Golden Fleece
Cairo!
Cairo II
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (295)
Weaponsmaster
9 Years
Male
50
BrienaSkysong
He was steadily tracking the scent of an injured ram, movements graceful and stealthy. He wasn’t exactly downwind of them, but he was careful to move in such a way that his scent wouldn’t reach the bighorns. He laid eyes on them, spotting the injured male and studying him, then the herd and surroundings, until his eyes landed on the agouti form of a familiar wolf.
She was one of those who had helped with the moose cow, and he waited to catch her eye, nodding toward the ram with an ear flicking in question and invitation to help hunt it before he shifted his path, moving with experience and softness. The animals were wary, especially with the smell of blood among them.
Luckily for the two wolves, the ewes and younger rams weren’t especially keen on staying close to a weak meal ticket for predators. Each time the ram tried to integrate; the smell of his injury drove the others a little further away. Cairo moved until he was in an advantageous position. If Halla were to charge now, the flock would scatter, and the ram would hopefully be spooked straight to the Adravendi man.
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Cairo II
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (295)
Weaponsmaster
9 Years
Male
50
BrienaSkysong
She’d taken his invitation, and he waited as she gauged the timing and sprang. The flock scattered, and the ram, after failing to flee with his fellows, gave and bolted toward the better-hidden man. Cairo counted the strides, then launched forward, spooking the ram.
He covered the distance in a leap, head snatching low and his jaws clamping on the beast’s foreleg, severing one of the tendons and further laming the creature. The ram staggered and tripped, but sallied and sought to run. But it was hobbled by injuries, one on the hock, and now a fresh one on the opposite foreleg, and its flight was slower than it surely would have liked. It was in full panic now, fleeing blindly on flat ground.
Cairo surged after it, working to get ahead and drive it into an offshoot he knew was a dead end and curved upward overhead, preventing any sheeply wall-climbing tricks.
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Cairo II
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (295)
Weaponsmaster
9 Years
Male
50
BrienaSkysong
An opening came early, and the ram went down. As it struggled, Cai spun on his hocks and dove in, sinking his canines into the ram’s throat, wrenching his head to assure the jugular would punctured, blood filling his mouth. He held on until the ram sagged and weakened. He released it and backed away, flashing Halla a light grin.
“Good hunt, again.”
He studied the now dead animal thoughtfully then looked back to her with a perk-eared smile as he added, “What are your plans with him? I’m happy to help with skinning and processing…” He lifted a paw, showing off the bear claws with a wiggle of his toes. He kept the bear claws on his bracers sharpened, for fighting and hunting, and especially skinning.
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Cairo II
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (295)
Weaponsmaster
9 Years
Male
50
BrienaSkysong
Cairo smiled, nodding as he moved to the front legs while she gnawed the back legs off. With practiced cuts, he sliced the skin at the backs of the knees first, then all the way around before bracing a paw against the fronts of the joint, taking the lower leg in his jaws and snapping them forward, disjointing the legs and setting them aside. The pups should enjoy them, if the woman didn’t decide she needed them for crafting.
“The legs, if you don’t need them for crafting. We have five pups at home that would love them for teething. They’re getting bored of marshmallow root.” A grin flashed at the last remark, some ram hair clinging to a tooth before he puffed it off his lip and bent to make the cut at the underside of the ram’s jaw and down the neck to the sternum and belly, taking care not to cut further than the skin.
“Any meat you don’t want I’ll take home, if you like. Any plans for the horns? They’d make you some pretty good armor, for defense if nothing else… or carrying horns for coals or herbs.”
Delicately, he began working a bear claw between hide and flesh as he cocked an ear at her.
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Cairo II
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (295)
Weaponsmaster
9 Years
Male
50
BrienaSkysong
He held the carcass steady where she needed, helping tug the hide free of the ram’s corpse, snipping here and there with his bracer claws as he listened to her words, nodding. Giving her one side, he began to methodically skin along the side of the animal on his side, working toward the back, bending his toes to present the smooth tops of the bear claws to form a loose “fist” and pushing that fist along the inside of the hide to peel it from the flesh as he gripped the edge in his jaws for leverage.
“We sometimes use horns to carry coals with us. Makes starting a camp fire so much easier.” He remarked between uses of his jaws as he worked around the haunches. A glance upward, following the woman’s line of sight showed him the vultures, and he grunted to himself.
It was soothing, steady work. It had a rhythm to it, and the outcome would provide a little more meat to Valhalla’s larders, and bones for the pups to play with and teeth on.
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