Completed Hunting with Natalie (Solo)

[Sira]

Hunting with Natalie Timestamp: 75th of Spring, 512 AV Try to keep up, darling, you are the one who wanted to come with me. Sira, massive wind eagle, protector of wind reach, apex predator of the unforgiving flew next to a much, much smaller bird, a kestrel, also a kelvic, who just so happened to be Sira's daughter. The young kelvic was struggling to keep up with her much larger and much faster mother, but Sira was trying to push the bird to her limits so she wasn't going to slow down for her daughter.. much. I'm coming mom! Maybe you could slow down? Sira shot a look back at her daughter and mentally smiled. Instead of slowing down she actually sped up, beating her wings faster and flying higher than before. It was all Natalie could do to keep up with her then, beating her wings as hard as she could and trying to catch every thermal she could spot to keep up with Sira's rapidly ascending altitude. The pair were supposed to be out hunting. It was Sira's scheduled shift and, as was often the case in their hectic lives, Aidara had been scheduled to heal at the same time so Sira was stuck soloing the hunt. Normally when this happened Natalie would go and stay with the other children her age at the nursery, but like Sira when she was a child, Natalie was growing much faster than her peers and she hated it. Unlike Sira, she had a loving and understanding family to help her through it and explain to her why she was so different. Even so, Natalie always took every opportunity to go with one mother or the other when she was given the chance. She wasn't old enough to be assigned bendi tasks, so going with her parents was the next best thing.

[Sira]

For her part, Natalie managed not to lose sight of her mother, and kept up as well as could be expected for the smaller bird. The magic of the djed storm might have made her larger, but she was still tiny in comparison to Sira. Eventually Sira did slow down, deciding that Natalie had had enough exercise for the day. The two kelvics drifted lazily in the air together as they rested, and after a while Sira decided it was time for them to actually hunt. Okay, darling, today we want to bring back some sky goats. Their meet is good, but we also need their fur so the tailors can get an early start on clothing for the winter. Got it, Mom. Sky goats. They're as good as ours! Sky goats actually were somewhat difficult to catch. They lived on the face of the mountains, and often they would dart in between the rocks and boulders making them hard to snatch from the ground. But Sira wasn't concerned, she had hunted them before, and was confident she would be able to bring back plenty before the day was out. They weren't incredibly dangerous, either, so she didn't have to fear for Natalie too much. Sky goats were more likely to run away than stand and fight. Sira and her daughter angled back toward the mountains, having been flying out over the valley, and it wasn't long before Sira spotted one of the agile creatures. It was amazing how good of climbers the goats were, Sira didn't know how they did it. It was also amazing how delicious they were, so rather than appreciate the goat's climbing skills, Sira began to maneuver for a dive. I'll take the first one, so you can watch and see how it's done. You haven't hunted something this big, but you're a big bird, so you should be able to handle it."

[Sira]

The goat didn't seem to notice Sira, at first anyway. It had stopped next to a small bush and was munching away at the lush summer leaves. Sira circled around and positioned herself so that her shadow would only fall on the goat at the last second, trying to make it as difficult as possible for the goat to realize she was coming for it. She was hungry, and usually her first catch of the day she kept as her meal. Yes, she got rations like every endal, but the little plates of food were hardly enough to fuel her wind eagle body. If she was going to fly and hunt, she needed a lot more food, and so whenever she did fly and hunt, she ate like an eagle rather than an Inarta. Once she was properly aligned with the sun, Sira dipped her wings and fell into a quick dive. It was all about speed. The goats were agile, and though Sira could change direction if she needed to, there was only so much she could do and if the goat wanted to escape it could easily do so. All it had to do was hide between a pair of boulders and Sira would have to pull out of the dive. But, at least this time, luck was on her side and the goat didn't notice her coming. It was to busy enjoying the leaves it had found to notice its impending doom. Sira's shadow fell over it at the last instant and the goats head popped up, but it was too late. Sira let out a triumphant screech and thrust her talons forward, grabbing hold of the large bovine, lifting it into the air and carrying it away. The goat struggled for a moment, but Sira's powerful talons dug into its flesh, cutting away the life of the creature. The wind eagle landed on a cliff not far away, inviting her daughter over to share in the feast. Normally Sira would have easily downed the entire goat, but she wanted to share the meal with Natalie in case they did not catch another.

[Sira]

Sira's talons easily sliced through the soft flesh of the goat, spilling blood out onto the cliff she had landed on. Without a second thought, Sira's head dropped down to tear a chunk of raw meat from the goat's flank, before lifting her head and scarfing it down. Natalie joined her a moment later and, kelvic instinct taking over her usual preference for cooked foo, joined in with her mother as she tore a strip of flesh off a leg. Wow, this is really good, Mom. How come we don't eat like this at home? Sira chuckled inwardly at the thought of the two of them tearing away at a dead goat with their bare hands, getting blood and guts all over the aerie, while Addy shrieked and tried desperately to keep it clean. I don't think momma would be very happy with us if we did that. You know she doesn't like messes. I guess so, Natalie agreed after tearing another chunk of meat off the corpse, But she doesn't know what she's missing! It didn't take the two birds long to pick the goat clean, and soon enough they were back in the sky once more. Over the course of the day they managed to bring in three of the sky goats, one of which Natalie was able to catch all by herself. When they finally came home, Sira was ready for dinner again, and Natalie was practically glowing with pride as she ran into the aerie to tell her momma all about the hunt that day. It was her first sky goat, after, and Sira couldn't blame her. She was proud too. ~End

[Phoenix]

Sira

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Acrobatics	2
Hunting	3
Leadership	1
Teaching	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Hunting with Natalie
•	Pushing Natalie to her Max
•	Hardships of having a Kelvic Daughter
•	Diving out of the sun
•	The joys of raw meat
•	Addy is missing out

The Order of the Phoenix

Lovely mother and daughter moments! It was a nice, quick thread and fun to read.

Mmmmm, rare.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.