Closed The Place Where We Last Met

[Khida]

The shadows gathering in the depths of the grasses continued to confound Khida's search for prey, no matter which way she turned, which way she oriented relative to the sun. So it was that his warble came to her as a great relief -- at least one of them had found something. The falcon twisted around onto a reverse course, orienting on the sound of his call and gleaning greater meaning from the context of his manner. Hunched down and alert, he seemed to follow a trail, still searching for actual quarry. She shed some altitude and partly crossed the distance between them, not flying directly to his position but curving along an arc on the eastern side. With luck, whatever he was tracking would thus lay between her and the setting sun, where her shadow could not pass over it and frighten the... well, whatever it was. It was a bird trail he had found, almost certainly, but that could belong to any ground-fowl species, for all she knew. At least that sort of bird came in numbers; something would almost certainly flush out where she had a chance at it. If anything was there to be flushed out at all. Khida remained uncertain even as she flew nearer, the combination of her lofty vantage point, the light's acute angle, and the subtlety of the traces themselves continuing to confound her perception. She kept her irritation at this to herself, though, hunter's patience being in effect; trusted in her partner to find the prey where she could not. Now that she had her partner back, after all, that was part of his job. The peregrine did descend a little lower still, gliding over the grasslands and looking back and forth, hoping to catch a glimpse of motion, a plump and round-bodied fowl -- of any size -- scuttling through the grasses. The grouse did not oblige her, or else were not bedded down within her field of view. Before too long, she gave up on the attempt, focusing her attention solely on the man -- his posture, the direction of his attention, the gestures he might make. He would have to be her eyes, this time.

[Colt]

He felt more than saw her when she cut towards his position, erring on the side of caution to orient her shadow away from where it might fall and warn ground-fowl of her presence. A whip of pride went through him; only she, this falcon, would think of such a thing. His experience in Endrykas, seeing falconers with their birds and even the Sama’el with his little Hodei, had illustrated just how special she was that she would think of something like her own shadow. He felt blessed that she had chosen him as a partner.

Perhaps it was his summer in the wilds or perhaps it was something else, but he did not give a second thought to the matter. Her intelligence had never struck him as odd or caused him to wonder; she was what she was, and that was that. Nothing complicated about it.

He scanned the underbrush before him, keeping a sharp eye not for the colors but for the shapes of fats bird within. Here and there he caught sight of a flickering shadow, but dared not look too long at them lest he inform any creatures of his intentions.

Finally he saw it; a fluttering of a pheasant as it dispelled dust from its feathers in preparation of the night. He signaled prey and pointed at the bush under which it squatted, then let loose a screech and charged.

He hadn’t expected more than the one to rise, but within seconds over seven had taken wing. Instinct and seasons of practiced motion drove him, and he leaped into the sky and snatched a handful of stomach feathers. The snared creature squawked as he dragged it back to the earth, and with experienced hands he encircled its neck to end its life with a definitive snap.

[Khida]

He continued to creep forward, intently studying the grasses and brush around him -- she could see his head turn from side to side, watch as the focus of his attention moved. She couldn't know what he saw when his eyes paused, what enigmatic shape or shadow or pattern they rested upon; it was a most frustrating deficit of information. The falcon rose higher into the air as he searched, partly for the simple purpose of doing something, partly so she would be better able to drop upon whatever he scared into flight. If he found something to scare into flight. But he would, she had faith; that was what her partner did. Finally, finally he signaled, a welcome flicker of fingers in the red-tinged light. The sign which meant a quarry singled out, a gesture indicating the shrub under which it rested. Khida had but a moment to orient herself on the bush in question, staring intently down, looking for any hint of motion in its vicinity. He shrieked and charged forward, and she could clearly envision the supposed ground-bird's reaction in her mind's eye -- the way it froze in shock, then the realization that freezing wouldn't save it from the running man, the alarm with which it suddenly switched to flight, leaping up and rowing at the air with its wide, rounded wings. She marked time internally, a matter of ticks to the outer world but what seemed to take so much longer, and plump brown shapes burst from the grasses in a cackling flurry just about when the peregrine expected them. For the first time in altogether too long, she faced prey spooked by a land predator and not even thinking of danger from the sky. Khida turned a wingover and plummeted to meet the rising pheasants, singling out one which she gauged would have least chance to evade her stoop. The wind whistled past her feathers, nearly overpowering the fowls' alarmed cries; she made a last-minute correction as it suddenly realized the two-pronged nature of their attack, and felt an overwhelming satisfaction as her fisted talons impacted against the larger gamebird, jarring it with enough force to snap the pheasant's neck at once. As Khida unfurled her wings and leveled out of the dive, she glimpsed her partner at the edge of her field of view, a fluffy brown lump caught between his hands. A successful hunt for them both, it seemed; the best kind of hunt. The falcon pivoted to circle around where her kill had fallen. She wanted to descend and feed, but felt considerable reluctance to do so in the diminishing light. After considering this dilemma for a bit, the bird chirped a summons at her partner, remaining aloft in the vicinity of her kill. He could carry it back to somewhere safer than this open grass.

[Colt]

Quarry slain, the hunter turned to watch the rest of the covey, and within heartbeats a dark streak sliced the sky and struck down one of the fowl. With a puff of feathers the thing was silence forever, and the previously soaring body fell to the earth like a stone.

She flared her wings and pulled from her descent, opting to let the pheasant fall unattended. The hunter tilted his head. She would prefer to eat later, it seemed, and she returned to the air though continued to remain in her kill’s immediate vicinity. Perhaps she would dine at camp, where predators dared not tread.

He slipped through the grass to the second pheasant and scooped it up. It seemed that the time away had not rusted their ability to cooperate, and both of them would eat well tonight. He turned and set off at a healthy jog in the direction of Endrykas, not at all interested in being caught in the grass after dark. This far away from the tents, predators would have no qualms about claiming his and her prizes for their own.

Akaidras was standing where he’d left him, and the hunter clambered onto the stallion’s back. This, this was what he wanted. Not a pavilion, not mizas, not the cacophony of Endrykas, but this world of simplicity.

Akaidras kept to the outskirts, as eager as his rider to preserve this moment for as long as possible before the sounds and smells of civilized life crushed in on them once again. The hunter looked up at she she-falcon, and for a moment he could forget that it even existed. For a moment, he could pretend they were back in the crater.

And for a moment, just a moment, he could pretend to be at peace.

-End-

[Limey]

Khida Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Observation 3 Endrykas At Dusk Flying 4 Knowing The Value Of A High Perch Hunting 2 High, Free... And Alone Khasr: The Returner Anger Vs. Elation Falcon Language: Condensed And Complex Let Past Be Past Eyes In The Sky Strafing Run Khasr Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Animal Husbandry 1 A Nameless Man Observation 3 Dusk: An Inscrutable Time Sign Language 1 The Same, But Apart Tracking 1 Khida: Without Words Falconry 1 How To Make Up Hunting 2 A Silent Promise Searching For A Trail Scare Up Some Prey (Literally) Craving Simplicity Shared Lore: The Nuances Of Drykas And Falcon Conversation Sound Skills Making A Successful Hunt Additional Notes : I really liked this, and was surprised that I did. I thought it would be a run-of-the-mill hunt, but you two packed so much nuance and emotion into it that I was smiling for most of it. I loved the tentative making up between the two of you, and the hunt was very canny and smart. Any questions or queries, please PM me.