Snow Hints and Hoof Prints

Azzurra didn't often leave the island these days, but now that she and Balthier had separated she wondered if maybe it was time for her to start branching out more frequently. She had already moved into her new bungalow and with the help of Chimera and Erys it was beginning to feel a lot more like home. She was making it exactly how she liked and while it really wasn't all that extravagant or special, it was comfortable and that was just what she needed. They had lended her materials and helped her on her way, but Azzurra had put in a lot of her own work as well. After all of that work it was really shaping up to be a lovely home she was proud of. The only problem really was the fact that she had no one to really share it with, but she was slowly becoming more comfortable with being on her own and being more welcoming to her own thoughts instead of trying to chase them away or distract herself from them.

In her efforts to fuel her new found independence, Azzurra packed a small bag of supplies and headed up into Boreas for a short camping trip on her own. She at least let Erys know where she was so he wouldn't worry, but she wasn't planning on being gone that long either. She had almost forgotten that it was actually winter until she crossed the land bridge that connected Auster and Boreas and suddenly found herself walking into increasingly chilly weather and a dusting of snow. In Auster the worst it seemed to get was a mildly chilly day, with the exception of the ice age they had all lived through. She didn't go very far north, just getting to an open prairie and stopping there for the night, but there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground and it was much colder at night than she had experienced in quite a while. Luckily she had brought a couple of furs to sleep on and after finding an abandoned den she made herself a snug little sleeping spot to stay until morning.

Once the sun rose, she got up and started trying to find some food. That was the other part of why she had taken this trip. She had been working on building up her endurance and sharpening her skills with hunting, but she wanted a real challenge to test what she had learned without the crutch to fall back on of being within the pack lands and just being able to get food from the stores if she failed. Realistically she wasn't all that far from home and she wasn't going to starve if she wasn't successful and had to walk back hungry, but she was hopeful and really wanted this to work for her own self esteem. She just needed to know if she could actually do it if she needed to. She walked out of her temporary den and gave herself a good stretch, warming up her reluctant muscles before she went tracking some kind of prey to hunt.

At first she thought the snow was going to be a detriment to her since her paws crunched loudly through it as she moved and it was making finding scents difficult, but eventually her sapphire gaze landed on a distinct cluster of tracks from a herd that had passed through recently since they hadn't been filled in with snow yet. Her mismatched ears perked with interest and she followed the tracks through the snow, eventually coming over the crest of a hill and spotting a small herd of prong horn that were gathered in a shallow valley, eating some small patches of grass that were still poking through the thin blanket of snow. She quickly crouched down to the ground, watching them for a little while and trying to formulate a plan. She realized as she was looking around for hiding places or at least a good direction to sneak up on them from that her coloring was actually perfect for hunting in this kind of environment. Unlike the lush, tropical environment of Auster, her pale coat blended in almost perfectly with this wintery, snowy backdrop.

She walked lightly over the snow, slowly creeping down the hillside. She was occasionally able to hide behind larger rocks or bushes as she made her way down and she'd pause occasionally whenever she saw one of the pronghorn lift their heads to look around. She luckily went unnoticed until the very last moment and by then it was too late. She darted after them, her legs coiled under her making her spring out toward the fleeing pronghorn. She grabbed the leg of the female closest to her as it tried to bounce away. It nearly pulled her off of her feet since she didn't necessarily have a lot of bulk to stop it, but she managed to pull it back and tripped it up enough that she was able to knock it to the ground. Once it was down she leapt on top of it before it could get up and tried to move fast so she could bite down hard on its throat, killing it quickly before it could struggle too much. By the time it was dead her legs were trembling from the effort she had exerted and she was panting hard to catch her breath, but she had never felt so accomplished. She stood beside her kill with a proud grin, sitting down to recover for a few moments before she went to work breaking the pronghorn down so she could eat.

WC: 945

"Azzurra"