Hunt With Us

Patiently waiting, Bright Moon wondered who would come for a lesson in hunting today. The pack had been quiet lately, and she hoped that the wolves were feeling motivated enough to learn something new. She stood as Leo appeared, offering a smile and dip of her head to greet him. It wasn't often that she saw the Alpha besides at the pack meetings that he called. "Good to see you, Leo," she said softly as he settled himself to wait for other members of the pack to arrive. And it wouldn't be long for Leo's boys to appear. They looked eager to get to work, and greeted her politely. Leo had raised them well, despite being so busy keeping up with his pack duties, and after mourning the loss of his mate, whether something had happened to her or she'd simply disappeared. Bright greeted each boy in turn, dipping her head to them. "Hello Alfred, I'm happy to see you're ready for training," she said in a cheerful tone, tail wagging. Then her attention turned to the next brother. "Hi Lionel, I'm well, thank you," she replied kindly, smiling at the boy.

After waiting some time, it appeared that this would be it for the day. No matter, she knew she could put even a small group of wolves to work - she figured the yearlings knew their basics by now, so she wouldn't spend time on hunting stances today. "Since it's just a small group of us today, I thought we could work on accuracy in hunting," she spoke to the small group, "And we'll do that by hunting porcupines. So let's head into the forest to look for them - if you've never hunted them before, let me explain a little bit about them..." Her silver eyes scanned across the faces of Leo and his boys, wondering what they would think of that. Hunting porcupine could be dangerous if you weren't careful, but it was good practice, and the fat little animals had a lot of tender meat if you could get one without ending up with a face full of quills. She knew there were a lot of them in the forest surrounding the falls, as it was a very abundant place for both predators and prey. They spent a lot of time in the trees, nibbling on their bark, but they also spent time on the forest floor moving to and from their burrows.

She flicked her silver, dark tipped tail as she beckoned the wolves to follow her into the wooded area away from the water. As she did so, she would explain about the dangers of porcupine. "They're good sized rodents, like beavers," she began, with a cautionary tone, "But they are covered in both fine and coarse quills, and it really hurts to get struck by their tail. Never try to ambush them from behind, it won't go well for you. Instead, it is best to stalk them carefully and wait for an opportunity to get to their face. You have a few options to dispatch them. First, if your jaws are big and strong, you can grab the entire skull and crush it - nasty business, but we need to eat. Your other option is to try to flip them onto their back, as there are no quills on their soft underbelly. You'll have to grab the head or neck, and move quickly to toss them over - don't allow it the chance to turn its quills on you, and once it's on its back, make your kill shot quickly." She looked over her shoulder, making sure they were taking everything in. It might have seemed an odd thing to learn about, hunting an animal that could cause them so much trouble, but learning patience, good stalking practices and quick, accurate hunting techniques would help them with larger, more dangerous prey, and it would also help in catching faster, more slippery prey.