Don't Put That On The Menu

Balthier had also had his own struggles as Azzie did, though maybe not as severe while he had been healthy his whole life and she had been so sick. For a long while, he just observed and took lessons from their father on hunting. He crafted knives, learned to set traps, he had helped their pack mates in Abaven best he could while he was still young and unable to do the brunt of the work. He didn't realize just how far behind he was from the adults as a pup until he sparred in the Ashen tournament. And after that, he tested his stamina for the first time alongside Corvus in a hunt. He trained hard afterwards and had certainly gotten better at hunting on his own. Fighting not so much, he didn't like to engage in even spars and he tended to steer clear of dangerous predators if he was able. That didn't mean though that he wasn't willing to sacrifice himself for Azzie, it was almost his first instinct to do so for him.

Baltheir didn't notice where Azzurra came up short, he expected her to have trip ups and fails as she learned but wasn't going to scold her or make fun of her because if it. After all, you learned more when you failed than when you succeeded. Balthier too had learned better that way.

As Azzurra pointed out the tracks while he scented the prey nearby, he looked down at exactly what he found himself. He joined her closely before sniffing the tracks and then pulled his head to gesture they move further forward. He lifted his paw up to her chest when they were close enough to get her to halt in her steps, his nose pointed outward in the direction of the tiny little deer creatures in front of them. He noticed that one of the two of them had some kind of glowing substance lingering around it's eyes and nose. He didn't take it off their meal list just yet though.

He moved him and Azzurra around quietly so they could run the little deer towards their trap, and with enough direction to his learning sister he moved forward for the hunt. As they drew closer, the deer who was obviously physically sick had barely even went to run away from the way it was feeling. Balthier called out to his sister, "Leave that one, it's too sick." He didn't know what the weird glowing would have done to them if they had eaten it and he didn't want to take the chance. Running past the ill one, he moved forward and started to drive the other little deer towards their trap.

Hunting Seasonal Prompt
Total Word Count: 1650 words
Word Count Goal: 1500 words (Met)

"Balthier"