White Moon, Blue Sky (solo)

[Zerren Verre]

Fall 91 Mid-afternoon In the embrace of the cool Zeltivan mountain forests, a rabbit munched quickly on a small shrub. It wasn't overly tense, it was fairly close to its burrow, but its ears were ever vigilant as it ate away at its chosen plant. Suddenly, it turned its head, as though it had heard something. It couldn't see anything except for trees and shrubs, and it couldn't smell or hear anything either, so it slowly went back to eating, more tense than it had been before and aimed more toward its burrow. A few feet away horizontally and several feet away vertically, Zerren gave an inward sigh of relief. He wasn't interested in wasting time finding another rabbit, but he would have had he needed to. It had been almost a month since the first time Zerren had gone hunting for money rather than for sustenance, and he was getting more and more used to the idea every time he stepped into the forest. There were two reasons that Zerren had gone out into the mountains on that particular day. First, he had his job to do. Second, that evening marked the changing of the watch towers, and he wanted to find a good spot to view it from. However, first things, as always, had to come first. Zerren crept from branch to branch, careful not to place his feet anywhere they might crush a stray leaf that refused to blow off its branch or other such annoyance. He slowly worked his way out along a branch that positioned him almost directly above his quarry and stared down at it, considering how best to land and attack. He tensed, and leaned over the edge of the branch, his claws digging lightly into the tree's bark before releasing and allowing himself to fall earthward towards the rabbit. The rabbit froze again for a moment, perhaps hearing the sound of Zerren's claws digging into the branch. Or perhaps it even felt the air compressing around it as Zerren fell toward it from above. Whatever gave pause to the rabbit, it froze the rabbit for an instant longer than it could afford. Zerren landed on his target and immediately took its throat in his mouth and clamped shut his jaws. In only moments, the rabbit stopped kicking and was still. After he was sure the rabbit was dead, Zerren turned around and worked his way carefully back to the small cave that he had decided would make his base of operations for the evening. There wasn't anything living in the cave,which suited Zerren's purposes just fine. He wandered back into the cave and deposited his newest prize with another rabbit he had caught earlier in the afternoon. He considered his prizes for a moment, pondering whether or not he could consider two rabbits an adequate catch for the day. If he caught too little too consistently, he wouldn't make enough money to fund his repairs and his eating habits. But if he wasted too much time, he might miss the changing of the towers. Finally, Zerren decided that he would wander up the mountain and catch another rabbit on the way if he could, and then recollect the other rabbits on his way back to town. Zerren padded back to the front of the cave and marked it, giving a little added insurance that nothing would be bothering his kills. Then he turned and started his way up the mountain at a brisk jogging pace. It wasn't long until the chilly fall air became colder and the wind started picking up, but Zerren didn't mind greatly. His fur had kept him warm in colder weather than what he was in right that second. Suddenly, Zerren jerked to a halt and swiveled his ears. He had heard something off to his left, he was sure of it. Slowly, Zerren turned and stalked toward where the sound had come from. It hadn't been loud, but in the relatively still forest, a rabbit creeping through brush could sound as loud as the ocean crashing on the shores of Zeltiva to Zerren's ears... Of course Zerren happened to live on the very edge of Zeltiva and could often only hear the crashes as a fairly steady and almost inaudible "shh"ing sound. But that was beside the point. Zerren crept slowly through the brush towards where he had heard the noise. Yet, as he neared the place that he had heard the noise come from, he still couldn't see anything. He knew it had come from the direction he was searching towards, but he should have already seen the rabbit if it was still there. Just as Zerren was about to give up and leave, something on the trunk of the tree above him caught his eye and his full attention. There were giant scars on the tree's trunk. They were much like the scars a boar would leave on a tree, but almost twice as far up the tree as any normal boar should have been able to reach. The scars would have seemed