Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aur yawned as he scanned the terrain, searching for any threats. It was hard to take over so many tasks, but there wasn't much of a choice. Aur's companion refused to join any of the packs they'd met, and there was no going back to their old pack; they'd made their choice, and so had Aur.

The Guardian took off as the smell of prey filled his nostrils. He slowed down to a trot, however, when the scent of Varsythe followed it. A Solitary? Or perhaps he was coming up on a new pack's territory. He didn't go near the scent, looking for food that wasn't in the other Varsythe's vicinity. Food was scarce, after all; he wasn't going to deprive another pack's pups of their meal.

Aur's muscles bunched as he leapt sideways, spinning in a whirl of orange fur as a dark mass shot out at him. For the thousandth time, he thanked his teacher for beating these fighting instincts into him; it had saved him countless times since his pack disbanded. He stared at the black and purple mass that had gone past him, ears up to catch sounds of any other attackers while he backed away from this visible one. This Varsythe didn't look like a Hunter, but that was beside the point. "What are you doing?" he asked, still a bit surprised he was attacked so suddenly. He hadn't smelled any markers or anything... maybe this was a Solitary? He wasn't sure; his only packmate was still away, doing scouting and Operative work, and so he didn't have any information on this area yet.

Aur sighed. "That's generally a bad first move, you know," he replied, not terribly perturbed by the female's snarling. "Especially when a Varsythe is bigger than you. And you don't know the number of potential enemies. Or if they're on official business." He paused, then added, "I'm only the first, but I don't appear to be in a pack territory, if the lack of markers are an indicator. And a solitary going after any Varsythe they meet is complete stupidity." His companion, Aurel, would have teased him for lecturing the enemy, but it was an instinct to Aur. Besides, if the she-wolf attacked again, he would subdue her like all the Varsythe before her. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, but if it did, he could handle it.

"Comes free with sneak attacks," Aur replied automatically, a rather witty remark considering his usual, dry tones. He saw the hesitation in her movements, but didn't act on it; he wasn't here to fight, after all. And if she was part of a pack, that would cause unnecessary trouble.

Well, at least she wasn't baring her teeth at him. "I'm scouting, tracking, and hunting. It's tedious to do all three simultaneously, but necessity is an excellent motivator."

Aur almost cracked a smile at her muttering. When she asked if his pack was nearby, he glanced around. "That's a good question... I do not think he is at the moment, but he is an Operative so it's sometimes difficult to tell if he is nearby or not." Aurel was old, but he was a Varsythe with an impressive arsenal of tricks to avoid staying out of the limelight. Even after all of this time, Aur still had trouble finding him sometimes. "Yours?" he asked, eyes fixing on the dark she-wolf again.

Aur made a sound to indicate he understood the feeling as he sat as well. "My current pack is only me and one other. It's a hard life." Solitary, then. Well, that explained the lack of markers and the hostile reaction. "What do you plan to do?" he asked curiously. Would she join a pack? Stay on her own?

Aur shook his head, huffing as his got to his feet. "Or you could accept help from this stranger and not die from starvation," he replied, a hint of amusement seeping into his tone. "I need to hunt regardless." It wouldn't be a big deal to help this Solitary get a bit of prey while he did the same. It didn't seem like there were any other Varsythe in this area, so hopefully there wouldn't be any competition for food.

Aur shrugged. "Whichever way you think is more successful. I can do solo or pack style." He'd had to learn the hard way to do solo-style hunting, but he'd learned. Aurel wasn't always able to keep up with him, after all; he wasn't some young pup anymore. He didn't know how well this female could hunt, but if she was out here on her own and still alive, she must have some inkling of talent when it came to acquiring food; otherwise she'd be dead. Four-hoofed things... what had Aurel called them? "The short, fat ones are boars, I think. And the tall thin ones were... der?" He couldn't recall. He'd ask Aurel the next time he saw him.