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Stepping away from the window, Link looked in her pantry for the younger dragon’s request in food. ‘Meat’ was pretty general, but she had it. Taking the preserved venison from its designated spot on her shelves, she set it in a dish and went to start a fire and cook it.

Link could normally get a fire going with her abilities to manipulate the elements, but today it just wasn’t in her and she could barely get a spark to the wood.

Waving to Wyvern, Link ‘said’, “Could you start up a fire for me? I guess I’m having a bit of an off day.”

Fire never really had been her strongest element. She really took pride in water, though earth was her strongest. Link continued on preparing something for them all to eat. She pulled out fresh breads and some fruit, preparing to cut both. Out of the corner of her eye, Link saw a mop of black fur creeping up on the dish of meat.

Smiling, she went to her fuzz-ball of a kitten and lifted her up from the counter. She wagged a finger at the little one and set her on the ground. The kitten looked up at her with begging eyes and opened its mouth. A meow she expected.

Aja, you little dust-mop, you. She thought with a smile.

Cavanté nodded as well.
“Very well, I am Cavanté, we are currently on the trail of the only Noibu herd that remains in this area for the winter.”
“I am Hene, we use fairly standard hunting tactics, surround the prey then take turns hitting it until it falls.” Despite it only being traditional that the alpha male and female really need to introduce themselves in this situation, Kenia didn’t know this and piped up happily.
“I’m Kenia, you smell like Levos...”
“Kenia, you don’t mean…” Asked Hene hesitantly.
“Oh, no he’s not one, he just has their sent on him a little, you and Noca have it too from the fight back there.”
“Very well,” Cavanté turned to Apollo and his pack. “We move!”

Link folded her arms and watched Wyvern do several tricks with the fire she’d asked him to call up. Circus tricks. Impressive circus tricks, but circus tricks nonetheless. Now that the wood was set aflame, Wyvern could stop his little show.

Tapping him on the shoulder, Link motioned, “Alright, little master-fire-maker, you can sit down now.”

Link immediately set to cooking the meat then went back to the fruit and bread to slice it. Her misty green eyes went to the other two and she snapped her fingers to call their attention.

“Anything you want, Synrai?” She asked, “Erm . . . Reyen? Oi, ask Reyen what he wants. I’m not quite sure if he can understand me.”

In a shallow cove near at the edge of the Barren Plains--The section of Orcos where the ice was dangerously thin and therefore scantily occupied--rested the twenty (give or take a few) members of the Kekin wolf pack. Atrosk, the Alpha male, sat like a stone sentinel at the edge enjoying the frigid breeze. If there was anything he liked about the ice-smothered planet, it was the near constant breeze that whipped up his fur. Of course there was no expression on his face to allude to the fact that he enjoyed the wind; he didn't allow his emotions to show much.

Currently, the rest of the pack was enjoying a sizable catch of Noibu. Atrosk had already eaten his fill, and waited patiently while the others loaded their bellies. It had been about a week since they had made a catch large enough to sate every hungry mouth. The Alpha male was actually glad that his pack was not one of the larger ones consisting of forty or fifty members. Then again, they mostly occupied the equator where the food was most plentiful, and solid earth was more common.

He was contemplating the idea of leading a raid on one of the weaker packs that "claimed" a section of the warmlands, and having his own pack occupy it when the Alpha female, Novos, came to sit at his right.

"Most of the bellies are filled," she commented, licking her lips. What Atrosk like most about this female was her unusual way of speaking. She rejected the more common forms of grammar and syntax for her own. The way she pieced sentences together came out in a mixed single. It sounded both exotic and eloquent, perhaps the way one might hear a foreign poet orate. You understood very little, if any at all, but you knew there was beauty and deep understanding held within those words. Quite simply, Novos was intelligent and perhaps as strong a leader as Atrosk himself.

"Then southward we move, and flirt with the warmland borders. The Noibu are moving, and there will be very little left around here."

Novos nodded. "Naturally. I shall inform the pack." As she strode away, she brushed her tail against Atrosk's shoulder and smirked as best an Ookami could. It was a tease, and amazingly it did not bother Atrosk. He was hardly one for flirting, but for some reason he didn't mind it when Novos was the flirt. Perhaps it was because the occurences were few, far between, and miniscule. She had a way with exercising what few powers she had to their fullest.

Sighing slowly through his nostrils, Atrosk continued to survey the ice about the cove from his position. The air was crisp and free of any intrusive smells, but Atrosk knew that if there were other packs southward, the wind would quickly give up their smells as it was in that direction that the wind blew.

The Kekin wolf pack was ready. Everyone was up on all four limbs, and a few were stretching after laying around for so long. Atrosk watched as the Ookamis formed a roughly circular formation, putting the women and younger Ookamis in the middle. The cubs that were unable to keep pace with the older Ookamis clung tightly to their mother's backs and locked their jaws on the scruff of the mother's neck. Novos strode up alongside the Alpha male, signaling that all was in order. Atrosk gave a howl, announcing their departure, then leapt forward with great speed. The Kekin wolf pack was moving toward the warmlands.

The sent grew stronger as the pack neared the heard, everyone could smell it now. It was just a short distance before the heard was within range.
The hunting party was 11 members, 12 if you counted Apollo, the other member’s of the pack were a ways back, either too young, pregnant, or too sick to hunt, or part of the group defending them. In total the pack was a little under 40.
“Alright, we’re hungry, the rest of the pack is hungry,” Began Cavanté in a hushed voice so the Noibu wouldn’t start running yet, “We’re going to take down 3, yes that’s right, three. We can do it and we can feed our entire pack with it, as well as be fine until we can find something else. Noibu are big so I don’t want any of the ice sled team to get injured in this one. Most of you know your positions, Apollo you’ll take position 3 with Kenia.” Position 3 meant that Apollo would be part of the group that dealt with the first animal the pack could catch up with, generally it was the weakest one. Kenia didn’t like the idea of not being with he older brother but it was standard for a guest or a first time hunter in the pack to take that position so she couldn’t really complain.
The Hunting party sunk as close to the heard as it could, as soon as one of the Noibu looked up like it heard something, Cavanté let out a vicious howl.
The heard started stampeding, and the hunt truly began.

The pack had covered more than half the distance to the warmlands when they slowed to a walk, and a brisk walk at that. A short while later, they had stopped for awhile so that the younger members and mothers could rest for awhile. Twenty minutes later, they were on the move again at a brisk walk. They were in no hurry for the remainder of the distance. Their plan had merely been to move to a somewhat warmer part of the iceland before nightfall for the cubs' sake. Although they were Ookamis and had just as thick fur, their smaller bodies were more susceptible to the frigid climates that the Kekin pack typically chose to dominate.

It was during this brisk walk that a strong mixture of scents struck Atrosk's nose with a sudden changing of the wind. He paused and inhaled deeply. Novos did the same. "More Noibu," he muttered.

"And another pack," the Alpha female added then sniffed again. "Are there two in unison?"

Atrosk shook his head. "It's probably just a rogue. One scent is heavily outweighed by the other. We will tread lightly."

Novos gave an affirmative nod and the pack resumed moving southward. As the other pack came into view, their course was altered. Atrosk was not going to come anywhere within range of the Noibu, and wished to respect the other pack's space and privacy. So they angled south south-west and began to circumnavigate the other pack. They were always within range of sight, but never close enough to make out any detail.

((Just thought I would point out, in case that pack is supposed to be mine, that we do not live near the equator, as referenced by the north side of Orcos in my first post, and the fact that most Noibu move further south for the winter. And judging by your descriptions of your location we’d be either to the east or west of you, maybe a little north. Just thought I’d point that out for the sake of continuity. But other then that it’s really no big deal.))
Kenia stayed back a little ways as even if it was injured her lack of strength would have her be not match for a Noibu. She instead took a ranged magical attack, her best option so as not to hit Apollo would be something accurate. She conjured up a rather large icicle with a pointed tip and launched it at her prey, it took an arced path so as to hit the Noibu’s injured side dead on. The Noibu stumbled due to the added injury and the extra weight, cueing the two other members of position three to slam into it.
***
Cavanté’s first postion caught up to the third slowest Noibu. It wasn’t injured, it was simply slow. As Cavanté and Hene’s group caught up to it, all it took was a simple nod from Cavanté for things to get going. Hene and the other two collectively focused their ice powers and summoned an ice wall in front of the Noibu. It had no time to turn and slammed headfirst into it. As its antlers and skull were made for head butting contests, the impact just briefly stunned it. But that was all it took, the wall surrounded it on three sides, and on the forth side stood the Ice Guardian with a large tower shield and a spear. The Noibu saw its only way out and tried to head butt it’s way past the guardian, but it refused to give. It backed up to try again, but as it charged the guardian thrust the spear and got the Noibu in the chest, right in the heart. The strategy worked every time and it was why these four were the first postion.

((I realized that. I wasn't trying to imply that they did live anywhere near the equator, but merely that they had been traversing southward for more plentiful food and a slightly warmer climate. I was trying to imply that the Kekin pack was merely farther north than your own.

*To be editted later with additional in character posting.))