Destined [First Solo Hunt]

The incandescent, inky black child knew better, he really, really did. But he’d woken up in the wee hours of the dawn on a day where both his parents were sleeping in, and all his siblings were still fast asleep. He couldn’t get back to sleep, and the world outside called him like a siren in the sea called a lonely sailor.

He’d squirmed his way carefully from the pile of pups, glancing carefully back at his family before slipping out under the polar bear hide and scampering as quietly as he could out of the cave, down the steps and down the ravine, as stealthy as he could with his tell-tale coat flickering and thrumming with hot fire tones as the movement and quick breaths ruffled his fur.

He wanted to do something for his mama. Da was always bringing her back tidbits of food, and now Red often brought dead prey animals for the pups to learn about and identify. There were lots of hares, a porcupine that strongly reminded Ardyn of Aoife’s quills. His mother had spent a good hour plucking the actual porcupine’s quills from his nose after he’d gone in at it from the wrong side.

Ardyn slowed once he was free of the ravine, alone in the wooded hillock, with the hill looming darkly above him on one side, and the quiet woods stretching before him on the other, with the lighter smudges of the open plains peeking through here and there in the distance. Prey, he needed to find some prey. He wanted to make his mom proud.

So, the heir dropped his nose, like he’d seen Cairo and his father do often from time to time while they were taking Ardyn and his siblings for walks and adventures under careful supervision at a distance. Cairo in particular sometimes muttered aloud or explained what he was doing if asked about it. It was called tracking, and Ardyn had already done a fair bit. After all, he’d tracked Great Aunt Baine all the way to the meeting rock by himself!

He'd made the decision some time in the last week. He would be a hunter as his second skill. Healing was still incredibly interesting, but chasing things trumped healing lessons for thrills.

He sniffed his way along, falling upon a game trail at last and trying his best to distinguish the scents. It was mostly a muddle of unfamiliar smells that still had his tail fanning fire through the air, moving in a fast blur of a wag as the excitement mounted in his chest. There were scents in here that reminded him of the haunches his father would bring—deer! That was it. It was deer… How did you hunt and kill a deer?

Did they have other legs? Or were they just, legs, hopping down the trail until you pounced and bit them? Finally, he caught upon a scent that instinct said was a viable choice for a kill, and he locked in on it, following it for a good while before he realized it smelled weaker. He was going the wrong direction. Young as he was, the logical option was to divert straight off the path and push through the underbrush, pushing shrub branches out of his way with small ‘hands’ as he went.

He’d definitely lost his trail, and soon, came upon a small stream that was likely ankle-deep on his father. The sun had risen enough that he spotted a shadowy, slim shape drifting along under the water, and his head cocked, mismatched eyes watching it in fascination. But eventually, his attention was captured by furtive movements on the streamside, through the tall grasses that bent over the stream.

His ears perked, and he began to slowly stalk the movement, which stilled. When he thought he was close enough, he pounced with a yap.

The Valhallan heir landed smack right in the middle of a fawn, tucked away in the grass. It was a wild thrashing and bleating of frightened deer and flailing limbs. Ardyn hadn’t expected quite what he’d gotten in the middle of, and his claws sank in, front paws wraping around the shoulders of his surprise prey animal as he tried to figure out what to do. Da and Cairo had said something about biting the neck.

Ardyn flailed around on the bucking fawn, wriggling while he held on for dear life with his front legs until he could reach the neck. It took several attempts, but suddenly, his mouth was full of fur and then his teeth sank in, long puppy canines meeting the mark by sheer luck, ripping into the jugular. He held on, clinging to the fawn’s neck as blood pumped frantically into his mouth, tasty even if it was half choking him.

Suddenly, he realized the fawn had stopped struggling and wasn’t moving anymore. The pumping had stopped filling his mouth, slowing to a trickle.  Finally, Ardyn let go, dropping the fawn’s neck and sitting up, feeling sore from head to toe from the struggle, and more than a little dazed.

He prodded it with a hand-paw, then realized that it was indeed dead… He’d done it. Made a real kill on his own. It was a start, and he had a long way to improve on; even he knew that it could have gone better.

He stood on shaky legs and bent to begin dragging his prize back to the den, in time to hear his mother’s voice echoing through the woods in a tone that said he was in for a lecture about going out alone. But he was doggedly determined to get his kill home to show his parents that he could provide for the pack.

It took ages and ages, and he was completely tuckered out by the time he was met at the ravine by a frantic mother and father, but he took the lecture without complaint because even in her fury, he saw the pride in his mother’s eyes and knew he’d done well.

-end-
1008 words

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think