67th, Summer, 513
Rayth waited quietly up the slopes of one of the mountains, gazing intently down into the forest below. He had spent most of a day traveling from Wind Reach. He was performing his duties as a hunter, as there was a greater need of food in Wind Reach than weapons for the time being. He had alternated between journeying south, traveling as quietly as he could, and sitting still, watching and listening for any sort of prey. He had traveled mostly along the lower slopes of the mountains, high enough as to be safely away from the forest, but close enough that he could observe any creatures moving near the border of the forest. He had thought he had seen an elk or a deer about two bells back, but when he looked he didn’t see anything. He had waited about twenty chimes before he decided to continue south.
The forests were a mixed blessing. Covering the lowest slopes of the mountain and the valleys between them, they were lush with vegetation and trees. This meant that animals like squirrels, rabbits, and deer tended to be found quite often. However, the trees also made spotting that prey difficult, and those same prey tended to draw predators into the forest, making traveling and camping in the area more dangerous than hunting the more sparsely populated sky goats at higher elevations. Rayth liked to travel between the two extremes, not easily exposing himself to the predators of the forest, and able to scan for both the sky goats above, and the more populous fauna below.
He had been taking his time surveying his surroundings while taking a break from the travel, letting his body recover, when he had seen movement out of the corner of his eye and his glance shot to the location he had seen movement in, but he didn't see anything. He wasn't discouraged though, he let his gaze linger over the area, darting his eyes back and forth, searching the surrounding forest, incase whatever had caught his eye was moving. He had waited almost a chime and a half before he caught a glimpse of motion.
There! A small brown spot had shifted amongst the foliage, the flank of a deer, only slightly exposed through the leaves. It was hard to see from such a distance, but Rayth thought he caught a glimpse of a set of horns. From that, and the size of the deer’s flank, he inferred it was a medium-sized buck. He took stock of the surroundings. He was fairly well shielded from the deer by the foliage that had been shielding the deer from him. He saw that the deer was grazing, and wasn’t moving much. There was a tree slightly in front of, and to the right of the deer, which would help keep him from being seen on that side. He carefully moved towards that side until the tree eclipsed the spot where the deer was hidden and then he began slowly advancing towards the tree line, a hundred and fifty yards distant.