Seyp began to move through the forest, traveling beside Miharu as she walked in between himself and Hania. Now was the time to work, too keep one’s senses sharp as he kept his pace moderate, watching his footing and avoiding stepping on anything that would make any unnecessary noise. The rainfall may have been heavy, but that didn’t mean the snapping of a twig or tree branch under one’s foot couldn’t be heard by the primates they sought. Seyp’s gaze traveled up from the ground occasionally, indeed checking the limbs of the trees and nearby perches. It was another part of the primate’s element, to use the trees and vines of the jungles to move around, especially if in a hurry. The true benefit the group had going for them was that the Kithskin were one of a small handful of species located in the jungle that weren’t openly aggressive, not towards others outside of their species. Troupes would often conflict with each other over territories, but when it came to other species, especially predatory ones, they would often flee, using their climbing, speed and agility to get into the trees and escape what would eat them.
Most often it would be the alpha who would engage in direct conflict with any predators, doing it’s part to protect the rest of the troupe and allow them to flee to the sanctuary of the jungle trees before disengaging himself to do the same. All in all, it likely wouldn’t be difficult to separate the Alpha from the troupe, to give it chase. The difficult part would be bringing it down before it managed to circle back around and rejoin with the rest of it’s kin, causing them to retreat from the entire troupe and try again later.
Seyp spotted such signs of escape as broken tree limbs and scratches along the bark gave clues where a Kithskin had climbed or landed along a tree limb after swinging or leaping through the trees themselves. Seyp gave a short bird call, alerting Hania to such signs as kept himself low, and often slipping behind trees or high growing foliage to conceal himself from the eyes of any Kithskin who might have been standing sentry in the trees for the rest of the troupe, so far he had spotted none. He relied on Miharu’s nose to act as a means of detection, to give warning of anything other than the three of them being within their vicinity. True, the rains masked scents, washed them away quickly, but those scents would still linger in the air for a short moment before such would happen, and Miharu’s nose was sharp, sharper than a great deal of the animals that could be found within the jungle itself.
Seyp soon came to a stop, crouching down low as an edge covered the view of a upcoming, large, indentation within the jungle grounds. Small echoes of screeches and chirps could be heard, the calls of their pray. It was at that time that Seyp finally fell to his belly, crawling low under the foliage of the jungle, his eyes gazing over the ground and plants for insects that would give hindrance with their bites and stings as he slowly navigated his way to the edge. Seyp, after some time, finally peered through two lightly spread leaves, gazing down into the shallow pit of the grounds. The Kithskin troupe, around twenty of them in all, were gathered below, most of them huddled together. Some of them went about with their usual activity that nature often guided them to do. Some of the ate fruits from the nearby orchards, others gathered around each other, grooming one another as insects were pulled from fur and then basically eaten, while others still went about sleeping or maintaining the nests that had been built.
Seyp spent close to five chimes, intensely examining each of them. How they moved, distinguishing marks, the social interaction between them. Finally, Seyp slowly pointed down towards the troupe.
“There,” he whispered Miharu and Hania,
“in the north eastern corner. The one with the silver streak of fur down the left side of it’s back. That’s our Alpha.”Seyp fell silent, still observing the Alpha primate for a long moment as he lounged about, letting females of the troupe groom his fur. A subtle aggressive yell was given to another male Kithskin as it approached, causing it to shy away and move another location. Seyp watched with great interest, almost falling into a meditative state of sorts for a long moment, his mind contemplative. Finally, Seyp turned his gaze to Miharu, looking over the wolf for a long moment.
“I wonder if you might do something for me?” Seyp then requested in a soft tone as his djed began to flow into his eyes and he slowly began looking towards the Kithskin, a world of colors and auras swimming about him as the Kithskin’s outline turned blue, with hues of orange and red.
“If you could, makes some aggressive sounds, as if you were stalking prey and getting ready to take it down. I wish to see how the Alpha reacts to signs of danger to start things off.”