She had been tasked to take the newcomer, Magnus, out and collect furs for winter. The girl was fine with that. It was no secret that she enjoyed killing things. Her disposition as of late had only bolstered that bloodlust. She was an angry, angry child. Being out in the wilds with someone that was essentially a stranger lightened her mood somewhat. Since he was new to the area, Aslatiel had taken charge of their hunt. She led the man to the gulley where she'd found many foxes and rabbits. There were also deer and other things grazing still since a lot of the world was now covered in snow. The small, striped girl stopped beside the big man, looking down over the expanse of still green land. "What do you think? A lot of little things or a few big things?" Did he even know how to skin an animal? Asla tilted her head thoughtfully. It was okay if he didn't. She could teach him. "Speech"

When he was tasked with one of the children to bring pelts back for winter, he'd remembered seeing her dart out of the meeting in what looked like anger. Was she not happy about Malalia making the rank, either? Or was it the other woman, or both? He assumed jealousy over the rank, or something along those lines anyway. He didn't want to pry though, she seemed like she didn't want to be asked about it. He kept to his thoughts while they traveled to the gulley, him following her since he hardly knew his way around yet. Allowing her to take the lead was easy for him, and maybe good for her too. He didn't want to get in her way if she wanted to kill something as bad as she looked like she wanted to.

When they'd made it to where they could look down upon various animals peacefully grazing in the gulley, she'd stopped and he did the same. Toying over her words a moment, he looked down to her before speaking. "We can hunt smaller things separately or we can combine our strengths to hunt larger animals; you decide." He smiled lightly, hoping that letting her decide would help whatever mood she was in. Maybe she wanted to be alone, maybe not. Magnus wouldn't decide that for her, though he did kind of hope that she decided together was best. Bigger pelts were warmer, but he also wanted to know what was wrong at the meeting if he could get it out of her.

"Speech"

Yes, she was still quite bothered about the events of the past few days but she wouldn't speak about it unless asked directly. For now, she was content to kill something. When Magnus gave his opinion on the matter and then left it up to her, Asla frowned, brows drawing together momentarily as she thought. "Let's kill something big. If we have enough energy, maybe we can kill another after." The Armada didn't really need the meat, but it would be good to take back, she supposed. She could send Enki back for the cart and they could haul all of it back home in one go. With a sigh, Asla scanned the herd of antelope below. "Are you fast?" He was much bigger than she was. Aslatiel was a very small girl. Completely dwarfed by her massive brothers. "I'm fast. I can run one of those straight into your face or we can do it the long way and run it down." She preferred the long way today. Running would help to take her mind off of things. Either way, she would get to murder something. "Speech"

"I agree," he said with a nod, thinking it'd be best to bring larger pelts back than smaller ones, regardless of if the meat was needed or not. If the Armada didn't need it, maybe Ashen could use it. Either way, it'd get eaten by someone. Food was rarely wasted with a bunch of training going on. Without a good store of it, there'd hardly be a way for them to bulk up properly.

"Not really," He chuckled when she asked, knowing very well that she would be faster than him. He wasn't slow, but she was likely to be much faster. When she proposed more options, he considered them both. Chasing it down would likely tire them out too much to hunt anything else, but if she were to chase one to him, it could get a little riskier with them being separated. If she were an adult, he'd hardly worry, but he didn't want her to get hurt on his watch. After a moment of thinking, he finally decided. Better be tired than hurt and separated. "Let's just run it down. Safer that way." He nodded again, eyeing the herd below. "You can sneak up on them and pick one from the herd since you're smaller and faster, then once it's separate, I'll jump in and we'll take it down together." He looked to her for approval. It'd been a while since he'd planned a hunt, and his last hunt with anyone else in a while had been with Sirius himself.

"Speech"

Magnus laid out his idea. He wanted her to cut one from the herd. Only then would he jump in. She supposed it was a good idea, though usually she and her hunting partner chose together so that they both agreed of their capability. Rising from her place, Aslatiel disappeared into the long grass. Her small form was mostly hidden as she crept closer to the herd of antelope. Almost immediately she spied and old female. Years had made her slower than the others. If they weren't going to eat it, it didn't really matter how old and tough the meat was, right? Casting a purple gaze back towards where she knew Magnus lay in wait, she huffed lightly, indicating that she'd chosen a target. Now, all she had to do was cut it from the rest of the throng. Again Asla skirted the herd. They were facing her now and their musty scent was blowing straight into her face. Their course was slowly altering though and soon they would be facing to the side. She had to act now. With her target only a few yards away, Asla's small, stripey form rocketed from the grass. The herd quickly began to scatter. It took the old antelope a moment to turn, but she was on the run as well. With a woop and a snarl, the small girl was on the ungulate's heels. She couldn't spare a glance to see if Magnus was doing his part. "Speech"

His idea had only been a mere suggestion and he would've taken suggestions had she offered any, but she was off to her place without even a nod. He frowned for a moment, but watched until she picked one to go for. Hearing her huff, he crouched and crawled to a better place to watch while she chased after, catching up and snapping at it's heels. Magnus hardly wasted time, rocketing from his place on the hill and racing towards the hoofed mammal, using the decline to accelerate his speed towards the antelope. His paws hit hard on the ground, sending shocks up his forelimbs as he careened down the edge of the gulley.

Losing his footing for a second, he slid down the last bit and regained his composure quickly to continue the pursuit. He'd lost a bit of time, but he propelled himself forward with everything he had to cut the doe off from the herd from it's side, hoping it'd turn and be more distracted by him than Aslatiel at it's heels. Snarling and snapping at the old antelope, he lunged just as he caught up to the duo and reached for it's shoulder, feeling his fangs scrape against the flesh of the animal. The doe quickly turned away from Magnus, slowing to try and take a new direction.

"Speech"

Commotion from behind caught her attention, pulling it away from her prey for a moment. Aslatiel laughed aloud when she saw Magnus sliding down the hill. With another whoop and crow, the girl looked back to the fleeing antelope. It had gained a few paces, but it couldn't keep the grind. Wolves had far superior stamina and Asla knew it. She was content to run the thing aground. The antelope juked left and Asla altered course, her small form pivoting on a dime. She pumped her little legs and flew to the left, cutting off the escape of the ungulate. She was so close now that she lashed out, kitten claws slicing through the flesh of one haunch before she dropped back to the ground fully to run again. The pair was coming up to a wall in the gulley where the path turned to the right. It would be a good time to end all of this. Their quarry would have a harder time making such a quick turn. Tilting her head slightly as she ran, she flashed a purple glance towards Magnus. Would his mind tell him the same thing that hers had? That had yet to be seen. "Speech"

As he pursued the antelope with Aslatiel, his legs pumped as they carried him as fast as they could at the heels of the prey. She had lashed out at the animal, slashing it across the haunch and slowing it for a mere second while it paniced in pain. Magnus snapped wildly at its heels, much like a herding dog, yet failed to grab one of the legs as they came upon a turn coming up. He hasn't thought too hard about it, but hoped the antelope would slow to take the turn while allowing him to catch up and reach for it's neck.

It seemed to be his lucky day when the hoofed mammal began to slow, seeing the turn itself and panicking to figure out it's next move. Magnus took advantage of the situation and leapt towards the throat of the animal, grabbing it by its neck and using his body weight to drag it to the ground with him. As the last breath left the antelope, Magnus dropped the carcass' neck to the ground and looked to Aslatiel panting. "You can hunt more if you'd like while I skin this," he offered, giving her the chance to kill if she needed it.

Magnus was alongside her, snapping at the heels of their prey, he missed, which was no big deal. Even a miss instilled fear into the buck. The snapping of teeth was a powerful sound. The ungulate slowed as the curve came closer and closer. Big mistake. Magnus dove, latching into the buck and she dove as well, claws kicking at its sensitive belly while teeth bit into the soft skin between elbow and barrel. Together, the trio crashed to the ground. Only two of them came back up, however. Once the buck was dead, Asla unlatched her jaws and claws and sat up, tongue lolling in a pant so that she could cool off and catch her breath. Magnus offered to skin their kill while she hunted something else and the girl shook her head. "Skinning is my favorite part." The little creep licked the blood from her maw and motioned to their kill. "I learned how to skin things a long time ago. I'm not very good at tanning the hide, but I can rip them off well enough." She still needed practice on processing a hide. She'd only done it once with Azure when they had hunted the cloud with hooves. That part of it didn't interest her much. "Speech"

"Have at it then; I need to catch my breath." Magnus spoke between pants, his body landing on the ground with a thud. Not that he was getting too old for the chase, because he certainly wasn't, it had just been a bit since he'd hunted something so fast. Tongue lolling from his mouth to cool himself, he kicked his legs out to let the winter breeze reach his toes where he could feel the warmth of sweat.

"I'm only good at skinning, too." He paused to yawn, then glanced back over at Aslatiel. "We didn't have much use for the skins where I'm from, so there wasn't much use for processing them." Being from the warmer climates, they hardly needed furs for warmth or anything. Grasses and soft branches with leaves were often their go-to for bedding, but he wouldn't go back to that now. He much preferred the comfort and warmth of a pile of furs to sticks and leaves.

"Speech!"

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Magnus gave her the go ahead and Aslatiel set to work. Unsheathing her sharp little kitten claws, the girl sliced around the neck of the dead deer. Once that was done, Asla fought to roll the big thing onto its back, but she managed to do so. She sliced down the center from neck to tail, careful not to puncture the abdominal cavity. The words of the man perked her ears. A place where they didn't need furs? "Where are you from?" She imagined it had to be somewhere warm. Why else wouldn't you need furs? She wrinkled her nose. Even if it was warm, wouldn't you want to sleep on something soft? Maybe she was just spoiled. "Speech"

While resting and panting, his stretched out legs enjoyed the rest after the workout. Watching Aslatiel skin the deer, he noticed her finesse and wondered who taught her. He assumed Sirius, but she seemed a little more particular about it. He wondered if he was over thinking it, but he couldn't help but find the girl a bit odd anyway. He knew he liked to kill things, sure, but it was a bit strange when experiencing it he realized.

At her question, he broke his gaze away from her skinning the animal and thought of the home he left so long ago. "A place much farther south than here, where it's very warm. Not a desert with the dust and sand, but it certainly doesn't snow there." There wasn't much else to say about the place, besides it was terrible anyway. "I'm glad I'm here now though, I like the way things are done here." He wanted off the subject really, but for nothing other than he didn't like talking about it. Nothing bad really happened to him there, but he'd rather forget that part of his past. He considered Aslatiel lucky to be born here, in a better world than he.

Once the underside and legs were split, Asla began carefully peeling the skin back from the red and pink flesh beneath. She used her claws to painstakingly separate the sheets of fat and connective tissue from the skin. As she worked, her ears were perked, listening as Magnus spoke. So the place that he came from was a lot different from here. She could sense the hesitancy in his speech and decided to allow him to drop the subject. "Well, I'm glad you're here too." Though they barely knew one another, she felt as though she liked him. He was quiet and he didn't seem to be judging her. At least his expression didn't show what he thought of her. As Asla cut, one little claw nicked a blood vessel and the red liquid squirted out from the pressure upon it, splattering upon one cream colored cheek. The girl released a slight giggle, but kept on with her work. If you couldn't get at least a little bloody, there was no point in doing any of this. That was the way she thought, anyway. When she washed the blood away, her fur would look even prettier than it had before. She knew this from experience. "Speech"

Her words echoed through his mind, making him wonder if her words were actually true or not. He hardly knew the girl and she him, but he accepted her politeness all the same. He could lie through his teeth and sound honest as could be, and he wouldn't doubt the same of the Fatalis children, especially one that seemed so eager to hunt and kill. Whatever boiled inside the girl however wasn't any of his business, but he wondered nonetheless and let the thoughts meander while he watched her skin the hoofed mammal.

His ears perked at her giggle, eyes flashing over to her to see what had caused it and smirked. Some blood leaked from a cut vessel and onto her cheek he noticed as he watched, but kept quiet to study her as she continued. Magnus liked to kill things too, but she seemed to get much more of a joy out of it. While he enjoyed the power, she seemed to enjoy the gore. He watched her a moment longer, but looked away hopefully before she would notice him. She was interesting in her ways, and he was left to wonder what had left her out of the running for alpha.

"Speech!"

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With the fur fully removed from the carcass, Aslatiel rolled it up as tightly as she could. The girl tilted her head, barely catching Magnus as he quickly turned his attention away. She arched a brow. "Do you think you can carry the deer back?" Her grandmother did and so did her father, but they were quite a bit bigger than Magnus. "If we leave the guts, it'll be a lot lighter." Hunting was her jam. She'd learned quite a bit just watching, and learned even more when she was able to begin hunting herself. Without waiting for an answer. Aslatiel moved to the buck and sliced the stomach open with a few pulls of her claws and teeth. The innards came falling out in heaps. They needed to be detached. Being so small, Asla almost had to crawl into the body cavity to pull both ends of the guts free from the carcass. Blood smeared on her face and forelegs, the little girl smiled. "There we go. Food for scavengers while we take the good stuff." She did pick the heart out of the pile of muck though. The heart, she rolled up in the fur for later. "Speech"

Her words caught his attention and he looked to see that she had finished and now had the skin rolled to carry. The ungulate wouldn't be too difficult to carry, especially with the guts removed as she soon mentioned. He knew of some uses for the guts, but they were likely better off left for the scavengers. Bladders made good water storage for travels, that much he knew from his past, but Boreas didn't seem like the place to need such a thing often.

"Sure thing." He nodded as he stood, eagerly grabbing the carcass by a leg and tossing it over his back in a piggyback fashion. Blood would drip down his sides from the gaping hole where the guts were removed, but a bath would likely serve him some good later anyway. Adjusting himself a bit be earth the carcass, he smiled at Aslatiel. "You ready?"