Time Stamp
Arrived at 4:30pm
Departed at 8:20PM
On Winter 24th 512AV
Vaspira arrived in the depth of the Northern Reaches with just a few trickles of sunlight left. She was a nocturnal person, preferring to do her hunting during the night time. It gave her more of an advantage in the hunt. Leopards are famous for their ability to go undetected. They are graceful, confident, and stealthy creatures by nature. Among the other big cats they are probably the best stalkers.They are agile climbers and they can also descend from a tree head first with out a problem, usually. And Vaspira was definitely not an exception to these known facts about leopards, she was confident in her ability in hunting. Especially when her Kelvic side was more dominant than her human one, even controlling her human behavior. She was pure Kelvic, through and through, and she was proud of that fact. Even if some people thought her to have a split personality disorder, in all reality she kind of did have one.
Vaspira found a medium sized tree, definitely not as tall as those in the Spires, and leap up into the tree, climbing further up, lounging on a tree limb.Vaspira was going to use her astute eyesight and hearing to help her hunt from the tree limb. Leopards use their keen eyesight to help them locate prey in the dark, since their pupils dilate more than a humans.Their eyes also contain a specialized membrane called the tapetum that reflects the light that passes through the retina twice. Also leopards hear five times better than the average human. Their outter ears can capture more sound waves, where as their inner ears are extremely sensitive to vibrations. So Vaspira can hear when a hoof or paw hit the ground too loudly.
Vaspira's long tail swished back forth slowly, and she licked her lips waiting for a prey to wonder under her tree. Vaspira heard movement and she tensed her muscles, stilling her body movements as she waited patiently, observing the landscape below her, waiting, desperately waiting. A large white tailed buck came through the foliage scouting the area. He looked to be tentative as if he could smell the danger in the air, but could not see nor hear it. He walked a few steps, and would stop standing still looking left for a few seconds, then looking right. Then he would take a few more steps. This process continued for about three and a half minutes, at which time he was right under Vaspira's tree.
Vaspira silently licked the drool off her lips at seeing the huge deer right at her grasp. She stared at the throat of the deer, the perfect place to kill a large animal. Vaspira knew she could take the deer down with out a problem, sure she may get scuffed up in the process, but she was confident that she would come out of that fight as the winner. Especially since leopards can hunt animals five times their own size. Vaspira didn't think she could take down a giraffe alone, maybe if her mother was with her she could. The thought of her mother made her heart hurt. She missed her with a fiery desperation. She was the only person she knew, the only person she loved. Having that ripped away from her, just killed her.
Vaspira mentally shook the memories of her mother out of her head, staying focused on the big white tailed buck. She knew he was looking for danger before signaling the rest of the herd to come on. It would be stupid of Vaspira to just leap on top of the buck right now, the younger bucks would attack her and she would be out numbered and dead or near dead if she could even escape. So the strategy was to wait, patience is a virtue she had to learn many years ago. One must wait for the right time to strike, or rather pounce and attack, their foe. If they chose the incorrect time they would be supperless or hurt, or even dead. The buck moved out from under her tree inspecting the rest of the land scape for five minutes before calling out to its pack that the coast was clear. Vaspira almost growled out of excitement, she was so ready to kill it was hard to be patient!
Vaspira heard the hooves hitting the ice cold ground before she saw them emerge from the same place the buck did. The first to emerge was a young buck that had 6 points on its rack. The next to come out was 5 does with two fawns, and the last to emerge were 3 younger bucks that both had 4 points on their racks. All though the leader gave the "coast clear" signal these white tailed deers walk timidly out of the bushes, once they emerged from the bushes it seemed as if they were trying to quiet their steps. Watching carefully where they placed their hooves, their breath was the only thing Vaspira heard. She could swear she heard the blood being pumped through their veins, her blood lust becoming stronger. Their breath came out in little white puffs of air as it expelled from their noses. Their hooves sounded like slow tap dancers click-clacking to a slow symphony, but quieter than normal. She ignored the blood lust and continued to wait, it still was not the right time just yet.
Vaspira tightened her muscles up even more delving her black leopard form deeper into the shadows, stealth was a must in this situation. Once she was happy with her position on the tree, she tensed and observed the white tailed deer grazing. They would move the snow with their noses and find grass underneath and eat on the grass, some of them even came up to her tree, as well as other trees, to strip some bark off to eat. Unsuspecting of their blood thirsty predator right above them. They looked so innocent, so succulent to Vaspira. She wanted nothing more but to fall head first upon one of them, and rip their throat out feeling their warm blood gushing into her mouth, bathing over her tastebuds, the thought alone was almost orgasmic. But Vaspira waited patiently, observing for the right time to attack.
The white tailed deer spent around thirty-minutes grazing underneath her tree and around it before the buck quickly raised its head all of a sudden, sensing danger. Vaspira perked up waiting, searching the outer foliage for the danger the white tailed deers sensed lurking in the shadows. The buck gave out a call and started to lead the pack of deers away from Vaspira's tree. Vaspira tensed her muscles waiting for an unsuspecting prey to get in her line of sight. The buck went first, then the 6 point younger buck, then the females. All that was left was the three younger, four-point, bucks left. One was under her tree yet, just a few inches away from a perfect kill shot. They left one at a time, and as the young four-point white tailed buck stepped on the "x marks the spot" Vaspira had in her head, she leaped head first onto her prey.
Vaspira latched her claws on the side of the younger buck, near the scapula, and swung herself to his throat latching her strong jaw around his throbbing heart beat there. The buck tried to run, bucking it's hind legs rapidly trying to throw Vaspira off of his neck. The movements helped Vaspira's latched jaw and teeth dig deeper into the buck's neck, the warm tantalizing taste of it's blood came gushing in her mouth, it almost made her moan. Vaspira used the bucks movements to her advantage. It was trying disparately to throw her, but Vaspira already had a good amount of it's life blood pouring into her amount, so his life was leaking away. When the buck tried to sling her to the right, she threw her hinds up meeting his movement, keeping her claws and jaw latched, and bringing the young buck to the ground. Once she had the buck on the ground she bit down hard on his throat, completely penetrating the skin, and pulled backwards, severing it's jugular as well as tearing away some of it's throat. The buck twitched and flopped a little before it laid completely lifeless on the cold white ground. What a bloody scene it was at that, the blood on the snow reminded Vaspira of innocence being taken away. In a way, Vaspira did take this young bucks innocence. Vaspira shrugged it off, she lost her compassion years ago, and losing her mother made it even worse.
Vaspira licked her lips and searched the foliage as she heard a distant howl out into the night, that was what the deers had been running from, silly young buck should of ran with them, instead of being a glutton and staying back to eat more. Vaspira growled, she be damned if she shared her prize with those smelly wolves. She latched her mouth around its throat once again and drug it to her tree. When leopards assault a larger animal than themselves, the leopard will bite the throat to suffocate the prey. After the prey is killed, a leopard may haul its victim up a tree about 50 feet or so above the ground to keep it safe against the scavengers. The scavengers being any carnivorous animal that thinks it is brave enough to approach Vaspira.
Vaspira started to climb the tree, dragging the bucks carcass up with her as she went. She winced and growled out every now and then in pain. She did not realize it at the time, but the buck must of threw her up against a rock or something. She felt bruising of her ribs, and she was bleeding on her side as well as in several other places. Vaspira only thought she got away unharmed, but that is not the reality of hunting, you must always pay a price for the kill. Whether that be physically, emotionally, mentally, or even by your death.
Vaspira finally got the dead buck up the tree and far enough away from the ground that they would not be disturbed. She nestled the buck between two thick limbs, wedging him there and holding her with her claws so he would not fall. She watched as large amounts of blood started trickling below the deer hitting the ground. Vaspira sighed, there was no way of hiding the fact that they were up in the tree now, but at least the animals blood will be drained almost dry, making it easier to skin it and cut it up. The ice cold weather also helped prevent it from ruining in the temperature.
The wolves came up to Vaspira's tree, sniffing the blood on the ground whining in confusion. They kept going in circles around the tree, and venturing a little ways off from it searching for the scent of the creatures blood. Thankfully the dumb wolves did not think to look up in the tree, and even if they did they would not of seen Vaspira and her kill, she stealthly hid them from prying eyes. The wolves seemed to stay under the tree trying to follow the scent for a couple of hours, their stubborn nature not giving up on the scent, but trying to figure out exactly where the hell it came from. But alas, they finally gave up since no food was turning up from the scent or blood. The big white wolf howled to the other pack members, and they rushed off into the foliage in the same direction as the white tailed deer pack went. Vaspira grinned a bloody leopard grin at that and stretched beside her kill, still holding onto it with her claws. Vaspira was proud of herself for killing the uncommon white tailed deer, even if it was a younger one and the horns was not that big, nor was the pelt. She did not know much about skinning, because at the Suvan Sea her mother and herself never bothered with how the pelt looked, they just skinned it and used it for winter. She had performed the task before, but she was not very good at the skill at all. But she would do her best and take it to the Spires to sell.
Vaspira waited up in the tree for an hour before leaping down into the red snow, she wanted to make sure the wolves had indeed left the area. Vaspira walked to the edge of the foliage, using her keen nocturnal eye sight to search the area. She then used her keen hearing to make sure she did not even hear the slightest breath of an animal. She listened and looked for ten minutes before climbing back up in the tree and bringing her prize down as well as her back pack from the tree. Vaspira shifted to human form and bent down over the deer, she grabbed one of the many blades from her mothers bladed cloak and began to skin the pelt from the deer. She kept her mothers cloak and blades in the best of shape, so she knew the sharpness of the blades would do just fine to skin this young buck, if it were a bigger one or one with a tougher skin, she would of been screwed. She wished she had a rope to string the deer up by its head, it would make the task so much easier, but she had to do this quickly and had no time to waste on the thoughts of what she did not have and how it would be easier if she did have the items.
Using the tip of Vaspira's sharp knife, blade edge facing up, Vaspira made a shallow cut in the skin just above the knee on the inside of each of the deer's legs. She continued cutting until she reached where the legs and the deer's main trunk joined. Making a slit through the skin around the deer's neck, below the chin, kind of like cutting someones throat. Since she did not plan to keep the head for any reason, she enlarged the abdominal cut by going down the center of the chest, brisket and neck to the slit in the trunk area she made earlier. The blood and exposed meat looked beautiful to Vaspira. She would never get tired of seeing it. Using the knife, Vaspira took a flap of the skin at the neck and start pulling it down and away with her bare hands. Using the knife to gently help get the skin to release from where it was securely attached, being careful not to cut the skin of the deer. Taking the skin and rolling it just a little bit to get a good grip on it, Vaspira used her body weight to push downward with her fists. The more the skin began to come away from the carcass, the easier it was to roll and get a better grasp on. Vaspira inspected the carcass for damaged areas that may need to be cut away. Using her red tank top Vaspira wiped the skin of the deer as clean she could, damping it with some water. Vaspira placed the pelt in her back pack, and began to gently and carefully remove the set of horns on the deer, they were not very big but still could fetch a little money, or she may have them made into something for herself as a reward. Vaspira gently placed the knife, underneath where the horns was attached to the head and slowly cut around them pulling a little hard on the horns one at a time till she had both of them out. Vaspira stuffed them in the bag as well. She hoped she cut them off right, she never cut the horns off before, that would of been something her mother would of done. Vaspira sighed and went back to work on the deer.
Now to the fun part, Vaspira thought with a smirk. Vaspira gouged out the deers eye balls and held one in each hand. Vaspira was not religious but she said a little prayed\r to whom ever god or goddess blessed her, maybe the mother of nature, who knew she thanked them though. When she was done with her little prayer, Vaspira looked up at the sky then placed one of the eye balls in her mouth and swallowed it whole, then proceeded to do the same with the other eyeball. Everyone assumed that eye balls where squishy, but the white of the eyeball was actually pretty hard, and hard to chew when she was not in cat form. Vaspira cut the hooves off the deer, and placed them in her bag as well shrugging, one never knew when you may need something.
Then Vaspira split the belly of the deer reaching into the still warm caracass pulling out all its innards and putting them to one pile to the side as she cut the meat up in portions. When she was threw with all that she smiled to herself at the good job she had done, she was proud of herself and thankful to her mother for teaching her how to survive in the wilderness and hunt. Vaspira was freezing and numb, the warmness of the carcass and its warm innards and blood had gone away. So Vaspira shifted back into her cat form, ravenous and ready to eat. Vaspira ate all of the inners, and 1/4th of the deer, before her belly felt full. Vaspira sat there bathing the blood from her fur purring happily at her kill. She knew this would not last long though, there were predators all around after all. So Vaspira shifted into her human form, getting her clothes out of the pack to make more room and donned on her clothing. She left some of the meat behind as a peace offering to any predator that may try to attack her, as well as an offering to what ever god/goddess helped her this eve on the hunt. Vaspira laid out her blue cloak on the ground and placed the rest of the meat into it, then she tied a good knot and threw it over her shoulder, making her way back to the spires...
