Amaranth woke to the first snowfall of the year. Or at least, it was the first snowfall she’d seen, which made it the first anywhere as far as she was concerned. Peeking out from the hollowed-out riverbank den she’d claimed the night before, Mara blinked. The young female squeezed her eyes shut, blinded momentarily, and considered just going back to sleep. The bears had it lucky, she decided, dozing off in autumn and reviving at the cusp of spring.

The snow was hardly more than a dusting. Three or four body lengths before her lay a stream not yet frozen over. The night hadn’t grown cold enough for ice to span it entirely. It clung to the edges, coward that it was. Still, the sparse woodland before her was sprinkled in powdery white. Amaranth took it as a warning, even as she wriggled forth from the old hollow and stretched her way into a new day’s light.

She had never seen the depths of true winter, and despite the grave words of wolves older than herself she found the thought exciting. Snowfalls deeper than a wolf could stand upright, pine trees exploding in the grips of the most fearsome chill, wolves frozen stiff as stone if caught out unawares. Perhaps it should frighten her, but Mara figured that as long as she found a way to warm herself up in the moment she could go right back to appreciating the mysticism of it all.

The first step to warming herself up, she reasoned, would be to find a good meal. Particularly if she and every other woodland creature was destined to be frozen stiff. Might as well pack on the calories now if there was any hope of being thawed out in the spring. She struck out from her temporary den, eyes scanning the fresh snowfall for any recent tracks.

One golden eye lazily opened. The birds of the estuary were particularly chatty this morning and Mæva knew it was unlikely that she'd get back to sleep. With a yawn she rolled over toward the opening of her den then flopped down with her head just peeking out before yawning again. Her incessant wandering was starting to wear on her. She dozed off again.

A few minutes later she woke with a start. Ack, that was enough of that! Mæva willed herself out into the daylight, stretching to wake up her mind and her body. It was time to start her day. She took off crossing through territories til reaching the Fern Gulley. This area wasn't hit as hard by winter as other regions she'd seen. With a little luck maybe she could find some small game or perhaps a deer. Not that she'd have much luck catching it but she still wanted to get a feel for the movements of larger prey in the region.

Mæva's sniffed at the ground, brow wrinkling. Was that Amaranth? She followed the scent until she spied the familiar form of her sister. "Mara! What are you doing out here? Want to help me rustle up some breakfast? I'm famished, look at this." She poked at her belly with a paw and it gurgled in reply.

Amaranth wandered for an hour or so, and for all her best efforts turned up little to nothing. Oh sure, there were some tracks here and there, but nothing concrete enough for her to pursue. Was it her fate to become a pupscicle? Frozen solid, claimed by winter in the spring of her life? She was still busy waxing poetic when her ears twitched towards the first sounds she'd heard all morning that weren't coming from the birds or herself, and to top it all off they were coming from behind her. Curious, Mara checked over her shoulder just as her sister called out. She grinned.

"Well I was resigning myself to fated starvation, but your plan sounds much better!" Amaranth turned to face her sister head on. "What'd you have in mind? I don't really want to split a squirrel with you, but I'd take anything right about now." Once Mæva was caught up to her, Mara turned so they could set off. Her sister had always been the better hunter between the two of them, not that Mara held a grudge. More often than not it worked out to her advantage, meaning that she could slack off and still get fed if she was lucky. She doubted that would fly today though, because she was rather hungry so she might as well buckle down and try to get some results.

"Oh, I'm planning for something much bigger than a squirrel!" Breakfast was the most important meal of the day, or so she'd heard. She wanted to get filled up. Of course that was much easier said than done. "I've seen a lot of deer tracks and scat, there's got to be a fresh trail around here somewhere." She trotted along next to her sister, nose down to the ground as she sifted through the myriad of scents. Nothing, nothing, coon, nothing…

Mæva continued on her way until she caught a fresh scent of deer droppings. "Hey, Mara! I think I've found something." She started scenting the ground around the droppings, searching for a trail until she finally had a direction. It seemed like the deer had gone deeper into the gulley.

Admittedly, Mara wasn't sure her skills (or lack there of) we're up to taking down a deer. With Mæva there to help... Maybe? No doubt her sister was way better at this sort of thing than she was, so it wasn't an entirely hopeless endeavor. Mara nodded and tried to look thoughtful and unaffected by the prospect, feigning confidence like a fuckin' champion, all the while hoping that she could indeed fake it until they made it, so to speak. The other alternative was getting teased for the next one thousand years if she screwed up, probably. That was definitely not an option. "You're the expert," she said with a shrug, and followed in her sibling's tracks.

It didn't take long for Mæva to find something noteworthy. Not that she wanted to get caught for it or anything, but Mara was watching her more closely than she would have otherwise in the hopes of picking something up. Sure, it was probably entirely her fault for spending her free time loafing around instead of actually practicing useful skills, but it was fun, so she didn't intend to stop. Just... maybe eat less rabbits and squirrels. And Mæva was good at this sort of thing, case in point right there before her.

Mara stepped forward to examine the scat herself. It was pretty fresh, that much was obvious. If they were lucky maybe the deer, or even a whole herd of the walking-all-you-can-eat-buffets, was still nearby. Mindful of this, Amaranth kept her voice low as Mæva continued to investigate. "What's your plan here? Tell me where to go and what to do and I'll do it," she said, showcasing a rare moment of obedience and work ethic. So sue her, she was hungry. "But if I fuck up you can not tell Gus." The pesky know-it-all would never let her live it down. Mara might have glared at her sister to really hammer the point home, but she was too busy scanning their surroundings for any movement or sound. This was too good of an opportunity to ruin.

Mæva soon spied a small group of deer and she glanced at her sister as Mara asked her what the plan was. "Ummm…" She wasn't quite sure what the plan was. She eyed the deer for a moment and noticed one of them was coughing quite a bit. Its tongue was lapping at mucus that was pooling in its nose. "Ok, well, let's go for the sick one. And no worries, I won't tell Gus… til spring." She grinned the focused back on the small herd. "Do you think you can get on the other side of the deer and chase it toward me?" In the gulley it wouldn't have many options of escape and so she hoped her sister could drive it right towards her. Of course that would be pretty dangerous. She could get trampled. Still, she didn't have a better idea so it was worth a shot. If it looked like she was going to be mowed down she'd just need to dodge out of the way.

Coming upon the herd, Amaranth found herself watching them warily. Given her propensity for wandering off, when hunger pangs took her she was alone more often than not. Sure, she was a fair shot when it came to hunting smaller game... like rabbits. But a group hunt for something this big? Oof. Well, worse case scenario she gets kicked clean through her skull! She could work with those odds. It helped that she knew Mæva was wayyy better at hunting than she was, dedicated little bugger that she was. She might not admit it out loud but she was practical enough to know it was true. If Mæva was game, she was game. "Sick one? Wha-" Her eyes darted from deer to deer, trying to understand what Mæva had seen, until... Gross. "Oh." Mara turned her nose to the wind, finding its direction, then went on, "Okay yeah, I got 'im. Bunker down, they'll be stampeding towards you in no time." She sent her sister a confident wink before slinking off into the brush. In the short time she'd been alive on this planet, Mara had come to realize that even if you weren't confident faking confidence was pretty much the same thing. Worked a treat. She kept her pace slow, her body low, and her footfalls as silent as she could manage. Mara was glad that she was doing this, instead of waiting. She thanked whoever might be listening that Mæva had been gifted more patience than herself. Finally, keeping the wind always blowing towards her so as not to give the herd any bright ideas, she figured her position was probably good enough. The deer grazed lazily, none the wiser. Stupid idiots. The invalid was off towards the side, probably cast out to keep his cooties away from the rest. She'd never tried to move a whole herd on her own, so the idea of splitting one off from the rest might have been daunting if she'd given herself time to dwell on it. As it just so happened, she did not. Mara began to move forward at a brisk trot, trying to close as much distance as possible before they realized she was there. With one alarmed bleat the gig was up, and the chase was on. She charged forward in a full sprint, aiming to drive a wedge between the sick buck and the rest of the herd, steering him towards the gulley. She'd been a very good girl this year, so maybe as a treat it would run blindly into it and break a leg. One could hope! The rest of the herd began to peel away, and she had to zig zag to keep the sick one moving towards where (she hoped) Mæva waited and not back to its brethren. She began to pant, breathing labored, but she wasn't about to relent quite yet. Okay, this has been fun, but any time now! her thoughts grumbled. Talk about working for your supper... "TALK" "YOU" THINK

Mæva hunkered down behind a mess of rocks, golden eyes peeking out as she waited to see if the deer would head towards her. There was no great way to do this but if she could nab one without getting trampled to death she would consider that a success. As she waited her mind rank through several scenarios. She did her best to focus on the ones where she sprang out from hiding like some great Amazonian princess and took the prey down in one bite rather than the ones where she mistimed her leap only to be crushed by a very angry, very fat deer.

Soon she heard the sound of pounding hooves. Her ears flattened out to the side as she peeked over the rock to see the injured deer heading toward her. Oh yes, good job Mara! She wanted to shout but kept herself quiet. Just as the buck started to run past her she darted forward, her jaws wide as he fangs latched onto the back left leg, just below the knee. Almost immediately the buck began to jump and flail. She held on as best she could but suddenly the buck caught her in the chest. She let go with a gasp. "Argh…. I'm ok! I'm ok!" Scrambling back to her feet she gave chase again.

OOC: Pottymouth warning, I guess?

Whether it was adrenaline or careless lack of foresight, Amaranth found herself hard-pressed to remember exactly where her sister was waiting. She figured this ought to be close enough, and Mæva was definitely good enough at this sort of thing to reposition herself if needed, so that wasn't the problem. The problem was her labored breathing and not knowing when her sibling was gonna leap out all fearsome-like and tear this dumb animal's throat out. Because that was definitely how this worked. Gods, please let that be how this worked. Mara promised anyone or anything listening that if this worked out she would start intentionally running and building up her wind tomorrow, because she sort-of kind-of felt like a huge wimp right now. She was halfway through weighing the pros and cons of just calling it and living with being a failure as both a hunter, hunting partner, and sibling when Mæva finally appeared and went all 'Gotcha, bitch!' Mara would have whooped her relief if she had the air in her lungs to do so. She watched with savage satisfaction as her sister clamped down on her mortal nemesis' hind leg, teaching it a lesson it wouldn't (or would, if they were lucky) soon forget about being so freaking fleet footed... and then promptly got bashed straight on in the chest. Mara had just, just started to relax. The light at the end of the tunnel was almost there... so close she could almost feel her full stomach. She groaned, and continued plowing forward. "Oh you goatshitting bastard," she ground out as she neared the buck's other hind leg. Here goes nothing, she huffed to herself and lunged. Wary of getting her muzzle smashed inward she tried to keep her body off to the side, and didn't clamp down so much as bite and tug. Even if this thing just stumbled, she'd consider it a win, and stumble he did. It only slowed him down for a moment but she could hear Mæva still coming strong, so hopefully between the two of them this would be over soon, one way or another. She lunged again and again, harrying the buck until Mæva was there to help her tag team. That was totally a strategy... right? "TALK" "YOU" THINK

Mæva ignored the pain in her chest and focused on catching up with the deer. She soon joined her sister who managed to make the deer stumble, giving Mæva the time she needed to catch up. When Mara bit again the buck crashed. It tripped and fell to the ground. In a second Mæva was at the deers throat. She pressed her body in close, jaws over its throat as it struggled. It's front legs kicked out at her but with her body pressed tight against the prey's neck it wasn't able to generate enough force to really injure her. Finally when the deer had passed Mæva leg go and sat back panting. "Oof… why are deer so hard to hunt?" She winced then sighed. Smiling at Mara she stated that it was time to eat and started digging into the kill.

-end?-