Tiny Meals

Despite the fact that he had been given the freedom to roam and wander on his own now that he and his littermates were well past their first birthday he had yet to really break off from his parents and siblings for more than a few days at a time. Perhaps in time he would find a reason to go off on his own or get inspired to go seek out some specific and interesting sight out in the world, but for now he was pretty content spending time with his family and going wherever his parents ended up. For his entire life they had moved from place to place, traveling around Auster and southern Boreas, but he loved this nomadic lifestyle he was raised in. He did not necessarily disagree with the side of his family that lived in The Hallows and stayed in the large castle there, but he personally could not see the draw of living inside and seeing the same walls and paths day in and day out. He did not mind visiting on occasion and whenever it was cold or storming the castle definitely had a strong appeal. Still, despite all of that, he would pick sleeping under the stars and letting the wind take him wherever he wanted to go all day every day.

Today though was one of his occasional visits to The Hallows with his parents. His mother had been sticking pretty close to her former home after the brith of his nieces and nephews so more often than not whenever he came back from one of his adventures this was where he would find them. He had stopped by to see everyone and in the process had run into his half sister who happened to be gearing up to go on a hunt. Every bit his father, Malik could never turn down the offer of going on a hunt and so off he went with Asheila beside him to go see what they could find. The birds that made the nearby grove their home were an interesting and appealing option and were unlike pretty much anything else he hunting regularly. He tended to go for larger prey, but these smaller brids gave him a new kind of challenge that he was very interested to see play out. Asheila brought a net with them which he very quickly began to realize would be invaluable since the birds they found took off at the smallest sound and were easily spooked. Catching them the usual way with sneaking up on them and pouncing from the shadows simply was not going to work. Plus, if they were catching such small prey that way they were going to be at this all day long before they finally got enough of them to make a meal.

The need for a quieter path made itself apparent right away so after exchanging a glance with Asheila he began to pick his way through the trees and look for places were the leaf cover was not so thick and crunchy, moving with slow, careful steps to make sure his large paws did not end up breaking a stick in half or something of that sort. These birds were so touchy that they were going to have to be a whole new level of sneaky to get close enough to them in order to throw their net. Luckily he had learned from the best in that regard and he had taken his father's hunting lessons to heart. He did end up taking the lead for a bit only to help find the most quiet path among the shaded grove and made sure that he made where his paw steps were landing obvious for Asheila so that she could follow behind him. It was slow moving, but eventually they made themselves inconspicuous enough and they got far enough away from the birds they had spooked before that they were able to find a flock of pigeons that either had not noticed them or were not worried about them enough yet to take off. That was where they would make their attempt at hunting some small, feathered prey. He could already imagine roasting their little bird bodies over the cooking fire back at the castle and he was hopeful that they would do well here so he could make that imagining a reality.

Eventually they found a spot that was shielded enough that they did not immediately give their positions away, but that would allow them to have access to the pigeons they had been stalking. His hazel gaze glanced toward his sister as she went to hand him one half of the net she had brought with them and he gave her a little grin before taking the offered net while being careful not to damage it with his saber cat fangs. His unusual teeth were probably not the best suited for this kind of hunting, but he would make do. He shifted away from Ashelia a bit after taking a hold of the net so that they could spread it out between them. He was still careful about where he was stepping and moved slowly so that the net that was lightly skimming across the ground would not make a ton of noise. Luckily, despite the fact that the pigeons were clearly a bit on edge, they were pretty round for birds their size and even the couple that fluttered from one spot to another didn't move all that quickly. It made him pretty hopeful that they would be able to catch at least a few of them with this thing. Even if they were not able to get a whole feast worth of pigeons, maybe they could at least get enough to share with a few others in the pack when they got back.

Once they were in position with the net stretched between them, he looked toward his half sister with a bit of a questioning look, waiting until she signaled that she was ready before he made another move. After a moment of syncing up their movements, Malik leapt from their hiding place with Asheila and they burst forward into the clearing where the pigeons had gathered to feast on the berry bushes and grass seeds. He used that momentum to quickly throw the net over the birds before they could take off into the sky. Several of the pigeons tried to fly away, but only a couple of them succeeded so that in the end they wound up with about five pigeons hung up in the net. They fluttered around and made a bunch of noise while getting their wings even more stuck in the net in the process. "It worked!" he said victoriously while turning his gaze back over toward Ash with a toothy grin. He started making his way around to the trapped pigeons then, killing each of them quickly and then starting to untangle them from the net so they could carry them back to the castle. It was not a huge catch, by any means, but he was eager to get back and get these roasting regardless.

WC: 1583 / 1500

"Malik of the Sea"