[PRP] The Bear & the Maiden Fair (The Butcher & Hresvelgr)

[xo maho]

This is a private roleplay between Bear the Butcher (Mahogany Sunset) and Hresvelgr (techabyte).

 

[xo maho]

The bear could feel every shift of his muscles as he walked, feel his claws sink satisfyingly into the earth with every step. The way his pelt moved over his muscle was a thing to be marveled at, because it meant he was awake. He was awake, and he was hungry.

And it was time to hunt.

It had been too long; he had not witnessed the winter, but he could feel it in his bones, slowing him and his blood to a crawl. He had fallen into a deep sleep, one that was almost unexpected - but after the bloodbath that had happened right before he had crawled into his cave, he knew that something had changed. He had glutted himself, and then he had paid for it. By the look of the world outside, he had paid for it with months of his life.

Oh, he was going to make up for that.

Spring brought with it all kinds of new scents. The smell of animal was everywhere: rabbits, birds, raccoons, everything that would do for a short snack. The salmon would not arrive until the time when the leaves fell, but he begrudged the fact that they were not here now. Something instinctive awoke in him when he waded into a rushing river to see shimmering scales flying toward him...

But none of those snacks were big enough. He had slept so long, his body had gone through all the weight it had put on, and the Butcher was hungry.

The first thing he did was trap a vole between his paws. He swallowed it still squeaking as his teeth gnashed it, relishing the warmth of hot food for the first time in what must have been half a year. It wasn't nearly enough to tide him over, though; instead, the bear began to plan for his first attack of the new year. He needed prey, and he needed prey fast... But he had nothing to draw it in. He had no one to speak with, to impart his glory on. It was time to find a new audience for the new year. He would, of course, prefer a female. They talked back, rarely tried to fight back... Hmmm.

Pondering schemes, the Butcher continued his lumbering through the forest outside his cave, looking in every direction before him. If it had truly been six months, no one in the area would remember him, and that was a plus: they would feel safe, trusting, and he could strike.

techabyte

 

[techabyte]

When the sun came into the sky for the first time in six months, it was blinding. Many creatures enjoyed it; came out and loved it. The snow slowly started to melt, and it only took a few short weeks before the white fluff was gone and green grass was coming back to life. The trees were growing leaves bright and happy and healthy to live in the world. Rabbits and squirrels and other creatures ran around and enjoyed the short time between peace and when the predators awoke from slumber so deep that they didn't move for months of slumber. That being said, one wolf didn't sleep during winter ( as wolves didn't anyways ). Her large wings were folded as tight to her sides as she could make them, and she needed to make sure she was quiet in her hunt.

Hresvelgr was a wolf born of two worlds. Her mother was Harpy bound; living within Flock grounds and enjoying her time among Sisters and stallions alike. Her father... Well, Hresvelgr didn't remember much of her father. She was raised by the demon wolf; raised to be strong and fast and able to take her prey down with a snap of her fangs. Part wolf and part something else; Hresvelgr was strong and powerful and embraced every part of her being. She used her eyes on her wings to spot potential prey when she couldn't see them herself. Her paws always seemed to understand the ground beneath them easier; even more so when the ground changed to snow and ice. And now all she needed to do was catch food; get some form of sustenance in her stomach so she could take a bigger prey down and be able to hunt something larger.

It didn't take her long to catch a squirrel, and she ate through the meat quickly before moving away from the carcass and moved to look for something more... delectable. Her tail flicked slightly, the hair doing a sort of twirl with the movement and laid against her back legs. Her ears were perked, swiveling one way and another to try and hear something move in the distance. She lifted her nose, sniffing slowly to try and identify which way to go. She needed to eat something larger. After all, she had barely eaten over the Winter; there was no food with the world asleep. She sighed some and dripped her head toward the ground, sniffing slightly at the slightly damp earth to see if she could pick up some form of a trail. The eyes on the crooks of her wings seemed to lift some, staring in a general direction. Hresvelgr lifted her head for a moment, blinking. It was as though something in her brain just told her that there was something that direction. Maybe the eyes saw something and clued her in, but she wasn't certain. Huffing, the wolf moved forward and through some brush to see if she could find what it was she wanted.

As the time ticked by she thought she saw something. Something was moving through the woods, and at a... well... a slow pace, at the moment. It was like he wasn't certain what was going on. Disoriented. Hresvelgr lowered herself some, ears pinning back against her head as she moved through the trees and toward where the bear was moving. She could hunt him. She could do it. She was slow and steady, moving silently through the trees on careful paws. Her wings spread slightly here and there, as if using the eyes to spy more on the bear. She was going to eat well tonight, she knew it. This bear would be the best meal.

Mahogany Sunset

 

[xo maho]

A growl rumbled in the air as the bear stumbled into a patch of sunlight. After so long in the darkness, everything was painfully bright in the shade, and open sunlight simply made his eyes burn. He moved backward into the shade, blinking hard. The tiny tear streaks at the corners of his eyes darkened with new dampness. Why was daytime so wretched? Had it always been this wretched?

Groaning in his throaty bear voice, the Butcher studied the patch of sunlight that he had just stepped out of. Tracks of some kind were dug into the ground; he vaguely recognized them, but could not quite bring himself to recall what they belonged to. They were narrow, delicate, cloven. He veered left, following the trail, until he at last came upon the tracks' accompanying scent. Deer, antler, hoof, blood, meat, food. The bear's head lifted sharply, and before he knew what he was doing, he broke into a lope. His mouth opened as he carried along, avoiding pools of sunlight and scenting his prey. The scent of it was musky, tinged with some kind of cloying sweetness, the kind that smelled like berries and bright green grass. He followed the trail a long way, and the scent grew stronger. With every step he took, he felt the hole in his stomach grow deeper, the hunger pangs grow stronger.

But something was not right. The scent began to fade. The bear was confused. It had been months since his last hunt, and that hunt had been of salmon - something that did not require quite as much of his nose and more of his eyes and ears and instincts. He felt like a cub again, stupid and lost. Did all bears' instincts fail them so miserably after they fell so long asleep? Did all bears even fall asleep like he had? Some victim of his had told him he ought to be sleeping once, hi-ber-nate-ing, but he did not know what that was at the time. The bear had a feeling he knew what it was now.

The tang of vole blood in his mouth was growing stale, and the bear licked his lips. He turned around, remembering, somehow, that if the scent was fading, the deer must have made a turning somewhere. Facing this way felt strange, like he was confronting something. Unfamiliar with the feeling, the Butcher walked slowly forward, scanning the forest around him. He thought he saw something a slightly lighter shade of tree-bark color out there, but put it down to a fallen pine showing its lighter innards, or perhaps one of those trees whose leaves fell when the air grew colder. That was what he thought it was for the time being, at least.

Moving his eyes back to the path before him, the bear followed his own tracks back to where the deer smell was the strongest. His nose snuffled along the ground, but suddenly, the fur over his shoulders rose. No, something wasn't right here, and it had nothing to do with the deer trail he had lost. The Butcher's head rose again, and he spotted something orange staring at him through the trees. He followed the line of the lighter-shade-of-tree-bark thing, followed it down a large wing, up a slender neck, and to a face with narrowed eyes.

Anger flared in his chest alongside the cold pit of hunger. The growl that had been growing in his throat ripped into a roar, and the Butcher charged forward toward the creature that was watching him.

techabyte

 

[techabyte]

Hresvelgr followed the bear quietly, her paws making little to no noise against the ground. She was easily a great huntress, able to follow and stay hidden, especially with her light coat. But the trees here were dark; the bark clashing with her soft fur and it made it slightly more difficult. So she paced herself, moved slow and careful. Her wings folded against her back and she moved quietly toward the bear she was hunting. It looked like it hadn’t been fed in a while; and that meant that she could take it down with little to no effort. A smirk shifted over her features as she slid down a small hill to keep up. She blinked when the bear stopped, moving toward a thicker back of trees to keep herself from view. She frowned slightly at the way he seemed to be uncertain what was going on, and then he was moving back the way he came.

The wolf moved farther down, and paused when she was able to hide once more. Her wings spread a bit, making her seem a little bigger, and the eyes at the folds blinked and stared at the wolf with sharp eyes. She bared her fangs for a moment, before taking a half step back. So long as she stayed from view the hunt would still go on. He moved all the way back to a spot, and seemed to sniff the ground. Perhaps he lost his trail. And it wasn’t until he got to that spot did she realize just how big he was… And he was big. She swallowed thickly, and her eyes flickered over him quickly, analyzing ever part of the bear. There was no way he was just some run of the mil bear. No way in hell. She bristled slightly and took a step back, careful of how she moved. She had to make sure that she wasn’t seen. Because whatever was going on with this bear… it wasn’t good.

And as much as she had tried not to be seen, it was to no avail. The bear’s head snapped toward her, saw her, and then he charged. She let out a sharp bark of warning, her wings spreading and beating hard to try and scare him, before she realized it was no use. He was going to attack no matter what. She braced her paws against the ground and bared her fangs to the bear. When he got close enough, she quickly jumped to the side to dodge the bear from hitting her head on. Her paws skid against the ground, and she stumbled slightly before turning quickly to face the bear again, snapping her fangs toward him and pinning her ears. If she was going to survive this, she would have to be quick on her feet, and quicker in the head.

Mahogany Sunset