Placeholder [Solo] A Trail Lost

[Zuriel]

{78th day of Winter, 513}

Zuriel remembered the past seasons in an ugly light. He had attempted to follow the female he met in spring. Over the Cyphrus grasslands it wasn't a difficult task, she wasn't exactly one to tidy up after herself.
His fortune had faded quickly however, and he had lost her trail near the shores of a thin sea. He remembered weeks spent futilely searching near the shoreline both to the north and south, hoping for signs of one of her roosts or the remains of a killing, all to no avail. Finding nothing he was certain she must have crossed the water and he had set wing across the expanse in belated chase, his hopes diminished.

The landscape on the other side was vastly different to what he was used to, and her trail was long since too cold for his untrained tracking skills to follow. Scanning the landscape the zith found nothing but hunger, and he passed the weeks on scraps and small game, taking to searching more than hunting. Quickly though he became weak from the small influx of food and moved to hunting the majority of the time, Although the game was quite different he managed to remain mostly healthy.

Once the weather began to cool, though he yearned to find, well, anyone averse to killing him on sight at this point. He did not wish to be in this unknown land as the cold season grew deadly. He had made up his mind and headed back for Cyphrus to survive the cold, at least in the grasslands there was land he recognised, at least in the grasslands he could hunt properly!

[Zuriel]

Zuriel pushed aside the slew of grey memories, Spring neared, and he would soon leave Cyphrus behind, possibly for good. He looked out over the grasslands as he ate his most recent kill, the hunting had become easier of late, as it tended to when winter waned. Over the past few weeks he had eaten well and was starting to feel strong once again.
The young zith knew the grasslands well by now and though they were familiar, they were not home. They, and most everything in them, wanted him dead. He had skirted death night by night during his stay in the wilderness here. Whether from his own hunger or that of something else.

It was obvious to him which direction his friend had taken and he would fly out the same way, over the thin sea, to explore the mountainous country beyond. "Can't be anything worse than Akalak and Glassbeaks." He said aloud to himself, and ripped the last large chunk of meat from the birds chest. He eyed the smaller bits of carnage left clinging over the remains, turning them in his hand as he thought. Deciding to put the leftovers to better use he looked up and grabbed his spear with his other hand.

[Zuriel]

Turning as he stood he took in the sight of the water and waded out, slowly and surely, taking in any movement he could discern beneath the waves. Spear held aloft over his shoulder he brought the tip of one wing up in front of him and hung the remains of the bird on it before stretching it out in front of him, dangling the bait in the water. "Hold it far enough away and they won't suspect a thing.” He reminded himself as he waited in the darkness, almost visibly sighing as movements and shadows tested his bait before slithering away instead.

Some time later a loud splash and a yell of triumph pierced the night... for those with zith-like hearing that is. The ruddy zith pulled his spear back to retract the fish and growled angrily when he realised what had happened. In pulling his spear up he had released the wriggling fish, as doomed as it may be, to be eaten by something else beneath the water. Bait diminished but not yet gone, he dangled it back in the water hoping the blood might help attract more prey.

After a few closely missed opportunities Zuriel's bait was beginning to look like tattered scraps. Focused as ever he stood as still as he could manage while waist deep in water, waiting for... “Another bite!”
The hunter lashed out and struck through the fish, pushing the spear tip until it contacted the silt floor. "That should keep it attached." Excited as he was he reached down to grab his prey with one hand, keeping the other firmly on the shaft of his spear. "Stab 'em and grab 'em" He thought, "don't pull back." and remarked to himself aloud how much easier it was to catch larger fish with his spear rather than his claws.
Zuriel killed the fish and stowed it in his bag, he was well-fed and with a couple fish stored, now had a good two nights food to carry with him on his journey. Taking to the air the young zith flew directly out over the water and on towards the mountains, the time had come for something new.

[Zuriel]

{87th day of Winter, 513}

Zuriel flew through a valley between peaks, it was too early for him to be awake. Unfortunately for the young zith he had fallen asleep under the overhang of an unassuming ground fissure and was roused by an unsettling noise coming from below. He was glad he had jumped out and taken to the air on instinct as not too long afterwards the fissure had ejected steam and hot water metres into the air. How exactly a zith was supposed to know which caves and cracks were safe to sleep in, and which would try to boil him alive he did not know.

The early dusk was bright with a sun that had not yet retreated in fear of nightfall's encroaching power. It’s insolent glare annoyed his eyes, and blurred his vision. He could hear small game about and tried to wing close enough to a rabbit without catching it’s attention. The small animals often cast a glance to the sky however and in this light, the lucky critter caught sight of its hunter and scrambled into a burrow before he could close the distance.

Hunting was a numbers game for Zuriel, he didn't chase his prey long distances or wrestle it to the ground. He dropped from the sky and put his spear down its back, he relied on basic ambush tactics he knew from childhood. These tactics were simple, energy-efficient and would kill or capture his prey before (or shortly after) they knew he was there. As a result, he wasn't worried by the loss of a meal so early in the night and carried on unphased, spear held beneath him in both hands, pack held tightly to his back by two straps, the first over one shoulder and down around the opposite hip, the other cutting horizontally across the bottom of his chest.

Zuriel circled back around, not moving too far from the river he had found a few days earlier. Fresh water would keep his thirst quenched and keep him thinking straight. The river would also attract prey, and while drinking they could be taken more easily by surprise. However, the night was too young for the red zith and though a short scan of the shoreline found a moderately sized animal coming in to drink, Zuriel didn't take into account the angle of the sun. The pesky orb had yet to fully hide itself and his shadow was cast upon the water, startling the beast before he had even begun to move in on it.

[Zuriel]

As the conditions darkened he struck more luck, spearing a reasonably large bird coming back to roost and a rabbit that was not quite as quick-footed as the last. Though the rabbit was dead, speared through it’s torso, he had only struck the wing of the bird and had then collected it as it attempted to control it’s descent. It would probably live a day tied in his pack, a broken wing on a bound bird wouldn't bleed much anyway and prey tasted better as fresh as possible. Besides, if he caught nothing else tonight he would need to eat tomorrow to keep his strength up.

One of the most troubling things about this new land was how hard it was to find a decent roost, large caves were inhabited or easy to get to. Small ones tried to cook you themselves, he had even been hounded by a pack of canines not a handful of days before and was completely unable to make roost. These things had made clear the need to find a safer, more permanent roost. Whether he stayed near this mountainous land or not, he required a place with at least questionable (rather than a glaring lack of) safety. Due to his moderate luck in finding lunch for once, he had a full night ahead of him to search for such a place. Staying reasonably close to the river, he checked both sides for a roost that would be out of reach of most large or pack predators.

[Zuriel]

Though it took most of the night, a suitable roost was eventually found. The entrance appeared as more of a wide horizontal fissure than a cave, it was situated under an overhang and as a result the rock beneath angled sharply into the mountainside. An extremely skilled climber could make their way up into the crack, however they would be climbing with their back to the ground before reaching the entrance.

Inside, the cave was not much more than an over-sized nook. It carved into the cliff-side about a metre before angling sharply into a vertical drop as tall as the zith himself and about two metres wide. Though the floor was littered with some large debris it was old or dislodged during his descent and could be cleared out by hand. The young zith set to work, taking the larger of the rocks out first he then left his bag behind and cleared the smaller stones. Finally he pulled at any loose pieces on the wall overhanging him, the last thing he needed was for one of them to awaken him. It wasn't a roomy place, enough space for him to lie down in relative comfort, able to stand only in the entrance tunnel, moving on his haunches at the highest in the rest. But there was only one of him here after all, he wouldn't need much space.

He noted before the sun began to rise that he could hear waves in the distance, he mustn't be far from the ocean...