[Flashback] An Unusual Method

[Renaria]

2nd Day of Fall, 510AV "Okay Renaria, listen carefully." A huge black panther was addressing a young snow leopard. To anyone wandering by, the pair would be an odd sight. For one thing, there was no snow and it was not even remotely cold, hardly the habitat to find a snow leopard in. For another, the young cat seemed quite content to be sitting before a large panther, a beast that could easily kill it with a simple flick of a paw. "I'm going to explain to you the basics of hunting." The panther was in actual fact, a Kelvic named Ithus. He was training the young snow leopard to survive alone in the wild. The latter cat mentioned was also a Kelvic, the daughter of Ithus' oldest friend. "Now, the first thing you have to do is locate your prey." He had chosen the location carefully. They were in a woodland about a days trek south-east from Nyka. Rabbits were in abundance and they provided excellent training opportunities. "Do you remember what I told you about locating?" The young leopard nodded. "Yes. You said to listen first and then to smell. When you have a clear idea of where your target is you can start to move." The cub recited what her teacher had told her previously. Ithus nodded. "Very good. Now, tell me what you can find." Renaria rose from her seated position before dropping into a crouch. Her ears pricked forward and she held her breath. After a couple of heartbeats had passed, her ears flickered and she turned her head to face right. Her body followed, and she lifted her muzzle a little higher before breathing in the air to catch the woodlands scents. If cats could grin, then that was what she was doing when she turned back to her teacher. "There are rabbits to the east." Ithus nodded at this; he had scouted the area earlier, and the small creatures were just 2 minutes from their current location. "Correct. Now follow me, and I will show you how to catch them." With that said, the panther rose and moved past the cub before setting off at an easy job. Renaria followed suit and the pair headed toward the unsuspecting rabbits location.

[Renaria]

The pair quickly arrived at their destination. Ithus signaled to the young cat to make herself hidden and so, as leopards do, she climbed a tree. It turned out to be the perfect spot; she could see her teacher clearly, and the rabbits would not look up. The panther called up to her, his voice hushed. "Now watch closely. I wont be able to narrate what I am doing." The cub settled herself into the tree, while the panther readied himself down on the ground. Renaria could see that he quickly zeroed in on a target. His muscles had tensed, and he had frozen still. She followed his line of vision to a very young rabbit a little ways off. She wondered fleetingly why it hadn't run away yet, but then a gentle breeze reminded her that they were downwind from their quarry. Ithus had started to move, inching forward ever so slowly. He only moved one limb at a time to eliminate any noise and excess motions. His head never moved, his eyes never dropped his target from sight. He was just feet away from the rabbit when it started to show signs it had seen the panther. Tiny ears pricked up on it's head, and that was all the signal the cat needed to pounce. He coiled his muscles and in one fluid motion, he leapt forwards. He landed just shy of the rabbit, as it had started to run. A couple of running strides later, and a paw came down on it's tiny quarry's back, pinning it to the ground. Even from up in the tree, Renaria heard the unmistakeable snapping of a spine. She leapt lightly from her perch, and headed over to her teacher's side. "Observe where I have my paw set." The cub looked. Ithus had set his paw down just behind the rabbits shoulders, right on it's spine. "If you wish to kill it like I have just done, this is where you place your paw for the most effective blow." Renaria nodded, filing the information away for later reference. "Now you don't weigh as much as I do so it might not work right now, unless the rabbit is very young. Therefore, once you have it pinned you will need to sever it's windpipe." The panther extended it's neck and grasped the rabbit between his teeth to demonstrate where and how she should hold it. He then let his kill drop back to the woodland floor. "Now it is your turn. Do you think you can remember what you have seen me do?" The cub nodded, and Ithus returned it. "Very well then. You will need to first find a new location since the rabbits here have long gone underground."

[Renaria]

As before, Renaria pricked her ears forwards, followed by raising her nose to smell the air. She turned north and shot a glance to Ithus, who nodded. The pair set off again and quickly came across another small clearing in the woodland. The panther then hung back to keep an eye on proceedings. The snow leopard mimicked the crouch she had seen her teacher do earlier, and located the rabbit she would try to catch. It was neither young, nor old, so she would probably have to deliver a bite for this time. Moving her limbs one-by-one, she started to creep forwards. Ithus nodded slightly to himself as the cub was making minimal noise, which meant she was much more likely to make her catch. However, with several yards to go, the rabbit turned to look directly at Renaria before sprinting to a burrow opening. Mortified, the leopard stopped in her tracks. She couldn't understand what she had done wrong. Ithus quickly made his way to her side and she looked up at him. She caught a hint of her reflection in her teachers dark eyes, and that was when she realized. "I'm the wrong colour!" She sat down with a light thud. "You're dark and you blend in. I'm a snow leopard, I can't hide!" The panther gently nudged the young cats shoulder. "You can, Renaria. You just need longer grass." She continued to sulk, till movement caught her eye. A little way off, a young rabbit hadn't yet noticed the pair of cats. It was happily chewing grass near a tree. Renaria's eyes narrowed for a moment, before she stood up. She slowly moved round towards the back of the trees. Ithus watched her, slightly confused, but he held still nonetheless. She reached the nearest tree to the rabbit and proceeded to climb it. Progress was painstakingly slow, but she was determined. She had remembered that the rabbit hadn't looked up when Ithus was demonstrating, and she hoped it would be the same this time. At a sufficient height, she inched along one of the thicker branches, careful not to make a lot of noise. She paused and readied herself. The rabbit was to her right, and if she could get this correct, she could easily reach it. Her muscles tensed for a fleeting moment before she flung herself from the tree. She reached out before her with her front-limbs and yes, she landed on her quarry with a satisfying crunch. Ithus all but bounded over to her side. "Well done! Fantastic improvisation Ren." The young leopard sat proudly beside her rabbit. "Right then, lets get moving. Pick that up and bring it with you." The panther then proceeded to move off through the trees, Renaria following behind. It was an afternoon that would not be forgotten. She had made her first kill and was well on the way to becoming a hunter.

[Archon]

Illumination of Development Renaria +3 Observation +2 Tracking +2 Hunting +2 Stealth +2 Climbing +1 Acrobatics Lores: The scent of rabbits, Hunting Rabbits (Basic), Hunting from above Care to see more? : Tracking and Hunting experience for your work on finding and hunting the rabbits, Stealth experience for the attempts to be sneaky, Climbing experience for climbing the trees, and Acrobatics experience for the jumping death from above. Notes: A nice little thread. I would have liked to award you more experience, but you gain experience by doing things, not by being told how to do them. A bigger focus on your character's actions, not the NPC, would help you get better rewards in the future.