Lucky shot

Walk | "Talk" | think

With the end of fall drawing closer and the beginning of winter knocking at their door, he knew he had to double down on his hunting. He had to make sure that not only would his children have enough to eat, but the rest of the pack would as well. Of course he wasn’t the only hunter in the pack, but since hunting was his main practical skill he felt as though he had to really put in the effort to make a difference with it. For the most part he tended to hunt on his own, bringing back several smaller prey animals at a time. With it getting colder and a lot of smaller animals beginning to retreat under ground more and more it was getting difficult to do that. He spread out the area that he typically hunted in each time these days, inching further and further away from Abaven’s lands to find what he was looking for.

Today he got as far as the Rock Garden before he spotted a small herd of caribou wandering through the area, cleaning the rocks of patches of lichen. He paused and ducked down behind one of the rocks to watch them for a while. Usually he wouldn’t dare consider going after a prey animal that large on his own, but with how scarce smaller prey had become it had him seriously considering it. It was a fairly small herd as far as caribou were concerned - maybe ten of them all together. There was still a good bit of hesitation hunting a large animal like this on his own, however he had his sights set on an adolescent female that he might just be able to handle. She was probably in her first year if he had to guess. She was nearly full grown and almost as tall at the older caribou around her, but slim enough that he thought he might have a chance if he was able to separate her from the herd.

He slipped out of his hiding spot and got a bit closer, keeping a close eye on the youngest cow for any kind of opening where he might be able to step in and drive her away from the others. He had a plan in mind, but executing it would most certainly be more difficult than it was to come up with it. Using the spastically spaced rocks to his advantage, he crept closer and closer by slipping from one rock to the next. He used them as coverage to stay out of sight and was careful to stay downwind so he wouldn’t be found out until he was ready. He positioned himself in a spot where he was on the side of the herd closest to where his target was lingering. It took a lot of patience, but eventually he got behind a large rock and peeked around the side of it to watch for his chance to spring.

By a pure stroke of luck, the young cow broke off from the herd for just a moment and began to move toward the rock he was hiding behind to get to the lichen that was stuck to the far side. She was clearly young and inexperienced enough to not notice that she was leaving the biggest part of the group behind and that’s when Allegro knew he had his chance. While she was distracted with her snack, he leapt out and made a quick dart to get between her and the herd. He came out snarling and barking, making himself loud enough to startle the herd and send them running in the opposite direction. So far his plan was working, but now came the hardest part. He spun back around to find the cow, his eyes landing on her lanky form taking off away from him as well as the others. Allegro hit the ground running to catch up with her and started nipping and biting at her heels to guide her toward the water that bordered one side of this area of Boreas.

As the cow neared the water’s edge she skidded to a stop and reared up, giving Allegro a change to bite hard into the lower part of her back leg and pull back on it in an attempt to topple her to the ground. It didn’t fully pull her down, but it did at least make her land unevenly as she came back onto all fours and made her collapse down to her knees on her front legs. He took advantage of the new position to quickly bite into her throat before she could get up again, getting pulled up and shaken as she tried to free herself. Allegro held on and bit in deeper for a good bit before she finally made it impossible for him to hold on any longer, tossing him to the ground in the process, making him grimace when his shoulder landed on a smaller rock. He scrambled back to his paws and ignored the pain in his shoulder in an attempt to reach her before she was able to run away.

Grappling with her front leg, he pulled and tugged till she finally toppled over, clearly weakened from the bite he had left on her throat. Another hard grip across her vulnerable throat and a rip at her wind pipe was finally enough to wound her to the point of killing her. It was a messy and difficult kill, but a kill none of the less and he was proud of it. Stumbling back a couple of steps, Allegro fell back onto his haunches with a heavy sigh. He certainly was not as young as he once was. He remembered going on hard hunts like these all the time back before he broke his leg when he was still young enough to keep up with pretty much any creature he came across. He knew that sooner rather than later he’d have to give up this kind of hunting - especially if he wanted to be around for his children. It was strange to have something more than himself or even the pack to think about now.

Giving a small shake of his head, he got back to his paws started to skin and break down the caribou he had killed. Getting it back to the pack whole was going to be impossible, but he could still take it’s hide and load it up with a good amount of meat to carry back. All in all, it was a good hunting day.