Open Worry is a Powerful Motivator [Syrus]

[Naiya]

Rue

Rue shook her head. The time for moping was gone, the sun was setting and it was time to start their hunt. "We should go soon." She told Syrus, motioning to the falling dark.

She strapped her belongings back onto her mount, giving him the signal to trail behind them. She donned her quiver and picked up her bow, deft fingers stringing the weapon as easily as she breathed. It was something that years of practice and lots of hard work allowed her to do, most people wouldn't have been able to draw it, let alone string it.

She checked her reach, careful to make sure she could pull an arrow quietly from where they sat against her back. She glanced at the other Drykas, seeing him prepare as well.

Maybe this would be a good hunt after all.

Nightsong

[Syrus Shadowsong]

Syrus saw the signal from Rue,he had signaled back "Give me a minute to get ready" and started to quickly prepare for another ride.He picked up his saddlebag,quickly strapping them to Icarus. Syrus checked his bow,noticing he hadn't set an arrow on the string,ready to shoot if necessary. He checked his reach to see if he set the bow in its right position. After he quickly set an arrow up on the bowstring and put it back in it's holster. He walked over to where Rue was standing. He showed an expression of happiness to see her get ready and check all of her equipment to make sure it was all correct. Most people would not have done it,excited to kill,at least he did not have to worry about her not having her gear ready in case he needed help. He was mainly excited thinking of how good the hunt would be. "Here is your comb back. Thanks for letting me use it." He extended his hand offering Rue the comb back as he smiled.

[Naiya]

Rue

She smiled at Syrus as she took the comb back, she'd almost forgotten that she had given it to him. "Thanks." She told him as she turned, tossing the comb up in the air once and catching it as it fell. She tucked it into the bag on the yvas, making sure it was secured once again before turning back to face her new hunting partner.

"Wildfire will stay here until we put some distance between us so his hooves don't scare off the game. Will Icarus follow him?" She had forgotten to account for the other strider, forgotten that he wouldn't be trained as Wildfire was. She had hope yet, many striders had learned to follow on command.

Nightsong

[Syrus Shadowsong]

"Yes,Icarus will stay with Wildfire,he will not come very close unless he senses that we are in trouble." Syrus remembered that they would not be on horseback while they hunted because the striders scared off the game most of the time. "Other than that,he will not come unless i call him." He had turned back to Icarus signalling him to follow Wildfire when he moved while they went to go hunt. Syrus was glad that Rue seemed like she was an experienced hunter. This hunt would be easy for two hunters.

[Naiya]

Rue

A night hunt was different from a day hunt, you could look for tracks, for signs of passing game, but it only grows darker with each minute you spend in that way. Instead it was better to adopt a different type of hunt. One that requires more of a knowledge of the animals's behavior than of how to track.

Rue expected that if they were quiet and they moved slowly, they would all too soon stumble upon a grazing herd, and if they were lucky they would bag a creature for each of them. They were close enough to the tent city that the weight of the creatures, assuming they found any, wouldn't cause too much trouble on their way back in.

Rue had just seen the dark outline of their prey on the horizon when something scared the creatures, sending them running into the night.

Nightsong

[Syrus Shadowsong]

Syrus watched as Rue took lead on foot. He was careful not to make any noise that would scare off the prey in the area. He noticed too that the prey was scared off by something. "What do you think scared him off?" he paused for a moment "It had to be something big to scare him like that." He sighed,hoping it was not anything that was hunting them,but if it was,he had his bow at the ready and his sword in arms reach in case he engaged in close hand-to-hand combat. He waited for Rue's reply on what they should do,wheter they should go investigate it or not.

[Naiya]

Rue

Rue was quiet for a moment as her eyes flashed around looking for Wildfire, to see if he had a better sense of what had startled their prey. He, of course, was too far away to offer any help, and that left Rue to decide alone.

There were, she decided, too many creatures out in the night that would hunt the Drykas just as they would other grassland prey. "Let's circle back towards the city. Maybe we will find other prey as we approach the city."

Together they turned sharply, heading away from their day camp still, but in towards the protection of Endrykas rather than out further into the sea of grass.

The day's last lights were quickly fading, but there was light enough yet to see the glint of red in the feathers of the Navira Pigeon in the corner of her eye. Dry grass crunched beneath the Drykas's feet as they approached and no sooner than she heard the sound had she nocked an arrow and fired at the startled bird. Her first arrow missed, burring itself into the ground, but just as quickly she had another arrow sailing through the air, catching the bird in the throat rather than the eye, but she would take the success as it was. The noise had caused other nearby prey to scatter, small birds taking to the air in hopes of escape. Rue fired at one of the larger birds and missed, but left it at that as she went to retrieve her prize, hoping that Syrus had better luck.

She had to cut the throat of the bird, ending it's suffering in a much more humane way than an arrow to the throat. All the same she searched it's tail for deep blue feather hoping to find one to braid into Wildfire's mane.

Nightsong

[Syrus Shadowsong]

"Good Idea." Syrus walked a bit away from Rue,so that the two were not hunting the same prey. As the day turned to night he spotted a lone deer and silently moved like a lion stalking its prey. He slowly drew his bow and drew the arrow back towards the deer,and released. The arrow landed cleanly through the skull of the animal,making it drop down with a thud. Syrus quickly moved in to bag his kill,making sure it was a male he killed and not a doe. He had a feeling of accomplishment,that was the feeling of a first kill during a hunt. He had only hoped that Rue had better luck with her hunting. He moved around slowly,noticing something moving in the grasses.It was a bird! He had quickly drew another arrow to try and kill it,but the arrow missed the bird by a few inches. He quickly shot off another arrow,hoping it would catch the bird. The arrow flew precisely at the bird,knocking the bird out of the sky. Syrus again ran off to claim his prize. Upon coming up to the bird,he realized that there was a deepish blue feather laying on the ground. He thought for a moment as he remembered Rue searching for something by her bird that she killed. The perfect gift,he thought as he bagged the bird and slowly returned to Rue.

[Naiya]

Rue

When Rue saw Syrus approaching she couldn't help but grin. He had outdone her by quite a bit. "You're a better shot than I am." Rue laughed, "Thank goodness, because all I can claim is being quick."

They needed to head in to the city, they could care for their kills when they arrived, but they needed to move away from the blood here, but they had a little time before they needed to worry too much.

She laid out her bird in the grass and whistled three notes, high, low, and then a middle note. It was a sound that would summon Wildfire to her. She wiped her dagger clean in the grass, or at least as clean as she could, before sticking it back in the sheath hidden in her boot. While they waited for the horses she searched the area for her arrows, retrieving all three, although the first had taken some work to dig from the dirt.

When Wildfire did finally arrive her nickered softly, circling Rue to make sure she was unharmed. When he was done, Rue waved a feather at him, bright green dipped in red, and he snorted softly at her. "A prize from the hunt, boy, It's not the blue I wanted, but it's pretty anyway, huh?" He bobbed his head up and down in agreement, or that's what she told herself anyway, and offered her his side. She patted his neck softly and grabbed the scrap of oiled cloth she used for cleaning her knives from her bag. She took the time to wipe down her blade a little more thoroughly with the cloth before searching out Syrus.

"We should probably go soon, best not to wait for predators to come find what's bleeding."

Nightsong

[Syrus Shadowsong]

Syrus smiled and laughed a bit. "I guess I am." He had whistled in a sequence of five whistles to call Icarus. The black strider kept running until he met up with Syrus. As Syrus waited he put the 3 stray arrows back in his quiver,although they were hard to find. Syrus petted Icarus,as Icarus neighed as a sign of pleasure. He started to load the bag up on to Icarus's back. He was silent for a moment as Rue was talking to Wildfire. "Did you say you were looking for a blue feather?" He quickly reached into his bag,pulling out a feather,keeping his hand closed so that Rue could not see what it was and kept smiling. He figured there was no harm in a surprise. "You are right,that would be bad, But first hold your hands out and close your eyes."