In Search of Rabbits (Closed) (Kulde)

[Mayjor]

Day 13 of Fall, 510 AV

Mayjor sat down in the fluffy blanket of white powder, his equipment at his side. He patiently waited for his holdmate, Kulde, to come as he watched the snow fall blissfully to the ground. This whole scene seemed eerily familiar; He had been here more than once. His habitual tendency to arrive early to anything and everything often caused him to have to wait. Some may think this would increase his patience, however, it did no such thing.

Mayjor stood up and strolled around the area in front of the gate. Bored, he squatted down and made himself a nice, firm snowball. Continuing his stroll, his gaze remained fixated on the horizon. How he yearned to explore beyond the mountains, to see the world....

He pushed the thought from his mind; He was from Avanthal, and it was there he would most likely stay. He stopped in his tracks, still tossing the snowball up and down in his right hand. When, he wondered, would Kulde show up?

[Kulde]

Kulde did a last second check of his equipment. His dagger was hanging by his waist. The quiver was on his back with his arrows in it, check. His composite short bow, check. Finally, he had his 7 feet and 6 inches long spear with him. Indeed. He rummaged through his survival equipment, making sure that he had enough with him to start a fire and to survive for a couple of days should they get lost out there. He didn't expect it, but it could happen. Kulde left for the front gates, he was walking quite fast, for he knew he was a little late already. He saw Mayjor sit in front of the gate, throwing a snow ball up into the air. He stopped dead in his tracks and dropped to the ground, quickly pushed together a snowball. He hid his right hand behind his back, and thus, the snowball too. Kulde enjoyed venturing out into the wilds, but he loved it because of the solitude it gave him, walking out there with Mayjor wouldn't bring much solitude. But Mayjor wasn't the worst person to go out there with. "Hey Mayjor, sorry for being late." Kulde said. Stopping before Mayjor. Offering his Holdmate his own left hand to pull him up with.

[Mayjor]

Mayjor heard Kulde approaching, and tossed his snow ball off to the side, unknowing Kulde had one of his own. Taking his hand, Mayjor hoisted himself up and threw on his equipment. Taking a last check to see if all his equipment was in order, he turned to Kulde.

"Don't worry about it Kulde, you weren't late at all. More like I was early." He said with a small chuckle, as he began to walk with his hold mate a small distance out from the gate. He absentmindedly stuck his tongue out to catch snowflakes; quite an easy task, considering the torrential downfall of the Talderian climate. He nervously played with the handle of his blade; he wasn't the best tracker or trapper. He was decent enough at hunting, sure, but this was not exactly hunting; this was capturing an animal alive. The last thing Mayjor wanted to do was embarrass himself by failing in front of someone he considered a friend by failing to capture a mere rabbit. 'No', he thought, 'There's no way! Of course i'll do fine, i'll be coming back with a rabbit in tow tonight' he told himself, as he mentally prepared. He was forcing his adrenaline to flow, getting excited; this may actually be fun! However, there was one thing he could not avoid asking...

"Kulde," He started, "I hate to admit it, but I'm not exactly the best at tracking or trapping. Any chance you have any experience with it?" The young man inquired.

[Kulde]

Kulde pulled Mayjor up after his holdmate threw away his snowball. Kulde felt it would a bit of a cheap shot to throw the snowball into his face now that he was unarmed. So he let the snowball drop down behind him, hoping Mayjor wouldn't notice that he had had a snowball. Kulde walked beside Mayjor away from the gates. Wondering if he knew how to trap an animal. Sure, Kulde could put an arrow between any animal's eyes, but he had no clue how to capture one. Then Mayjor made it clear that he didn't know anything about it either, Kulde felt like facepalming himself. But instead he stopped dead in his tracks. "Err, no? I thought you knew how to..." Kulde explained. "I suppose that is a problem, but it can't be that hard, can it?" Kulde ran a little to get up beside his slightly taller holdmate. Kulde wasn't going to back down, he wanted to go out into the wilds. Especially since he hadn't been out there since his little incident with the Kelvic polar bear. He reached out and patted him on the back.

[Mayjor]

Mayjor laughed heartily, "Well, this should be fun then!" This actually excited Mayjor; He loved a good challenge. And at worst, atleast it would be a good story. That's another thing he loved; a good story. He slowed his pace, as they were beginning to enter an area where rabbits are commonly found.

"Keep your eyes open Kulde, they could be anywhere. And make sure you trip or fall in any rabbit holes either, sometimes it's a bit hard to spot the things." Mayjor walked out a little more, and crouched down, surveying the ground for any signs of movement. He saw a couple sets of tracks, but they looked so confusing... there were multiple animals, going multiple directions, and Mayjor had no clue where to even begin. He scratched his head, attempting to make even heads or tails of the tracks. No such luck.

"Kulde," He called, "Come over here. I think i found some tracks, but i can't really figure out which is the rabbit. Mind taking a look?" Mayjor stood above the tracks and kept an eye out for rabbits. If one showed up above ground, they wouldnt even have to follow the tracks! One could only hope, he supposed.

[Kulde]

Kulde didn't say anything when Mayjor said they were getting close and he should keep his eyes open. Kulde had been out hunting before, probably more often that Mayjor, but he kept his mouth shut, for he didn't want to start an argument with his holdmate, they were out here on business. Kulde walked up to the spot Mayjor had called him to, and was to say the least, just as confused. Many animals had come by there and they had all left some sort of impact on the other's tracks. Kulde, who wasn't much of a tracker, turned to rely on one thing he definitely knew about rabbits. What their prints looked like. He went down on one knee and brushed his hand over some of the different prints. His eyes flashed a different color as he soon found something that looked like a rabbit print and followed it for a while, until he was sure that this indeed belonged to a rabbit. But following these prints could lead them on a wild goose chase. For the rabbit could be far far away by then. "They go off in that direction." Kulde said. When he looked back at his holdmate, just as his eyes returned to their usual brown-ish color, that meant he was calm. "Have you thought of how we're going to capture one, if we find one, that is?" Kulde asked as he began to follow the clear rabbit tracks. They couldn't be too old, or snowfall would have removed the tracks.

[Mayjor]

Mayjor began to follow his holdmate, eager to pick up on anything he could learn from the obviously more experienced hunter. He saw the tracks they were following; they were clear as day. It had taken Mayjor a bit longer than it should have, but eventually he deduced that since these tracks were fresh, even with the snow constantly falling around them, that the rabbit must be close. They were right on it's tail, ready to catch it at any time. His eyes flared a deep forest green as his concentration spiked, scanning every inch of the surrounding area for a rabbit.

"How we would capture one? Well, I figured that once we find it's hole, we could light a small fire at one end, and have the other person stand at the other exit of the hole. You know, smoke him out and grab him. However, I'm not exactly too experienced with these sort of things, so if you have any better ideas, I'm all ears." Mayjor stated as he walked along Kulde's side, still scanning the surroundings. He played with the hilt of his blade, gripping it and swaying it side to side in it's sheath. Were they truly going to be able to catch this rabbit? In hindsight, perhaps he should've brought more than just a carrot to lure it with; maybe a net or something to catch it with as well. That would be helpful, he was sure of that. Hindsight, as they say, was 20-20.

No use worrying about it now. They could cross that bridge when they come to it. One foot at a time, step by step; pragmatism was his philosophy.

[Kulde]

OOCSorry for the delay, been busy.

Kulde listened to his hold-mate explain his idea. To Kulde his idea sounded better than one of them, Mayjor, crawling into the den to grab the rabbit by the feet and drag it out. Especially if they accidentally crawled into a dire polar fox's den. That thing would shred Mayjor's face before Kulde could pull him out of the cave. "Better than my idea." Kulde said as he followed the tracks. Picking up the speed a little. 5 chimes later with the two tracking down the rabbit, Kulde noticed the tracks lead into a cave and he lifted a hand to stop his hold-mate from continuing. He moved a little closer, silently and checked the area around the entrance. There were no tracks deeper than the ones leading into the cave. Meaning that the rabbit was most likely still in the cave. He turned to Mayjor. "We're gonna go with your plan. While I stay here and make sure it doesn't come out, you go around and check for any exits. If you find more than 1, the cover them so the rabbit can't escape from any other path than the one we want it to." Kulde explained in a whisper. He would turn his gaze back to the cave, wondering how many rabbits were in there. Kulde would then look around for anything dry he could use to create a fire. But finding dry firewood was pretty unlikely, but it was still worth a check.