Regulus Anatolii Adravendi

Cinder was missing. He hadn’t seen the graceful ruddy, fluffy queen in a week and he was worried. He’d finally found a trace of her scent, and he was following it doggedly, nose questing for any stronger traces. He’d long passed the border of the territory. Finally, he came across a scattered pile of feathers and down, and the many days old scent of bird blood. The color of the feathers said she’d found a blue bird of some kind. The scent trail, and the feathers, arced around, heading back toward home. She’d been heading home with the bird, it seemed. A gift, probably. Then he found the aged marks and traces of a scuffle. He pressed his nose into the tufts of cat fur, laded with sudden terror in their strands that hadn’t been there before. Finally, he found a semi-clear print, and the blood. A coyote. The blood from his friend was too much to give him hope that she’d somehow broken free and fled, and might be alive somewhere, gravely wounded. He circled the area, nose and eyes still vainly questing for any trace of her, but with a heavy heart, he finally turned to follow the coyote traces. They were paired with droplets of blood, the occasional tuft of hair. It was nearing dusk when he found her half-eaten corpse, dropped carelessly near a bush. There wasn’t enough left of the cat to merit caching her body. A soft whine left him. Cinder had been like a little sister to him, since he’d found her in the snow as a pup. She’d been a hunting buddy, patrol partner, and his best friend. Gingerly, he picked up what remained of the corpse and turned back toward home. She would be laid to rest beside his parents and grandmother. Once he’d tamped down the mound of earth, he turned back, pausing at the cave dens to wash his jaws of her dead flavor before trekking onward. That coyote was going to join the dead, soon enough. His bearing was grim, and if any of his pack happened along, he wouldn’t begrudge them the choice to come along and eradicate a natural enemy, so long as they were old enough to leave the territory and fight.

Justice had been out on the border as Regulus came in bearing a rather gruesome burden. She had watched from a distance a moment, thinking he was bringing a half-eaten rabbit back, before she realized that the corpse belonged not to a rabbit or hare, but a cat. The yearling shadowed her alpha as he buried the cat beside his own recently deceased parents, and it was the location that finally made it click for her. When she was young, before she had tried to follow him to the nomads, Regulus had a companion - a cat. She winced sympathetically.

She remained concealed at a respectful distance while he buried his friend, then continued to shadow him back to the family den. She was pretty experienced in stalking, for a yearling, but he had quite a few years more experience than she did at it so he was probably aware of her presence despite her efforts. Still, she didn't want to intrude, so she stayed back and silent.

But as he started back out of the territory with clear purpose, Justice came trotting up out of the brush to fall in beside him. She had to really stretch her much-shorter legs to keep up with his long stride. She wouldn't complain though, just set her own dark face into an expression to mimic his own grim countenance, though she cast a questioning sidelong glance up at him as she trotted at his shoulder.

The boy was still awake and restless, so he started along the borders of the pack to add his scent to the markers. His pace was an easy trot, it took quite awhile for him to pick up on the alphas scent. Perking up, he wondered if the tall red man would see him and be proud. He was getting bored, since his last fight he hadn't really had much to do at all. So he kept himself busy with patrols and working on keeping his body limber. He didn't want to become a lump now, did he? At least that terrible heat was gone, making it a lot easier for him to actually do things. Licking his lips, he paused when the scent of blood crossed his nose. It wasn't wolf, but a scent that he couldn't really place. Had Regulus gone hunting? Curious, he picked up his pace until he could see the male in his sights. It was hard to miss him, at least, enabling Fable to cut towards him quickly and with ease. Fable's brows were pulled together as he saw the look on the Archangel's face, a small whine leaving his lips as he pressed his nose against his shoulder. The scent of death was all around him, but by the mans feature it wasn't a simple snack. "Is everything okay?" The boy asked, his ears pulling back towards his head as he looked up. He glanced around for his cat that he had seen around a few times, even more alarm gathering in his blue and yellow eyes. "Where's Cinder?" His heart dropped to his paws, a sense of dread filling his gut. Was that the blood he had picked up? Then he noticed that they weren't alone either, seeing his sister on the other side of the large man. Her expression matched their alphas, making his own frown deepen. Something was going on, and he wanted to be a part of it. Stepping over to place a kiss on Justice's cheek, he came about her other side to sandwich the smaller girl between the two larger males. Walk - "Talk - "Hear" - Think

So! Let's turn this into a hunting/hunting training thread! Fable can get some points for his hunting skill! I have no problem with making this a several page long thread; Regulus loves to teach, and this is a good chance for all three to get to know each other, and for the siblings to bond :D

Regulus Anatolii Adravendi

He certainly had been aware of the stealthy, less than stealthy movements. He knew it was Justice, from the occasional whiffs brought directly to his nose any time the wind turned slightly, sharp and fresh as opposed to degraded by distance on the breeze. He was about to address her as she came up beside him, to lend his knowledge of how to place one’s paws on the quietest, softest spots of grass or patches of dirt when Fable arrived. He nodded to both, unable to help an internal smile. Outwardly, his expression was still grim as he answered Fable’s queries. “I’m afraid not… And she’s dead. Coyote. I was headed off to track it down and kill it. If they’re coming close to the territory, they could be a threat to the pups, and any future litters we may have. You’re both welcome to come along and help. We can turn it into a lesson in tracking, and silent, unseen movement.” He added that last portion of his words with a small grin at Justice as Fable moved to travel on her other side, not mocking, but gently teasing. He veered, taking them to the point where Cinder’s scent left the pack territory on her ill-fated hunting trip. “Now, first thing. Can you two tell me the story of what happened, as we go? Look for clues. How old is her scent?” He fell silent, slowing down to a slow walk as he let them pull ahead slightly to investigate as they might wish to do.

Fable dropped in to join them, at first not seeming to notice her as he spoke to Regulus. Justice stayed silent as she peered unblinkingly around the brightly colored alpha and took the opportunity to study Fable unseen. Her taller brother seemed so anxious all the time since she'd returned. Had he been that way before she left? It troubled her that she couldn't really remember.Everything had faded so much that it seemed that all she could really remember where the brightest, most memorable occasions when they were all together and so happy. Anything less important than that was blurry at best, and so little that she could only assume she'd completely buried anything else in new memories. She thought of Valor, so distant all the time that she had no idea whether he was still in pack lands, and of her two missing brothers, and a spark of anger flared up in them in spite of, or maybe because of, the worm of guilt that writhed in her belly. Well she'd come back, hadn't she? And where were they? While the family fell apart.

He finally noticed her and circled around to her other side. She returned his kiss with a bump of her nose in return, affectionate but distracted. She couldn't help the way her pelt prickled at being boxed in between the two much larger males, not a prickle of fear but rather of irritation. She barely kept herself from snapping at her brother to drive him off her shoulder. She wasn't really sure herself why she was so angry about it, except that it felt an awful lot like being caged in, or like he was trying to protect her and rather than making her feel safe she just felt angry. With the alpha there and the seriousness of the situation she forced the spark of anger down to a sullen coal and stayed quiet.

Her ears burned hot in embarrassment when Regulus' words made it clear her stalking hadn't been as stealthy as she'd thought. "Coyote?" she questioned casually instead, congratulating herself on how steady her tone was. "I know that scent, but I didn't know what they were called." Her ears laced back, a hint of fang showing in contempt. "Horrible, nasty creatures." She'd had to step quick to avoid becoming lunch for one of the canines more than once while she was gone, until she'd gotten big enough to fight back and had sent them yelping instead.

She did tilt her head to the side slightly, nostrils quivering as she let the scent filter through. She frowned. Worming out from between the two males she circled, nose to ground, but couldn't find any better trace and shrugging returned to face them across the scent trail. "It's pretty old," she ventured. "Old enough that if it was prey I wouldn't bother following it. I'm not sure how to tell how long ago, though."