17th of Fall, 513 AV
"Shit!" Caesarion swore. He'd woken up ridiculously late. Normally, that'd be fine -- he'd just stretch his "work hours" into the night. Today, though, he promised Gallagher that he'd hunt with him, and as much as the thought intimidated him, it was too late to just cancel. He slapped his dogs on the side, telling them to get up. They rose from the ground and immediately got excited, their tails wagging and their ears perking up. "Come on, you two, we've gotta go!" The man threw on some clothes, messed up his hair a little and ran out the door. He opened the door just to catch the sun in his eyes, and he waved it away with his palm. The Ravokii ran quickly down the road, his dogs getting very excited, thinking it was a race. Max was the faster one, albeit the stupider and less disciplined one. Argos still tried anyway, and his tail was still wagging, excited as ever. The Ravokii smiled and laughed as he followed, opened the gate and continued to run down with them.
Gallagher wasn't where he said he'd be, which was... if he recalled correctly, right down the road. He must've just gone ahead without him, after all of the waiting. Shyke. "You guys don't happen to have good tracking skills, do you?" Caesarion looked at his animal companions. They both stared at him, blankly, their tongues sticking out and -- you know. They were dogs. "Welp, I guess we'll just have to look, then." Judging from the time, he must've been about an hour and a half late. That was long, but he doubted Gallagher went very far. People preferred to stay close to the town, anyway; those who wandered too far were in all the more danger. Caesarion walked through the fallen figs and leaves, noting the branches were all cut by human hands on the westward path through the woodland. It wasn't that way a few days ago, at least, so it probably meant that someone had been frequenting this path recently. Judging from the perceived precision of it, the path-making was done by someone with skill in wilderness hunting. Sounded like Gallagher.
He caught glimpse of the man when he was making his way through the concentration of trees. Just to be safe, he didn't make any noises, in case he was currently pursuing prey. The Ravokii only slowly made his way to the man's back, and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey--" he started, though he quickly had a knife at his throat. His dogs immediately went vicious, growling and warning of attack. They were about ready to pounce. "Oh, you. Don't sneak up on me, please," he sighed, and slipped his knife back by his belt. "Yeah, noted." Caesarion sounded relieved, happy to be away from that messy situation. "Sorry for the tardiness. It's a bit hard to lift a man from his bed in the midst of his contentedness." That was certainly true in his case, at least. "It's fine," Gallagher said. "So, are you going to show me how you hunt, then?" He knew of course to hold him to that. If he hesitated in discovering his method, then he'd never find out. Caesarion feigned all sorts of problems to avoid telling people. The difference here was that Gallagher was more trusted than the rest of them, and far more keen to Caesarion.
They trusted each other, to a degree. "You and your adolescent obsessions. Don't worry, though. I really won't try to get out of it this time. It'll be much easier with another hunter by my side, too. Max and Argos won't have to get all up in the mud." He moved to the side of Gallagher's dominant arm, grabbed it, and played around with his bow and arrow. "You better not miss. We'll only get one free shot before it recognizes our intentions." First, though, they had to find a deer. The older man continued west, knowing that the deer would probably be shying from the east today. All of the other hunters were over there, acting, like usual, as these macabre messengers of fear to the otherwise peaceful forest. Either way, living here was better than living deeper in the wilds. There were creatures much more brutal than humans over there. And then there were humans much more brutal than creatures -- like the Myrians.
"Ah, found one!" He smiled excitedly. It was what appeared to be an adult male, which was of course the picture perfect target. "Remember, don't miss," he said. His eyes were very stern, but only because he'd hate to have to spend an hour looking for another one. "And don't say or do anything. Just watch me." With that, he turned his focus to the creature. It didn't seem to notice him much, probably because of his orange clothing and hushed whispers. However, like all sentient creatures, it was fairly observant. All he needed was for it to observe Caesarion directly -- make contact with its eyes. It was a patient game. The creature was only really here to eat, so often times he'd have to explicitly go over and force contact, with the creature sometimes getting anxious and running away before he could make progress. But he still felt this was more efficient than a bow and arrow, because you essentially paralyzed the creature. His dogs could handle the rest. "It's okay," he whispered -- this was a sign that he'd successfully made eye contact. "No one's going to hurt you. Just relax." The rather morbid process would continue on like that for a while.
He'd use magic to gain his trust, and then mesmerize him into complete defenselessness. "It's okay -- I promise you." When the deer seemed to come to a total stop, with calmed breathing and a complete fascination with Caesarion's eyes, Gallagher unloaded an arrow into its neck. "Nice shot!" He praised. "So, there you have it. I hunt using..." He stopped and looked up, Gallagher coming over him. "Hypnosis, isn't it?" The man asked. To that, he laughed and grinned. "No shyke."
