The last rays of light were making a last pointless fight to hold back the darkness.  Small pinpricks of faint light would soon into bright stars and the moon would become more obvious in the depth of night.  It was time to hunt and Rudy wanted the company to help with the larger game.  He hadn’t bothered to discuss it with Ezra but had already decided he’d be perfect.  Rudy also hadn’t wondered about Ezra’s normal hours to sleep or be awake.  Rudy preferred to hunt late at night and so surely these hours would work for Ezra.

Rudy sat near the entrance of the gods' garden, howling to call to the extremely large wolf.  Rudy would love to hunt nightly with a partner for the large game instead of by himself for smaller game.  Reluctantly Rudy acknowledged taking on a challengingly prey animal alone was a bad idea if he couldn’t protect his kill afterward.  This was the one area he couldn’t expect Art to be his partner, his brother was better at mastering his fighting and leadership skills so Rudy would simply need one or two other wolves to be his trusted hunting companions.  Ezra wasn’t aware of it yet but, he would be one of them.

Rudyard Carpathius

Ezra was lingering on one of the balconies in the wing where he and his family lived, finishing up a bit of dinner with Aquila. He had taken to doing patrols and stuff around the pack while his father was away and even though he had come back Ezra tried to keep himself in the habit. If nothing else it kept him busy and gave him a task to do besides just mope around and attempt to train. He and Aquila hunted pretty often too, but that only filled so much time. A wolf and an eagle could still only take down small or maybe a medium sized prey animal on their own on a good day so it wasn't like it took all day to do. Still though, it kept him occupied and kept him from thinking about all the stuff he didn't want to be thinking about like that fox-looking girl he had crossed paths with or how his siblings all seemed to be drifting in different directions.

A howl for him made his head pop up with confusion as he listened. He was pretty sure it was Rudyard's voice calling for him, but he had no clue why. It was nearly night time at this point so why was the other yearling calling for him now? Well, it wasn't like he was doing anything right now so he got up, giving a nod for his eagle companion to go meet him down there as he made his way out though the castle and moved with quick, long strides out toward the garden. He found the gray speckled wolf easily enough and he gaze him a curious glance with his ice blue eyes when he got close enough. "Rudyard? What's going on?" he questioned just as Aquila came to land on his shoulders.

Ezra Adravendi

Rudy had sat there alone letting his mind wander, thinking to sort out some of the unanswered puzzles in his brain, work out one of the emotional quandaries until his partner arrived.  Rudy couldn’t seem to focus on any one thought which was frustrating.  Focusing on one thing was something he could do well but even as he tried to decide about social or emotional issues another part of his brain wanted to focus on the hunt ahead.

Eventually, after failed attempts to make use of his time, he heard Ezra showing up.  Glancing at Ezra he offered the other wolf a grin, “Hey Ezra,” Rudy stood up, stretching out to limber up his muscles after having sat still.  “You tired of hunting small game?  I thought we could team up and find something larger.  Take home something large enough to share around better.  I’ve had a lot of luck smelling some larger game out this area on a few different nights.”

Focusing on hunting was one thing he knew his mind could do.  Rudy could smile and share a good time with other wolves to try and help them but there was still a dark cloud in the back of his mind, to focus on it was a distraction however so he bottled up his sorrow to deal with whenever a good ‘later’ came along.  For now, Rudy offered a tail wag and smile, “It’ll be fun.”

Rudyard Carpathius

Ezra gave a curious tip of his head as Rudyard questioned if he was tired of hunting smaller game, the reason for the question revealing itself as he offered to team up with him to hunt something bigger. Well, he certainly wouldn't say no to that! He still didn't really know why it had to be at night, but it wasn't like he was going to sleep right away or anything so he supposed there was no reason not to. He returned Rudy's smile and gave a shrug as his tail wagged as well. "Sure! Why not? I'm always down for a good hunt and it's always more fun to hunt together than alone."

The black and chestnut eagle on his shoulder gave his ear a peck at the notion that hunting with him was still considered alone and Ezra flinched away from the slight attack, casting a glare up at Aquila. "Oh stop it! You know what I meant!" Aquila was a great hunting partner, but there was still only so much an eagle could help with. He glanced out over the gardens behind Rudyard, asking, "Did you track something this way?" He was already curious to know what Rudyard had in mind for them tonight and he was eager to get started.

Ezra Adravendi

Rudy gave a quick nod at the question and glancing farther out into the garden, “There’s a big bunch of water buffalo.  I’d say over two dozen of them.  I figured we could try and get one of the younger ones.”   The harsh wintery-spring had probably killed off all but the toughest of their kids. So there probably wouldn’t be an overly easy freebie but that didn’t matter, Rudy was confident he and Ezra could handle a healthy adult if need be.  

Rudy smirked at Aquila’s action, “I’m sure you help a lot.  Reddy,” glancing up towards a tree where his red-tailed hawk watched, “he was super helpful when I was fighting some crazy giant cat this winter.” Reddy had learned a sky bomber style fighting that sometimes actually connected but if nothing else was great to be a useful distraction.  Still, Ezra was right that it would only do so much for an actual hunt.

Rudy went ahead and started jogging in the direction of the prey and nodding to a partial hoof print and the scent of their feces was also about.  They weren’t too far away at all!  Rudy’s tail swished in eager excitement.  He hadn’t hunted water buffalo before so this was gonna be great fun.

Rudyard Carpathius

Aquila seemed pleased by Rudyard's compliment and Ezra chuckled, giving the eagle a little shake of his head. Once Rudy took the lead to bring him out to where he had tracked the water buffalo to, Ezra hopped into a lope to follow along beside him, Aquila taking to the air and flying over them as an extra pair of eyes. The signs of the big creatures were easy to find, their foot prints large and easily visible in the mud. He gave Rudyard a grin and nodded, picking up his pace a bit so they could catch up with their prey for their night time hunt. When he spotted them in the distance he started to slow, scanning the herd curiously as he tried to pick out a weak spot. He ducked behind a cluster of bushes to hide behind while he watched them for a bit. Luckily, since it was the dead of night, they seemed to mostly be asleep, most of them laying in the clearing of the garden with just a couple up standing watch. The only problem was that the calves were toward the center of the herd so they'd need to find a way to get them away from he others.

"Okay... Here's what I think we should do," he whispered, "There's some vines and stuff growing over there. I think if we get a bunch of them we can make like a rope that we can use like a trap. We can string it up kinda low between some trees, drive the buffalo through there and the bigger ones can hop over, but the younger ones could get tripped up and then we can grab it." He looked to Rudy with a curious look and a shrug. "What do you think? I'm up for suggestions."

Ezra Adravendi

It was pleasant to have a company running with him. As a pup Rudy was always stuck limited to how far he could go and had plenty of company back then.  The more time he spent hunting seemed the more time he spent on his own and these days Rudy liked not being left alone with his thoughts.  There didn’t need to be some long conversation going on, another presence was a distraction away from the recent trauma.

When they got to the water buffalo Rudy slipped off in the brush near Ezra smugly looking at the sleeping prey.  The idea of setting up a trap wasn’t really what Rudy had in mind.  He had imagined the fun of a hunt that included chasing the prey down until it was too tired to survive the pursuit of wolves and their relentless attack.  What Ezra offered was a good suggestion, the sort Rudy had to acknowledge was the right thing to do if this was about a serious hunt instead of casual fun.

Rudy imagined long ago as a pup and the elk herd when it took flight and then looked at the well-muscled buffalo.  “'If' they hop over it, the adults could probably charge through easy without caring if they break it.” Rudy wasn’t negating the option just offering up the potential comment as he shook away the memory of how that had ended.  Resin had saved him.  She had been an impressive sight that day and fortunately, she hadn’t been hurt by his foolishness.

“Let’s do it.  If you’re right and it works it will be an easy kill.  If it doesn’t work it could still slow or confuse some of them.”  Rudy eyed one of the adults towards the outer edge, lip twitching.  It wasn’t the smart choice though if they had calves they could get too.  Rudy imagined he needed to be smart at times.

Rudy made his way quietly to start grabbing lose vines or breaking off some growing from tangled webs.  He heard Reddy nearby up higher in the tree’s likewise breaking off some vines that had wrapped about a helpless tree.  When he had a good enough supply Rudy would head towards a set of trees that appeared a great target to herd the water buffalo through.  Mom had taught him about setting snares and it was one thing he had never really practiced again after that.  Maybe he should start doing the boring parts of hunting also.

Rudyard Carpathius