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 Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:47 pm
Intelligence shone in silver eyes, but the reflection of boredom was there as well. Veero was sprawled near the den taking in some sun while his pink tipped tail slowly created a clearing in the brush behind him. With Musketeer in charge of the hunt, his mother busy fawning over his sisters, and even his grandmother preocupied the mature male felt rather unattended. Funny how he always wished for solitude and having it now he wished for company, it was hard not to want company all the time when you've grown up with such a close bound pack. Everywhere you went everytime you hunted, each meal, every laugh was shared with someone you loved or at least cared about as a packmate if not outright family. The only squabbles were laughed at days later and any stumbled or injuries were quickly kissed better.
He rolled onto his back and sighed up at the sky, as much as something inside of him chafed and tugged desperate to see what the world around him was like he would be loathe to actually leave his pack. He was a capable young male, he was needed here to protect his family, help hunt, or at least he liked to think he was needed. Feeling useful was important to him, especially since he'd had no father to turn to for advice about what grown males did. Father huh who needed his useless father, he had plenty of superior male role models who had treated him like their own. Crunch had taught him how to defend himself, Musketeer taught him to hunt, Butterfinger taught him to swim, and Snickers...well he had shown him that vanity was not a good trait in a male.
All in all father or no he had grown up rather well, he was a real wolf, a real adult! He sprang to his paws determined to make himself useful and set off to stalk the borders and patrol.
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:07 pm
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In the meanwhile, Naiad was deadset on making sure Kai was not about to get ahold of her in the water. With the lack of fish in her diet, her pelt was not as smooth as her siblings', but the teen was no slacker when it came to swimming nonetheless - even if most of the time she'd rather laze about in the water, basking in the sun's rays and feeling like a gloriously shining bird with fur. Well alright, Naiad never had literal flights of fancy, but such powerful birds of prey like hawks inspired her. If she could draw on such strength and regal posture, perhaps she could indeed protect her vulnerable charges the fish; this was disregarding the fact that hawks often did prey on the poor things.
As it was, she was propelling herself with powerful strokes upriver when she spotted the dark figure - it took seeing the familiar outline of a pink heart for her to recognize him. "Hey!" she called to him between pants. "Veero!" She threw a quick glance behind her to make sure Kai was still following, then began to transition back onto land, her limbs somewhat sore. Better get back into excersize; I might be getting lazy!
"I found someone who's in need of a hunting lesson, Vee!" Naiad continued, shaking herself dryer, tongue lolling. "Think you can help?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 9:15 pm
 Kai was making good time behind her, although he never quite managed to overtake her. The cyan-colored wolf was used to swimming in the cove in his homelands, and while there were no waves to deal with, he had been more buoyant in the salt water and there had been no current to deal with. Still, he handled himself well, and pulled himself free of the water a few paces behind his new acquaintance.
He offered a somewhat sheepish smile to the male and nodded a respectful greeting, thinking that -- heart-shaped marking aside -- this one looked like someone he did not want to make angry. "My name is Kai," he said, pausing a respectful distance from them to shake without soaking the dark wolf. "Naiad here has kindly offered me shelter within your territory, for awhile, and I do appreciate the gesture."
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:19 am
Veero grinned as Naiad came upon him, she was young but bright, charming, and very brave. Veero had heard Nereus complain often enough that his beloved sisters were headstrong and didn't even need his brotherly protection. He knew Naiad had taken up patrols from the time she was a pup, Twix said the girl had spirit, but weather it was dissaproval or compliment was anyones guess. Twix was getting older and while her effectiveness as Beta never waned the younger generation was certain changes would come soon enough.
He tore his thoughts away from such serious speculation and eyed the blue hued male slowly. His gaze was thourough asessing and serious. Slowly a smile formed, a greeting probably only given because Naiad had vouched for him. Though they were not true blood relations Veero still saw her as a little cousin, family was after all the most important thing to them.
"Kai hmm? Welcome to our pack, any who require rest are welcome of course..." His tone was friendly enough but the edge of warning was clear enough, Kai was welcome as long as he caused no trouble. "Rusty on the hunt eh? Maybe we can have a little pack hunt hmm? I'm sure Musketeer would welcome our contribution "
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 8:55 am
"If he didn't decide to come along himself," Naiad added with a grin. Though the male did have some odd family business going about, what with Necrala's reappearance and one of his daughter's disappearance around the same time; she'd hate to bother him if he was busy. "If you don't mind, can you teach me too? I won't be a burden, promise." The adolescent felt thar she needed to prove that, semi-vegetarian or not, she could still kill something . . . ish. If she couldn't do the service of at least joining the family tradition of fishing, the least she could do was become a decent hunter, right?
Though it still left a bit of an itch in her fur to think of stalking some poor unsuspecting creature. "We could invite whomever we want. I think my mother and sister are out wandering again, but maybe Nereus of my dad wants to come along too? Or maybe one of your family? How's your mom been, Vee?"
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 6:32 pm
"Any assistance would be most welcome," he said, feeling extremely foolish, but at least so far the other did not seem ready to mock his predicament. Kai shifted a little uncomfortably at the mention of all these names -- just how many people had to come witness his humiliation? -- but he smiled good-naturedly at the greeting and stayed politely silent as Naiad spoke.
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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 5:43 pm
"I'll give you both a little lesson, it'll be fun." He offered Kai a reassuring smile sensing the male didn't have a lot of confidence in his ability. He wondered idly how the lone had survived without being a capable hunter, in the pack they all provided for one another, but alone that had to be much harder. It was probably the lush pack and kindness that allowed Naiad to be picky about not eating her fishy friends.
"Your brother worries about you, let's just keep it a small group, that way Kai can have the honor of the take down." He nodded and then broke into another easy smile. "Moma's fine but she won't wanna hunt when she can stay in the den and keep an eye out for Sil, I swear I never thought she'd be the one to drive mom and grandma batty, but they worry about her all the time. Musketeer is probably on patrol and Twix too, let's head a little south and see if we can't find a small herd?" He moved to lead the way.
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 9:24 am
"Sounds good," Naiad said with a nod, motioned for Kai to follow after her, and trotted behind Veero. A herd . . . yikes, deer scared her. Especially the males! What sort of wolf would not be worried about those horns? A few good stabs could easily injure someone, or a well-aimed kick from one of those hooves . . . Teeth and claws could be rivaled, Naiad was well aware now. If They weren't coordinated perfectly, something could go wrong; it was the perfect test of cooperation. She gulped and hid her anxiety as best she could. "Fun, yeah . . . Gotta be careful that we don't run into someone else's territory at the same time, though."
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 11:28 am
He was doing a good job at keeping his legs from trembling as he followed after Naiad. Deer? He racked his brain and tried to think if he'd ever seen a live deer. He didn't think he had. On the rare occasion when one had come close enough to Kapu'Moana to become fair game, it was always the adventurers who had taken it down, and by the time it had come to Kai it had been neatly compartmentalized into cuts of meat for his easy consumption -- a leg, a side of ribs, a shoulder. He imagined the whole animal must be quite large.
"Can we do this?" he whispered to Naiad, ashamed that he was asking but not wanting to get them in over their heads. "I mean...if I screw up....I don't want anybody getting hurt....." he glanced up at Veero and smiled what he hoped was an eager, winning smile.
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 9:08 pm
Veero caught the sudden wary tone in Naiad and Kai's voices and threw a smile over his shoulder. "The bucks are dangerous, but a single wolf can take a doe down if careful, between the three of us it shouldn't be too much of an issue, besides if we're going to hunt it might as well be a real hunt. Won't the pack be proud once we bring back enough togo around?" He sounded much much more confident.
"We'll stick close to our own borders Naiad, the greater danger is north and west." He was leading them south but remaining in the dense forest. He paused as they came to the scent markers of the territory and put his nose low trying to catch the scent of a herd. "Hmmm...just a little east I think..." His eyes scanned the ground for tracks and finding one or two hoof marks he moved over to point them out to Naiad and Kai. "Finding what to hunt is as important as taking it down. You have to learn what smells fresh, what's an old trail, and which way the tracks lead."
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:15 am
"Right." She sounded more confident than she felt as they approached the hoofmarks, sniffing them after Veero. "These are . . . not too old yet, I think," Naiad announced. "It seems fresh to me. Maybe . . . an hour or so?" She looked to Veero for confirmation, though not before she shot a glance at Kai. He seemed as antsy about this hunt as she was, smile or not. "We can do this! Absolutely! Yeah. A doe, maybe even a sickly one if we're lucky . . . Avoid the males, they get defensive sometimes. You'll know it's them because they have racks on their heads and females don't."
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 2:43 pm
"Males have racks," he repeated, mostly under his breath, lowering his nose down to sniff at the tracks and examine them thoroughly. "Check." If he could have been taking notes, he would have been. He lifted his head and sniffed at the air, trying to tell what it was that Neero was scenting, and thought he caught it -- a certain earthy scent, that, now he had locked into it, brought a thrill of excitement through his spine. So that's what they were looking for, he thought, suddenly bright and alert. He looked back down to the hoofprints, noting the way they came to a point, and held his paw just over the print, brow furrowed in concentration. "They went that way?" He said, almost-decisively, peering toward the horizon in the direction the prints seemed to point. He was getting the hang of this!
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Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:26 am
Veero grinned as he watched the other two gain confidence, it was like unlocking the skills they never realized were right there for them. He nodded at Naiad and then smiled as Kai pointed out the direction the small herd had headed off towards. He doubted there would be a buck among them though, the prints were smaller and shallow, the light steps of females and maybe a fawn. Bucks tended to leave deeper prints or even dash like marks from their more aggressive footwork.
"Good, Kai why don't you lead hmmm? Once their smells gets strong though fall back and try and keep us downwind, don't want them bolting." Despite what some wolves might think Veero knew that deer were pretty intelligent, oh maybe not so much that they weren't good prey, but enough to be evasive at times and dangerous at others.
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 7:17 pm
"Think of it as following a river of its own, Kai, when you pick up the scent. Just an invisible, more tricky river." Naiad was very relieved when Veero didn't ask her to lead the group, more than happy to just fall in line behind them. Regardless of whether there was a buck amongst this group or not, she did not want to be the wolf they saw first if things went awry. At the least it seemed that Veero was pleased with their progress so far, so that fact kept her going as she took in a breath and exhaled slowly. "What do we do if the wind happens to shift on us?" she asked. "What if they catch our scent before we're ready? Do we just bolt after the closest one and take it down before it escapes?"
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Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 9:51 pm
Kai resisted the urge to second-guess Veero's judgment and nodded instead, stepping forward, sniffing heavily at the ground and air as he crept forward, determined to take his job seriously. If an experienced wolf like Veero had faith in him, then he'd just have to step up the job...squaring his shoulders, he started forward with as much confidence as he could muster.
He perked when Naiad asked her question; the thought hadn't even occurred to him, and relief flooded him that she had the sense to ask an important question like that. Half-focusing on stalking forward, half-listening for Veero's answer, he slowed his pace in case he was about to do something wrong.
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