Places to be.. (Cass)

[Darian]

15th of Summer, 511 AV

A cold stiff northward breeze lifted up the back of the cloak he had been using to cover himself for the night, and woke him up, his eyes opening hesitantly to adjust to the light now pouring in through the tent entrance. He was reluctant to wake up so early after such a late night, but he remembered that they had things they needed to do, and it would take a bit more preparation than just rolling out of bed and going looking for an animal. That would almost never work, and it would just waste their time, and groggily Darian sat up and looked over to the form lying beside him. From the way the cloak covered her completely, hiding her from the light he couldn't tell if she was still asleep or even if she had put on clothes yet since he fell asleep, but with that thought in mind he made a point to cover up his nudeness in short order. Not wishing to disturb his lovely hostess, whom this tent belonged too, he stood up and let his cloak fall from his shoulders, and then after putting on a undergarment, he slid on his breeches and a tunic before putting on his high black boots, and then walking out of the sizable tent to feel more of the exposing light.

It was still early morning from all that he could tell, and for a while it took him time to adjust to the stinging glare before it all melted into a soft glow and he could see the forest around him clearly. The woods seemed so peaceful at the moment and all he could hear was the chime of birds as they fluttered by, and the sound of other animals deeper in the forest and far from thought. The ghost of their fire the previous night sat chilled in a small pit they had dug, and only whips drifted up from the ash to mark what had previously been there before, the strings floating and disappearing with the wind. Breathing in a deep breath he walked around the camp, which was empty save for the dead fire since all of their supplies where kept within the tent, and picking up a stick he poked at the soft embers that rested in its dead center causing a momentary flare of life before they died completely. Still holding onto the stick he withdrew it and continued his pacing around the camp, an idea slowly forming in his head. He didn't know much about survival in the wilds but he figured he could give it a try and jogging back into the tent, stick in hand, he returned outside with his dagger and he began to collect all the loose sticks he could find around the campsite and putting them into a pile.

After he was done with his collection, he began picking up the sticks one by one, witling their tips with his dagger till they were as sharp as they could get and then set down the sharpened ones in a separate pile, continuing to repeat the process until every one of the sticks had been sharpened except for the one that remained in his hand. It was fairly sizable, fitting in his hand as well as a staff might, and dragging his knife across its broad surface he cut of the bark, and gradually worked his way to the wood, shaping it to his likening as he started to curve a narrow ramp downwards with them. Soon the slight incline was completely around the stick and it was all filed down to a very edged point and then setting the dagger down on the rock he gathered up the loose sticks. Starting at the slight brush that bordered the front of their camp he began sticking the blunt ends of the wood into the soft ground, and pointing those outwards, and then putting a second stick a few inches from that one. Eventually he exhausted his supply of sticks but by then he had made a nice and thick semi-circle of protection around the entrance to their tent, and satisfied that he had done his part for the safety of their current base camp, he walked back to the entrance of the tent, and peered inside seeing if Cass was awake yet.

[Cass]

Timestamp: 15th of Summer, 511AV

Cass awoke to the sound of quiet sounds of footsteps moving around her tent. Opening her eyes she quickly let out a low hiss at the bright glare of sunlight and squeezed her eyes shut. Darn, it was morning. Cass always hated the daylight hours. She prefered to work at night and she functioned better at night as well. But with the task she was on with Darian, working at night might get them both killed. No. To hunt successfully they would have to stick with the daylight hours until they got better. Then maybe they could hunt at night in the future. But until that day...she would have to suffer the wrath of the sun's annoyingly bright rays. Slowly opening her eyes again Cass laid still on the ground, waiting for her eyes to adjust. It took longer than it would a human but eventually her eyes adjusted. Sitting up and pushing away her cloak that had served as a blanket, Cass looked about the tent. Darian wasn't there. A wave of fear slammed through her body at the thought of being separated from Darian.

That fear subsided the moment Darian poked his head through the entrance of the tent. Cass smiled, relieved and glad to see his face once again. Forgetting about the fact that she was completely naked, she crawled over towards the entrance and pressed her lips against his. A wonderfully long moment went by before Cass pulled away. "Good morning." Smiling she crawled backwards, folding her wings up neatly against her back. Finding her undergarments and dress Cass began to get dressed. She first slipped her bra band and underwear back on. "Did you sleep well? I heard movement just a few minutes ago. I hope that was you or else we have unwanted company." Sliding on her dress Cass rose to a stand and grabbed her cloak. Putting her cloak on she stepped out of the tent and into the bright morning air.

"So what are we hunting?" she asked as her eyes spotted the new defense encircling the tent. She wanted to kick herself for not thinking about defense eariler. "Thank you for preparing traps for anyone foolish enough to intrude on our camp."

[Darian]

He smiled against her lips as they kissed each other deeply, and cupping her cheek in his hand, he held her face close to hers enjoying the lengthily kiss. At last her lips had to part from his and he still wore his bright smile towards her, and leaned against a wooden pole holding the tent up. " Good morning, how did your rest treat you? " he asked as he walked over and sat down near the center of the tent. " My sleep went well, did yours fair good while it lasted? " he added and watched her dress while he mused over what they were going to do for the day. Well there was the whole hunting thing which he knew almost nothing about and then there was of course the whole case with the ability to catch it when they found it, and further defending their camp for them while they ate. Already with just those few thoughts, their list seemed to grow, and he knew they had much, much more to do then that, but little things first. " I was thinking of maybe a deer, or a rabbit in the area, though if we come across a predator like a bear I certainly wouldn't object to using it for food, and bones " he said with a crooked smile and then got up to stand again, stopping at the entrance of the tent to look into the forest. " It is hardly a efficient means of hindering someone but thank you, maybe I'll learn better means to defend ourselves before we get our hands on some food, and speaking of which, hurry up we have some killing to do " he said lightly, poking a little bit of fun, while extending his hand to help her up.

After helping her up, he would lean forward and kiss her cheek before spinning on his heel to grab up his longsword and strap it to his hip, and then the sheath of his dagger so he could replace his weapon in its previous hiding spot. Continuing to walk to the rock where he whittled the sticks, he picked up the blade, and put it in its harness before strapping it to his ankle and draping the edge of his breeches over it and he walked over to the parameter of their "defense", and looked out into the woods, having no clue of where they should even begin to undertake such an endeavor. Turning slightly to look over his shoulder he called out in a clear voice “ so any ideas on which area of the woods we should start to search? "

[Cass]

"My sleep was wonderful," Cass replied, remembering their previous night together. Falling asleep curled up next to Darian had quickly become one of her favorite things to do at night. Yes it meant giving up working completely on a nighttime schedule, but Cass was happy to sacrifice parts of the night and work through daylight hours if it meant she got to enjoy more passionate moments with Darian. Cass nodded when Darian began listing off possible animals to hunt for meat and bones. Deer and rabbits sounded like good prey. Neither one of them were perfect with hunting. Cass was certainly lacking in many areas when it came down to hunting anything. Hopefully hunting either a deer or a rabbit would help them both so they could move on to tougher prey. But, one thing at a time.

"Your defense system is far better than mine," Cass pointed out when Darian began denying that the sharp sticks would do any good. "I had no plan in means of defense. I should have thought of that." When Darian joked about hurrying up Cass smiled and laughed lightly. Taking his offered hand she quickly found his lips gently pressing against hers in a warm kiss of his own. Cass gratefully kissed him back before he pulled away to collect all of his blades. Cass decided to keep her gloves and boots on till they found thier prey. It would serve as some protection against the dangers of the wilderness. Following Darian over to the circle of sharp sticks Cass took a moment to glance about the forest, wondering which way to go as well.

"Maybe we should try looking for animal tracks?" Cass suggested, her gaze dropping to the ground as the words left her mouth. "Once we find some tracks maybe they'll lead us to our prey."

[Darian]

He nodded thoughtfully at Cass suggestion, and was glad to have her along as that thought had never occurred to him. With a short raise of his foot he stepped over the makeshift barricade, and then smiled as he looked over his shoulder to look and see if Cass made it over the very short barrier ok. " Very good idea, now time to comb the ground " he said softly to her, before turning around and examining the ground closely while walking slowly forward. The ground just looked all the same, and it was quite confusing trying to imagine how someone would discover an animal’s track in the soft loam. All of the leaves on the ground looked perfectly flat, or in the case for the leaves and grass, as perky as would be normal, and for a bell or two he continued to observe like this just seeing the same moss strewn ground, with no tracks really catching his eyes, and hearing hints of animals nearby, but never actually seeing one with his own eyes. It was all getting so very frustrating, how was one supposed to learn how to hunt from scratch in the first place, and how did a skilled tracker do in such a unremarkable wood.

That along with the fact that he felt horribly ineffective in the wilderness tended to dwindle his already waning hope faster, and from then on for a while, he simply trudged on not really looking for tracks anymore and just focusing on anywhere his eyes would take him. Then out of know where a idea hit him, and he looked back at the ground where his foot had just recently left, and at first glance it appeared flat and unremarkable, but since he knew he had just stepped there, he studied it even closer, and gradually he could see the thin outline of where his boot had made a impression in the soft ground, and he would have jumped in excitement where he of that mood at the present time. With that slight bit of knowledge in mind, his eyes began to scour the ground before them with even more intensity, and slowed their progress to a mere crawl, but in his mind it was all worth it, if only he could find a single track, and after two bells, he finally found one. Though he almost skipped over it even with his careful observing, he realized it for what it was before he trampled over it, and excited he stopped suddenly and bent towards the ground examining it. That brought him to another problem, he didn't know how to read tracks and hoping that Cass knew what animal had made it he pointed at it and looked back at her. " Wonder what made this track? "

[Cass]

Cass nodded. Yes. It was time to comb the ground and search for any track they could find. Stepping over the short barricade Cass was confident that nobody or nothing would intrude upon their camp while they were away. Dropping her gaze to the ground she began to study the forest floor. Leaves, grass and dirt all laid flat except for the roots here and there that popped from the ground at the base of trees. Following Darian Cass focused solely on the ground, working silently to spot any tracks at all. It didn't take long for Cass to realize that hunting for tracks wasn't as easy as she thought. This wasn't at all like flying around, spotting an animal and swooping in for the kill. No. This was tracking. Something a few of her brothers knew very well, but other Ziths did not.

They worked at a pace that was slowly beginning to drive Cass nuts. There was a moment she was about to give up and brave the annoyingly bright blue skies to fly around for their prey, but she held back. For one thing, somebody could spot her if she flew around in the sky during this time of day and two, she figured not everything could be solved by flight alone. It wasn't until Darian suddenly stopped and bent low to the ground when Cass's spirits began to rise. Lowering to the ground as well she eventually spotted what had caught Darian's attention. It was a track. A small animal track. Gently tracing the outline of the track Cass tried to imagine what animal would fit the small track.

Pulling her gloved finger away Cass looked int the direction the track was heading. "It's a small track so maybe a young deer. A fawn or a little bit older. Or a different smaller animal. But I think it's a deer track."

[Darian]

As she explained her musings on the track, it all started to slowly form together for him and he thought he could see the slight shaped of a deer's typical hoof, with the toes spread outwards, and another step not much farther away. Still the soft impressions where hard to read with his meager skills, but with this first sign they had something to go on and follow and with any luck it would show them the way to a older more sustaining dear. He doubted a baby dear would have enough bones or meat to sustain the either of them but if it came to it he could make do with whatever they managed to get. " Oh, I see it now " he said his words echoing understanding and her resumed he walking except this time following the tracks deeper into the woods, and through brush and other trees. It was hard following such easy to miss tracks, and the occasional bush and thick patch of grass was not making it any easier, but when he noticed that his boot bent the grass a certain way, it made it slightly easier as every once and a while he could see where the small track bent a tuff of grass back, and better yet, larger tracks crisscrossing them, and giving him hope that they still yet might catch the prize that they had journeyed deep into the woods for.

It was still several more bells later before they could finally see them getting closer due to the growing increasingly frequent and more defined and he could slightly hear the noises closer to him as well. Dropping down to a crouch, he hoped they where downwind of the creatures and the fact that he could feel a cool draft against his face gave him confidence that they might be able to get close enough to the skittish beasts to actually get a kill, and slowly he crept through the woods, working his way towards a bush, and slowly worked his way into it trying not to rustle it too much as he peeked through the thick tangle of leaves. Through the clear patch he could see through he could see a foal stepping about through the clearing, and a doe a bit further in the background, but he couldn't see the stag anywhere in sight, and he wondered where that prized deer might be since that would be the primary target if they managed to find it. Still looking through the bush, he waved over Cass if she wasn't already beside him, and he looked slightly to the side at her. " I think we found the deer's family, let me know if you see the buck " he mouthed very slowly hoping she would understand what he was saying before turning back to peer carefully through the brush.

[Cass]

The tracks were hard to follow. Cass stayed behind or near Darian as she tried to follow the tracks. Every once in awhile she would completely lose sight of the tracks and would simply just follow Darian around until she picked up the tracks again. They ventured deeper and deeper into the wilderness, straying farther away from civilization. Eventually the only noises that surrounded them were the noises of birds and wildlife. Cass spotted Darian bending lower to the ground. For a moment Cass simply watched as he silently made his way towards a bush and then wiggled his way into the bush without making much noise. She was jerked from her weird trance when Darian gestured with his hand for her to follow him into the bush.

Cass quickly yet quietly hurried over to the bush and carefully edged herself into the large planet, crouched next to Darian. She peeked out from the bush as Darian quietly explained that they had found the deer family but the stag was nowhere to be seen. Cass watched as the fawn and doe grazed on the grass and leaves from lower tree branches. The fawn wasn't worth the hunt at all. There wasn't much meat and the bones would probably be too small and thin for Darian to work with. No. The fawn would live to see another day. Her gaze shifted over to the doe. There was some meat on the bigger animal. But Darian seemed more interested in finding a stag than a doe. For now the doe would live.

Her eyes roamed the scene before her, wondering where the stag was. It wasn't until she spotted a hint of an antler sticking out behind another tree that Cass perked up. She pointed at the antler, hoping that Darian would see it. "There. There's the stag. He's hidden behind the other tree."

[Darian]

From his view point he could just barely see the light flicking of the white tail of the bucks behind a tree in the back ground, and he patted Cass's knee cap in congratulations for her sharp eyes. " Good catch, now how to get to him without being seen " he said looking forward wondering what they could do to get the buck without being noticed by him, the doe, or the little foal, but nothing initially came to mind. His eyes wandered through all of the little paths he could see winding their way through the trees, and since he was only using a longsword, and not a bow, he would have to get in close for a kill to occur. The logical target would be the doe, which was only a few yards from the bush he now hid in, but it would cost him the bigger prize of the male deer, with a fine rack of antlers meaning it was a good survivor, and even better for malediction purposes than the others. His skill however was lesser than most, and he feared that he wouldn't be able to manage it even if he broke out into a solid sprint towards the animal, and tried to strike it with all of his force. The thought aggravated him that he couldn't get this kill, but he already knew he was more suited for city life than in the outdoors, this is why he was out here in the first place after all.

The sound of Cass breathing beside him reminded him of her presence and a idea came to his head as he thought how they might come out of this little problem on top. Turning slightly towards her, he made sure to keep his voice low, sometimes simply resorting to mouthing out the words to her than out right speaking. " I don't think I can reach any of the deer from this vantage point, but if you fly in on them right after I distract them, we might be able to get the doe, or even buck if we get lucky " he said softly, every once and a while glancing to the side at the nearby animals while running his tongue over his lips. Slowly he turned around to look back at the deer and assuming that she would be on her way to swoop down on them any moment, he tensed up his muscles to charge forward at the animals, drawing his longsword as he did so, and carrying it tip first to the ground as he strode after the animals. The doe's eyes went wide with fear as he charged after it, and sprinted off into the woods right behind the foal, leaving his blade to swish through empty air, and in the back ground he could finally see the buck staring back at him, holding its ground as if to protect its family, before sprinting after them as well. Silently he hoped Cass was on her way after the quickly retreating beasts.

[Cass]

The feel of his hand gently patting her knee caused a warm wave of joy to shoot up from deep within her. A small smile crossed her face as she looked over at him. She was glad she could help him on his mission to find bones. She would have felt bad if she had been worthless on this mission. When Darian began to speak very quietly again about the deer Cass quickly turned her attention back on the matter at hand. He was right. Darian couldn't reach any of the deer. Not on foot and with just blades. His plan caused Cass to perk up a bit. Fly? Swoop in and catch the racing deer family after Darian scared them off? It sounded...good. Nodding, Cass leaned over to whipser in Darian's ear. "Good idea. I'll swoop in after you distract them. I'll aim for the stag...but I won't be able to swoop in and kill the deer easily. But I'm sure I can bring one of them down." Planting a soft kiss on his cheek Cass quietly crawled out of the bush to quickly remove her cloak, dress, gloves and boots. She had a feeling she would need her claws and full ability to fly.

Quietly beating her wings against the ground, Cass rose up into the air. She didn't stop rising till hse was just above the treetops. There she waited and watched as Darian burst from the bush, his long blade drawn and ready to cut flesh. As predicted the doe and fawn went running. It took the stag a moment before he joined his family in the flee. Her muscles tense and her body itching for the familiar hunt, Cass began her quiet descent. She completely ignored the frantic fawn. It was easy prey and she could have brought it down in a flash, but the animal would be useless to them. Her gaze focused on both the doe and stag, but mostly on the stag. Darian wanted the stag. She wasn't going to let him down. Beating her wings quickly Cass picked up some speed. Finally deciding on her target Cass swooped down towards the fleeing stag.

Throwing her arms and legs out Cass wrapped her arms around the stag's neck and her legs around the lower body. The stag immediately began it's frantic attempts for escape. Cass did her best to hold on tight as the stag jumped about, trying to throw her off. One of the stag's hooves hit her leg causing Cass's hold on the lower body of the stag to slip away. Growling Cass began to dig her claws into the stag's neck. The stag had stopped running and the rest of its family was long gone, but the darn beast was still putting up a fight.