Solo Shoot First

[Tinnok]

Shoot First
50th of Winter, 512 A.V.

“But Yimay-“

“Will you stop!” The huntress hissed through her teeth, forcing herself to calm and the second time she uttered the phrase it was much more silent. “Will you stop complaining about it, my order is final.”

“She has tainted blood, Mistress, and barely knows the first thing of hunting, we’d be better off without that thing.”

The woman sighed, rubbing her forehead. “She is green, I’ll give you that, but she learns fast and she’s clever. She will only take form the hunt what she earns and I have a feeling that her traveling with us will net more game than without…”

“The boss and her feelings….”

“Shut it Nuran.”

“She’s late.”

“No she isn’t just listening. Isn’t that right, wench?” Yimay called across the trees. Slowly from behind a thick trunk the abomination slunk. Yimay was struck with the strange sensation. She was all Myrian female, tall and lean, but her stance and the way she held herself was all snake, much less of the proud female with high shoulders, more skulking and plotting. Now she seemed to be hiding the face of a kid caught taking sweets from the longhouse table.

Yimay straightened up and stretched her arms, glancing lazily at the half breed. “Better, but still sloppy, you’re going to have to try a lot harder than that to catch me off guard, wench. Now, enough games, enough whining, let’s get to the hunt.”

And so the five muscled forms set off through the woods, half breed taking her appointed spot in the back, eyes open and surveying the tracks they followed, trying to keep tabs on how her comrades tracked and stalked their prey.

Tinnok simply couldn’t figure Yimay out. She was harsh, rude, and violent, yet had the grace of a cat, and the wit of a serpent. She was always demeaning the males she hunted with, but despite the fact that she was colder than ice if Tinnok saw her outside their hunts, she was nearly cordial during the fact…Tinnok knew it wasn’t out of respect, she was far too much of an imbecile at hunting for that, nor was it out of fear. No the half breed simply couldn’t put her finger on this strange alliance, but as long as Yimay treated her with a strangely sardonic, but warmer than tepid attitude, it kept he males off of her as well.

So she slunk.

Slowly she began figuring out the use of the men that traveled with them, for it hadn’t taken long for Tinnok to discover that Yimay didn’t rely on anyone that wasn’t worth her time. Nuran for instance was a crack shot with his longbow, could pin a bird to a tree from a 100 yards using three arrows, one to pierce the heart and the other two the hold the wings against a tree. Mint, named because he wasn’t particularly good smelling, knew about poisonous anything: Snakes, plants, berries, he could steer you away from it before you had even seen it, and despite the fact that his skills didn’t come into play very often, the fact that he had saved their lives more than a couple times kept him as a member in good standing of the hunting party. Then there was Haetsi. Haetsi was small and agile, and almost never spoke. He was a hunter of considerable prowess, and carried a nasty looking blade that best as Tinnok could tell, was a broken bastard sword that had been fashioned into a massive hunting dagger. His eyes dripped with hate when they looked Tinnok’s way, and he was the one member of their party that gave her any pause.

Then of course there was Yimay. She made sure she was indispensable to her fellows. While her skills in hunting might have been dead even with Haetsi, her knowledge of the land and the way she assessed their prey had an analytical side to it that bordered on sheer artistry. She constructed beautiful stories of how and when a creature passed, and more than her tracking skill could predict and trap her prey as if she was the natural predator.

And that was how they functioned, each relying on one of the others for one skill or another…leaving Tinnok to be the strange fifth wheel on a perfectly functioning wagon, unsure of how precisely she fit into the picture.

Their silence was absolute, feet moving in a strange and careful rhythm across the forest floor. It looked as if Yimay had already caught something’s trail, but Tinnok was not precisely given the info on their quarry since Yimay always orchestrated it so that the recruit had to track down the four of them before they began their hunt. Today the four of them had passed through several streams, forcing the green hunter to pick up their tracks on the other side of the water, some of which were far down or upstream from where they entered.

So she paid close attention to the tracks. Today it seemed to be peccaries, whose coarse hides were useful for just about everything, and they had a tender meat to them that Myrian’s savored cooking into thin strips or drying for jerky. Just the thought of the meat made Tinnok’s stomach give a rumble, due to her lack of funds this season she had been on a thin diet of plants and fruits with the occasional bird or lizard. The forest provided, but Tinnok knew too little about plants to be able to reap the true benefit of the natural goodness that grew around her, and she felt this directly affecting her weight.

At the very least she had found it easier to keep up pace with the hunters while remaining quiet. Instead of copying Yimay’s elegant form, she tried to keep pace with Mint, who was by far the least adept at hiding his sounds in the forest. She worked to match or outdo his lack of noise, sometimes even pulling up directly beside him, gauging how well she was doing based on his reactions. He never jumped, but occasionally she saw the white of his eyes exposed slightly more, showing that her fancy footwork had been paid in full. It truly was not so hard as it seemed remaining quiet, it just took an acute observation of your surroundings and care where you place your feet. Once you became used to spotting certain signs and things upon the ground, knowing what noise would result from even a part of your weight upon them, you could learn and adapt.

The five of them stuck to the shadows as well, avoiding direct shafts of sunlight. It was a tiny measure, but every little bit helped. Tinnok drew closer to Mint, and paid close attention to the small pointed tracks as they went, attempting to calculate their numbers. They were mixed and muddled and some prints were extremely light, indicating young running with them. Tinnok at first guessed around 8 or 10 creatures until she realized that at some point the mass of tracks nearly doubled in size. She didn’t know if two herds of the creatures had come together or she simply hadn’t noticed the amount before because of drier soil that didn’t take the prints, but whatever it was, there was a lot of food to be had, something which drove her onward as she pictures sides of pork sizzling above a warm cook fire.

[Tinnok]

The heat of the day crept through the hunters as they stalked through the woodland of Falyndar. Tinnok liked to think that her scales and snake blood afforded her some leeway in the extreme heat of the jungle, but she still felt the perspiration wet shining scales and drip down the small of her back as she slowly crossed through the undergrowth, eyes scanning the ground as they tracked their prey.

Just as their last hunt she could tell as bell after bell how the tracks grew fresher, more moist in the soil. There were a couple times where she knew her inexperience would have lost them the trail when the footprints disappeared altogether, and she tried to identify the way the leaves broke or were crushed, and branches trampled in such a way that led Yimay and the others along the correct path without ever losing sight of the peccaries' trail. Talking was out of the question, and so Tinnok got to taste first hand how tedious a hunt could truly begin, regardless of the fact that your entire focus was required in order to maintain the trail. She tried to think of it as just another step in her training, the military had taught her weapons and tactics, and now these four would be her teachers to survive in the wilderness well and truly so. It didn't stop her from stifling a yawn now and again, however.

Thy paused for half a bell to hydrate and urinate, and Tinnok got the scoop on the hunt from Yimay. The herd was one she occasionally took her fill from, generally targeting the older animals unless it was truly large in which she took a few more for good measure. She knew the balance of life, but stated that sometimes the peccary numbers rose in areas not frequented by tigers, which was generally where she chose to hunt, so she took it upon herself to act as a mediator for their numbers. Tinnok was amused by the way she spoke of it as if she was doing the forest this great service, but did not comment. After relieving herself they were back on the move.

The birds sang high above them in their perches, and all five hunters froze in unison when they heard the roaring call of howler monkeys close by, with the echoing reply of a rival troop farther down along the trees. The half-breed witch desperately wished to climb the trees and converse with the primates, but shook the feeling off and continued along with her comrades, the troop of black faced monkeys watching them silently as the hunters passed beneath them. Nuran shot down a brown mandible toucan past midday, bagging the valuable bird away, and Mint pointed out a section of poisonous vines that caused non fatal, but extremely hinder some rashes upon the skin that if itched created burning blisters. Using extreme caution, Tinnok handled the stem of the plant with the pliable cloth hilt of her dagger, slicing away the stem of the plant and wrapping it in a small bolt of cloth she normally kept to keep the sweat off her body. Could come in handy at some point.

Other than that nothing disturbed the strained heat and the buzz of cicadas that heralded their march through the forest. Tinnok at some points stopped following the tracks, hanging in a heated delirium where only the sounds (or rather lack thereof) of her feet were what she focused utterly upon. She contemplated her stealth and sneaking as a sort of dance, feet rotating through leaves and muck, pacing and stepping in time with the rhythm the insects made for her, and vaguely noticed Mint and Nuran looking at her oddly at times, but she ignored them, for the lack of sound she generated more than made up for the strange mind set she began to fall into.

Then she heard it. Despite the buzzing in her ears that became a near buzzing in her very mind, it was impossible to mistake the breathy curse issued from Yimay at the front of their pack. Each of the four others made there way up to her to see what was going on. While Mint, Nuran, and Tinnok looked with confusion at their Hunt Mistress, Haetsi clearly already knew.

No one needed to ask. "We have intruders."

Tinnok's brows raised questioningly and Yimay gestured to the ground.The half breed stepped gingerly forward and examined the tracks. It took some adjusting and focus, but she slowly pieced together the story. There upon the ground were the crescent shaped hooves of the pigs they had been following, more than a few bells old by the looks of it, but marring the tracks were other foot prints, these with clearly defined pads. They weren't large enough to be a tiger or panther, but were much bigger than some of the smaller cats like an ocelot or margay. Tinnok's eyes widened.

"Are those...?"

Yimay nodded. "Dog tracks, yes."

Tinnok rubbed her chin. There were no human footprint counter parts and she hadn't heard of wild dogs of any kind surviving long out in the jungle without support. Yimay shrugged and turned to go. "However they've managed they're a good bell ahead of us at least, let's get moving."

Tinnok gritted her teeth and the five of them set into a light jog. The idea of getting beaten to the kill by a bunch of mongrels didn't sit well with Tinnok, and clearly not with any of the others either. There was a determination to their gaits as they ran through the undergrowth, bent on catching up to their quarry in time.

[Tinnok]

Now speech interspersed the running. Thoughts raced through five very different minds, trying to contemplate the implications the canines would have upon their hunt.

"Could they be running ahead of humans?"

"Stupid, no humans would get his deep into the jungles without us knowing."

"Those dogs did..."

"Probably just turning tail from a tiger."

"But well enough to hunt some pigs."

"Maybe not that well."

Four pairs of eyes paused, hearing that the voice was somewhere behind them. Out of the corner of her eye Tinnok had spotted a color not so green or brown as the jungle normally heralded, and her puase in motion showed her a splash of crimson gracing the rubbery leaf jutting out over the damp soil. Yimay stepped forward and sniffed the blood, then shrugged.

"One of them is injured...probably the dogs, we'd have stumbled across the lot of them by now if it was a peccary." Yimay gave her curt nod of approval when one of her hunters did something that wasn't entirely idiotic, and set back off across the ground at a voracious pace.

As they ran, legs pumping, bodies hopping, jumping, and leaping over thicket and brush, Tinnok attempted to get into Yimay's mind set. An injured dog could mean a desperately hungry animal, willing to go to any ends. The tracks suggested more than one, but Tinnok could certainly not be sure of quantity as she ran, barely glancing upon the forest floor. So one had to assume the worst. Perhaps a pack of dogs, escaped from their masters, lost in the woods, tired and emaciated, or perfectly healthy and strong with an injured member. She shook her head. All this theorizing simply wasn't her forte, and she forced herself to clear her mind and focus upon her breathing.

Darkness began to fall, but Yimay didn't let up until Mint had hurled himself over a fallen root, head first into a large tree. They were all tired and hungry, but Yimay forced them on at a walk. They hadn't gained on their prey, and perhaps if anything had fallen behind. Tinnok was beginning to feel sore from the exertions with few breaks and only slightly more water, and took a long draught from her pouch, trying to keep her wits about her as the entire forest sank into shadows.

Leth hung high above them when Haetsi made a noise. The half breed knew it was him because Mint's voice was deep and Nuran's was almost comically high. Haet, however, barely ever spoke, and the noises he made were in an even mid range. Yimay grunted in reply. "If we rest for the night we'll lose them to those Goddess-be-Damned dogs."

Another grunt and Tinnok could see the shadowy form in front of her shrug. "It's final, Haet, you can sleep when you're dead." There were no more protests.

----

Tinnok enjoyed the jungle at night. It was practically louder than in the daytime, and strange lights from insects and plans turned on like lanterns up in the trees. The forms of bats scurried to and fro, and nightjars rested like rocks upon the ground, waiting to leap up into the sky. Tinnok thanked Leth for lighting there way, for Yimay did not want to ruin their position with any fire. Truth be told Tinnok was wondering just exactly how their fearless leader was even keeping the trail in the nighttime, but she moved across the ground as confidently under Leth as she did Syna, and the half breed certainly wasn't going to raise her voice as tensions rose and stomachs emptied.

Five shadowed forms froze when they heard it, a chilling howl that rose up into the air through the trees. It was the sound of a canine, loud and fierce, though Tinnok wasn't sure if it was a call to allies, a battle cry, or a warning for others to stay away. Yimay quickened the pace and the half breed made sure to pay close attention to the ground. She already looked like a fool because of her lack of expertise, no need to rub into her comrades' faces.

[Tinnok]

It was slow at first, a strange sensation that placed itself at the base of the half breed’s neck and made her hairs stand on end. She told herself it was because of the way Leth hung above them and the calls of the rabid wild dogs that would occasionally pierce the heavens like a strange unearthly prayer.

Then a howl sounded as if it was coming from right next to them and the party of five froze. Tinnok swore beneath her breath. “They’re hunting us.”

A grunt that could only be from Haetsi seemed only an apathetic affirmative, and Tinnok heard more curses go around the party. “So what now fearless leader?”

“I’ll kill you myself, Nuran, if you don’t shut up.” Yimay’s voice held a venom only contained in the most poisonous of snakes and Tinnok’s breathing even stopped, if just for a moment. She heard them now, the paws hitting the brush. The noise of their movement had stifled the creatures stalking them, but now that the hunting party had stopped, she could hear the low breathing and the bodies striding through the jungle.

It felt wrong to have these dogs lording over the jungle where only giant cats belonged. Part of her wished for a tiger to rip them to pieces, but knew that would only make more problems than solve them.

“Witch, use your magic from our Nature Goddess and stop them.”

Tinnok snorted. “My gift is not to alter the chain of command in nature.”

“What use is she, Yimay?!”

“Do not be angry with her when the blame lies with me, Mint.” Yimay’s voice was low and hushed, and Tinnok, whose hand was on her dagger heard other arms drawing weapons. “We need fire.”

“Going for our packs could be suicide.”

A low growl was suddenly much too close. Tinnok saw a glint of light reflecting off wide pupils low and hungry. As she made contact with the creature her breath stopped in her throat and came out as a choking croak. As she reached through tendrils of communication to the beast she came across images and feelings filled with pain and madness. Whatever this beast had been in its hey day, now it was merely a shell of itself. It hungered uncontrollably, and its mind was tainted with lust. She also became distinctly aware that these creatures were not some wild dogs….

“They’re rabid….rabid wolves.”

More cursing and bodies shifting. Yimay was fumbling with something, and suddenly Tinnok heard flint scrape steel and a spark lit up the night as it hit wood. “Run, get to the trees!”

Yimay screamed. She was armed with one of her strange blades and a torch, fire light glinting fiercely off of her features. The light exposed one pair of eyes after another and Tinnok felt a hand grab her heart and squeeze it tightly as she saw pin prick after pin prick appear in the darkness. At least a dozen of the creatures surrounded her. She wasn’t sure if they could possibly all be rabid, but something strange drove them in the jungles of Falyndar. As the one closest to her lunged, maw gaping, Tinnok dove, placing her hands upon the ground and flipping herself over in a half cartwheel half tumble that brought her over and under, back upon her feet and sprinting through the jungle. She didn’t look for her other comrades, she had her orders, and a tree was what she needed to find.

She heard huffing behind her as the wolf jumped, missed, and regained its footing. Feet pumped upon the ground, hoping to the Goddesses above that she wouldn’t trip and lose any ground she could possibly be gaining. She found a tree and reached, but found no branches. It was the only problem when one attempted to climb in the jungle. Many trees afforded climbing spaces, but many towered above the understory, and did not relinquish any of their arms until a hundred feet in the air or more. As Tinnok stopped again, reaching up to no avail she swore and gritted her teeth.

The jogging beast was getting closer. To get bit by a rabid animal was never healthy or a good omen, the reason why Yimay had sent them off in the first place. People got sick and never recovered even under the best healer’s care, sinking into a madness that was only silenced with a blade. Tinnok did not want such a fate, and it was why her heart soared with relief as she leapt upwards and caught a solid branch in both hands, dagger in her teeth. She felt the creature behind her even if she could not see it, and strained her muscles as they lifted the entirety of her weight onto the branch and kept climbing. A frustrated snarl commenced beneath her, and the half-breed continued until she was at least thirty feet from the ground, branches scratching her body so swiftly did she carry herself upward.

Only then in the lee of two branches did the long bow come off of her back and an arrow slide from its quiver to be set in her bow. She would harbor no rabid creatures in her forest, stalking her creatures and altering the natural cycle of the jungle, and her whole body quivered with rage as the arrow tip pointed downwards toward the ground. It was dark, but she knew the wolf was still there. She slowly raised her body up to get a better angle for shooting, and waited patiently until the moonlight glinted off dark fur. Then with a snap and twang the arrow sailed from her grasp, flying nearly directly downwards. She heard the beginning of a yelp that was instantly cut off as the tip of the arrow sank into the skull of the beast. Tinnok spat and notched another arrow, gazing over the dark forest in hopes that the others had gotten to safety.

[Tinnok]

The half breed squinted in the darkness. She could hear nor see any signs of her comrades nor any of the other wolves. Tinnok was struck with the realization of two very clear choices: She could wait hear till dawn and the safety of Syna's light, or she could go out looking for her comrades in the near pitch dark. The second move was near idiotic, and she knew it in her gut, but if she left this tree in the morning and found the corpses of her dead comrades upon the ground, savaged by this strange pack of wolves she knew the Myrian in her would never forgive the snake.

So she spent several more chimes waiting to see if anything came across her path, noise, sight, or otherwise, but nothing happened.

And then she climbed down. She did so slowly, making as little noise as possible, making sure that every foot upon a branch or in crevice of branches was slid into place so as not so scrape or create needless friction. And when she leapt off the tree and landed on the ground, her legs bent and her body made the softest of thumps. Her bow was notched and drawn as she walked quietly upon the earth. Tracking would be of no use to her here in the sightless night, but perhaps the lose of that sense would allow her to perfect her hunting.

Her feet carefully assessed every step she took, and it was painstakingly slow, but the half-breed refused to move faster and give away her position. She would be silent, and she would make her way back to where they had separated. The thought of eyes watching her in the forest, dozens and dozens focused upon her as she traveled was a distinct possibility that unnerved Tinnok, but she tried to shove the fear as irrational.

She had run in what had seemed mostly a straight line, and so she made her way back across the ground, hoping she was heading back the same way she had come using the orientation of the tree she had left.

She saw no pin prick of light that would herald the torch Yimay had lit, heard no sounds of combat, nor the wolves. Of course as she stopped and looked up through the trees at the sliver of light afforded to her, the half-breed couldn't even be sure she was in the correct place. So she just kept moving forward.

Her stomach grumbled menacingly, and she felt an emptiness within that sapped away her energy, quietly stalking through the jungle, tired and hungry. Every now and then she would hear a noise, a crack of a branch or the call of insects in the night and freeze. She doubted the direction she picked and constantly second guessed herself, but in the end refused to stray from her chosen direction, body low, feet moving slowly over soft earth as she searched for any signs of life.

So when she heard the crackle of leaves directly behind her, like a wind up doll she whirled to face whatever was there. Two shining arrows were pointed directly at two throats as Tinnok stood face to face with Haetsi. The lanky male lowered his bow slowly, and she hers. He did not speak, merely took point and continued on through the jungle. Despite his usual level of animosity, Tinnok was supremely glad to have his back, knowing she wasn't utterly alone within the forest.

[Tinnok]

She wanted to talk to him, to ask him if he had seen the others or more wolves, but as far as she knew, Haet only actually spoke to Yimay, and while the other two males were more vocal about it, it was clear that the silent hunter was the most put off by the half breed among them. Even if he knew information that she might need, Tinnok doubted he’d cough it up to her, and so she followed silently behind the stealthy male.

She couldn’t tell if he was tracking, or just walking, but whatever he was doing it was taking too long for Tinnok’s liking. Again the silence of the forest permeated around the two careful hunters, with no trace of their quarry or companions. Tinnok’s stomach grumbled audibly again and Haet turned back to glare at her, as if she should be controlling the sound. Tinnok returned a rude gesture and they went on in silence. The half breed was unsure of how long she could keep going under these conditions, for even the hardiest being had need of sleep. After so long in silence, her adrenaline levels lowered and she vaguely wondered if she could find the wolf’s corpse she had felled back in the woods when all this was over. Her eyelids began to droop, and as her mind began drifting with heavy lids, Haet came to an abrupt stop before her. Tinnok had enough sense not to bump right into him, and used her forward momentum to come up beside and look at where his eyes were trained upon the ground.

It was Mint. Or what was left of him. His body had been marred nearly beyond recognition, but Tinnok knew the strange nailed club her wore at his belt. Yimay hated it because it ruined pelts, but Mint was more concerned about avoided as little injury as possible than the quality of the hides they turned into the Trading Square, and so he always kept it with him. It was covered with crimson, but there were no corpses beside him. Haet bent, poring over the ground, and Tinnok wondered how long it would take her to be like him, able to drink in the smallest details in order to put together the puzzle pieces of a hunt.

Well, there was no time like the present, right? The half breed knelt alongside the male, but he didn’t even acknowledge her presence. She surveyed the mutilated body. Chunks of meat had been taken from it, certainly, but considering the numbers of the pack that she had seen surrounding them, it certainly hadn’t been decimated as a hungry group of canines was bound to do. She examined the claw marks that raked his body, then glanced off over the ground, trying to catch a glimpse of something in the faint light filtering in from above. Rising the half breed moved to the other side of the corpse and bent down to survey better the space around the individual once known as Mint. Slitted pupils widened to accommodate to the low light, and if you looked in her yellow orbs then, they were the closest to human that they would ever appear. Fingers brushed the earth, since crimson would now appear nearly black in the low light, she would need touch to determine if there was a blood trail.

She felt silly as her fingertips brushed against black spots, most of which were just rocks or moss, but then her index finger slid across a slick surface and upon bringing the wetted appendage to her nose she turned to Haet, holding her finger up to the light. A flicker of surprise crossed his features, but it was the half-breed’s turn to pay him no mind. They had quarry to find, and two hunters to save before this savage group of beasts tore them apart. Bringing her face close to the ground, Tinnok continued feeling upon the earth until she ahd found two more spots of blood that gave them a direction. Haet collected any of Mint’s supplies that would prove of use and took point. The spiked club was left in its pool of blood, a tool that could only have been used by its owner.

-------

They barked and howled, growled and whined. The half breed hadn’t been joking around when she said they were rabid, the things were biting tree bark, clawing at the trunk and even attacking each other in their rage. Nuran was fuming up in his perch. It would have been easy for him to pick the animals off one by one, or at least the intensely crazed ones, but in the chase he had tripped and lost all but two of his arrows. He refused to send his only weapons down below into the wolves, for there were dangers plenty in the trees, and he might have need of them before the night was over. He glimpsed the metallic shafts glinting about 50 yards from his position in the moonlight, teasing him with how near they were, and he cursed beneath his breath. He wished he could get a bit of sleep, so long had they been awake, but the infernal noise that the wolves kept up below would not aid in any rest. So the archer sat and fumed and squinted down below him, praying for Syna to rise in the sky and for his hunters to get bored. Eventually they had to get tired, right?

[Tinnok]

They found her in the middle of a sea of corpses. Tinnok nearly slipped on blood, catching glints of silvery fur in the light of Leth philtering through the tree tops. She was brusied and bloody herself, but still standing with her torch. Haet broke into a sprint and that was when the half breed realized he was smitten with her. It made sense in hindsight, but there and then, watching his body pummel through the foliage to reach her, it was more than obvious. His two machetes sliced through the beasts to reach her, catching her as she began to collapse and holding aloft the torch like a sword forged from Isurian steel. It was nearly romantic that moment, up until one of the creatures turned its glowing eyes upon Tinnok and lunged. But she was already shooting.

She lamented the darkness and the clumsiness of her hands. One arrow missed entirely, the second took the approaching beast in the shoulder, sending it staggering and giving her time to draw another. Her hands quivered with exertion and exhaustion as she drew back the third arrow, body tense, taking care to aim as the beast lifted itself off of the ground. Only to receive a second arrow directly to the chest. The body skidded to a halt in front of her and Tinnok was already notching another arrow, arm straining against the tension of the bow. She was much too hungry and tired for this.

"Get off me you pathetic piece of shyke!" Good to know that Yimay still had all of her spunk as she attempted to push Haetsi away form her bodily. The man only grunted in response and tightened his grip on her torso, refusing to allow her to fully collapse.

Tinnok surged forward, trying to calculate how many of the beasts remained. Their numbers were smaller, suggesting a split in ranks, the bodies lying upon the ground seemed to rank around 7...no 8...no 9, counting the two she and her male companion had just felled. A couple more pairs of eyes hung strangely in the distance, wary, but still hungry. Tinnok moved closer to Yimay and Haetsi, shooting an arrow into the dark and hearing it whistle uselessly through the trees. Her next one, drawn and shot, body aiming just beneath the glowing eyes landed with a satisfying chunk and an answering yelp. The three stood, or partially stood in the clearing, waiting for another assault, but none came, and Tinnok heard the sounds of retreating paws over dense foliage.

"Alright, they're gone, leggo!" Haetsi whispered something in her ear and the Hunt Mistress growled. Haet then proceeded to half guide, half drag Yimay to a tree where he lowered her gently into the lee of the truynk. Tinnok dashed over and knelt beside her. Yimay was struggling. "Mint, where's Mint? I heard him get taken down."

Haet shook his head. Yimay's face didn't look surprised, but she sank a finger into Haet's chest, all the drive of her leadership coming back full bore. "You're going to fetch Nuran, he was headed east of here, I'm sure he's not far, and they wouldn't have taken them down, the wench will stay here and patch me up, but the plan is to meet back here in no more than two bells, understood?"

Tinnok watched Haet's face, warring with disobeying her, yet knowing he was the better suited individual to track down and rescue Nuran. She glared at him, he at her, then the silent hunter rose and left, giving Tinnok a look that left nothing unsaid. He disappeared like a shadow into the night, and the half breed stooped over her hunting leader. A thump of the sack of Mint's supplies hit the ground, and Tinnok glanced over, swiftly rifling through his things to find a skin of water. "Alright, where's it hurt the most, and where did they bite you?" She was no doctor, and didn't know if scratches could carry the disease like bits with saliva could, but she would do what she could.

Yimay gestured to a nasty looking wound on her arm where something had ripped away a chunk of skin, another two lesser bites on her legs, and had numerous scratches and lesions. Tinnok fumbled around the base of the tree, collecting moss that could be used to staunch the bleeding, and systematically tearing up strips of cloth. She began cleaning out each wound one by one, a task quite difficult in such dim light, when you weren't really sure if it truly was clean. Tinnok refused to second guess herself, however, and was silent to Yimay's muttered curses as she proceeded. They hadn't much time, and there were still wolves about, after all.

[Tinnok]

A crackling of leaves sent Tinnok's back rigid and her eyes roving the surrounding clearing. Yimay chuckled and Tinnok stiffened, feeling color run toward her cheeks. "Little paranoid are we?"

Tinnok shrugged. "When the natural elements are...altered...tampered with...its unsettling."

"Those things are unsettling alright, argh, Goddess, wench were you trained in medicine by a male Tskanna?"

"I wasn't trained in medicine."

"...ah."

And then they said no more. When Tinnok ran out of water she used a bit of alcohol kept in a tiny leather flask, which mostly explained Yimay's cursing. Using the last of it she cleaned the strips of cloth, wrapping and tying them tightly around her arms and legs. When she was done...or at least imagined she was finished, squinting in the darkness as she was, Yimay grunted in pain or approval the half-breed couldn't be sure, and propped herself up against the tree.

Tinnok stood up, back aching from the strange position she had stooped to for the whole procedure, glancing down at Yimay. She wasn't sure how long it would take, but a maximum of two bells was far too long for the exhausted haf breed.

"Mistress...I can't-"

"Lie down and I'll take watch you pathetic excuse for a Myrian."

Tinnok blanched, but Yimay took out her composite shortbow and sat at the ready, and Tinnok practically crumpled into another spot inbetween the great roots of the tree they used. Her head lay against the bark, and despite the fact that she probably would have had a hard time falling asleep, the sweet slow sound of the plant lulled her into unconciousness.

-----

Haet crawled quickly and silently through the undergrowth, body crouched and senses wide and open. He couldn't stand the thought of the half-breed tending to his Hunt Mistress, but neither could the abomination be relied on to find Nuran, and if they lost their archer and Mint...no, he would not even entertain the idea.

He caught the signs of passage in a shaft of moonlight, showing the broken foliage, and charged forward, then began to hear it. Faint shouting and curses that echoed around the canopy. As the sound got closer Haet slowed his pace, eyes searching all around.

-------

When he glimpsed Haet break out into the clearing Nuran's heart sank. He should have known they would come for him, and now he knew the answers to all the questions surrounding the wolves, he had hoped they would just wait until day.

"Haet! Get out of here! It'll get you, Haet!"

The hunter just gave one of his expressionless looks even as the wolves turned their attention toward him, but then the growl, louder and deeper than any of the wolves amassed below the tree rung out, and even from his perch Nuran could see the white's of his comrade's eyes.

"RUN!"

[Tinnok]

Tinnok would always wonder what brought the creature and it's harem to the jungles. Surely nothing so large and vicious could have been driven out of it's territory. Perhaps it was boredom, a lack of food for a voracious appetite, or the illness that it had spread to the other wolves...Tinnok would always be curious, but she would never receive her answer.

All she knew was hearing a hoarse scream that she had never before herd, and wouldn't again, echoing from Haetsi as he sprinted across the ground back towards his hunting companions, half of a pack of wolves trailing at varying distances after him, their alpha directly upon his heels.

"Dire Wolf!"

The words were said with breathy shudders, and wheezing gasps, but they froze Tinnok's heart as she bolted upright and leapt to her feet.

Her wiry arm lifted Yimay off of the ground, and tired eyes, shocked form what little sleep they had been able to absorb searched the woods. Their hunt mistress, no matter her skill, wouldn't stand a chance against the beast.

Yimay was not of the same opinion. Both women darted around the tree to get to look at the shadowy form that sprinted through the woods towards him...and the hulking monster that followed him. Yimay drew and aimed, but Haet was blocking the shot, Tinnok swiped at her comrade's arm, and gulped down a breath, words barely audible over the approaching din as the beast approached. "Let me try..."

And as Haet came close, eyes wide, weapons clanging across his back, Tinnok strode out in front of the massive beast, watching Haet's astonished expression as he ran past her towards Yimay. Every step felt as if her legs were made of stone, every instinct telling her to freeze and run, but she was a Witch of the Wilds, and this was her duty. Something that came with this sick pack of creatures violated the delicate balance of nature, and she had to make it right, for Caiyha and all she stood for.

So she stood like a pillar made of straw and air in front of the massive shadowy form that sprinted for her. It's coat was black as coal, eyes reflecting yellow orbs that reminded her of her own. Massive paws made the earth quake as it charged, and Tinnok had to smile to think of the challenge a Myrian tiger would be presented with in fighting off such a grand and wondrous canine as this black dire wolf that charged her down.

She did not think the creature would stop. Their eyes met. Apart from dogs, TInnok had never tested her powers of communication on creatures that lay outside of the jungle. All creatures seemed to be intrinsically aware of what she was, but it didn't mean the great and intelligent one's necessary cared (Myrian Tigers for instance, had never ceased to show her disdain in their adult forms). So there and then, she was unsure of the reception she would receive. Would it be like the wolf that she had sent an arrow into?

And then she flattened by the feeling of a hungry anger. The beast did not skid to a stop or slide to a halt like some uncoordinated pup, but merely slowed it's pace, stopping just as it's wet nose pressed against Tinnok, purposefully sending her stumbling backwards. Tinnok couldn't help but smile, for as the contact and eye contact sunk through her being, she knew the creature was an alpha female, a proud leader of her strange pack, and held herself with the pride and stature of Myri herself. To try to explain this to her people, to explain the honor of this canine was equal to the largest Myrian Tiger would be impossible to come across afterwards, but it resonated with Tinnok then.

The massive wolf huffed, bored, and sent the distinct feeling of blood and meat crunching between massive canines as she ripped into Tinnok's two hunting companions. Nura was an intricate and silent experience, and Tinnok reveled in realizing that these emotions and images were laced with regret and sorrow as intelligent yellow eyes took in the corpses of her fallen brethren, only strengthening the anger that came next, that asked the witch why she would stop her from eating the rest of her kin.

Tinnok sent back images of great cats stalking the ground and the trees, the feeling of heat that made the fur slick with moisture, and the strange soft ground and greenery. Slowly the images formed into a question, of why the great wolf had come to her land.

No answer was given, only silence and darkness, and for a moment the connection through Nura was cut, and TInnok wasn't faced with the beauty of understanding, but the reality of the creature that could nearly swallow her whole right then and there. Tinnok swiftly sent her own sorrow back, to see the wolves' minds consumed by hunger and madness, and this made the she-wolf pause. A hesitant mirrored tension of emotion, and most of all confusion, to see her pack torn apart and fight so. Tinnok sent back images of the wildlife around the jungle, the birds and pigs that the creatures had been feasted on, becoming mad just like the wolves, of anger and madness, red and poignant seeping into the life of the jungle if the mad wolves stayed.

More confusion, and Tinnok realized that the concept was a bit too complex. Instead she showed the sick and angry wolves dying from their illness, and suddenly her head was engulfed in a toothy mouth.

She was in a dark cavern filled with saliva, blocked out from even the faint light of Leth, who was the only observer to the strange moonlight meeting. Since she was still in physical contact with the beast, she could feel the Alpha's intense anger at the mere suggestion of death, and Tinnok tempered and extended her thoughts, showing the gradual slow and painful process her pack would under go, not that she would kill them, her thoughts a tumble as she felt the pressure of sharp white teeth poised against her neck.

The mouth was slowly removed from her neck, and she heard gasps from behind her.

Tinnok had to phrase the next series of thoughts correctly, and so she took great care, though her face was sticky with the bloody remains of creatures and wolf saliva. She gingerly put her fingers upon the creature's muzzle and slowly sent the winding tune of sorrow, of cold blues of icy tundras winding through the Alpha wolf's mind. She showed the images of the sick wolves, of their bodies being consumed by the disease they carried, and how their bodies were already dead, minds gone, just like when a wolf became too old to hunt and lay down in the frost or foliage simply to die. She tried to intertwine the two ideas, that the creatures that walked with her were just like the frail or old, already gone.

The wolf backed away from contact, and gave a snort and growl, eyes sending images of infants tenderly raised and shown to hunt, how each member made a cohesive part, and she, the Alpha, knew each one implicitly, down to the Omega. The thought of losing them, culling her pack, from which she had grown up in as a dire, the sensation nearly overwhelmed Tinnok's senses, with loss of purpose and sorrow. Wolves relied on each member of their party, and the half-breed's own reaction was part out of her own lack of understanding on the matter. She had never belonged to a pack as a cohesive member, not even as an Omega, merely a strange stray...even here in this forest....

It was strange then, for the wolf set her muzzle upon Tinnok's shoulder, the witch realizing she had just shared these intimate thoughts with the wolf. The Alpha's head weighed down upon her, and the creature's mind communicated an offer, for Tinnok to join her pack, where she would work with them just as a wolf.

The half breed fell to her knees then, tears dribbling from her eyes uncontrollably. The thought of the openness of this vicious creature who wanted to rip out the throats of her companions simply taking on the witch as an adoptive wolf was almost too much for her to bear. She rose slowly, and tried to express her gratitude, showing the image of slain animals as gifts for the kindness (the only equivalent of a gift for a wolf she could think of), but sent the Alpha images of the forest, and the creatures within, of the great mother of all life that the animals and plants understood implicitly, and until she was worthy, had to remain tending to her Wilds.

And so the two females came to an understanding of their roles then, both guardians of their respective packs. The Alpha stepped back, and so too did Tinnok, a sorrowful expression that communicated to Tinnok that the problem of the sick wolves would be eliminated...culled by their leader's own jaws.

And the massive black form turned, not acknowledging the presence of her lessers, snarled to her brethren. And even though the mad wolves slavered and hungered...perhaps out of fear, they followed the great Alpha back through the woods, into the shadows.

"By the Goddess...."

Tinnok did not respond. A great sense of sadness left with the pack of wolves, the opportunity to escape from her oppression gone with those fleeing tails and thundering paws, and she was in no mood to discuss her powers with those who could not fathom the gift.

-------

They had made a strange makeshift camp there in the clearing of wolves, and in the morning, they retrieved Nuran. Syna was high above them in the sky before Tinnok had found her single kill, a smoky creature whose pelt was still in tact. Not all of the sick wolves had looked in their prime, and though about a dozen pelts were collected, only 7 of them were truly worth selling back in the market. Tinnok whispered a prayer to the tortured soul that had left this canine's body, sending it into Caiyha's embrace, and took out her thin knife to begin slicing off the skin. Though she was no leader, she had commanded that all the meat be collected and burned in a pyre so that no other creatures would eat it and contract the rabies, even if there was only the smallest chance it could be passed this way. No one even thought to question her, and Tinnok liked to think a piece of that Alpha female was still with her...even now.

Yimay approached cautiously, as if dealing with a volatile chemical. She came carrying another pelt, a strange tawny hide in good quality, and offered it to Tinnok, who glanced at it with suspicion and confusion. "You have earned more than simply one pelt, wench, take my offering."

Tinnok shook her head, even as the snake hissed at her for turning down the offer of money. "I will only sell what I killed, that one is yours."

Yimay grumbled. She took no happiness in having her gratitude revoked, especially when it was something that was rarely given. She opened her mouth to speak her mind and Tinnok held up a hand, pausing in cutting the pelt off of her kill.

"I will not let you call me wench, any longer, Hunt Mistress."

Yimay paused. Of all reactions she could have expected, that was not it. "What shall I call you then?"

With no small sense of coincidence and the hands of fate, the half-breed smiled, yellow eyes wide and feral like a canine's as she turned and opened her mouth.

"Wolf."

[Limey]

Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Stealth 1 Yimay: A Forbidding Enigma Observation 4 Nuran: The Shootist Hunting 1 Mint: Poisonous Of Body And Mind Tracking 2 Haetsi: Silent And Hateful Acrobatics 2 Lore: Uses Of Peccaries Shortbow 2 Learning Stealth From Middle To Top Medicine 1 Estimating Numbers A Bloody Mediation Tracks Of Intruders Sleep When You're Dead Tables Turned A Rabid Shell Feeling Eyes... Moss For Wounds Lore: Dire Wolf When Weapons Won't Work, Perhaps Words Will... The Pain Of A Fevered Mind An Understanding Formed From Fear, Blood And Caiyha Respect For The Dead Call Me "Wolf" Additional Notes : Wow... just WOW. That final post really blew me away, You did an amazing job evoking the feelings of rage, loss and pain that the dire wolf would have endured, and did it in a manner that was eerily... I don't know... accurate? Amazing work. All of it. A few minor spelling and grammatical errors, easily fixed by a read through next time. You'll be getting a PM shortly regarding your wages. Any questions or queries, please PM me.