It didn't matter how well stocked or bare their food stores were - he couldn't stop himself from constantly looking for possible prey and tracking the near by herds to keep track of them. With the way the weather had gone as of late he felt like it was a situation of being safe than sorry. He would rather have an abundance of cured and dried meats than risk not having any food at all. While he was out in the near by lands outside of The Hallow's borders, he saw a small herd of creatures that were so beyond anything he had ever seen before. They were massive with thick fur and huge tusks. He had watched them for a while with awe and the idea of ever trying to hunt one of them seemed ridiculous to consider, but... if he got enough wolves interested in banning together for it... He found his way back to just outside of the pack's borders and then let loose a howl, calling anyone from the pack or otherwise that might be willing to take on the challenge. They would have to go about this carefully, but he wanted to see what everyone else thought before he made plans himself.

Walk | "Talk" | think

Ever since he talked over things with Resin, he started to feel like he had to make it up to his father some how. He hadn't figured out exactly how he was going to do that yet, but he had at least started with going to his trainings on time without complaining and just trying to be nicer to him in general. While he was lingering around the castle, racking his brain for something he could do, when he heard his father calling for wolves to participate in a hunt. His ears perked and he looked out toward the border of the pack curiously, wondering to himself why he was all the way out there instead of coming closer to the castle to call for them. Either way, he whistled for Aquila and then trotted off to go find Ulric, his eagle companion swooping down from a near by tree and gliding through the air above him. "Hey, dad," he said with the faintest smile once he got close, giving a look around the bare garden. Well, whatever they were going to be hunting it wasn't going to be here.

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Duchess was new to the Hallows, still trying to find her place among the other wolves. That didn't mean she struggled to pull her own weight or bring in kills for the pack. She was working as hard as she could, it was in her nature to please. She didn't want to become dead weight as much as she may have thought down on herself. She came to the call for The Hallows, but it was also for more help than that. The Hallows was full of young ones that she had observed, but they were nearing a year of age, and they would be old enough to help with whatever the man who called had planned. She approached the two of them, "I'm here to help. My name is Duchess." She greeted with a nod, waiting for others to join and the plan to be laid out. Walk "Talk" Think

Relm had been finding herself farther and father from her father, and she was planning for the day she would run off to be on her own. She couldn't do that without knowing the necessary skills, but she was also waiting for the harsh winter to end. Not that she didn't think she was capable either way. She heard a man make a call for help, and she wasn't used to calls like that not being in a pack. But naturally she was curious about those of pack life. So she found her way to the call. She was eager to see someone she actually knew was there, coming up to Ezra with a wag of her tail, "Hey." She spoke with an amused smile, settling down and looking to the boy's father who had made the call. Walk "Talk" Think

Ever since Briar had left Hallowed lands bound for Boreas, Artorias had been keeping mostly to himself, rarely straying from the castle. It had allowed him time to heal, and now his wounds were mostly better, with a few scabs on his hind leg and pinkish scratches on his cheek where the cuts had sealed over. He no longer limped with his walk and was finally feeling better enough to go venturing out beyond the walls again. He was secretly thankful to be put on light duty by Gwyn as it gave him the opportunity to surreptitiously observe Resin in her daily life. Ever since the way she had lost control during the saber cat attack and her cold, almost hostile reactions to Briar, he had been keeping an eye on his mother, the concern for her wellbeing and behavior growing in his mind. He hadn't spoken about it with Tamsyn yet, as he didn't want to worry her unnecessarily or do something to upset his mother any further after his bringing of an "unapproved guest" into pack lands, but the thoughts lingered at the front of his mind regardless.

Artorias had been walking along the edges of the castle grounds alone when Ulric's howl broke through the chilly air, carried by the cold and crispness of the wind far and wide. His brow furrowed; what could Ulric be summoning all the Hallowed wolves for? Whatever it was, it must have been important. Artorias changed paths and headed toward the dire wolf's call, arriving at the gathering in the southern gardens a little while later to find a group already forming. Some wolves he recognized from the pack; others were strangers, loners and vagabonds. He strode up to the group, the wind tousling his black and blue fur in his approach. He dipped his head in greeting to Ulric and Ezra, then spared a glance at the other two. "What's going on?" he asked Ulric directly.

"Speech" | Thoughts | ”Corbin"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
____________________

Avantika got herself to where Ulric had howled from pretty quickly. She felt the littlest prickle of shame hot on her pelt at noticing several other wolves had arrived before her. There were two she didn't know yet. One the oddest shade of pink, although growing up beside Blueberry had made sure she didn't see it as unnatural at all, and one woman who was in the Hallows, but new enough to it that the foundling hadn't even known her name before that day. Kaata came beside her, as always, hopping along and casting worried glances at her wolf whenever she thought she wouldn't notice. Avantika did notice. She just didn't want to talk about it. She knew why her bird was concerned, of course. The last time she'd followed a howl like this, her ears had been ripped to shreds by a giant cat. But she had a duty to her home and they took no less risk than she did. She was fully grown now, and she didn't have any excuse not to do her part. And she wouldn't have slacked off even if she could've. This was her family. Kaata knew that too. It was why, despite her fears, she hadn't tried to talk Avantika out of going. Even if she could've succeeded, the Hallows weren't bad wolves to take a hit for. They would take care of her kiddo. Avantika hung a little back from the gathering, not because she was afraid of whatever they were going to do, but because there were strangers there and she had never been good with strangers. "Avantika to Kaata telepathy" "Kaata to Avantika telepathy" "speech"

Lúta was finishing her tea when the call rang out. She glanced at Kolfinna, locking eyes with the cougar who got to her feet. Lúta swallowed the last gulp of her spiced tea before bounding to her feet and heading toward the source of the call. It was Ulric that called and it sounded like a call for a hunt. It had been awhile since she'd gone on a hunting trip and since Shilah was out on a trip and they had promised to do more to help with feeding the pack she wanted to participate. Even if she was second guessing having children. She always assumed she'd have kids some day but she'd been raised with certain ideas about sex that made it very difficult for her to want to conceive one of her own. She'd thought about adopting to but maybe she should just do more to help with the pups that others were having.

She pushed these thoughts from her head as she arrived at the small meeting. She settled down and focused on Ulric.

Dunkan has been in the limbo for the past few weeks and he knew that wasn't okay. He was being inaceptablely leaving his tasks floating down the river. But he just didn't know what to do with his life anymore. He felt like he failed life at all, but his will power still made him stand strong. To keep going but would his efforts matter? His heart was still hurting, hurting for Resin a wolf who raised him, who trained him didn't see him as part of her family. And he felt the same way for when his biological mother left. But what was he doing? He wasn't a pup anymore.

As he patrolled beside his jaguar a call from Ulric reached his ears. And like that he rushed to see many pack mates reunited. And a huge creature at the distance. Calm was his expression, rather cold like an iceberg. He was here to aid.

Ada had been traipsing along, picking her way from one snow covered place to the next. It seemed that there was no escaping the white stuff. Aside from it being cold though, it didn't bother the small lady. She was just one little wolf and was capable of hunting enough food to maintain her own life. Finding warm places to sleep on the coldest of nights was the real task. Thankfully, due to her small stature, she could squeeze into tight little places that no one else could. Tight meant warm. Sure, she'd gotten pretty close to becoming trapped, but so far luck had been on her side. As the bob-tailed girl loped along the ice encrusted ground, a call rang out, requesting wolves for a hunt. One brow lifted as pumpkin colored eyes shifted in the direction of the call. Ada slowed to a stop. Yes, she had been feeding herself, but she could always eat more. And really, what else was on her agenda? Absolutely nothing. With a huff and a shrug, the monochromatic fae altered her position, small paws barely kissing the ground as she put a little kick into her step. A group of wolves had amassed and it seemed that Ada was almost late to the party. Approaching the wolves, most larger than herself, the little bob-tailed beauty flicked her short tail back and forth in greeting. Another had just asked what they were after, so her gaze lit upon the obvious leader of the group; an earthen man that was...well... huge. Stepping into the groups space, the eager young fae awaited instruction. "Speech"

Always up for a bit of mischief, Oxx decided to answer the call for help. The hunt for his mother had become boring and he decided to give himself a little break. One couldn't work all the time, after all. He'd burn himself out. His ambition would run dry. Couldn't have that now, could we? Isidora left behind, the behemoth of a brute meandered out into the big, white world. Huge paws broke through the ice as the dire wolf moved towards the call. There was no helping with that. The howl had asked others to join for a hunt. His giant size and wide paws would make running through the ice encrusted snow a little difficult, so hopefully the one calling the hunt would keep to the path of least resistance. As the slate and snow beast arrived at the scene, a heavy scent slammed him in the face like a thrown brick. Dark grey eyes went wide as the object of his obsession finally let itself be known. His movement faltered and Oxx stood stock still behind the group. His gaze drifted from wolf to wolf. They smelled like his mother. He would know the bitch's scent anywhere. Ah, but which one was it? Which one of these wolves had contact with her? Altering his course somewhat, Oxx came in from the side. As he passed each wolf, obsidian nostrils flared, olfactory sensors working overtime as he sifted through scents. A black and blue boy held her scent the most richly, but there was a girl as well that stank of his mother. Others of the group held similar notes and yet none of them had the rich tang of Carpathius blood. Ohhh, but that didn't matter. They smelled of her. It was obvious that they had contact with the bitch. Midnight lips peeled back from a wide, grinning maw as the dire man took his spot at the end of the queue. Well, today had just ended up perfectly. The potential to kill something big was just a bonus. "Speech"

Ulric waited as wolves eventually began to gather and was surprised to see his own son as the first to the party. He had a hard time hiding that surprise, but a pleased grin pulled across his features all the same. His attention soon got pulled away though as a dark, purple splattered woman approached them and introduced herself. The scent of the pack was faint on her coat so he had to assume she was a recent addition to their ranks, but still a welcome addition to their hunting party none of the less. "Welcome," he told her with a nod before turning his attention to the others that gathered quickly after. A mostly pink young woman joined in and addressed Ezra directly and he gave them a curious glance, wondering how the two knew each other. He was certainly not opposed to having loaners join in to their hunt considering how big their prey would be this day.

Some more familiar faces appeared in the form of Artorias, Avantika, Lúta, and Dunkan and he offered them each a dip of his head in greeting and welcome. He was glad that there had been a good showing of wolves from the pack, though he still wondered if this would be enough to bring down one of the huge, elephant like beasts. A couple more strangers joined the group in the form of a smaller monochrome woman and a speckled slate male who's size seemed to match his own. He kept a close eye on the new comers - the grinning male in particular - as he began to answer Artorias' question of what they were here for.

"I spotted a herd of creatures I've never seen before. They seem to be herbivores from what I can tell and were lingering between the Cedar Falls and Wraith's Woods. There was only three or four of them from what I could see, but they're massive - much bigger than any animal I've ever seen. They're thickly furred and have huge tucks as well. It will be a difficult hunt, but I do have some ideas of how we could take one down. It would get us a huge supply of food and fur if we're successful so I think it's worth a shot." As he spoke his silver eyes scanned the crowd, gauging their reactions. "I was thinking that if we can drive them toward Bent Canyon we might be able to split one off from the group and get at least one to go over the cliff and let it do the work for us... Thoughts?"

Walk | "Talk" | think

Ezra was pleasantly surprised when his pink friend approached the group as other wolves began to join, giving her a grin and playfully bumping his shoulder against hers. "Hey," he said in return before returning his focus to his father. A bunch of other wolves joined them pretty soon, some he knew, others he didn't. He supposed that it didn't really matter if they were pack wolves or not - as long as they were interested in joining in on the hunt. His father seemed to echo his thoughts as he soon went on to explain what they would be hunting. The speckled boy's expression showed his surprise at the description of the wooly, tusked creatures that he had a hard time even imagining. Well, it was certainly much more interesting of a hunt than he had thought when he came out here. It made him even more excited to get started and he wore a grin as he glanced at Relm to get her reaction as well. He figured his father's plan was pretty straight forward and sounded pretty effective so he didn't chime in just yet, instead waiting to see if anyone else would have anything to add.

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Duchess would listen to the man as he explained, she hadn't seen these big creatures, and she was a little worried about her ability to help. She tried to push her harsh feelings of herself aside to help the group of them take down their target. She wouldn't let the feelings be in the way of what help she could offer. She was still young so she wouldn't call herself an experienced hunter. But she had learned how to survive on her own at a young age so she was in tune more with hunting as a skill. "Should we have a group at the bottom of the canyon? If the fall does't take down the prey it should at least take a moment for it to rise back up before it can get away." It was just an offer, she hoped it wasn't a bad one. She wouldn't make it obvious but her eyes tried to secretly trail the large loner man as he stalked around the different wolves. He made her uncomfortable, and even while in the presence of The Hallows wolves, she was wishing Indigo was here. Walk "Talk" Think

Settling beside the only wolf she knew, which wasn't a new feeling for her, she listened to what his father had to say. She had never worked as a group before, this would be a new experience for her. She waited before speaking herself, she was much more intelligent at her young age than others. Even if her attitude didn't reflect that all the time. "I've been up close to these creatures, they don't seem bothered by me. It'll probably take a lot of us to get it to move and drive it into the direction of the canyon." She didn't notice Ezra was peeking at her to see her reaction. She spent a lot of her days wandering the lands of Auster so naturally when these ginormous strange creatures appeared, she found herself checking them out and observing them. Walk "Talk" Think

More wolves continued to show up, Hallowed and loner alike judging by their scents. It made no difference to Artorias. Times were hard, and with no signs of second winter letting up any time soon, they could use all the help they found to stay alive. Art looked between them all, from familiar faces to new acquaintances. He spared each of the newcomers only a cursory glance with cautious amber eyes, then focused on Ulric while he explained the reason for calling the meeting. Massive hairy herbivores just roaming around waiting to be killed, butchered, and eaten? It sounded too good to be true. But the pink pup chimed in and stated she had seen the creatures and been near them as well, then went on to explain that they were unafraid of the wolves. Well damn... This would not be an easy hunt. Ulric's plan to run one of them off the canyon was solid, especially if they were as big and heavy as they sounded. Bones would break easily enough, then they would just need to bleed it out to earn their meals. But first, they had to get the big, unafraid creatures moving.

Already, Art's mind was thinking through strategies, weighing the options and possible outcomes of each one. They would need something the mammoths feared in order to rile them up and get them moving, then maybe the wolves snapping at their heels would be enough of a stimulus to herd them where they wanted them. "What if we caused something to spook the animals and get them running, like an avalanche from the top of the falls, or a small brush fire along the edge of the woods?" he offered in suggestion. "Once they start running, they should be easy enough to separate and herd towards the canyon with enough of us." For once, Artorias wasn't disappointed that he hadn't brought his sword or armor with him outside the castle. They would do jack shit against a creature that big and would only serve to slow him down. He looked between the other wolves, waiting for their inputs and suggestions.

"Speech" | Thoughts | ”Corbin"

One big happy family

Artorias has two ravens named Corbin and Eira and a fox named Argent. Assume they are within calling distance at all times.
As his mate, Briar may enter Artorias' threads unless marked Private.
____________________

Ulric explained his idea. A huge supply of food, huh? Avantika scanned the group, wondering how much each loner would get and how much the pack would be able to have. She knew that it would be difficult, but she was sure that it would be worth it if they could pull the hunt off. She wasn't much of a hunter, but she enjoyed fighting, and it couldn't be that different from that. Driving one off a cliff sounded like a decent plan, although she wasn't sure that any animal would blunder that much. If one was stuck between certain death and a horde of wolves, fighting was indubitably the better choice. They were relying on the irrationality of fear. In the end, the foundling figured those were pretty good odds. One woman that Avantika didn't know suggested a group down the cliff to finish their prey off, and the pink girl said that she'd been near the things before, presumably alone, and they weren't afraid of her. Splitting the group might not give them enough intimidation to spark a flee response rather than a fight. Avantika briefly marveled at the bravery of that girl, considering she could never work up the nerve for something like that. Foolhardy or bold. She couldn't tell. The hunt seemed more and more difficult by the minute. Artorias provided what sounded to her inexperienced ears to be a reasonably plausible solution. An avalanche or brush fire. She kept quiet, trying to think over the problem in her head. "Avantika to Kaata telepathy" "Kaata to Avantika telepathy" "speech"

"Speech" | Urasa | Kaira Ulric was quick to the point, something he appreciated as he never could stand being left to wait to start the work to be done. And with his plans he agreed, he saw it as the best way to approach these creatures. If their own strength couldn't take them, then leaving a bigger one like nature was best. "I was thinking that if we can drive them toward Bent Canyon we might be able to split one-off from the group and get at least one to go over the cliff and let it do the work for us... Thoughts?" "Using the cliff to help us hunt is perfect, but I think the fire wouldn't be useful under this climate. The coldness wouldn't let it stay long enough to cause panic. I think an avalanche seems more fitting for our current conditions." He said about both the pup's ideas (Artorias'). "But we could try both, the fire in the bush and the avalanche." He wasn't too confident with the fire but he guessed that wouldn't harm anyone to try for it.

ART BY FOX

Oxx listened as the apparent leader laid out his idea and asked the others for their input. The giant snorted, one side of his nose lifting in a momentary sneer. Had none of these wolves ever hunted before? Avalanches? Fire? Idiocy. And if they thought something that big was going to get up after falling off of a cliff, they had another thing coming. He decided to tell them so. "Even if they're bigger, we have numbers and stamina. It shouldn't be too hard to cut one from the group. The real problem will be keeping the others from trying to come to its rescue." The charcoal eyed brute gave his head a shake, the darker fur down his spine bristling somewhat. "If it falls over a cliff, it may not die, but it's not getting up. If it does, your cliff wasn't high enough." Oxx pretended to think about a course of action for a moment, though he already had one in mind. "It might very well be easier to run them all off the cliff. The weight of one falling on another will crush those beneath. Meat for the rest of winter, spring and summer." He gave a light shrug just in case some didn't want to kill all of the beasts. "Or we could cut one and splinter into two groups. One could run the prey the other could keep the rest of the herd away." He wasn't terribly hungry either way. Oxx was just here for reconnaissance mostly. "Speech"

Lúta listened intently as Ulric described the strange creatures he'd seen. It sounded worth a shot to her, at the very least they'd get an idea of what the creatures were like and how practical they would be as a target for future hunts. Ulric voiced his idea and Lúta nodded. "That sounds good to me." More voices added their thoughts. "I like the idea of a group at the bottom in case the fall does not prove fatal. As for spooking them a fire could get out of hand and backfire on us. How would we go about triggering an avalanche?" There was also the question of if the snow would go far enough and in the direction that they wanted. Again, there was a significant gamble and likely loss of control. She was half tempted to suggest trying to poison the creatures but she hadn't done much research on if certain ingested poisons would contaminate those eating the victims meat.

"What about using spears to wound and irritate them? That might give us a chance to get them moving and give us more control in what direction we drive them."

He was pleased that so many spoke up to give their ideas and opinions on the matter. He had rough ideas that he had come up with on his own, but this was too large of a task for him to completely plan out without someone else to poke holes in the plan and make it better. He hummed with thought when Duchess suggested that there be a portion of them at the bottom of the canyon to kill the beast if the fall didn't. He didn't think that a creature that large could survive that kind of fall - as the saying goes, the larger they are the harder they fall - but it certainly wasn't a bad idea. The pink girl beside Ezra spoke about being near these creatures before and he looked to her with interest. It was good intel to have and gave him a better perspective of the approach they would need to take. He gave a nod to Artorias as the boy suggested a couple of solutions to get the creatures running and then looked to Dunkan as he expanded on the idea.

He had to agree that a fire might be difficult to pull off considering the amount of snow still on the ground. Anything they would try to light would get snuffed out pretty quickly as the snow melted and introduced water to the situation. The avalanche wasn't a bad idea, though he wasn't entirely certain how they would go about setting that up. He turned his attention to the large stranger as he spoke, mentioning how one might come after the other and throwing out the possibility of running them all over the cliff instead. Ulric had never really been a fan of hunting more than necessary for a comfortable survival so killing that many of them when they likely wouldn't be able to finish off all of the meat before it began to spoil felt wasteful, but if perhaps two instead of one ended up in their trap that would be alright. He appreciated Lúta's insight when she echoed his thoughts about starting the avalanche and bringing up the fact that if the fire didn't go out as they expected it could just end up getting out of hand. The spears were a solid idea though and helped to fully round out his idea. At some point during their chatting and planning, the small bobbed tailed woman that had originally joined them slipped away without him noticing and instead a another large stranger appeared in her place, but from what he could tell the stranger was nodding along and seemed to be up to speed on what was happening.

"Alright... Six of us will need spears - that will be our team to drive the creatures toward the canyon and direct their path. Then I'd like two of us to be at the bottom of the canyon to finish off the beast if it doesn't succumb to the fall on its own. That leaves two of us to start the stampede from the top of the falls. I think there will be enough larger rocks that we could pile them up and trigger the avalanche from there. If nothing else it should confuse and startle them enough to get them running. Once the avalanche is started the two at the falls can join the team guiding them to the cliff and breaking one of them off from the group. Ezra, Avantika, and Artorias, I'd like for you to go back to the castle and collect some spears from the weapons room. Each of you should be able to carry two so that will give six of us spears to use. While they're doing that the rest of us can go prepare the beginnings of the avalanche at the falls.

Avantika and Duchess - you'll trigger the avalanche. Dunkan and Lúta - you'll be our finishing blows at the bottom of the canyon. The rest of you will be with me for driving the herd. Any questions?" He waited a moment to see if there were any questions or objections before getting to his feet with a nod. "Alright, lets go!"

Walk | "Talk" | think