With the lands of Boreas locked in winter, little seems to stir across the snow-blanketed terrain. But if you look closely, familiar tracks criss-cross the whiteness. Rabbit, mouse, fox. But what's this? This trace is marked with huge tracks, far larger than any wolf or even the common black bear. These are tracks not naturally found in this part of Boreas, but it is clear that the creature who left them is a dangerous predator. What left them, and where did it come from? But more importantly... where did it go?


Ardent's hunters are skilled at tracking by both sight and scent. Perhaps they can solve this mystery, and hone their own skills as they do. Follow the clues, and work together to successfully follow the trail.


Participation is limited to the first four characters, so please stick to one character per person and only post if you can keep up! Rounds will progress to the next character if the previous hasn't posted within three days, so make sure you post when it's your turn or you may not get enough rounds to claim your points! Completing four rounds of tracking will give you +10 hunt skill points. Working together with your fellow hunters to successfully complete the tracking without losing the trail will give you an additional +5 hunt skill points for a total of +15.

Making her way slowly through the land Razi paused here and there to take in the sights and smells around her. She'd made it all the way to the southern continent and caught up with the man in charge. That wasn't going to keep her in one spot though. As a healer she enjoyed going out and searching for new and interesting things, even if they weren't plants. Today her stomach was rumbling, leading the ebony and gold woman to start scenting the air more carefully, thick pelt tousled by the wind as she searched for something to sink her teeth into.

It didn't take too long for the Abraxas healer to start trailing after some small animals, finding overlapping trails, the occasional track or lost bit of fur. Stopping, gold eyes widened as she assessed a new smell. Something big, entirely different from the other game in the area. But to take down large game you needed an actual hunting party. She hadn't noticed any relatives nearby, or strangers, would there be someone around to make this possible? Eventually she shrugged and began tracking the creature if for no other reason than to at least prove to herself she could find it, tail swaying gently while she walked this way and that, following the trail she'd picked up. Maybe someone would show up, you never could tell what was gonna happen on a given day after all.

Where she had come from, there was no snow. So the wolf was rather enjoying herself as she flung herself out into the snow. She was a while away from pack lands but she was certain Faite would not mind. Hailey wanted to make sure the frost hadn't killed all of the herbs yet and got a little distracted along the way. Shiva's wing hadn't healed all the way yet so while the wolf bounced around in the snow she plastered herself on a branch watching her new companion. It wasn't until the owl's sharp senses actually thought she saw another wolf. Though Hailey seemed to notice as well - bringin her head up. The scent through her mouth told her it was another female. Hailey walked over to Shiva so that she was able to step onto her back. "Be careful the snowy owl warned. Hailey was not one for warning though. She tended to go head first into situations to begin with. Smiling she stopped at the edge of a trail watching a wolf carefully tracking it. So that's what was going on! "Excuse me there. If you'd like I could help you track this..... whatever it is." her nose wrinkled suddenly. She had no idea what this creature was. The prints on the snow dragging across a few notes of fur as well. "My name's Hailey, and this is Shiva." she gestured towards the owl on her back. "Talk"

Where in hell can you go?

Golden eyes peered out across an expanse of white barred by the blackened shapes of leafless trees.  Natha's journey had taken her into the lands of Boreas but she was confident the signs were leading her toward what she sought.  She would find and take a fang from the dragon Helgard, she would take her fancy of the treasures he was said to hoard, material and intellectual alike and then she would finally have her answer.  The cat scowled lightly.  She'd show that old wise woman exactly who she was messing with.  

Getting to her feet the lynx set out across the snow, her thick coat and large paws making her a natural fit for a wintery terrain.  Her quarry was rabbits but as she followed the tracks of one she began to see it overlap with others, coons and fox.  At first she supposed a fox had found the trail and given chase after the rabbit but the coon was odd and-

Natha froze, her fur standing up on end as she eyed an unfamiliar set of tracks far larger than that of the bears she'd seen in the area.  Her nostrils flared as she tried to decipher the scent.  Her tufted ears twitched as she saw two wolves, a dark one and a light one.  Well now… wasn't this portentous?  She didn't make a habit of working with wolves but they would compliment each others senses, her eyesight and her hearing matched with a wolves sense of smell would be a mighty hunting force indeed.  Not to mention added protection should their quarry be aggressive.  Not that she really needed to track the beast, a sensible creature would flee but she was a feline and while curiosity may have killed the cat it was satisfaction that brought it back.  Besides, she was on a quest of the mythical variety.  She didn't dare let a sign like this go univestigated.

She approached the canines with a smooth and confident gait.  "You two!  Wolves!  Did you see what took place here?"  

Phenex moved easily through the snow. His paws were wide and distributed his weight across the frozen surface. He traced the tracks of his sister, Razi. They came from the same father but had separate mothers. Their father chose new females to mate with every season and he was large and powerful enough to get whoever he wanted. The season these two were born he decided to put his eggs in two baskets, so to say. Phenex and Razi were not raised together, their father had moved between the two litters but kept them seperate. Maybe that was why Phenex found himself following her. He knew so little of her and yet he was her brother. Half brother, at least. He felt like he should feel some connection, even if he so far didn’t. He felt like he should be more curious about her - Amon was so close to his similar-aged siblings, wasn’t he? Phenex saw when her pawprints paused and he paused with them, minutes behind her. He spotted the same tracks and smells that she had at this place not long ago. His own nostrils flared at the smell. It was deep and foretold of something large. He was certain he had never encountered anything like it before. The tracks were deep set into snow. They were a little old and the sun would have melted them a little, making them look even larger than they truly were, but even taking that into account… this was a big fucking animal. Phenex moved forward and quickly found his sister, plus two strangers - one a lynx, of all things. His green eyes peered at the strangers for a moment before turning to his sister. ”Pyralis would enjoy the meat from a beast, Razi,” he said after the stranger spoke. Pyralis was their elder sister who just birthed two pups - not that the stranger knew that.

The scent trail the wolves - and lynx! - were trailing had a strangely clean scent, clean with a faint tang of saltiness to it, but unlike many predators there was nothing musky about it. It brought to mind far-away places, and the scent of fur after a day romping on the beach.

Where Hailey had noticed the brush of fur in the trail, several guard hairs had been caught in the snow as the predator moved along. The hairs are extremely difficult to see against the snow, but a closer look might reveal more clues.

The trail led away from the group into the now-bare trees where the snow wasn't quite as deep in places where brush had stopped it from drifting further. Here, more distinct prints might be visible.

Feel free to have your character speculate about the identity of the animal, or to examine and interact with their surroundings in order to unveil more clues.

One by one they arrived onto the scene. It seemed she only had to wait a few seconds before her observation of the need for more participants in the tracking of this creature was met with the arrival of several creatures perfect for the task and already thinking along the same lines as she was. Perfect!

She'd waited to answer the ivory girl when the - lynx, apparently - approached. Her words caught before they really started as Phenex arrived. She listened to him and nodded, turning back to the other two female creatures and offered up a smile that didn't really reach her eyes, "Between the four of us I'm sure we'll make quick work of tracking down this mystery creature, supposing everyone here is interested?" she let the half-question hang in the air a moment before moving over toward Hailey and asking, "What do you make of the fur there?" gesturing towards the barely visible bits of hair on the snow, difficult to make out but still one of the biggest clues available to the group. Observation of it's color, and length might start to yield clues. She eyed it a bit, waiting to see if the others had anything to say, then started following the scent and tracks again.

Her nose wrinkled a bit, brow furrowing as she took deeper whiffs of the smell that accompanied the tracks. Salt, freshness. Not something she typically associated with large animals. It was bigger than most bears in this area by far, and she couldn't think of too many creatures this big! Nose pressed to the ground she followed, tail high and swishing slightly side to side indicating she was quite focused on the search. Gold eyes scanned ahead a bit but she let her nose do most of the leading. Towards the trees, she pressed onward, stopping when she found more prints, easier to make out now that they weren't placed in deep banks of snow. Calling to the others, she asked, "Does anyone know what this track looks like?" Guesswork had her settling more confidently on predator, perhaps a bigger species of bear, a polar bear? Did they even come here? What else was there? Snow leopard, maybe? "Bear, cat, something else maybe?"

Hailey noticed that two others had joined them. Probably someone the first wolf she encounter knew, along with a lynx! She remembered seeing them while travelling with her mother and father. Her ears twitched as she was asked what she made of the fur. Hailey squinted her eyes, crouching closer. It was kind of hard to make it out in the snow. Indicating that the guard hairs were white or light gray. Her paws pressed as she hummed softly. The scent was indeed something that would live or at least travel along the coast. "It nearly smells like a seal, but seals don't have fur like this!" or did they. She tilted her head off to the side. Though looking to the others, she stood up as Shiva clicked her beak for a moment. "Could it be a polar bear then?" she furrowed her eyebrows. Looking to the group for a little bit of help. She wasn't the more experienced but at least she could put in ehr two cents. She didn't mind helping to hunt down the creature either. "Talk"

Where in hell can you go?

Natha watched calmly as yet another wolf joined them.  My, they were getting quite the hunting party together.  Her ears twitched a bit at the mention of some creature named Pyralis who might like to… eat this beast?  Natha made a face.  That was assuming they even wanted to try and kill whatever it was that was moving around and about.  Something that might be able to eat them without any trouble.  The tracks were clearly that of a predator and her experience, in desperate times, of the meat of predators was a greasy, dissatisfying mess.  However, she was a feline and not a wolf.  Their tastes ran differently.

Natha crouched over a set of tracks, ears still sharp and alert in case whatever it was was coming back.  The scent was crisp and clear, nothing to heavy or thick.  Her eyes narrowed at the hint of saltiness to scent.  That didn't bode well.  Whatever it was must have spent a great deal of time near the ocean but been capable enough of travel to move significantly farther inland. She glanced up at the dark-pelted female and nodded her agreement. "I too would like to see what manner of beast has entered this domain."  The girl asked about the fur and Natha moved forward, her keen eyes picking out strands of pale, or translucent fur in the snow.  It was hard to tell at first.  Carefully she slipped her paw part way under the strands, letting them stand out against the black of her paw pads in startling contrast as the pale woman spoke.   "Seals would not be able to move this far inland."  Not to mention the tracks would be significantly different.   "But a polar bear…"  she looked up to meet the woman's bright green eyes.  "I think you may be on to something and I don't like it, I don't like it one bit."

"Does anyone know what this track looks like?  Bear, cat, something else maybe?"

Natha set down the strands of fur and followed the trail toward the trees where the snowfall had lessened to pull up next to the dark-pelted woman.  She gazed at the tracks then reached out and put her own paw down next to one of the other tracks lifting it up. "Let us compare.  Most of my kin keep our claws sheathed to keep them sharp. We will not leave claw marks when we walk like bears and canines."  She peered down at the tracks.  "Hmm… are all the tracks the same or are the back paws different?  Any one spy anything?"   She let her paw hover over the track, trying to get a size measurement in comparison to her own paws.

Razi quickly took the lead and Phenex followed it. Phenex had never been much of a leader himself, to be honest. He was more of a weapon to be aimed and fired, a set of gnashing teeth who relied on a neck to move it about. Their shared father was his first leader, especially after his birth-mother was killed by the same male. Now it was Amon who he followed, faithfully doing as he wished. He let his own body language show his acceptance of her challenge - to find the beast who had left such curious clues. Phenex paced the few steps away from her to insect the fur she had pointed out. It blended in so well with the snow that his color-blind eyes almost missed it. It was a subtle difference in texture of the snow - granulated ice crystals to long fibers - that gave away the hairs the best. He had no observations to include after the other two of their party spoke up, agreeing with their thoughts but had nothing else to add about the fur itself. Like the rest he inspected the tracks next. They were huge - larger than his own sizable pawprints a few times over. ”A pinniped would leave a stomach track, dragging them along like they do on land,” he dispelled the idea of a seal easily, his lone male voice low and rumbly. He doubted such a creature would leave the beach this far - they relied on the water as the wolves (and lynx) relied on the land. This beast, whatever it was, also smelled of beach. A polar bear was not an animal he had met in flesh, though stories of white bears the size of four black bears had been whispered in undertones enough times that he knew of them. They said that they had massive heads with teeth the size of paws but tiny dead-looking eyes. ”A seal would have little reason to travel this far inland,” he commented, brow furrowing, ”And seals are what polar bears eat, correct? If the seals are not here why would a polar bear come? I do not swim out into the ocean to catch deer.” They moved onto the shape of pawprints and Phenex only half listened. He needed a lesson on the physiology of tracks as much as he needed a new set of teeth. Instead Phenex kept his ears and eyes moving, constantly watching their surroundings and smelling the air. These tracks weren’t old and four hunters of two different species was certainly going to gather some attention. Especially if they kept chatting instead of tracking the monster.