He was glad to be hunting with his sister today, as he hadn't ventured too far outside of the bamboo on his own yet. Other siblings had been out and about Auster - some maybe even further - but he found it difficult to interact with others outside of his own family. Their gazes were piercing. Katsurō glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still within easy distance to signal to. They had been tracking this doe and her fawn for some time now. Most other prey had scrambled towards the strait to cross the ocean for warmer weather, but this pair had seemed to have gotten turned around somewhere along the way. The air was chilly and the ground frozen, but they hadn't yet gotten a good snowfall. Maybe they thought they had more time to make their great escape, but Kat knew their time was running out.

He didn't usually kill young - if left, they would propagate, and the hunt's bounty would be secured for another year - but the sparkling white dapples on the little thing's coat had caught his eye. Kat was a covetous man, and he found himself desiring the pelt more than anything since he'd locked eyes on their quarry. "You take the fawn," he said softly once she was within earshot. He hoped she wouldn't take it personally. Kat was a hulking creature and Asahi had taken after their mother's lighter build - it was only rational, really.

Asahi bent her head down to the ice-covered ground. Spores were barely perceptible in the cold. She was determined to help feed the pack with her brother Katsuro. Her white ears perked up as she heard a scrambling crunch over the ice up ahead. She glanced at her hulking brother to see if he caught the noise too.

She sidled up silently beside him, the chill cutting into her thin coat. She nodded to his suggestion of her grabbing the fawn. He could take the doe down easily by himself. The sounds up ahead of the doe and fawn alerted the predators to their movements. Asahi glanced up at some peeled bark where the doe had been foraging. Attempting to find food for herself and her babe.

She bobbed her head to Kat to silently draw his attention ahead of them. The duo was attempting to fumble over an icy muddy bank.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

He grunted in affirmation at Asahi. Yes, this would be the time to strike, while their quarry scrambled over this icy embankment. Kat was fond of all of his siblings, but he had a soft spot for his sister who looked so much like him. His words came more freely around family and he didn't hesitate to say: "Be careful. It's slippery," before taking off after their prey. You're soft, he cursed himself. But it was family. Shouldn't that come before anything else, appearances be damned? The brute was still quarrelling with himself when he scrambled up the bank after the doe. She made a strangled bleating sound that pulled at his heartstrings, but not enough to sway his attack. Yes, perhaps he was soft. He certainly was no family to this deer. Kat snapped at her right hind leg, almost catching a hoof to the face before he tore a vital tendon. The doe stumbled and he was upon her, searching for the next place he could sink his teeth in. He wanted the kill to be quick and clean.

She grinned at his cautious words. She didn't need him to remind her but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. She watched him hound after the doe scrambling over the banks and bleating her fear. The fawn scrambled after her but quickly skittered over the frozen ground in a different direction. Asahi followed the child with unhurried steps. Letting the fawn slip and slide crashing through the undergrowth. She slowed her pursuit, the screams of the doe silenced the world around them and the fawn was left huddled in the brush of the understory. Asahi simply leaned down and sank her teeth into the babe's neck, letting it thrash against her as the blood touched her tongue. Poor thing was born in the wrong season in the wrong continent.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

The doe flailed wildly beneath him, but she could no longer stand. Her leg was in tatters and unable to support her weight. Kat dodged the sharp hoof of her uninjured hind leg, then dove for the soft white of her exposed throat as soon as he saw it. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Asahi dispatch the fawn. His heart wrenched briefly, but he thought again of the shimmering, spotted pelt. So pristine. So beautiful. Kat grunted, biting down deeper into the doe's throat. She still struggled, but she was fading. He stood and dragged her dying body with some effort back towards her sister, lying the doe next to her fawn as the last of the life drained from her. His heart hammered in his chest. The hunt was always thrilling. Sometimes, the emotion was overwhelming. He stood still and let the blood thunder in his ears, trying to let the feeling wash over him like a wave. It passed over and through him. "The pelt. It's beautiful. I want it," he said haltingly, still giddy with the high of the hunt. "Sad it had to die but... that is the way of things," Kat admitted, hoping his sister wouldn't think less of him for mourning the creature. "Help me harvest it?" "speech"

The fawn may have fought more if it wasn't used to hiding and trying to blend in with its surroundings. It really must have thought it had slipped away from Asahi. Maybe the sounds of its mother had paralyzed the poor babe but alas, the fawn was gone. Asahi dragged the corpse back to her brother Katsuro where he had brought the doe. Asahi wasn't as moved as her brother privately was, she had spent many times in the bamboo dispatching bamboo rat nests and making their young her easy meals.

She tilted her head at him as he suggested harvesting the pet. Well, it was a good thing it didn't thrash much then! She nodded and bent down to start her work. With a claw she cut through the skin down the belly and around the legs. She placed her forepaws on the body and began pulling the hide away from the meat with her teeth. Careful not to puncture the beautiful hide.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

Asahi's typical silence soothed him. It was less pressure. Regardless of what she was thinking about him - if she thought about him at all, which he realized in a flash of internal panic, she might not - her face was calm and placid. Difficult to read. Or was he just obtuse? Quickly, his racing thoughts overtook him. Kat busied himself by noting the different muscles exposed beneath the fawn's pelt and trying to name each one as Asahi expertly peeled back the pelt. He grunted and shook himself free from his own reverie and eyed the doe carcass, particularly the flayed hind limb. Her bone was exposed, startlingly white surrounded by the gore. Another handy thing to keep around, or perhaps he just liked having things. Kat set to work on removing the hind leg entirely, starting from the thicker haunch of muscle at the top. If he could reveal the heartier femur bones and clean and extract them, they also had merit - including the delicious bone marrow he intended to share with his sister once he had extricated the femur and cracked it open. They were thick enough that once dried and cleaned they could even make efficient skinning knives. He peeled back layers of flesh and muscle, soaking his underside in blood as he worked. "speech"

As the skin came loose entirely she laid the pelt aside and began dismembering the little fawn. Blood coating her bright white paws. She set aside some of the organ meats and useful bones. Drying and smoking the fawn's ears would be a tasty treat for someone.

Asahi's golden eyes glanced at her brother Kat and he seemed fairly lost in thought. As soon as she got one of the limbs free she grinned with a mischievous glee and gently tapped him on the shoulder with the deer hoof. When he turned to look at her she would softly boop his nose with the hoof and giggle!

It was fun finding different ways to get a rise out of her siblings. Whether it was pissing them off with a prank or bothering them while they worked she loved looking for their reactions.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

He was deeply entranced by his task. Butchering was an artform that he took quite seriously, and he continued to name muscle groups in his head as he carefully plied away at the flesh from the doe's hindquarter. As they worked dutifully side by side, they both grew more shades of red than white. He was so engrossed in his task that he didn't notice Asahi take up one of the fawn's limbs and use its dainty little hoof to tap him on the shoulder. Kat whirled around, flustered at the sudden touch. When he saw Asahi standing there, limb in mouth with a cheeky grin as she booped him on the nose with its cloven hoof, he sputtered in surprise and half-choked laughter. "Th-that's not very nice," he managed, his cheeks blown out with the effort of holding in his laughter. With some degree of effort, Kat finished shearing off the doe's much larger haunch and hefted it up into his mouth before turning to use it to nudge Asahi in the side. "Thesxchuse meh," he mouthed around the deer's hindquarter, "haff yew theen my baby?" He gave Asahi another thwack with the doe's leg. It was morbid, but he finally felt a little bit more relaxed. They could continue working in just a moment, couldn't they? "speech"

She giggled as he guffawed, taking the leg out of her mouth and hiding behind it. She stuck her tongue out at him as he finally managed to choke out that it wasn't nice. Who said she had to be nice?

Turning back to her work she freed another limb and laid it next to the skin. That was when her brother prodded her shoulder with the does limb and made his joke. At that point, she was rolling on the frozen laugh giggling until her sides hurt! The way he spoke through the limb was uproariously funny! She didn't think the work was morbid much, just necessary for their survival as a pack.

Speech // thought // Nihongo