Say Amen

He'd traveled to the east to collect willow branches and visit the site of Mount Volkan, which had been his very first camping site when he came to Ardent nearly four years ago this season. He had hunted in the Rock Garden and enjoyed himself thoroughly, though it was time to return to the west after all of his labor.

Wrapped around his limbs were the thin branches of willows that he had collected, their leaves plucked and though they were loose enough to not constrict all of his blood flow, they were firmly set so that he could run if he needed to without risk of losing them- it felt odd, to say the least.

Hunting in the dry environment that was the west was hardly something he could say was enjoyable. Though he did appreciate the thrill of a chase down, the heat of the sun over the shadeless areas of the desert was unbearable, and he could not travel back to the Rock Garden every week in order to catch food more easily- he would have to begin setting traps here. The easiest to assemble were snare traps, and along his way back to the West he had done his best to collect a bundle of short yet sturdy, pronged branches.

His lips were frothing at the corners as his saliva pooled there, stretched over the bundle of branches he'd collected around the dry lake bed, deciding to use its current small collection of water from the rain as bait for his less-than-glorious snare traps.
Hidden in some grass, he'd set down the pronged branches to hold up the noose part of his twine, letting the rest of the twine lay behind it very gently so that it was only slightly inclined and ready to be pulled by whatever foot happened to find its way within.

Once one was set, he moved on to the next until he had four strategically placed traps around the southwest side of the lake, their placement mapping out a crescent shape that hugged the edge of the deepest part of currently collected water. These were temporary traps, as he knew the water from the rain would not remain in the lake for long and he would have to find new hunting grounds. For now, though, he was quite eager to see if perhaps he could find something to herd this way if nothing came on its own.

Without wasting any time, Elias immediately began surveying the area around his snares, searching for fresh tracks of anything sizable to ease the hunger rumbling in the pits of his stomach. Being as lean as he was was not solely the doing of his hard work, he had a high metabolism compared to most wolves and for a man of his stature, it meant he had to hunt rather often. He was nearly in a frenzy as his paws seemed to glide across the sands.

By the time he'd finally found something, the weight, and size of the tracks were less than pleasing- it was definitely a canid. His thick neck outstretched, his square muzzle lowering to the ground as his wet nostrils flared. Coyotes. They weren't something that particularly interested him, and he could honestly say he never really had a craving for coyote flesh- but the thought of a meal alone was enough to summon the red muscle in those jaws out of their cage, flicking away some of the drool that threatened to escape his lips. Mmm, it would have to do.