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 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:18 pm
 "Keep your body still. As still as can be," Tauro whispered. "Do not even tremble."
The brown female lay pressed against the dried mud in Gomorrah's eastern marsh. The lack of rain at this time of year made the area accessible, and the shrinking water supply meant prey animals had to congregate closer than they may have liked. She had brought her nephew here for a lesson in hunting, thinking it the perfect area within the territory to learn. She had not been disappointed--before them stood a wild piglet, an immature boar. As an adult, she would never think to bring an adolescent to it, and even as a youngster its small tusks and sharp hooves would prove a challenge. Still, it would be enough meat to feed herself and her sister, and both her nephews, and Seiphyr, if he was around (he wandered more, as an adult, something she outwardly encouraged and inwardly despaired.)
She brought only Novik. She said it was easier to teach one hunter than two, but in truth, she was not sure how well Switch would do at hunting, with his weakened senses. Gerda did fine with her lack of voice, and even Laos had done alright with his deaf ears, but to be half-blind and still hunt? Tauro did not know if Switch could do it, and she certainly didn't know how to teach him.
Through the dried marsh grasses, she could see the piglet lower his head to nose at the ground, rooting for food or water. "Soon," she murmured to the black shadow at her side. "Very soon."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:35 pm
 Novik felt secretly pleased and secretly frightened, all at once. His first real hunt. He was being judged on this. He had to be good; he had to be swift and he had to be strong. Strong for Tauro, his aunt and second mother.
Perhaps he wouldn't have been so afraid if not for the voice in the back of his mind, taunting, laughing, smirking. He couldn't see it, but he knew. Knew he was a little insane. Mother probably thought he was the normal one: Switch was half blind. And here he was, with a voice in his head, constantly critisizing. He called himself Vik...
Novi fell still, crouching next to Tauro in the mud. He refused himself the tremble of fear and excitement. He kept his mind quiet, except for the tittering muse of Vik, and locked two-tone eyes on the piglet. A baby boar... Could he take it? Was he strong enough? Sure, he was a big boy-- father had to've been a mountain wolf. But was he strong...?
He quirked his lips into a smile, a grin that always looked goofy and immature. Vik snickered. Novi's ears fell flat.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:08 pm
Tauro wasn't actively watching Novik; if she was, perhaps she'd have seen the disparity in his expression, his quirky grin juxtaposed with his pressed-back ears. She wasn't, however; her senses were only focused on their prey. Even if she had been, would noticing it have alarmed her? She was not the most interpersonal wolf, and could rarely tell if something was wrong without having it spelled out of her. Strange, then, that she got along with her mute sister so well--but Gerda had other ways of talking.
"When we go," she rumbled softly, "I will take the front; you simply grab his haunches." It would expose him to the pig's flailing back legs, but those were fewer sharp ends than both his forefeet and his tusks together. Besides, he did not know how to find the life vein and sever it; he would be more useful providing weight on the boar's back, dragging it down. Novik had become quite bulky anyway, offering some cushioning.
The boar had nosed out a root and began to pull it out of the ground. He would be distracted; if they could catch him at the right moment, his instincts would be torn between running or defending his food. That moments hesitation would be their opportunity.
Tauro's attitude did not change. She did not suddenly tense up more, or change the timbre of her voice. She remained steady, consistent--the only way to have a successful hunt. The order came with simply another quiet word, not a yell--"Go." Then she pulled herself upright in one smooth motion, shooting from the bushes like an arrow, intent on her target, only hoping Novik was right there beside her.
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