A Hunt

[balerion]

Aida: You spot an innocent looking bunny.

Alder: This area seems a bit less menacing. You see some deer tracks up ahead.

Texas: You leave the stench behind you and find yourself in a sunlit glade.

[Silence]

Inner forests were dangerous. You couldn't see far enough to be sure that you weren't walking into something nasty, and unless you had very keen eyes, you could be walking into something nasty and not notice it even in the area you could see. The outer forests were where the big things would roam, areas that weren't as menacing with regard to staying on your guard, but were just as scary as the things there were much more of a threat even if you did notice them.

The area between the two was actually safer. Trees would block large predators, but there wasn't enough undergrowth to hide snakes and other ambush predators... not that Alder feared them anyway, being the observant changeling that he was.

Alder had never had much of a presence in a room and this was the same in a forest. He just wasn't an intimidating figure... he didn't carve aside things as he moved, he scrambled over and around them. While that meant that he wouldn't be able to scare things into traps, it also meant that things wouldn't run away as quickly.

Ducking under a low tree branch, he listened once again. Whatever it was that had been behind him was now no longer around. Hell, this place felt pretty much as safe as you could get... yes, Alder was more at home on the streets than in a forest, but he was fairly sure that if you heard nothing, that was a bad sign... if you could hear birds tweeting and bugs chirping, then you were fine, or at least, it was a good sign.

He gave half a thought to whether or not he could loose an arrow towards a bird, but he couldn't see any nesting around and the ones that he could see where higher than his comfortable range. He'd just be wasting arrows.

As his gaze returned to the floor, the changeling smiled. Now that, that was something that he could work with.

Alder checked that his daggers were all in place, tasted the soil that the dear tracks were in to test how fresh they were, coughed up the soil as it tasted kinda nasty, then started moving in the direction that they lead, taking off the rough pieces of leather that he used for shoes as he did so. His feet morphed around the ground, molding to its shape so that he made no sound as he stalked forward, his presence barely more than a bird's shadow moving between the trees.

((You didn't tell me where they led, so just assume wherever they go, that's where Alder's heading))

[Aida]

Creeping slowly, dagger and net in hand, Aida's eyes glittered in anticipation. This was definitely it, she was sure, as the rustling in the bushes ahead grew louder and louder. Even the weather seemed to be on her side, the sun came out from behind a cloud for a fleeting moment, bathing the clearing in golden light. She tip-toed one step... two step, dagger poised for a clean kill and... the rustling stopped. She stopped, too, considering for a moment. Was it about to attack? 'Now or never,' she thought and threw her net over the bush with a triumphant yell.

Satisfied, she pulled back the foliage, grinning. Time to end that pesk- oh, dear.

Aida's eyes met the most adorable little beady eyes, looking up at her in confusion. Just a harmless bunny, she realised, with disappointment. Still, waste not, want not! That would do for lunch, later.

'Now, where to...' she thought. Following the river was her original plan, and she decided to stick to it, moving directly west ((41)).

[Texas_Knight]

((50))

[balerion]

Aida: You hear some birds, but nothing more.

Alder: You follow the tracks south and they start to appear more recent.

Texas: The forest closes in around you again, and you see a small hut in the distance.

[Texas_Knight]

TK walks towards the small hut and inspects the area thoroughly. ((51))

[Aida]

Unwilling to get her hopes up again, Aida paused at the next sound, but recognised it quickly for what it was. Simply the birds in the trees, fluttering and twittering around in the warm summer sunshine. Must be pleasant, she thought, to live free and simple. Getting out the map and setting her dagger in it's sheath for a moment, she decided to carry on down the river ((#40)), loosening the buttons on her hunting jacket as the sun warmed her.

[Silence]

Well, what could he do but keep following the tracks? He had no reason not to, so he did just that. ((Presumably further south, which would lead him to 39 if that was the case))

[balerion]

Texas: You find a witch. How do you treat her?

Alder: You find the deer that you were hunting drinking from a stream.

Aida: You see the water splash near some rocks.

[Silence]

Alder considered how to go about this for all of a third of a second, stopped himself from poisoning the water due the effects that could have on the area and then instead just threw a dagger at the dear from behind. The boy had trained until he could hit a fly out of their air at twenty feet, so could quite easily hit a dear's neck.The dear started took a startled step away, then fell to the floor, gave one last kick, and stopped moving.

Killing a dear wasn't the same as killing a human. A dear wasn't sentient. Alder stopped only long enough to heave the creature into his pocket dimension and then he cocked his head to one side, and hearing nothing of interest, he picked a direction and went in it.

((39))