Birds of a feather

Deimos watched as Malico listened for a moment as if he was confirming something for himself and then Malico presented the idea of chasing out the quail he heard hiding in the brush. Considering that Malico was going to be more agile and nimble than himself the roles in this hunting plan did feel pretty well assigned. He was heavier in build and taller than his nephew so charging through the dense brush would not be a problem for him, but trying to leap up and catch fleeing birds probably would be. If probably would have been wise for them to bring a net or some other form of trap with them to make this more efficient, but since they did not this would have to do. "That seems like as good a plan as any," he agreed with a nod, turning his attention back toward the section of brush ahead of them for a moment.

There were certain sections of it that seemed more dense and potentially harder to get through than others, but he had no doubt that those sections would be the ones where the quail would be more likely to hide. He would need to find a good balance of both to disrupt the birds enough to get them to fly out of their hiding places without getting himself stuck in the process. "I'll circle around to the other side so that I'm on the back side of this stand of brush. That way I can chase them out toward you instead of away," he said with a nod before turning to walk around this section of the thicket they were standing in front of.

It took him a bit of time to find a good sized gap in the brush once he was far enough around to come from the back of where it sounded like the quail were nesting, but eventually he found a way in and started creeping carefully through the underbrush. That was certainly easier said than done for a man his size, but he was a seasoned hunter and his large paws helped dampen his steps a bit as he crept toward his target. A couple of times he had to pause to make sure he had not alerted the local wildlife too soon as he crunched through small branches and twigs. Eventually, Deimos made his way to a spot where he could see the violet of Malico's fur peeking through the grasses and brush so he knew he was across from his nephew. He stood and listened quietly for a bit so he could pick up the particular calls of the quails they were looking for to be sure he was aiming for the right spots.

Once he pin pointed a couple of places he was certain the birds were hiding, he coiled his legs beneath himself and launched forward with the stored energy in his legs. He leapt over smaller bushes and crashed through patches of thick grasses, growling and snarling as he went to make as much noise and fuss as he could. Immediately he heard the flutter of wings that sounded like they were trying to get away from where he was as quickly as they could with their occasional calls suddenly much more frequent and panicked. A few more crashing leaps and after almost being tangled up in some vines a couple of times Deimos felt like he had done a pretty sufficient job of flushing out the quail from the thicket. He had been about to turn and head back out toward where Malico was hopefully snagging a few of the plump birds for them to take back with them when he suddenly noticed the flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Acting fast, he managed to swing around and snag a fleeing quail by one of its wings, causing it to flail around and smack his face with its other wing and claw at his muzzle with its talons. It was easy enough to pin it to the ground under one of his paws and end its life with a quick bite down on its neck. Well, at the very least they'd have one quail to show for their efforts.

Deimos picked up his kill and began to pick his way through the now distinctly more quiet section of thicket he had pretty throughly cleared out. There was still more bird song and rustling he could hear behind him even deeper into the thicket so if Malico did not manage to catch more quail they did have an opportunity to keep going, but he was hopeful that would not be necessary and they could call this an easy hunting day. That did in fact seem to be the case, much to his delight. He spotted a small pile of quail that Malico was currently adding another bird to when stepped out into the open. With the one he caught and the several that Malico had snagged they could make a fairly decent addition to a dinner once they got home. It certainly was not enough to feed a pack, but in the winter any little bit helped. "Good job," he said with an approving grin before he went to pick up a few of the birds to carry back. "Lets get these back to the food stores. There might be enough daylight left to go out again if we're quick enough."

WC: 910
Total: 1646 / 1500

"Deimos Mendacium"