Coin Trophy

[Ixzo]

30th of Fall, 518AV

Ixzo prided herself on her kills. She was good enough with an arrow that she could usually get them in the lungs or the heart and not worry about them. But she was better as a lion. Her only weapons were the claws and teeth she was born with, and her senses were enhanced by her skill of the hunt. She enjoyed the hunt, but in times like these, she knew she had to focus. Today she was hunting for someone else, not for herself. Her kill had to be concise and clean, otherwise no sane butcher would take it.

So when night settled into the wild lands, and the lioness retreated to the woods for her prowl, she had begun to feel more at home in these woods. They were not the thick luscious rain forest that she had grown up in, but it wasn’t new lands. Even though her kind naturally hunted in the wide open plains of Cyphrus, she had learned to hunt from the tigers of the jungle, and those same skills could be put to use here. In fact, because the grounds around Sunberth were not so cluttered with consistent shrubbery and vines, like the rain forest she was used to, she could employ skills from both of the biomes she was used to hunting it.

She could stalk her prey using the trees as confusion and cover until she was close enough that she hardly had to chase the thing to take it down, but she could also be prepared to make the run if she needed to, she had the muscles for either. But the night was still young and the night lion found herself trekking far out of the city in an effort to clear her nostrils of the human smell, and the thick smoke of the slag heap that signaled all creatures in a five mile radius that humans were too close. So the lioness found herself walking further and further from the city as the night grew on the sky. She was not attempting to be sneaky, but allowed her mouth to pant in the chilly night air and take in what she could of bouquet of smells that surrounded her. She was looking for something big, but not too big she couldn’t carry it back to the city. Badger infected her nostrils, accented by the dusty feathery scent of quail. There were some foxes and smaller rodents stumbling through the trees around her, but she had not come across any prey of worth yet.

Her night vision was well enough that she could scan the trees around her to make sure she was not missing any other signs of the prey she wanted. The dry autumn grass beneath her was prone to tracks in a different way than the mushy lush grass of spring, and so she watched for anything of note on the ground in front of her. When her ears picked up the crisp, clean chatter of a stream, the lioness veered towards it, knowing it would be an excellent point to begin tracking something, and to find the tracks that she was looking for.

[Ixzo]

As she neared the bank, the grass began to thin out to an even track of dirt. On it, her reflective gaze could immediately pick up on the various creatures there. The trouble now would be assessing the freshness of each track. It was a frequented bank, and they were far away enough from the city now that she could feel confident in whatever she chose to track to be more comfortable in this area. When she neared the bank, she was able to pick up on some smaller tracks of rodents and birds bumbling about their business. For the most part the rodent tracks overlay the larger tracks, of which she recognized deer and hogs, the usual fare. The Kelvic thought a large buck would make a good trade, so she began to pay attention to the deer tracks.

There were more than a few pairs of little almond-shaped tracks. Where they crowded, Ixzo noted they were smaller and skittering together, as deer did, shuffling the sand about the bank. Bird tracks over lay them, but she couldn’t count them out yet. Striding a bit further down the bank, she noticed large deer-hooves, which seemed fresh. The dirt that they had uprooted where the pointed end of the hoofs dug into the dirt, had not yet been weighed down or brushed away with wind, signaling these were fresher. As she paid attention, the seemed to overlay the bird tracks that had overlayed the other hoof-marks.

Deciding that this was the deer to follow, and hoping that it was a buck, she looked for the direction the tracks were pointing. Each hoof rounded in the back and pointed towards the front, where it dug into the dirt by nature of the deer stepping, and so it did not take her long to find that the deer was headed south, back towards the city.

Ixzo paused to pay attention to the wind, ruffling her feathers and blowing west, from the sea, towards the forest in land. It was not the most favorable conditions, but as long as she remained anything but downwind from the deer, she would be able to sneak up on it. But even though she was not downwind from the deer, the deer was not downwind from her, and so it would require her to pay more attention to the other signs the deer left as she tracked it.

Although the tracks lead back into the dry grass, she now had seen where they came from, and recognized the broken indents in the dead autumn vegetation as she followed her new prey south. She expected at some point she would come across feces or urine that would confirm the smell of her prey and knew she would be on the right track. But in the meantime, the night lioness had her eyes glued to the ground, following the tracks carefully. They were a bit harder to read in the grass like this, but she stayed on them as best she could. It forced her to trek a little slower through the woods, but with how much the deer wandered and paused; she would be keeping good time.

[Ixzo]

As she tracked, Ixzo kept her ears perked, and her nostrils flares, listening and smelling the world around her. Just because her focus was on the tracks of this deer, or buck, did not mean that she was not aware of the world around her, and watching for any predator that was bigger than her, or if she happened upon easier prey. Dumb luck had surprised her more than once on a hunt, but of course every time she looked for it, it never came. So instead she kept her senses alert, listening for the world around her while she followed the tracks.

It was approximately two hundred feet when she noticed the tracks getting muddled. They had stopped nearly some shrubbery, and she saw that any and all remaining fresh leaves had been nibbled off of it. She could now tell it was a buck, as it had urinated near the bush, and she could get a bit of information from the pungent scent. It was a buck, the smell of testosterone was powerful enough that she didn’t doubt it. That and the fact that it was travelling alone only confirmed her suspicions. The thing was plenty hydrated, and had been in a relaxed state, at least when it had urinated, because she didn’t smell the hormones of fear or adrenaline seeping through the waste. The buck had meandered around this area for a minute before continuing on, and the lioness found herself spiraling out from the bush until she found the tracks again.

When she finally happened across some scat that belonged to the Buck, Ixzo leaned down to assess how fresh the pile was. It smelled strongly of the deer, and the strong scent told her it was fairly fresh, no more than a bell old, which meant she was getting closer, and perhaps gaining on the buck. As she followed, paying acute attention to the tracks in front of her, Ixzo had not realized time was passing. The trail she was following had made a few stops and many detours, and had slowly begun curving to the west, which could be unfavorable conditions for her, if the wind persisted.

She could feel the autumn wind slowing on her fur, and wondered if that meant a shift in direction, or merely a stagnation for the night, either would be okay with her, so long as it did not blow her scent directly into the Buck’s path, sending him running before she was ready to chase. But she was still far enough away that it didn’t matter yet where the wind went, because neither she nor the buck would be able to smell one another, and so she continued on.

It was nearly two bells later, when Ixzo began to realize she was closer than she though. The moon had reached the other side of midnight now, and was waiting for her to wrap up her hunt. The trail she was following had become more obvious the longer she followed it, and when she happened upon another pile of scat, she meant with the pungent scent of the Buck long before she stooped in to smell it. The pile was still warm, and as she examined it, she could see the glisten of the moistness in the moon light that filtered through the skeletal trees.

[Ixzo]

Instinctually, Ixzo lowered herself, reflective eyes perceiving the world around her. Her ears stayed alert, and she found herself creeping forward past the pile of dung so that she could attempt to hang her mouth and let the scents of the forest around her filter in through the glands in her mouth. She could smell the pine and maple of the trees surrounding her, and the small aromas rodents scurrying in the roots and branches surrounding her. She could hear the pitter patter of their feet, now that she was still and paying attention, and she could also hear the wind whistling through the skeleton branches above her, unable to make up its mind on which direction it was choosing to head. It seemed to veer west one second and north the next. She hoped for the north winds, but knew that the more she hoped, the more that hapchance would be inclined to take it away.

After adjusting to her hunter’s crouch and the world around her, Ixzo began walking forward once again, paying attention to the tracks that lead her here in the first place. She walked slower now, not quite crouching, but rolling her paws and keeping her footsteps silent as she perused the trees around her, looking for the familiar shape of a buck that would signify it was time to drop into her hunter’s crouch.

It was another few chimes before her ears picked up on him. Heavy footfalls of a mature Buck alerted her to his presence, and it did not take long for her night lion eyes to find him. She froze in place, slowly lowering herself into a crouch, keeping her head turned to see the Buck. He was lazily sniffing through the bark of the trees, perhaps looking for lichen or moss. She knew deer to be nocturnal creatures, and was not surprised to find him up and about, even with morning drawing near.

But as the lioness had seen him, he had not seen her. It was a fate that the prey often met, their senses were duller than hers after all, and it was a fate that often worked in her benefit. Except now that she had him in her sights, it would not be long before she was in his. Her prey tended to be slightly duller than herself, but they were still wild animals and had made it to this age for a reason. Quickly, but with great care, Ixzo turned her body, so that she pointed directly to the buck now. She sank into her crouch, rolling her paws as she started forward. She just had to be within thirty feet of him, and then he would be no match for her powerful dash. She stepped with as little sound as was possible in the dry grass that made up the ground beneath them. Ixzo had little need to smell him out now, so she closed her jaw taking silent breathes in through her nose as she closed the distance.

[Ixzo]

Her tail flickered in anticipation as soon as she got close enough that she felt she could leap on him with no issue. She paused, setting her weight back into her haunches further and preparing the leap. The wind, which could not seem to make up its mind on directly suddenly, hit them with force. Finally the buck was alerted of her presence, one large head coming up to smell the wind and see her hunting form not twenty feet from him. It was too late, the buck immediately turned to run, but she was on his tail in a second. The actual chase was a few ticks, with the new foreign prey being able to gain speed on it’s feet. Still, she had gotten the head start, and remained on its tail. She got close enough to slash at its hind leg, which slowed the buck and herself slightly. It was then that the male deer had the idea to turn around and face her, attempting to threaten her with his antlers, which could easily impale her if given the chance. But the lioness was prepared for this move, and much shorter than the buck, and so she leaped up to clamp her jaw on his neck in an instant.

She wasn’t quite on his thick warm arteries that would guarantee her the kill, but she did have a hold of him where his antlers could not touch her. Since she had no other part of her prey in her grasp, he pulled back, attempting to yank his own neck from her iron grip, an impossible venture, but the instinct of the dying. She was far heavier than him, and was able to stiffen her hind legs into the ground to keep herself from getting flung off of him, but she reached up with her fore paws to attempt to secure the deer. One claw slashed at his leg, tripping it out from underneath him, and he lost his front legs. She took her opportunity to attempt to work her body weight on top of him as he went down.

Now completely off his legs, he still attempted to writhe away from her, and it was easy for the lioness to position herself on top of the deer to control his thrashing movements enough that she could reposition her jaw. The buck began to scream and bleat, either in pain or the ultimate desperation at this point. She pinned his forelegs underneath her chest and one paw, and then released his neck, eyeing the delicious center where she needed to clamp down. He took the opportunity to twist his head away from her, a self-preservation reaction that did the opposite of its intention, because he exposed the necessary part of his neck to her. In an instant she was biting into his thick fur, her teeth finding familiar holds, and she began the waiting game. Her entirely body weight pinned him down, and she now had her iron jaw on his neck, puncturing the necessary arteries that fed his life, he could bleat and scream and thrash all he wanted, but the more he did, the weaker her became, and it was not long before Ixzo came out on top, with fresh and healthy prey to bring back to town for coin.

[Ssezzkero]

Land Navigation +2, Planning +1, Hunting +5, Tracking +2, Stealth +2, Running +1, Unarmed Combat +1, Wrestling +1, Hunting in the forest is similar to the rain forest, Planning: Choosing prey for pay, Recognizing Tracks: Rodents, Tracking: Staying aware of the world around you, Tracking: Identifying deer grazing, Tracking: Identifying male deer urine, Tracking: Identifying scat, Deer: Nocturnal, Hunting Deer: Beware the antlers