Predatory Prey (Druna)

by **Sliver** on October 1st, 2012, 2:27 pm

Predatory Prey

40th of Fall, Five Hundred and Twelve Years after the Valterrian

It was a cold day that heralded the hunting party’s departure from the City, even by Avanthal’s standards. The two Vantha were wrapped tightly up in their leather and furs, and two giant bears snorted with impatience to begin the journey.

The Cast:

Radienne – The Senior most member of the party, Radienne is rather lanky for a Vantha, with turquoise streaks in his salt and pepper hair. He has a thin and orderly beard that reflects much of his personality, and no one could deny that he was born to sit on the back of a Dire Polar Bear. His tight fitting jacket is lined with the coat of a Sabretooth that he had struck the final blow upon in one legendary Talderan Sabretooth hunt, and his skill with a long bow is well known around the city, his deeds having gained him a few songs around the taverns.

Liku- Radienne’s mounts, Liku is a fierce, but playful bear. Her energy is boundless and she is known to take up guard patrols on top of her own just for fun (Its rumored she never sleeps and when asked Radienne never denies it). A peerless scout and tracker, Liku was a necessary addition to the hunting party. One trait that sets her apart from her bear comrades is that her eyes are a deep blue that can be seen shining like sapphires in the right lighting.

Lynden – A new Icewatch member, this is Lynden’s first time in the field. His skill with medicine is the trait that really gained him his position in the Icewatch, but he is not combat oriented, and will tell you that again…and again in case you have forgotten. His black hair gleams with deep violet highlights and he keeps his sideburns long, bits or pink and maroon peeking out from his facial hair. He has not yet bonded to a bear, but the joining is forthcoming.

Sliver snorted unhappily. While the bears and the Vantha seemed perfectly comfortable in the biting cold, even in her newly distributed furs she was still shivering with the cold. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she had gotten to run alongside the bears in wolverine form, but it was out of the question at the pace the bear’s moved. She mounted up behind Lynden on the bear named Druna, who had been quite silent since the party had joined up. Radienne rotated Liku so he was facing the three.

“I know most of you are aware of why were are leaving, but a full briefing is in order.”

He straightened up. Sliver recalled the Twins warning her to watch out for his prideful fault of being in love with the sound of his own voice, the only individual sharing equal love for it, being Liku. Sliver braced herself for the onslaught.

“About 12 bells ago there was an attack inside the city. Three injured, one fatality.”

He paused long enough for Sliver to start getting annoyed, especially because she knew how the story ended, before heaving a large breath and continuing.

“They were attacked by a group of deer, two stags and four does that fled right after the attack. We have been charged with bringing them down to ensure they do not return, as well as attempt to learn whatever we can about why these creatures are so feral. We are to travel as far as our rations will hold us before returning. You will defer to Liku and I as your superiors for the length of this mission, our word is law, though I am sure it will not come to that.”

He looked almost worriedly at the three, eyes changing to an uncertain olive green before they returned to the depth of a fir tree. He turned and signaled with his hand for them to move out. Liku and Druna had already determined the direction in which the deer had fled, and then the party was off.

For the first time Sliver regretted having a Mohawk. The chill air seemed to grip onto her scalp and cling to her as the bear surged beneath them, following in Liku’s wake. After a couple minutes Sliver pulled and tightened the hood over her head, cursing one of her Icewatch companions about being right that she would need the adage. She whispered a prayer that was fittingly taken away on the icy wind to her newly found Goddess.

“To the sod who is leading us, to these bears and this twit in front of me. To those who have died, to those that live on, Morwen help us.”

Her words had an almost poetic ring to them, and she cursed again at the Vantha wearing off on her.

by **Druna** on October 5th, 2012, 6:13 pm

The morning finally arrived, she stood at the gates, as the bear she was. The cold hardly even a factor while she was covered in the dense white fur. Shifting her heavy paws in the snow, huffing as excitement flowed off her in waves. The large female bear wanted to dance with anticipation when the leaders of ice watch came to her, giving her orders to hunt and destroy the abnormal animals that attacked with in the city. She was honored that they choose her to be apart of the hunting party. That was intill she found out that an unbonded fumbling fool of a medic, that only just joined, was coming along. That met two things to Druna, one: he was untrained in combat therefor just in the way, and two: They where possibly hoping she would bond with the little man, which just pissed her off even more. Still she had to remind herself that this was an order, and the leaders would just have to be disapointed if they came back with one less or a still unbonded bear. She hoped that the later was all they would have to deal with.

Footsteps approached her in an uneasy pattern. His smell hit her before he even said a word. Lynden. she mind processed. He smelt of herbs and oils. Typical of a medic in these parts. She turned her head and gave a small growl. Just a warning for him to stay out of trouble and not to get in her way. Lynden seemed to get the point for he stood as far away from her, checking packs to make sure they had everything they needed. Druna watched him with black eyes, examining him from head to toe, coming up with a conclution that he will need her protection. Just as she decided to protect the lil man, a small woman with a unique mowhak approached the group. She was not of this area, and tightly wrapped in furs, smell of a beast filled Drunas nostrils. A wolverine kelvic, yes, Druna heard that there was such a beast that joined Icewatch. Only never really meeting her face to face. Druna only had time to nod her head at the kelvic before the senior comander and his mount joined the now compleated group.

The medic and the kelvic fell in line, the Kelvic having no trouble climbing on her back, Druna couldn't say the same for the Man. He tried several times, hand fumbling about, pulling Druna's fur and neck blubber. Even trying a running start, in till Druna finally bent down, She huffed a bit and rolled her eyes as his quacking body finally mounted her. Poor man smelt of embarrassment and nerves. She had to stiff a roar of laughter that would of came out if it was any other time but now. Poor man...so nervous She spoke only to Liku. The other mount just smirked.

Radienne looked at the group, becoming quite serious. “I know most of you are aware of why were are leaving, but a full briefing is in order.”

His voice was pleasing, low in tone, calm, yet authoritative. Druna's thoughts instantly lost, the soldiers mind coming to the for front.

“About 12 bells ago there was an attack inside the city. Three injured, one fatality.” He stopped and looked over the group again. Druna already thinking of the mission took this time and found the sent trail. Making an small noise in the back of the throat imprint the path and let Liku know of her findings. The other mount already doing the same. “....We are to travel as far as our rations will hold us before returning. You will defer to Liku and I as your superiors for the length of this mission, our word is law, though I am sure it will not come to that.”.

Druna readied herself, when a whisper from the other kelvic caught her attention “To the one who is leading us, to these bears and this twit in front of me. To those who have died, to those that live on, Morwen help us.”

In Morwens name we pray. she thought as she roared and took off through the gates, the Camandor and his bear already ahead of her.

*************************

She was running for about four bells, following the trail that was laid out by the scent of the creatures she hunted, when the Medic called out that they need to break to conserve energy. Druna slowed to a walk, keeping pace with her commanders. Both bears looking for a safe place to rest for a bit. Finally finding a clear area, with large ice formations to the north, whiched help block the icy wind. Druna bent down and waited for the Kelvic and the Medic to climb off, after she padded over to a pack and went up in a thousand lights. In a blink of an eye she stood in human form, quickly dressing in clothes that where in the pack.

As she dressed she spoke, "The trail is still fresh, hopefully it doesnt start to snow. If we are lucky I assume we should be upon the heard in a days time." She looked up at the sky, biting the inside of her lip, "I really don't want to loses any time by having to stop." She turned and looked at the medic, "Yet we still need to find a suitable place to camp." Grabbing a water canaster she drank a few gulps. "Here," she handed the canaster to the other kelvic. Turning to look at Radienne. "Commander, your orders sir?"

Randienne dismounted allowing Liku to phase if she pleased, he remained quiet for a minute or so, thinking of their next best move. "Lets rest a bit, take count of supplies, and boil water." He looked at Silver, "You and Druna go out and look for any sign of the heard. Report back with in a bell."

Druna nodded, grabbing a pack of spair supplies just as a precision. Walking up to the other Kelvic she extended an hand. "Druna, 6th year Icewatch Kelvic."

by **Sliver** on October 6th, 2012, 2:12 am

Sliver rubbed her arms, stretching quickly to encourage blood flow. She waited patiently for orders, aside from her slight experience over the medic, she had little to no say in what went on in their mission, and she was perfectly content with her place. She would earn respect and authority, but that would take time, and she could be patient when she set her mind to it.

Good, she could keep moving. She assessed the human form of the dire polar bear she was accompanying, Druna. She was pretty, and seemed knowledgeable. Sliver had caught onto the scent they had been following here and there, but it was clear this was what both bears did. She put out her own hand and shook it firmly.

"Sliver, barely a season Icewatch Kelvic."

She smirked at her little joke and glanced towards the woods.

"I'm glad to be out here, these animals...what they're doing..."

She trailed off, knowing that a fellow Kelvic would understand her distress. Now for the scent. It was of fear and the musk of dirty, unkempt prey. It had been taken from her, the wind and snow diluting and pulling it away just when she thought she had latched on. She growled a bit to herself in frustration as she stepped forward from the shelter of their base camp, exposing herself to the wind. She contemplated turning, but decided to conserve her energy, it would also make communicating with Druna more difficult than necessary. She stooped down low, then got onto her belly. she looked a bit silly like that, but Sliver always missed her height in wolverine form, and didn't care how ridiculous she had to look to get back to that level. Her eyes scanned the ground, head tilting this way and that. Nose wrinkled, and she remained there for a few minutes before smiling in pride as she found it again.

Druna had probably never lost the scent, but now at least she was on the same playing field. The Kelvic rose, eyes combed for any tracks that hadn't been swept away by the chilling winds, then started forward with the Kelvic on their scouting mission.

by **Druna** on October 17th, 2012, 2:07 pm

A simple smile fell over Druna's lips at Silver's little joke. It was true Druna didn't joke much herself, but she was enjoying the Kelvics lighter personality. She knew the kelvic wasn't from Avanthal. If she was, she would of been born a bear. But it wasn't absolutely unheard of other breeds of Kelvic joining the Icewatch, this was just the first that Druna ever had the pleasure of meeting. Her mind wondered a bit as she thought over this, and also what would be the best move to make next, when Silver made the comment Druna also thought many times since the first attack this fall.

"Yes, I too would like to know what it the petch is going on. At first I thought it a fluke, now I'm worried more attacks will come. That it will become more dangerous as the animals become more aggressive." She spoke, not looking down at the other Kelvic. Her eyes looked up to the sky, calculating if it was going to snow.

Druna allowed Silver to catch the scent before she started moving forward. She didn't think her odd for getting close to the ground, the other Kelvic smelt of Wolverine, meaning she was more comfortable lower. The bear looked out into the open tundra. The herd probably stopped here to rest from the piercing wind. Tracking was harder for her, never really having much experience. Turning her head to the wind, Druna took in a large breath, holding it in, she went over the different scents in her head. Frost, cold smell of slight pine, probably from the frozen twigs of trees. Heat, from Silver and me. Animal...musky. Not us...blood? yes blood very faint.. almost frozen? A confused look came over her face. She knew her sense of smell was muddled while in her human form, but it wasn't totally useless. She needed a second opinion.

"Silver...smell the wind tell me what you smell..." she looked in the direction the blood seemed to come from, kneeling down and scouping up some snow, playing with the consistency. Frozen....should be a trail... She waited for Silver to process the scents. Knowing she too would pick up the slight smell of the rusty blood. Druna scanned the area, staying close to the ground, looking for any dips or slight mounds a trail would create. Should be easier to spot then this.... she thought. Frustrated, she stood and let the now melted snow fall from her hand. "Where is it..." she spoke to herself, scanning the ground for any trail marks, fur, or indents from an animal walking in the frozen snow.

by **Sliver** on October 24th, 2012, 2:07 pm

Sliver nodded glancing out into the grey and foggy sky that subsumed the tundra, her feet shifting in an attempted to encourage blood flow.

What did she smell? She smelled a lot of things. The faint scent of trees, pine, birch, spruce that encouraged any animal to know there were woods here if you took the time to look. Now that she was paying attention she smelled the old musk of whatever had come to this site before the deer, which could either be an old bear or a couple of wolves, though she couldn't be sure.

These things, were neither here nor there, however, so Sliver focused on the smell that Druna had asked for, the deer. They smelled unkempt, of saliva and exhaustion, matted fur and hooves that stunk of old blood, loamy earth and ice that stuck to their fur. It was a mingling of all these scents that made up the deer they were chasing, and it was about then that Sliver caught onto the scent that Druna was probably asking her about...old blood. Blood was either old or new, new smelled fresh and brought the imagery of crimson dripping in rivulets down fur or skin clearly to the wolverine's mind. Old was congealed or dried, it had a mustiness to it, and a more unappealing odor, for who would leave a fresh kill so long to let it get cold or dry?

But this blood, from what Sliver could tell it wasn't theirs, the Icewatch had killed a couple, but had reported the rest untouched when they fled the city, which meant the old blood she smelled was their prey. Or at least she thought so.

"I smell old blood on them. From the kill?"

Now she bent down over the ground. There were no discolorations, but even with the wind the ground was hard enough to keep some tracks, none of which she saw. She paced forward, keeping low in order to enhance visibility, and made her way in ever widening circles around their area. After a few chimes Druna would hear the sound of triumph as the Kelvic beckoned her over. There were only a few tracks, it seemed the deer were light enough to leave little imprint on the ice, but Sliver pointed to a a set that were quite clear in the ice, highlighted by one long mark not quite in the shape of a hoof.

"One of them must have sprained their leg. From the size of the tracks its either a young male or a doe. If she stays with them it will mean they have to slow down."

She smirked and rubbed her hands together. Then glanced back towards camp, probably time to report their findings

by **Noblesse** on April 21st, 2013, 7:10 pm

Sliver :

Druna :

True nobility lies in being superior to your former self

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out. Heehee.

Closed Predatory Prey (Druna)