Closed Business Deals.

[Medhozic]

After collecting up the arrows and returning them to their leather quiver, he turned and set off in the direction of the doe. There wouldn't be a chance that he'd be able to catch it now - however, that didn't mean that he couldn't follow it and eventually collect it again. It'd be a long day hunting it down again and putting an arrow through its throat, but it was meat - adequate to last a few days, and with enough pelt to be sold with the meat, he'd bet on. All he'd need to do would be to follow the general direction that it'd wandered off, and then check for any signs of animal activity along the way. Then follow that back to the doe. Except when he begun trekking down the narrow pathway cleared by the animal, he heard the distinct snarling of what couldn't possibly be a deer. And the further he moved down the track, the less deer tracks that became obvious and the more wolf-like tracks. Heavy paws, occasional scratches.. his meal had been hijacked by a wolf in its flee! But it was the middle of the day, time when the wolves wouldn't usually be wandering around. Night was the best cover, even though most of them weren't nocturnal. And above all, there wasn't a group. Too little tracks around the place. A single paw-print here and there, nothing more. Wolves should have gone in packs, hunted together to take down their prey - he'd never heard of a solitary wolf apart from that illuminated one that had saved his life during a hunting trip. And the tracks were long, too. There had been scuffles, judging by the winding tracks. What had been only five chimes of running became thirty for the Ethaefal carefully tracing through the forest at a brisque walk, with his short-bow hanging in one hand and the other deftly pushing away the low-hanging branches in search of more tracks. But at the end of those thirty, he found something he thought he'd never see. A pool of blood, with crimson prints leading off a short distance away, and a dog with blood coating its jaws, lying dead on the grass. He could skin it for pelt, and actually replace the deer with the thing. But then, it looked to have had a bit of a scuffle with the doe.. and he could take both. A deer and a wolf, all in one. Twice the pelt, twice the meat. But he couldn't leave it here, alone. It could be feasted on by some other predator. Attract Kriital. He didn't want that. The short-bow pushed back over his shoulder, and he leaned down to pick up the downed and dead canine. It was heavy - he'd never actually picked up a wolf before. Usually they were the animals that would pick up his dead body, if he allowed them the opportunity. But he heaved the thing slowly up and over his shoulder, before rising again and dragging it towards the nearest place possible - a small enclave, made from a small cluster of bushes held inside a row of trees - and dumped the canine in there, out of sight. It'd be safe there until he came back, then he could cut both of them up and take them back to the castle for selling on the market. For now, he still had the deer to deal with, and the longer he waited, the more chance predators would come for that too. So at a light jog, he turned and set off after the small trail of splattered blood, bow drawn again and an arrow drawn from his leather quiver this time.

[Halona]

Halona Mabel Common | Canine | Thoughts The impact of hitting the frozen soil below jogged Halona to consciousness. Her whine turned into a groan as she shifted from wolf to girl. Sitting up she put a hand to the back of her neck then brought it forth expecting it to be stained with blood. To her surprise there was none, just her pink fingers turning red as they numbed in the cold. Though her head throbbed she breathed a sigh of relief for she was not injured. Glancing up with a start she realized she was not out in the open lying helpless by the tree she collided into but was resting in a small incline well hidden by a dense thicket of ferns and brush in front of her. "How did I get here?" She said voicing her thoughts aloud. "Who put me here? Not the deer...a hunter would have killed me as a wolf, so who?" Nothing and no one came to mind. A sudden groan emitted from her throat as she keeled over holding her throbbing head in her hands. When the worst of her headache had passed four chimes later she had risen to her feet. Doing a once over of her surroundings she deemed it safe enough to step out of hiding. A fierce wind kicked up washing over her naked skin in its icy blast. The shiver that followed was an unwelcome reminder of her human form's reaction to the winter cold. Effortlessly shifting back to a wolf she started forward unsteadily at first as her stubborn head refused to give up its steady throb but it didn't take long for her to tune it out enough to focus on the task at hand. Her hunt. Figuring the deer couldn't be more than ten or so chimes ahead of her at the most, she quickly crossed the short distance to her the scuffle with the deer and halted at its bloody trail. The forest had long since retreated into its silence that occupied her hunts but something was different, a new scent was in the air. It was familiar and yet it wasn't. The smell was odd, as if it didn't belong and yet it entwined itself with both the forest's fresh earthy scent and the unclean reek from Syliras. Rubbing her nose with a paw to lose the scent, she gazed down at the coppery red trail below before moving forward at a light trot. Why was the unknown scent mixing with deer? She wondered, as she moved. Its almost as if its following my prey...nah, must be my imagination. However she couldn't shake the possibility nor could she ignore how the human footprints she walked in reeked of the scent. It was slowly becoming less of a possibility and more of fact when she spotted the stranger. He was too far away to see clearly but a part of her felt like she'd seen him before as she neared she sucked in her breath as her version of a canine gasp, realizing who it was. Tight-lips. Quickly darting off the trail of blood and into a nearby clump of bushes she cautiously watched her earlier acquaintance. He was the last person she wanted to run into. "Why him of all people?" She complained glowering at his jogging form. Not to mention he was armed. Glancing at his readied bow a hint of weariness went through her. "I mustn't get too close. If I do he'll take that handy bow of his and shoot an arrow throw me." She warned herself, "heck he'd probably shoot me if I shifted to a human. All he'd have to say would be 'it was a hunting accident, I saw a wolf.'" The thought of appearing unclothed in front of his judging brown eyes made her feel extremely uncomfortable in spite of her un-modest Kelvic nature. Uncertain of what to do, she decided to keep to the safety of the woods. Briefly conflicted whether to give up her kill to the horned man she set her jaw and put her paw forward intent on following him. I didn't get knocked out by that deer to let it go, much less let the likes of him claim it. She encouraged herself, as she trailed him in as quiet a manner she could muster. That doe is mine and mine alone.

[Medhozic]

If he could have felt the eyes staring from the small shadows lining the blood-stained path, he probably would have shot an arrow into them without a second notice. The arrow was already set in the grooves of the bow anyway, and soon he was coming to a stop and crouching near to the fallen deer - it stood just a small distance away, nursing the wound on its leg. At least he knew that it wouldn't get far even if he missed the vital organs. It was the perfect opportunity. Not to mention he had a wolf that he could collect later and take back to the castle to skin. Maybe make a little collection and sew them together into a new cloak for use in his travels. Under the guise of the small bushes surrounding the tree, he settled onto one knee with his bow at the ready, drawn out horizontally and with the arrow set in its hold, pulling the drawstring back far enough that the limbs creaked with the effort of holding it in place. Just one clear shot through its neck. Not that there would be all too much chance, his best option was to just go for the body and have another arrow at the ready to keep going until the thing bled to death. He needed to spend some free time with the bow and work on it a little more, but he could do that later. The bow pulled back a little more, arms shaking from the exertion of keeping the tension in place.. and then all at once, it released, and the arrow flew through the air and cut deep into the side of the deers ribcage. It screamed out in its pain and tried to move out of the firing range of the unseen predator, but stumbled over its injured foot and struggled for breath past the arrow and the congealing blood in its lungs, choking and wheezing while it threw its head back and forth and blew blood out of its nose and mouth in heavy and labored breaths. And while it flailed with its limbs like a beached fish, struggling for footing on the wet and cold stones, another arrow was calmly drawn from its quiver and reduced the animal to weak twitches as he took a few steps closer and lined up the bow again, sending it straight through the throat with another spray of blood out over its light-brown pelt. After waiting a few moments for the body to still completely, he knelt down and took out the kopis from its place at his hip, before sinking it straight down into the throat just above where the arrow had pierced the flesh. Then, with a rhythm of chopping slashes with the curved weapon, he slowly began hacking through the thick muscle and parts of the vertebrae at the back until the head was dislodged and left to roll to a stop some few feet away. He needed to be fast, before predators came along. Which was why the bow was resting against the blood-soaked body as well as the two arrows remaining inside, within easy reach. It'd happened before. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

[Halona]

[b][googlefont=Petit Day of Season 513 Common | Canine | Thoughts Halona watched horrified as the man with horns brutally ended the doe's life. Arrow after arrow after arrow. It was a nerve wracking sight to see. She herself had a number of kills to her name but no prey of her's had ever been killed in such a way. But still she watched, watched bitterly as the deer choked on its blood helped along into its death with an arrow to its neck. To her it was unfathomable to draw so much blood, injure, yes; suffocate it, absolutely as that was how she was taught to kill in this form, it was natural. But to shoot a vital organ, make it choke on its blood was an unnatural death and a very unnecessary one. Even in her human form she had always ended her quarry's life in the quickest way she knew how, an arrow in its eye or heart. It was odd that the deer's gushing blood disturbed her so, she often tore at her kills open without a second thought, lapping up the red liquid as she ate but her kills were kills, it was dead. She had been taught to respect prey by the wolves she hunted with upon her arrival to the woods. So she honored her kills by eating her fill or selling its carcass for coin which in turn helped her. If she happened to fail in a hunt and her prey outran or outsmarted her she simply wished it the best of luck like ever other predator. It seemed to her that Tight-lips treated his prey like the animals the human's labeled them as, no respect, just another object to be sold. The Kelvic took pride in the order in which she conducted her hunts; injure hindquarters then kill by suffocation nice and clean, for the most part. In comparison Tight-lips' hunt was brutal, accompanied by excessive bloodshed. Trembling the Kelvic began to slowly slink back into the woods in which she came a overwhelming part of herself terrified she would be next. She froze in her tracks wide-eyed as Tight-lips did something she'd never seen before. He cut off the deer's head. It was at that moment that she both hated and feared the green horned creature. Hated for he removed the poor beast's head. She had long since known butcher's also cut the head from an animal's body but she had never stuck around to see it, witnessing it now, she was stunned then outraged. Feeling it was extremely disrespectful to the dead animal. It went against her instincts; one simply does not spill a creature's blood in its home then presumes to take its head. It was unnatural to her, unheard of and sick. Halona had turned tail and bolted before the doe's head halted its roll. Retreating at a sprint she didn't care as brush rustled behind her as she fled, far away from such a dangerous hunter. Sprinting through the woods she didn't stop until she was in her den surrounded by the safety of her walls at least a mile away. As always, she had learned something valuable after her hunt, to stay away from other hunters as their tactics were certainly not her own.

[Medhozic]

In truth, he didn't like it. In fact he hated it, taking away an animals life for the sustenance of his own, giving it such a poor burial and such a painful, mutilating death and desecration of its corpse.. such a noble and beautiful creature deserved so much more than he could offer to it. But he needed to do it - for survival. After all, if he didn't do it, someone else would. The strong fed from the weak and all that. He couldn't afford a single strike for a kill, so he'd make do with what he had, and if it took one arrow or all twenty, he'd bring it down and retrieve them again. And after the head was pulled off and the blood left to ooze over the floor and mixed with the cold dirt of the forest floor - with a little bit of steam rising from the pools as well as the heat radiated from the deceased corpse - he did just that, and tugged back harshly on the two arrows until they fell free from the body and were returned to the leather quiver on his back. And then he set to work again on the limbs, with the kopis wetly smacking as it split the muscle, tendon and ligaments in shreds and left the right front leg to fall away. The knee was bent and the first limb shoved into the bag. Then the right back leg repeated, pulled away and bent, shoved into the bag alongside the first. Blood splattered the bag and insects were already pouring from their coves. He continued though. He rolled the thing over onto its back and onto the right side, and hacked away at the left back leg, then the left front. All that was left was the headless, limbless torso and a bag stuffed full of limbs, one of its hooves trailing sickly from the top as he tried to close it, but eventually just left it. He had a wolf to return to after all, if the insects and scavengers hadn't pulled it away. He was sure he'd heard noises in the bushes but he hadn't payed attention - he had his kopis for protection, drawn and at the ready. Nothing came though anyway. After finishing up and leaving just the torso - too big to fit into the bag with everything else - he had to literally drag the torso through the forests. Since there was nothing on hand to use as a handle while doing this, the Ethaefal's fingers dug into the stumps where there had once been its forelegs, and hoisted the thing onto his back with a few tricky maneuvers before he began to slowly, steadily walk back though the blood-stained path that he'd come, towards the deceased wolf that he'd hidden away in the bushes. Every step made the open wounds squelch as some of the congealed blood dribbled down his knuckles, and his fingernails dig deeper into the bundles of nerves and severed muscle that still hung like entrails. He dropped it at one point and found flies clinging to the back - he swatted them away before digging his fingers back inside and continuing on his way back through the forest until he returned to the same bush. But the wolf was gone - not even any bloodstains or a carcass, it was simply as if the thing had never been there. He thought that he might have misplaced it, come to the wrong place, but he didn't have time to wonder, so he snapped a few of the sticks and had to rummage through the blood-soaked limbs in his bag before pulling out the flint and striking a few sparks over the dry twigs and leaves to make a small fire and slowly cook the little parts that he could manage. And there he sat, like a fisherman holding his rod, cooking the deer remains and waiting. It took a while. And he wondered, at the end of it, why only one half of the meat had been cooked and the other half left raw. But he still stuffed what he could into the bag again and stomped the flames out, before heading back to Syliras with his catch. Perhaps he could find some good choice buyers on the market in the morning. And set out for search of the lost wolf too.

[Orion Michaels]

Med +1 Intimidation +1 Weapon: Shortbow +1 Tracking +1 Butchering +1 Wilderness Survival +1 Cooking lore : Anger: Remove yourself from the situation Unknown Blonde Woman is Annoying Wolves are Pack Animals Kopis: Improvisational Butchering Tool Wilderness Survival: Small Cooking Fire Med Notes : So I’ve got to start with something big here. Suspecting or knowing someone is a Kelvic at first glance is a bit (read: way) too much. Just don’t do that. While their human form –might- have some clues, it’s still a human form, and a novice of observation without any lore on it shouldn’t be picking that out so quickly. And this overplaying applies to any skill. It’s becoming a bothersome theme to see it in each of these threads. Graders and STs will start docking XP or straight up not grade until it’s fixed. Don’t play your character like a badass when they don’t have the skills to do so. Write the struggle of getting better, of learning. Make it a journey so it’s all the more rewarding when you can track effortlessly and take nail your mark repeatedly in its vitals. The key here is growth. No one starts off big on miz. The key is growth, so work hard, enjoy the trip, and you'll get there someday. Halona +2 Observation +1 Interrogation +1 Tracking +1 Unarmed Combat +1 Stealth lore : Unknown Man with Horns is Rude The Price of a Meal is Pain: The Wrong Way to Attack a Deer The Horned Man is a Brutal Hunter results : -Minor bruising on head from where it impacted with log. Will heal naturally in 7 days -Persistent headaches for 3 days Notes Thanks for the thread you two. Let me know if you have any questions/comments/concerns. Please edit your request in the grade queue to reflect its completion.