Closed The Hunt

[Loda]

19th of Summer 515AV

Rain lightly fell upon the warrior's face. The charcoal paint he had so carefully put on his face was now gone, fallen down to his feet in the puddles that had formed there from his impressions in the sand. The rain clouds crackled overhead and the ocean spray flew up against the rocks in front of him, creating a thunderous collision that matched the clouds above. Out of nowhere the storm had come on and as he stood there not even ten minutes, now he believed the storm was passing.

The rain it dropped was warm like the summer that surrounded them. The humidity of the jungles near Taloba likely brought him this blessing and he welcomed it with an open mouth. After taking a few long drinks, the rain stopped and continued on off into the distance.

He was no great tracker, nor anything else great for that matter. The only thing he could boast of was his fighting ability, and now that he stood here, even that was taken from him. The high pressures from the storm made his older wound in his shoulder ache mightily. This was when he would overcome and show his true strength, not lay in bed and writhe. That is why he was here on Black Rock, to overcome this injury and get back his spear arm that had slain many beasts in his life.

All he had seen thus far was various fishlife along the coast to test his spear arm, but he was no great swimmer and dreaded the thought of being swept out to sea. That however didn't mean there weren't things to hunt for here. Anything he could throw his spear at would be a welcome to his few month old injury, and would help him remember his old throw.

Stepping out of the puddles that had formed at his feet, Loda moved down the coastline, curving slightly inland, looking for fresher tracks made in the mud. He did his best to keep his eyes open, but the fog of the island, especially after the rain, was obscuring his sight.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

[Traverse]

For the most part the beach was empty, Loda had glimpsed a couple Svefra, and a few Charodae lounging upon the beach, weaving seaweed and carving intricate designs in shells they had collected from the sandy bottom of the bay.

With the onset of the rain, a small reminder of the monsoons pelting Falyndar, he found himself alone with a stretch of rocky shores, and smoother sandy coastline before and behind him.

His assumption about the lack of tracks after the small storm was correct, whatever prints there had been in the beach, if any were gone. As Loda curved inward, towards the rocky slopes of the island, and some of the few foliage, however, he did spot a couple marks in the ground. They were smooth and indistinct, due to the rain fall, but small and leading off into a small pathway bordered on each side by high walls of rock.

[Loda]

As Loda went, the lacking tracks of those few beasts that wandered the island began to worry him. He was used to the jungles, where tracks were so common that you couldn’t hardly distinguish between the old and the new.

Since this was new for him, perhaps he missed more than he saw, but eventually his eyes did lock onto a set of tracks. He couldn’t tell what it was at first, either because he didn’t know the beast, or because the tracks were strange to him in the dirt. Regardless, it was signs of life and he silently tried to stealth after whatever it was.

Surely it moved without care upon the island, only likely worrying about Dhani or various snakes. It wasn’t as though there were Ya’Tago on the island or large predators to bring it down, at least according to what little he knew, yet the man treated the island just like the jungle.

Carefully he moved and tracked it to a small pathway that was bordered on each side by high walls of rock. He didn’t like how his spear arm would be at a disadvantage in here, so he brought it low to his side with his other arm to guide it. This way he could do a strike up or down, but if he got into trouble he would likely have to go for his dagger at his side, yet that was not something he wanted to do.

With that he proceeded into the small ravine and kept his eyes and ears open while following the tracks, particularly upward to make sure nothing was above him.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

[Traverse]

It was easy for Loda to be relatively silent as he walked as the ground beneath his feet was sandy and soft, a blessing and a curse as it was this type of ground that made it so hard to keep track of the rough and rain worn prints he had been following in the first place.

For a while Loda did lose sight of the tracks entirely, but unless the creature he was following had doubled back, there was only one direction for it go in, and a few hundred feet, the crevice widening ever so slightly as he made his way along, he found more clear paw prints, for that is surely what they were now, this area sheltered from some of the downpour. They were small with the impression of three toes, and the farther he moved the more of them he saw, overlapping each other.

After a bit more time walking Loda would find the pathway split off into two routes, neither of which had visible paw prints traversing its paths. The leftmost path had an overhang of rock that kept it shaded, the right was open to the sky.

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

As he went his eyes kept peeling away to look at the clouds above him, hoping it didn’t rain while he was in this ravine. It likely could flood him out if he wasn’t careful. He was purely guessing though as he wasn’t very skilled in mountainous terrain. He knew that in like areas in the jungles of his home they acted as funnels for water, and on this island especially now during monsoons, it could rain. He never suspected there would be much as far as dangers went on this small island. Perhaps a crazed ghost, or perhaps disease, but not something like this. He had to ignore it because he was losing track of the beast.

He still couldn’t figure out what it was and it bothered him. Where had he seen something three toed before? Was it a lizard? He couldn’t make out the print well enough to determine what type of animal it was, but he could swear it was a paw print of some kind. Now that he came closer to the beast he could see more impressionable tracks, many of them in fact. Perhaps if this was a predator of some sort he might have bitten off more than he could chew.

Part of him wanted to continue cautiously and approaching with great stealth. If it was indeed something of a great number, then he would need a fall back point, or that’s what they would call it in the military. It was a place where they could run back to and hold. In this case if it was such a ferocious beast he couldn’t handle it, or a mob of beasts, he figured either way, a funnel of sorts could work. So as he went, he looked for an area that was very tight and close together; an area he could hold.

Yet as he walked he came to another area, a split into two routes. One had no paw prints and led to an overhang that was shaded, the other path had no paw prints and was open to the sky. The fact there were all of a sudden tons of paw prints and now there were none made him suspect that the beast could climb. He looked closely at the rock near the split where the tracks stopped, trying to indicate whether something went up on the rock, either by disturbed sand grains on the rock, or by seeing a natural path that led upward. He had climbed with Savacea, so if this ledge didn’t look treacherous, then perhaps he could manage it. If it did he may very well go down into the dark, not fearing it. A beast might likely be looking for a place to be out of the rain at times, so this could have been ideal.



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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

There was not a lot of good hand holds for Loda to climb, a few rocky outcroppings could be peeked over and hung onto, but it revealed only more mostly vertical walls, with no evidence of more tracks or much use.

The shaded path was next for inspections, the stony roof formation having kept a large swathe of sand clear from the previous rain. Travelling cautiously down the not too narrow corridor, Loda found no tracks, or indentations, though soon the walls became a bit more colorful, wither a few types of green and yellow mosses cascading down the rocky walls like naturally made curtains. After a chime or two of walking the overpass disappeared, and puddles of water appeared in indents in the sand around him. Now he did spy tracks, but they were not the same as before, these were clearly some kind of tiny two pronged bird feet, trailing in strange looping spirals. If he looked upwards and down he could spot several tidal pools that probably got a measure of water when the ocean came in, a few sand piper meandered about casually, not yet alerted to his presence.

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

As Loda traversed downward into the shaded portion, he was disappointed he didn’t see something up on top of the rocks up there. It was all too vertical. He couldn’t figure out how the tracks managed to just disappear like that, unless the thing jumped or flew. As he went down further the shaded path it began to open up and he was many types of mosses on the wall.

“Very beautiful in here.” he thought to himself, wondering how a black charred looking rock like Black Rock could have hidden such vibrant colors. He used his spear to lightly brush aside some of the hanging moss in areas it seemed like there could have been hiding holes, but kept mostly focused straight ahead. As he came down he could see that there were tidal pools and could hear the crashing of the waves here. Nothing like his prey was down here.

The sandpiper was a tiny bird, hardly worth a meal, but better than anything he had gotten so far. He felt his burlap sack on his side and considered how many he would have to kill to fill that He then imagined that he didn’t exactly have a crossbow here. He had a spear, something that would pierce through every single thing of worth in the bird, ruining the meat. Perhaps there was something in the pools that was more enjoyable like sea cucumber’s or something.

That seemed to be half of what he had eaten here on the Island. In the meantime, if he could see nothing larger, he would crouch at the edge of some tidal pools and watch. He knew there were often found crabs, stranded fish, clams of many type, sea cucumbers and much more. He would spend some time down here hopefully collecting some food, but eventually his plan would be to head back up that other direction and see if he can get back on the trail of whatever it was he was originally chasing. This was a fortuitous area however if the ocean was nice and brought in some things for him. After done searching the area, if he didn’t anything further of interest besides food, he would head back up the other direction.

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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

While sand pipers weren't much of a meal, Loda's investigation of the pools was highly more fruitful. There were half a dozen or so crabs in each pool he came across. Generally half of them were quite small, and not worth a meal, but he discovered a larger variety a foot or even more wide not counting their legs, they blended in quite well with the dark rocks of the isle, having bumpy rough backs, their coloring nearly ebony save for an almost opalescent underbelly. Their dominant claws were powerful, and Loda got a couple vicious pinches, but managed to collect four large specimens to deposit in his bag, and a handful of mussels before leaving.

re-tracing his steps and trying the un-covered path Loda found the walls narrowed quite dramatically, and he could see why the tracks he had followed here had disappeared, as small rivulets of water trailed down, left over from the rain, damaging his own foot prints mere ticks after he left them. At one point he had to turn sideways to fit through a particularly thin area of wall, though it opened up shortly afterward, becoming more populated by green shrubbery, and similar looking moss from before. After only a few more chimes of walking Loda found clusters of more similar prints, some more clear if they were left under the protective shrubbery that were clearly paw prints. Within twenty feet of his current position he spotted the end of this pathway, Several holes, large, though not large enough for Loda to fit through set into the craggy walls. Resting in front of one of them was a small fox a dusty white color with distinctive black marks over its eyes giving its face a severe expression, and black rings around each of its paws that Loda could see. It starred at Loda quite squarely in the eyes, a clear intelligence lingering behind piercing black eyes.

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

The speed of the crabs was impressive, and their pinch was fierce. Yet in the end, he nearly filled his bag. After a good moment the crabs stopped moving, settling in the dark of their fate, yet at he moved, they began to squirm again. He would have to remember this spot, and also not over hunt it. It was a good location should he need to fill his quota and not be able to find anything.

As he left he back traced up the path to the other direction. Moving along as silently as he could, he found not only that it narrowed here, but that the water falling destroyed the prints. It made sense now and he figured her perhaps was on the right path. He couldn’t tell if he was down or upwind because of the cavern above, but he had to head this way regardless. Eventually he turned to the side to squeeze through a tight area and that was when he spotted paw prints. There were many sets of them, and it either meant the beast was alone and tricky, or it was a community. He could deal with one small fox, but many biting and nipping his bare flesh would not end up kindly for him.

As he came to the shrubbery he could see one lying in the opening of a large hole. There were a couple problems with this. The fact that there were lots of prints, and lots of holes, meant there was likely lots of foxes. The second thing was that it knew he was there and almost seemed to be baiting him to throw his spear. Squinting his eyes Loda raised it up as if to throw it and took aim. He then went through all the motions as if to throw it, yet didn’t let it go, just to see what the fox would do.

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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

The fox tensed visibly when Loda lifted his spear to throw, but did not move, eyes trained on the spear, which if it did leave the Myrians hand, had a slight distance to travel before arriving at its location. After he did not throw it, the fox stood up and retreated to the entrance of its cavern, eyes still watching Loda, and that was when he heard the noise of shifting bodies, shadowed heads appearing in their safe holes, to glance at the newcomer. There was no growling or snarling, no hostile intentions towards Loda, just those strangely calculating eyes keeping an eye on the trespasser in their territory.