Invisible Flying Deer (solo)

by **Zerren Verre** on November 28th, 2012, 3:32 am

3rd Day of Fall, 512 AV
Invisible Flying Deer

The late afternoon light filtered through the Zeltivan mountain forests almost lazily, creating a shifting pattern of shadows on the forest floor as the wind from the sea rustled through the canopy. It was a beautiful fall day, and all of nature seemed to be vibrant in the last fleeting remnants of summer. Small birds flitted among the branches, calling to each other. Squirrels scampered between trees, chattering to one another, not yet collecting their stores of food for the winter months that seemed ages away. Deer crept through the brush, nibbling at the still green plants while listening intently for the slightest noise, and bounding away when they heard it. It was almost impossible to feel anything but a sense of peace and joy as one wandered among the trees, but Zerren managed it anyway.

Zerren slowly crept through the underbrush in his panther form, all senses running on high alert for any sign of prey animals. Yet, while his eyes, ears, and nose all focused on the world around him, his mind drifted and considered how unfair it was that life had come around and forced him to hunt, not to feed himself, but to feed people who were too lazy to go hunting for themselves. Zerren’s meager funds, that had been all that his father had left him before going on his last voyage, had finally run out near the end of summer. And now he was out hunting in the woods for meat that he wouldn't even get the opportunity to enjoy, just so that his house wouldn't fall in on him in the middle of the night and have enough left over to get salt… To preserve food, that he wouldn't really enjoy, for over the winter months.

Zerren’s attention jerked back to reality as his ears picked up the sound of a soft snap off to his left. His mind raced, trying to sort out what could have made the noise. It hadn't been a hard snap, so that would mean that whatever it was didn't have hooves. That narrowed it down to a rabbit, a squirrel, or a predator, like Zerren himself. He considered whether it could be another predator like himself, but dismissed that idea quickly. There had been no claw marks up on any of the trees, and that alone ruled out a large number of predators. That, along with the fact that he hadn't heard any wolves about or smelled their markings, removed any normal predator that could be out hunting. Whcih left either a rabbit or a squirrel, and since it had been close to the ground, Zerren was wagering on a rabbit. And he thought a rabbit would make a fine first catch of the day. All this passed through Zerren’s mind in only a few seconds as he began to creep towards the noise even more slowly than he had been moving before.

Zerren kept his eyes forward as he moved through the dappled light of the forest; looking for any sudden movements in the brush that would indicate that he had been spotted or heard. Since he couldn’t look down to check his footing, even for a moment, without risking being spotted without his knowledge, he inched each paw forward carefully, testing each potential footfall for anything that might snap or crackle to give away his position as he crept towards the noise, which had become a fairly consistent, soft crunching sound as he neared it. The fact that he had four feet to a human’s two made this task simpler for him, balancing on three feet while moving the forth was much easier than balancing on one foot while moving the other. He could freeze at any time without fear that he would lose balance and fall almost without regard to where he was standing. That fact, combined with the soft pads nature had granted his feet, let him move through the brush more silently than any human with an equal amount of practice to him.

Unfortunately for Zerren, he only “practiced” whenever he was actually sneaking up on his prey, and more often than not he liked to leap down on prey that wandered to him. Zerren cringed as one of his hind feet landed squarely on a dead stick that had been hidden from view by plants. The resulting snap triggered a dead stillness from up ahead, as whatever it was Zerren was sneaking up on froze and became even more alert than it already was. Zerren, understanding perfectly well that his errant footfall had likely cost him this prey, froze himself stiff. Standing as still as a statue as he straining his sense to try to guess whether the situation was still salvageable, his mind was racing once again, the rabbit might disregard the noise as another rabbit or some other non-threat animal. Or it might just bolt off through the bushes back to its burrow. Zerren was hoping for the former, but fully ready to accept the latter... With more than a bit of complaining.[/i]

by **Zerren Verre** on November 28th, 2012, 3:44 am

As he stood listening, Zerren found himself thinking of his time at sea. Specifically he thought of one of the times when the crew had decided to fish for their suppers rather than “put up with the slop that bilge rat of a cook kept feeding them for one more night”. He had watched from where he had been kneeling, scrubbing the deck, as the men, after several unsuccessful casts, would seem to wrestle with themselves for a moment before relocating to a different part of the ship or casting again. Although there was probably a less bleak situation to look back on, considering that every last one of the sailors had come back to the kitchen asking for the standard grub that night, it seemed to fit well enough. He thought over the idea for a moment, should he fish? or cut bait? Should he give this rabbit up for lost and move on to maybe catch some other rabbit? Or keep trying for this rabbit and maybe save some time?

While Zerren had been thinking, the crunching noise had started up once more, although with intermittent pauses, a sign of alertness that hadn’t been present before the twig had snapped. He almost snarled, but refrained because he didn't want to risk scaring off the rabbit if he went after it. And, of course, he was much to stubborn to not go after it. He began creeping forward once more, going so slowly that the remaining few feet before he could see his prey took almost three, agonizing, chimes to cover. When he was sure that his next steps would bring his prey into his view, Zerren quickly took an inventory of his surroundings and came up with a plan for how to advance. He still couldn't see the rabbit, so he knew it couldn't see him. He could go up into a nearby tree, but that would produce too much noise for an already alert rabbit to ignore. He could try to creep a straight path toward the rabbit, but he discarded that idea as well since there were bushes in the way that would probably also make too much noise when he brushed against them. He settled on going around the tree he had considered earlier, since there weren't too many twigs or leaves directly around the base, he could creep around it slowly and hope that the rabbit was facing the other direction. At that point hopes and wishes were really the only thing that made catching his prey even remotely possible, so he turned and moved silently to the tree's base.

Zerren crouched so low that he was almost crawling by the time he reached the tree. He edged his way around the trunk and peered out towards where his prey stood, munching on the underbrush. For a moment, he couldn't spot the prey, it's short, dappled brown hair made it harder to see in the shifting light of the forest. He almost laughed at himself, but avoided making noise and just considered the new situation. He wasn't positive whether to be angry with himself for misidentifying the noise, or overjoyed to find a lone fawn. The small deer was tentatively nibbling at a small bush, tense all over, but facing away from Zerren. He supposed that its mother must have been caught by some other predator quite recently. He also figured that his hunt had become a dozen times easier, as long as he could keep his feet from betraying him.

Zerren started away from the tree, a shadow peeling away from the trunk and into the dappled pattern of light and dark cast by the leaves above him. He was moving less slowly than he had been after the twig snap, but still not as quick as he had been moving before. He focused on trying to bend the deer’s will to his own by thinking, not that he expected it to work. [color=#00FF00]Just stay put, became his own little mental mantra as he edged closer and closer. The deer seemed to be obeying well enough; it appeared to be totally focused on the bush in front of it. Yet, as Zerren edged closer still, he saw it start to slowly bunch up its back legs, ready to bound away after one more mouthful. Zerren would have grinned had he been in human form; instead he leapt forward and slashed at one of the deer’s hind legs, partially cutting a tendon. As he did, he thought once again of that time at sea and smiled a cat’s grin. The deer should have cut bait, and now it wouldn't be getting the chance to.

Except the deer ignored the fact that it couldn't cut bait and did so anyway. As Zerren leapt back again, the deer half sprang, half limped into the forest, still going much faster than Zerren would have liked for it to be going. He huffed and thought for a moment, upset with the prospect of spending the rest of the afternoon chasing down a deer, probably losing it, and possibly bringing it back in good enough condition to have it be worth his time. Zerren briefly considered letting his house fall in, but decided that he was not about to let a deer force him out of his home even if it would be the easier path. Zerren walked over to where the deer had been munching and peered in the direction it had ran/limped off. After just a few seconds he spotted a few drops of blood on one of the branches, and several freshly snapped branches close to the forest floor. Zerren breathed in deeply, trying to sort out the scent of his prey from all the other scents and then set off after the deer at a slow run. He couldn't let the thing get to far ahead, or he'd never find it again.

by **Zerren Verre** on November 29th, 2012, 10:36 pm

Zerren’s slow jog didn’t seem to hinder his ability to pick up the trail much. He noted some kicked up leaves and twigs, walked over to the disturbance and inhaled, confirming that it was the deer that had caused it. Zerren didn’t see any more visual clues forthcoming, so he sniffed at the air, trying to get an idea of where the deer’s scent had settled. He considered each direction as he tested it. North? North-east? He definitely smelled deer to the north-east… And also the north-west. Zerren suddenly realized that he couldn't quite remember which direction he had come from to start with. He looked around for some discernible landmark and smelled the air again. He was fairly certain that the scent was stronger to his left, and he was more than certain that he could smell himself coming from the north-west. And as quickly as he could manage, Zerren was off again.

Zerren was fairly confident in his ability to follow a crippled deer through the forest. There was a blood trail, there were broken branches, there was a scent to follow, and yet after ten chimes of following there was still no deer. Zerren became more and more frustrated beginning to suspect that he had stumbled upon Mizahar's only flying deer, but he kept at it. He was forced to scent the air frequently to make up for the gradually fewer and fewer visual signs he was coming across. He was becoming more and more certain that he was going to lose the deer completely until he had a thought. If the scent trail was getting stronger, and the visual signs were becoming fewer and fewer in number, then that meant that the deer was going slower!

With renewed hope Zerren continued on, finding that the scent was indeed getting stronger as he went along the trail. He knew that a stronger scent meant that the deer was there more recently and/or that it had stayed there longer. He knew he was getting close, he could almost taste the deer in the air. Until, suddenly, the scent dropped away so sharply that it almost wasn't there. Zerren stopped, completely confused, as the scent trail abruptly seemed to cease existing in front of him. Zerren turned around and sniffed back the way he had come from. The scent was still there, along with his own. He turned to sniff all the other directions. He couldn’t pick up anything newer in any of those directions either. He couldn't, for the life of him, think of any possible reason for a trail to vanish like that. Unless...

Zerren growled as a vague, impossible possibility occurred to him. What if it HAD been a flying deer? He hadn't really meant that the deer should be able to fly. It was an expression! Zerren growled again, louder this time, and suddenly something erupted up from right in front of him out of the sparse undergrowth. Zerren fell back and let out a strangled, and quite undignified, yelp as the deer he had been tracking bounded off ahead of him once more, still limping slightly but seeming to compensate for it now. For a third time in as many chimes, Zerren growled. A petching invisible deer wasn't really any better than a petching flying deer in his opinion.

After his moment of shock and anger, Zerren was immediately off after his prey once again. He figured that the deer’s blood must be clotting, otherwise he knew he’d still be able to see the red in the underbrush. He figured it would still be limping, it would be hard not to with a tendon mostly cut... Unless he hadn't cut as deeply as he had thought... Zerren scowled at the thought and sped his pace just a small amount, still checking the air for any spare scent of deer.

Zerren quickly came to the conclusion that the deer was going slower again, since he was catching a much stronger scent much more consistently as he followed the trail. He vowed to himself that he would not be letting it get up so it could bound away again. After a few chimes of following, the scent trail started to get stronger, while the visual clues became all but non-existent. It was just like last time, except that this time the deer wouldn't be running anywhere after Zerren caught up with it. Then Zerren walked out from the forest into a small, circular clearing about ten yards across, filled with grass that reached up to Zerren's chin when he held his head as high as he could, which was uncomfortable to do for too long. A terrible place to go hunting for a deer. He was annoyed by the development, but figured that as long as he had his nose he would be fine. Zerren could still smell the deer, and that was all he really needed. He hoped.

by **Zerren Verre** on November 29th, 2012, 10:52 pm

Slowly, Zerren entered the field. His vision was instantly swallowed by the yellowing grasses and his ears overwhelmed with the light rustling of individual blades brushing up against one another and his own fur. The smell of dried grass nearly over powered the subtle scent of the dear, but only nearly. He silently thanked the gods for his nose one last time. Then, just as had happened before, the scent seemed to vanish. Zerren grinned and backed up two paces, then made a small circle around where he thought the deer was, remaining tensed to spring the entire time until he came back to where he could smell his own scent. Then he took another step into the ring and started again.

As he went around in circles, the grass in the field left a visible part behind him as he walked around, and if viewed from above it would have looked like an imperfect spiral getting tighter and tighter and tighter until, finally, the deer could take no more of Zerren’s endless approach to its position. It sprang up to run when Zerren was only a few feet away, and Zerren immediately sprang after it, catching it’s flank and tearing hard at the muscle. The deer nearly buckled, but caught itself and prepared to spring again. It was too late.
Zerren hit the deer like a hammer made of teeth and claws. He bore the deer to the ground and sprang away, only to spring in again and clamp his jaws around the deer’s throat. It struggled, and struggled, but to no avail. Zerren was the all but the shadow of death and this deer was not going to escape him again. Slowly, the deer’s struggles diminished, then ceased entirely. Slowly, Zerren released his hold on the deer and stepped back, observing his kill. It’s a shame, he thought to himself, that I can’t eat this… I just get the privilege of dragging it back to town somehow. He sat down on his haunches and washed his muzzle and paws as he thought. He knew he could find his way back to town by following his own trail, and he was confident that he could get the carcass back to town somehow, whether by carrying it or dragging it.

Zerren smiled his cat’s grin one last time before changing to human form. The grin changed slightly with the change of his form, but it remained cat-like in some way, like it always did. Zerren thought of how nice it was that no matter how bad a mood he was in at the start of a hunt, by the end, he was almost always happy, or at least exhilarated for a while. As he dragged the deer back to Zeltiva, he relaxed and enjoyed the scenery as he hadn’t been able to at the start of the day. He knew it had been, by no means, a perfect hunt, but it had certainly been fun.

"Notes" :

by **Verilian** on February 4th, 2013, 7:40 pm

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Thread Award

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Zerren Verre

+4 Hunting
+2 Stealth
+1 Unarmed Combat
+1 Tracking

You Question My Logic? :

Lores: How to Hunt a Deer

Loot: 200 Gold Mizas (I would have just given you the deer meat itself, but I assume you are wanting to sell it, and since fall is over you cant, so I'm helping you out that way you can pay your living expenses and stuff.

Notes: Interesting thread. If you want to sell the deer, you'll need to do another thread. Good job, and keep on writing!

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