Dead Zone
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Regulus Anatolii Adravendi |
He’d been paying close attention to ‘Pella’s activity, and he approved. It rankled a bit that it had taken what it did to get her truly motivated, but you worked with what you got. He was careful in his movements, choosing the softest peat to set his paws upon, and he was tracking her, using the cover of the fog to both dampen sound and scent, as well as his bright red, large form.
He was well behind, too far to see her, and certainly too far for her to see him. But what he was doing was an important part of keeping an eye on his pack members. Watching without making himself seen, he could ascertain their behavior when they thought they were alone. She wasn’t slacking, certainly since she was tracking deer, which possibly meant she was trying to work out a strategy for a pack hunt.
When he felt that he’d garnered enough of her intentions, he ghosted forward, still on silent paws, utilizing the soft ground. Autumn had brought cool weather and rain, and the fog helped keep things damp and cool. So, he wouldn’t be in the least surprised if he startled her slightly when he came up beside her, nodding.
“How are they looking?” He inquired, voice low and quiet as he studied the tracks and scents ahead of her.
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Regulus Anatolii Adravendi |
He listened to her quiet report, nodding. “If we wait and watch patiently, there might be a pair of bucks who get locked together by the antlers and can’t get free. Those’ll make for easier kills, and we’d have two to store up…” His eyes scanned the surroundings, then dropped to the deer path.
“There should also be a few injured bucks, or older ones that won’t be as swift to escape. And older does…” He slipped forward to breathe in the scent of a pile of droppings, analyzing the scent of the creature that had left it. A healthy buck, ripe with testosterone. “If it really comes down to it, and they’re too troublesome, we can wait until they drop the antlers, and hold a hunt then. It’ll be winter, but they’ll be less dangerous without their antlers.”
He flicked his eyes to hers and grinned lightly. “Let’s do some more tracking, see what the herds look like up close. Maybe we can find a few injured ones. Or even get lucky.”
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Regulus Anatolii Adravendi |
He moved in silence with his cousin, following the scents and listing them in the back of his mind. He lowered himself to his belly in a Sphynx position, nodding silently as she gave her suggestion. “Perhaps we’ll have some luck with these two.”
He watched on with fathomless eyes as the two bucks fought it out, keen eyes taking in the scene calmly. And then it happened, as the larger of the two twisted away as the other lunged forward. A sharp tine of the buck’s antlers caught the other in the shoulder.
A growling grunt of pain and fury escaped the injured buck and he twisted back to clash again with his opponent, but came at him wrong. The racks locked together and the two bucks struggled to both harm and escape eachother, but to no avail.
The Archangel sat up, watching closely. He waited until he was certain they’d locked together well and truly, then smiled down at his cousin. “Lucky, indeed. And a good lesson on knowing when to back down in a fight and admit defeat. You never know what can happen when you give in to blind rage.” He rose, tail flicking as he stretched.
“If you’d like to take advantage of this, I’ll take the larger one, and try to get the legs out of commission if you try the same for the other. Be careful. Even locked, they can still kick… Or we could wait for them to tire.”
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