Pine Forrest (Summer Hunting)

[*~Matrix~*]

The main hunting ground of Unil, it hosts elk, squirrels, and the occasional rabbit. An eagle or hawk if you get lucky.

[*~Matrix~*]

Matrix walked through the woods. When he decided that they were deep enough into the woods, he turned around to face Baeyentide. "Smell the air, and tell me what you smell," he said. His big white ears were pricked forward to the pup, to pick up any sound the pup made.

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide nodded silently at his alpha, the blue wolf now focusing on the task at hand. He turned his head only slightly, aqua eyes focusing deeply, and his black nose sniffed carefully, deliberately. A variety of smells came forth. They were all different colors in his mind's eye. He saw orange, greens, purples for different scents, and they all took forms like ghastly footprints or scent trails. He was quickly learning how to tell a living and non-living smells apart. Living smells had a different vibe to them, they moved in his mind's eye, unlike non-living objects. He muttered due to his intense focus at trying to recognize the smells, but this was his first time, -"Uh... Well I smell a bunch of things, especially something like... something smelling musty, and its moving, small sized," This was a rough translation form what the pup saw only in his mind. He would need some work, but at least he was getting it... sort of. It seemed as if he was talking about the hares in the near by area...

[*~Matrix~*]

Matrix nodded. "The meadow is nearby, so I'm guessing you are smelling rabbit," he decided from the vague description. "Search for something bigger, more powerful... You must have smelled it on the coats of the hunters by now, or perhaps a wolf carry a piece of it to my den," the black and white alpha concluded. He parted his powerful jaws, and inhaled deeply, tasting the air in the breeze. He smelled the faint trace of deer, but it wasn't very fresh. The pups nose probably wasn't trained enough to smell it yet. And thats where he came in. "Concentrate..." he advised to the pup after a few moments.

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide nodded, so the orange scent with little skips in between them like it was hopping was a rabbit, they smelled weird to him, but he was new to this, so it was only natural it would be that way for the blue pup. That would be useful later on, he decided, but he cleared his mind at the order from his alpha. Something bigger, more powerful... some smell faintly on the hunters coat, pieces of it in my den... - His mind repeated his alpha's words, as if trying to solve it, like a puzzle. Then it clicked, what had the hunters mumbled about always having to share with the alpha? Dip, Delphi, Der, Elly, Elfs? Oh wait, Deer/Elk! That must be it, right? he said in his mind, still a bit unsure, so characteristic of the pup. Focus, it was an order! - He screamed in his mind, he must do it! Suddenly, one trail began to stand out, it had a powerful vibe, this trail, unlike some of the others, had a live, vibrant red for its scent, but it was a faint pink due to the distance and faintness of the smell. It was living, that was clear. Unconsciously he muttered out, a mix of confusion and maybe realization, -"Maybe...that's it?"

[*~Matrix~*]

Matrix wasn't quite sure what scent the strange pup was thinking of. "Maybe... thats it" was rather vague, even worse than the rabbit scent description. "Follow the scent, lets see what we find," he said. He would see what animal the young wolf smelled, and see how well he could track. A good tracker was something every hunting squad needed. The tracker, the chasers, and the ones that actually fight the beast. He flicked his ears, impatient to see the pups skills.

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide nodded slightly, trying to keep his intense focus on the scent, the faint pink, but with each step the five month old pup took, it became a little more clear. Yes, he knew when he would get a quite a bit closer, it would be a powerful, vivid red scent. And so, with evenly paced step, he got more 'info' on the animal he smelt. It definably was an animal, living, a male perhaps? A flick of his blue ears, showed his progress. As he walked he mumbled the information out, best as he could describe, -"Living, moving around, quite fast, Its big, uh... healthy, if a pleasant smell describes that right, male maybe, Deer?" He definitely knew the difference at least between living things and non-living things, and perhaps males and females, he knew his own scent and other males scents well, he smelt females before like Ginger and Fawn. And he kept pouring out the info as he tried his best to translate. And so, he kept walking towards the powerful, rapidly growing scent... He needed to learn to organize the info, that was clear.

[*~Matrix~*]

He strolled casually behind Baeyentide, listening.Matrix nodded. "Yes, thats right. You are too young to hunt deer, but you can see what they look like," he said. "They are smaller, weaker versions of Elk, which we hunt in the winter. You haven't smelled one of them before," he added. "You will hopefully be big enough to participate in the hunts this winter," he decided.

He parted his own powerful jaws, and inhaled deeply, tasting the air. His nostrils flared, the experienced nose picking up on the deers numbers and distance - and health. "Soon you will be able to smell the health of the deer," he said as they continued through the woods. "And automatically be drawn to the weaker deer, the easy prey," he told the pup.

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide listened and grew a bit eager, but kept it contained. While he was more of an intellectual and didn't like getting physical too often, he still enjoyed the thought of being able to help out. He tried to figure out how old he would be by mid winter. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... About 10 or 11 months by mid winter! Nearly a year and if heard right, about time to become a full member, right? Maybe he would, you never knew! He also liked the idea of being able to pick out prey when bigger. But he did have a question- "Sir, uh... will um I be learning more on how to track before the big winter hunt?" H ewas curious on his future, forgive his curiosity, for this curiosity may take his life someday... You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat, but will he be the dead cat or not?

[*~Matrix~*]

"Yeah, but you seem pretty good at it. You figure out on your own on how to detect certain smells from others, like age and gender and health. Ally you need is someone - me - to tell you what smells are what. You know what hares smell like, and deer. If you notice, the hare scent is gone and the deer scent is getting stronger, so we are getting closer," Matrix replied easily without much thought. Through the trees he saw them, the outlines of several deer. "We can practice stalking now," he whispered, slowing to a stop.

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide nodded, just barely concealing his pleasure at the compliment from his Alpha, but no matter. His ears perking up at the whisper, Baeyentide stopped neatly in place behind his Alpha. His blue eyes flashing with some sort of excitement, the Ulinian wolf saw through the thick hedges and large, old trees, deer. He definably knew what deer looked like, having eaten from there carcasses, brought back by the Hunters, but seeing them alive was a whole different story, well, not totally. The wolf looked curiously up at his Alpha, then back to the deer. Confused once more he was. Should he begin trying to stalk or would his alpha provide further instruction? His confusion showed clearly through in his bright eyes.

[*~Matrix~*]

Matrix let out an amused smile, seeing the pups strain to keep his emotions hidden from the compliment. Matrix did not know if the pup was happy, or felt belittled. Either way, the pup couldn't expect anymore for a long time. handing out complements was somewhat of a... yearly event for Matrix. The black and white wolf returned his focus to what was going on around him, and fell into a crouch, and lowered the top of his head to be even his shoulders. His tail hung low to the ground, but not close enough to rustle leaves. His hind legs were tense, ready spring. He crept forward smoothly and quietly, somewhat tippy-toeing on his hard black pawpads, his eyes focused on the deer.

"Mimic what I do," Matrix murmured, before crawling closer to the deer. His glowing eyes surveyed the whole herd, searching for a fawn or something Baeyentide could practice on. Injure the thing, and than set it loose for Baeyentide to figure out. Of course, Matrix would carry it far from the herd first so it couldn't run back. it would be hard to restrain from killing it, with his tasty... warm... fresh red blood filling his jaws. But he would manage; because in his eyes, his packs future rested on it. The skill that Baeyentide and the other pups would hopefully acquire from lessons like these would mold how strong the pack became. If the future hunters managed bring prey back in great numbers, the pack wouldn't starve, and would grow quickly, making it possible to expand the territory, catch more prey, grow even bigger... and so on.

So, no pressure on keeping that little fawn alive or anything.

Word Count: 287

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide put the complement & the excitement (Well, maybe not the excitement...) in the back of his head, after his keen ears picked up upon his elder's (Not that Matrix was old, just older than Baeyentide.) words & tried to copycat Matrix's smooth, fluid, stalking style. But Baeyentide had a thought cross his mind not to directly copy him just so that he might develop his own style not to appear as if ripping it off (Yes, he was concerned about that at the moment...). Following his Alpha slowly, but just fast enough to keep up, he crouched himself lower to the ground, almost in an army crawl position and made tried to make sure his steps didn't make to much noise instinctively. Though, unfortunate, his inexperience and fate made it so that his steps just weren't concealed as well as the other wolf next to him. Unbeknown to him, he had stepped onto a small twig, even though he was small, he weight made it snap. A slight CRACK! ring through the air. An adult doe's head snapped up, on alert, as if she just knew something was fishy around here. Baeyentide grimaced worriedly, would the deer catch on to there presence, well, not Matrix's most likely, but his own? Most likely, if he made a false move like that again. Being much more careful & attentive out of a mix of determination, telling himself he was the hunter & they were the prey, & fear out of a scolding, he kept a bit more quiet as he kept along...

[*~Matrix~*]

Matrix saw Baeyentide stepping onto the twig out of the corner of his eyes just before the CRACK! rang throughout the clearing. There wasn't much he could do. A doe lifted her head, hearing the sound, and sensing for danger. She must have decided it was better safe than sorry, because she bolted. The other deer saw her quick movements, and most bolted as well. Matrix lunged forward just as the other deer started running, and his ran down on his selected targets, a small doe with her fawn. The fawn was the perfect size for Baeyentide, now Matrix just had to catch it without damaging it. He didn't have much time either, because his kind didn't exactly have the same stamina as deer did. His strides were long and powerful, and he zeroed in on his prey. The fawn was pretty young, its strides were wobbly and awkward. Matrix let himself get a bit closer, before throwing his front paws forward outstretched, his big paws hooking on the fawns hindquarters. He pulled himself forward, and pinned the little creature down. He panted heavily. He hadn't been out hunting in a long time, and the sudden use of his muscles was taking its toll on him. He looked into the brush from the direction he came, and let out a soft howl for Baeyentide to find him by. At first, the little fawn withered under his paws, but after a while, the spasms faded, as the little creature submit to the death it knew was coming for it at such and early stage. He felt a bit sorry for the little thing, he usually did when he hunted down the young of another animal, but it had to happen. It was better the fawn than him.

Word Count: 300

[*Thunderbird*]

Baeyentide's mind raced as the scene flurried around him, the herd fleeing, his alpha lashing out to keep one of them at least from getting away, it made him nearly faint at the new sensations! the azure pup raced forward at the soft howling emitted near by. What he saw wasn't something he would place on his top ten happiest moments of his life list. A petite fawn, clutched in the paws of its predator, nearly ready to give out. A bit nervous at first, Baeyentide was afraid to go any further. But instinct won over, once more, for he felt a will to give chase, given a chance.

Word Count: 114