen over sometime ago. He used to have his camp set up here, it wasn't too far from the road. Victor slumped the deer down and took a seat using the tree as a back rest. His muscles were weak and aching. He desperately wanted to get to his bedroll and get some much needed rest. All he could think of at this moment was how much he hated working for the humans. He despised that he had to put his life on the line to feed those who would love to stick a knife in his back given the opportunity. Unfortunately its what was needed to survive in these parts. Victor had no one to turn to if he ever went hungry, everyone he knew was back in Kalinor...

The sun was starting to rise by the time Victor had finally hauled the deer carcass back to his camp. He was greeted by the sound of Charlotte chirring and munching on grass. Victor laughed, dropping the deer in the middle of camp "Yeah and where were you when i had to haul this one back" The horse ignored Victor and carried on enjoying its breakfast. "Ha, thats what i thought" Victor walked over to a nearby stream to splash his face. It needed a good cleaning The wolf covered his face in spit as it rudely tried to tear it off. Charlotte let out a loud neigh behind Victor. "I know i have to prep it, just give me a minute its been a long night"

[Victor Marivaldi]

Blood dripped from Victors sharp dagger like claws. They tore into the carcass with relative ease, although it was less of a clean cut and more of a rugged tear. Victor hated this part the job. Most of his clothes now had blood stains from one animal or another. It was easier hunting down the animals then it was to wash out their blood. His nails also seemed to have a semi permanent layer of blood caked under them. Every animal he cuts up he swears blind hes going to get a proper hunting knife. It would certainly come in handy, especially after what happened during the night. Perhaps this time he finally will get one.

Victor started by cutting away the pieces of flesh the wolf got its jaw around. surely no one would appreciate meat that's already been eaten by something else. Once the spoiled pieces were removed Victor started work on removing the hide. It had already been hacked up a bit by the wolf so Victor didn't care to much about keeping it in a decent condition, at this point he just wanted it off so he could cut up the meat. Without the proper tools and knowledge it took Victor about 40 mins to completely ruin the hide and get it off of the carcass. Victor chucked it to one side and washed off his hands off in a murky red bowl of water he kept nearby, causing the water to go an even darker shade of red.

His claws weren't long enough to cut deep enough into the meat to get an entire cut of meat out cleanly, he really had to jam his fingers under it so he could cut underneath and not have to tear out the meat piece by piece. He placed each cut on the ground on one of the cleanest rags he could find. After cutting of as much meat as he could, Victor scraped off some of the less desirable meat from the bone and bit into it injecting his venom into it. He placed the meat into his murky red water bowl and put it aside so he could dig into it later on once the meat had broken down. Victor enjoyed turning the left over meat into a nice bloody broth. A Human once saw him eating it and nearly lost his dinner himself. The humans really don't know what a good meal is.

Wrapping up all the meat into the now blood stained rag he placed it into his rucksack, the insides of which also had a deep red stain at the bottom. It's no wonder the Humans didn't trust him. Everything about him looked like a mass murderer. Victor let out a slight chuckle at that thought. "Come on Charlotte" Victor rubbed his horses mane and hopped up into the saddle. "Lets go give the Humans their meat"

[Sayana]

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request. If there's anything I may have missed, please PM me and I'll be happy to look into it.

 

Victor

Skills

• Tracking: 1
• Stealth: 1
• Hunting: 3
• Observation: 4
• Tactics: 1
• Acrobatics: 2
• Unarmed Combat: 1
• Endurance: 3
• Weapon: Symenstran Lash: 1
• Cooking: 1

Lores

• Hunting: Taking the kill of another predator
• Basic skinning and preparation of a deer carcass

Comments: I liked how you really played to your skill level and thought of a creative way to go hunting as a novice hunter. Not many people would take the prey of a wolf and I found the combat scene rather refreshing due to Victor's low skill in fighting and clumsy mistakes.

Be sure to update your ledger with whatever seasonal expenses you need to.

Your Grader,

Sayana

Boxcode design: Firenze