by Solicah on November 2nd, 2012, 6:52 pm
Solicah moved with untrained silence, careful to hold balance, tightening his core muscles as the two pushed near silently through the wind shuffled grasses. The action took different muscles than Solicah knew to use, not being accustomed to moving so low to the ground.
Even up to the last moment Solicah spent so much of his little attention mimicking Ronan's steps, measuring his breath silently in tandem that he nearly missed the finale. Ronan lunged, there was fur, a high pitched squeal which ended with a spurt of blood before it could truly begin. Solicah grinned with excitement, Ronan was a force to behold, and he watched as carefully as he could as Ronan took the creature apart, eviscerating it with practiced precision.
"That was amazing, it didn't even have a chance, Ronan. They will tell stories about your hunting to children of the next century. You will be hearing of your skill in your next life!" He praised more until it became clear he should be observing the process, and he began asking clear questions.
"So which parts do you take out?" He knew there were things inside of people, but he had always imagined them more finite, and solid. Like smooth sanded wood with varying varnishes, or perhaps clean red silks layered neatly together. Instead the reality was much more visually abrasive. Sticky still warm blood seeped from everywhere and each miscut was met with a foul aroma.
He stepped in when Ronan prompted and ran his blade along the parts as Ronan instructed. His pressure was inconsistent at the bet of times, and he found it more difficult than it seemed to run the tip of the blade between the flesh and fur to sheer clean the fatty adhesive which held the creature together. Still, as time stretched on and Solicahs fingers got colder he commented upon the amazement that the creature was indeed looking more and more "like dinner."
Still, this hare would be Ronan's meal, and what Solicah wanted was to bring back his own prize, so once Ronan had taught Solicah to take the creature apart and bind it with it's own twisted entrails Solicah asked if they could hunt again. Ronan allowed such without reprise.
It was chimes later Solicah's patience waned. He tried to open his senses, to look around, to listen for rustling in the grasses. He knew the vague concepts at play, the height of the game, the tracks, the wind. But, alas, even with these in his mind he found it difficult to push his body to truly understand the numerous stimuli flowing around him, and as a result they passed more than a few leads that could find rodents of varying type within the lush undergrowth, all preparing for winter.
Almost ready to give up, Solicah's eyes narrowed at the whole situation. He silently signed back to wait a moment. It looked as if he was calming himself down at first, centering himself so he may approach the hunt with new clarity. Instead Solicah let out three long measured breaths, relaxed his pose, and even let one knee firmly press down onto the soil below to brace. His eyes slid shut, and his mind focused inward. His heart slowed, his body held nearly completely still, only its innate grasp of balance holding it erect as Solicah let go of his body, trusting it on its own as he opened his eyes, not the physical ones, but his true eyes. He loved the euphoric sensation of expanding, of moving beyond the limitations of body.
The web stretched out before him, bright and complex along the grasslands, he viewed his own curled hair swaying in the strong fall breeze, and stretching out from him the thick tethers he would someday have to sever, connecting him to his Pavilion, to his parents, to his instructors. Slowly he ran his fingers along them, felt each one. In an instant he was there, and with Ronan in the field simultaneously. They were all doing well, and none traversed the web at that time. Still, it made him feel safe to know he could find them, to know they were there with him, connected.
With some concentration he found his way back to his body, drifting incorporally along strands of colourful fluctuation of "light" running from his mind and heart. It took considerably more focus to stretch his awareness outward even just several yards from his physical location. He did not push himself, he took his time enjoying the work. He could reach those he had strong bonds with, that he had cultivated strands to, but to see that which he had not planted, that only lay parallel to strands Drykas of old laid, this was a challenge.
"Hare." He summoned with unmoving lips. He searched for the essence, beginning with the life Ronan and he had taken just chimes before. Once its corpse light shown dimly in the weightless obys he reached toward it, running his shapeless fingers along it's strands. Like unwoven wool it was in a state of transition, loose and uncertain. It had been so definite before death, but still some strands ran from it. Natural wisps of soul tying it to the earth. The lines fringed with green shown where it took its energy from, just as Ronan and Solicah would take its remaining soon enough. It took some divining before Solicah discovered the thin lines of red, they felt like the slightest of breezes running to and from the now deceased creature. Its family had worked so hard to create it, lending it the wisdom to run, to hide, to survive, and those ties were still there, and its family was still near by. A small den of yearlings, cuddled snugly together for warmth while they awaited their parent's reemergence, not risking running about till the sky dimmed somewhat.
They were too young, Solicah would leave them to age, to breed once before he took them. Running along their dim auras, however, Solicah found similar strands, one that he wove carefully and slowly together along with one from the cold hare by his side. The second parent roamed only a number of yards beyond them, and it was deeply engrossed in its feeding.
Invisibly Solicah smiled and hunched over the creature, running his fingers within the petite being.
"Hare, I intend to hunt you, but know that your sons and daughters will be left to grow strong, and some day you shall return to us in form of your descendant. Thank you for your time in our plains, may you join the web of our land knowing that your life has not been in vain."
As he spoke his words, not even a whisper in the wind, he ran his fingers along the hare's strands of djed and twisted them together, weaving them into a signature Solicah could follow. It was dim, and with the lack of a root would fade in a brief amount of time. Still, it would serve its purpose. Solicah could track it.
Solicah's physical eyes opened again with a start, the familiar pricking pain of blood circulating yet again through cool limbs met him, and he held his breath as the waves came and went, his skin warming to the touch again, his eyes adjusting to the brightness about him. With an almost drowsy movement he smiled back at Ronan, still filling his body, then began quietly leading toward the mother hare. Movement was confusing at first, as he tried to reacclimate to the directions of the mundane world, all while keeping an invisible eye fixated upon the gentle red glow of his prey.
It was harder than one would think to translate the information of the web to the physical world, and it took some triangulation before they finally began to approach the still moving hare.
The hare had found itself into a private bunch of grass, invisible to the world beyond it. Solicah knew how close it was however, and so he checked the wind, as he knew he should. All seemed perfect, he balanced to the best of his ability and moved as fluidly as he could toward the tuff of grass concealing him next meal. Poised just beyond the wall of grass Solicah observed the aura before him carefully. He felt no remorse as he gripped the dagger as Ronan instructed him to, pivoted it forward and lunged as Ronan had, the opposite hand coming around to grab at the creature's soft form.
Solicah's surprise above the beast, tucked into what it believed to be a perfectly hidden sanctuary, gave him an advantage. Though still, Solicah's second site did not translate to a finite sense, and his skill with the blade, though properly wielded forced him to error on the side of caution, the plunge was not forceful enough. He connected, mostly with grass, but a twinge of fleshy resistance was met. The opposite hand curried more luck, grabbing at a paw of the mother hare. He grasped tightly, and the group of thick grass before him shook furiously as the hare tossed itself about.
With a final flourish the hare flung itself upward, leaving a shallow scratch along Solicah's forearm as it raced off into the plains, heart pounding like a war drum, leaving the two hunters behind.
All could have bee lost, but in a tiny steam a crimson dot of blood had stuck to Ronan's face just below the eye. During the final struggle and leap the hare had shed enough blood to fly off several feet, and this mean it was bleeding enough to track, in a true.
Solicah seemed disheartened, however. The struggle had broken the hare loose from it's woven markings, scrambling the fine signature weave Solicah had left upon it. To him, it was lost.
Then, with a lighthearted laugh Solicah said quietly, with a still scratchy voice from his time away from his body. "I suppose she will go on to give birth next season after all." His didn't seem displeased by the statement, just bemused.