Shadows in the Night (Solo)

[Plague]

Plague 20th of Spring 510AV Plague was in a mood to roam tonight, and had been flying around for hours by this time. It was about halfway through the night and nothing of interest had happened as of yet. It was a night of blackness, for the moon was completely covered by a thick layer of clouds. This darkness left Plague as just darkness in a sky of deeper darkness, which made him practically invisible to anyone who might be beneath him. It was conditions such as this that gave Plague a chance to practice his hunting, in normal conditions his complete lack of stealth and hunting skill made him a practically hopeless hunter. But when the conditions were this favorable, even someone with his lack of skill could have a good chance of catching something unawares. So with this in mind Plague flew silently through the air, listening intently for anything of note. His brother Neek had always told him that to hunt one must first listen. So he figured that he might as well try to follow the midget’s advice, Neek was much more skilled in the art then he was, so his advice was likely accurate. Although Plague would never tell that to his younger brother’s face, it would be far too damaging to his sense of pride. It turned out that while his Neek was certainly correct that silence in flight and a willingness to listen to your surroundings brings out massive amounts of raw data from one’s surroundings. He had forgotten to mention the fact that one still has to interpret that data. So while Plague heard many things, and chased many useless sounds, he started getting a feel for how to follow the hints of a sound. He began to get a feel for what sounds were useless to him and which were actually profitable. Obviously he was far from perfect, but a few hours practice works wonders when one is actually trying to learn. It was during one of these random goose chases that Plague actually came across something interesting. He found a clearly imprinted series of tracks, which was to him a massive improvement over what he had previously found. And since he was not in a rush to do anything in particular Plague figured that he might as well follow the tracks and find what had made them. So he sat looking at the imprints for several chimes, just studying them and memorizing the shape and the depth of them. He wanted to be sure that later he would be able to instantly recognize the shape and style of this particular track. He thought that if he could memorize the track and find out what had made the track, that later on when he needed to find something to eat he could just look for tracks that looked like the one in front of him. So Plague began walking slowly, keeping his head and chest low to the ground so that he could follow the tracks. His entire mind was riveted by the single thought of finding what lay at the end of this trail. Nothing else seemed to matter at that moment, he like the rest of his race was easily captivated and controlled by a simple thought.

[Plague]

Plague Fortunately for Plague the night was humid. Though he liked to think of himself as a mighty hunter, he was little better and probably worse than a newborn kitten at following a trail. So the dampness of the night helped to preserve the tracks he was following, the earth was just moist enough to hold the tracks together, but not moist enough to blur them out. It was a night designed for tracking. However even with the best possible conditions for following the trail of the mysterious beast, Plague was forced to keep a slow walk in order to continue following the tracks. But he continued onward without slowing down, he was determined to find this illusive animal. About an hour after he began to track Plague heard the sounds of bushes being pushed aside. The position of the sound was still several yards out, but it was in the direction that the tracks lead. So Plague started stepping as quietly as he could, he made sure to watch for leaves or twigs that could snap, and he walked very slowly and carefully. He took one tiny step at a time so as to not frighten the unknown beast. When the Zith finally did manage to get around the bush he saw a deer. Plague cursed under his breath, he had spent the last hour tracking down a petching deer! Mindless anger built in his system, aimed at nothing in particular. He was angry that he had wasted time, angry that the deer was a deer, and angry that he wasn’t a better hunter. So in order to fulfill the longings of this emotional surge, Plague leapt into the air and crashed in the now alerted deer’s back. He put all his weight into the dive, and severely wounded the spine of the creature. Then he continued beatining it with his fists, and ripping at it’s face and neck with his claws. Even after he had killed the animal, Plague vented his rage on the carcass of the animal, ripping it to pieces with his claws and fists. Just as soon as his anger came, it left. The warrior Zith was again flying around listening to his surroundings, the scene with the deer almost forgotten in his mind.