Solo Winter Blues

[Azira]

15th Winter 513AV

The air still had bite in it although the blizzard had passed. Snow still clung to the slopes of Mount Skyinarta and the surrounding mountains were covered in the white dusting as well. It was a hazardous landscape, a landscape filled with pitfalls and ice to harm or maim the inattentive walker, maybe even kill them. Azira wasn't the only one in danger though with two youths trailing her, wrapped up warm but still shivering. The huntress was chilled too, even with Erade's scarf wrapped tightly about her frame under her katinu. The girl had made the scarf so long that it acted as a body warmer but yet she was still cold.

It was a fair day for a hunt for all that, the scarce animals sure to have gone to ground after the long blizzard, likely to make a reappearance in its aftermath to search for food. They couldn't stay below ground without food but they wouldn't stay above ground long either, eager to scuttle back into their holes where it was safe for them. The young woman was hoping to catch them while they were above ground for if they went back to their hiding holes, there was little hope of them catching anything. Her quota was going to be hard to reach this season and as a result, every kill and every little thing she could catch was going to count towards it.

Moving down from the Sanikas Gate, the huntress trekked into the tree line, snow crunching under foot as it compacted. It was deep enough, that her boots sank into it. Her steps were careful, her weight placed carefully on each new spot to make sure that there was nothing underneath it to twist her ankle on. The snow blanketed all hazards so caution was a necessity.

The two youths behind her were unusually quiet and subdued. She had a feeling that the famine and the season were getting them down. They'd thought that they'd be so high and mighty but the reality of being a hunter was not as wonderful as they'd imagined it seemed. The fact that Winter was the first season they'd experienced was good. It was the worst time for hunting, the harshest conditions and it provided a good lesson in humility for them.

It wasn't a season that Azira particularly enjoyed either. She was beginning to feel a little disillusioned where hunting was concerned. Winter always made her despair but it was only early on in the season and yet the situation already felt hopeless. Between the terrible hunting the previous season and the declaration of famine, it was no wonder that she was beginning to think so negatively. She was starting to believe that she would catch nothing, that it wouldn't improve when the spring came. Her confidence where her bow was concerned was still lacking somewhat, the girl still uncertain with the weapon after her loss in a shooting competition with Erade last season. She wasn't sure that her hunting ability would pick up when the game did.

Pushing that miserable thought from her mind, the huntress tried to focus only on the here and now so that she wouldn't break her neck by sliding down the mountainside.

It was more of a trudge around the mountainside but she looked eagerly for the signs that she'd learned in the Tracking and Trapping class on the first day of the season. She felt like she'd learned a lot in that class and she was still eager to apply her newfound knowledge. Other hunting trips hadn't gone as well as she would have liked but today's one was sure to provide her with plenty of tracking opportunities. So she thought anyway but it was more than a bell before the first sign presented itself to her, one that she was quick to point out to her apprentices. It was what they were there for after all, to learn.

"See here?" she asked, pointing to the lower part of a bush. The vegetation had snapped in places and there was a little clump of fur on one of the broken pieces as well. There were no prints on the snow, something she thought strange until she pressed it. There was a slight give in it but it was clear that it must have been frozen solid not so long ago. So the animal had passed through before the snow had a chance to thaw a bit. Probably a bell or more ago. "An animal passed through here where this break is and this little bit of fur could be from a rabbit. You can see which way it went by the direction of the break, it moved away from where I am now so it was heading that way," the huntress explained, pointing ahead of her. Turning to regard her apprentices she found the girl listening attentively and with some interest but Wilem looked bored. As she looked at him, he rolled his eyes. "That was a bit obvious now, wasn't it?" he replied. Her answering scowl was met with a smile. He liked annoying her far too much. "Seeing as you're the expert, Wilem. I'll leave you to track from now on." The young woman was glad to see her apprentice's smile falter.

The huntress straightened and stepped around the bush, checking the other side for more signs. It was going to be hard to track the rabbit (she assumed that's what it was) considering the lack of tracks. Supposedly tracking involved very few actual tracks, at least according to the Endal woman who'd been in the Enclave, so she should be able to find some sort of sign if it was there. Life became a lot harder when Wilem came tramping round the bush and walked over the area that she was searching through. "Uh Wilem..." Aleisa's timid voice called, a nervous edge to it. He looked back confused then caught sight of Azira's furious face. He looked bewildered.

"You're trampling right where I'm trying to track, you stupid petch!" she snarled, her hands dropping to her hips as she glared at him. He mumbled a quiet apology and backtracked to allow her a clear view of the ground again. Sighing, the huntress began again, hoping that there might still be some discernible information.

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[Azira]

The search was not an easy one. The huntress had to circle the area a few times, moving slowly and carefully so as not to disrupt anything. The snow was beginning to thaw from its solid frozen mass and so one step made without thinking could bury or destroy a possible sign. She might even create signs by accident and that would be very counterproductive. Her eyes roamed over the ground looking for any small thing that might jump out at her. She knew that scat was unlikely. Animals wouldn't leave scat if they felt uneasy and the current environment wasn't a particularly safe one so it made sense that there wouldn't be any sign of it. She couldn't tell if she was near a trail or even on one. The snow obscured everything and even if animals passed this way recently, their tracks would have been lost. It was making things difficult.

The teen searched high and low. She scanned tree bark in the hopes of finding rub marks from a bigger animal, crouched down to examine undergrowth for signs of chew marks, checked for more damaged foliage but to no avail; there was nothing for her to find, not in the immediate area at least. After half a bell of seemingly fruitless searching, the huntress was ready to scream. She needed to catch something and the one opportunity that she had seemed to be going absolutely nowhere. There wasn't one sign in the snow and despite her best efforts, tramping back and forth had reduced it to dirty slush. The girl was at a loss of what to do and it wasn't a position that she liked to be in. It would have been bad enough if she was alone and knowing that she was such a failure but to have the pair looking on while she made a fool of herself...

"Uh...Azira?" The timid voice didn't register for a moment but when it did she looked up in surprise to find that Wilem had been the one to speak in such a timid tone. It was only then that she realised that her apprentices hadn't moved from their spot beside the original track since Azira had rebuked Wilem, the youths obviously too intimidated by her right now to risk it. The young woman had apparently terrified them when she'd snarled at her older apprentice. She had looked ready to rip the boy apart but the Avora had had no idea of her appearance so she didn't understand the cause of his hesitancy.

An eyebrow was raised in question but the boy still seemed reluctant to say anything, perhaps expecting another outburst. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't reacting well to the strain of everything. When the youth's silence prevailed however, it began to irk her, teeth snapping together with an audible sound. He flinched then, words coming out in an incoherent torrent in an attempt to appease her. She couldn't catch a word he was saying so she had to get him to slow down and repeat it.

"I just thought...maybe we should move on 'cuz you know... there's nothing else here," he replied nervously. She really had cowed him already but yet she couldn't help herself then. "Oh isn't that a little obvious? A child could work that out, you petching idiot! No wonder nobody ever picked you up for apprenticeship before, you're too slow in the head. I should have left you where you were, heading for your rightful place as a drudge in society!" the young woman spat, such venom and malice in her tone that her voice was nearly unrecognisable.

The silence was deafening, not a single sound around them as apprentice and huntress stared at each other. For a few ticks, Azira thought the boy would cry, the glint of tears obvious in his eyes but instead he spat at the snow in her direction and railed off a list of profanities before turning on his heel and stalking back in the direction of the city.

"That's right! Go off and break your neck when you fall off the mountain!" the huntress screamed after him but he didn't even turn around. Running a hand across her face, the girl groaned. She was going to have to go after him, whether she liked it or not. The possibility of losing the trail's location was too terrible for her to bear so the girl endeavoured to set up a marker. Finding a piece of wood, she stuck it down into the snow, praying that it would stay there before setting off in pursuit of her wayward apprentice.

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[Azira]

"How has he gotten so far ahead? How can he move so fast and not have had some sort of accident?" the huntress questioned rhetorically. Her remaining apprentice didn't seem to realise that she hadn't actually wanted an answer because Aleisa mumbled that she didn't know. Azira didn't really notice though, her focus on her surroundings as she searched for a sign of the wayward boy. His feet had made impressions in the snow, the drifts having softened in Syna's weak light. His treads were light and shallow, hard to see even though he'd succeeded in making an impression. The huntress could see them from a certain angle and so she walked with her head tilted, searching for the slight depressions.

Sometimes she had to double back to find his trail again but she was able to follow it, albeit slowly. At a few points she found deeper grooves, places where Wilem had slipped but there was no sign of the boy himself. It was unbelievable to the young woman that he could have gotten so far ahead but yet he had had a head start and she hadn't seen him to know exactly which direction he's been heading in. She'd been forced to track him, something that wasn't her strong suit and so he'd gained a greater lead. He might fall into a crevice somewhere and die before she even caught up to him so she was wondering why she was even bothering.

Because I'm responsible for him. If anything happens to him, it'll be on my head, she reminded herself as she scanned the trees ahead, hoping for some glimpse of the youth. She was anxious, afraid. If anything happened to him it'd be her fault and it would be for nothing as well. If anything happened to him, the girl wouldn't even have anything to show for it. There would be no brace of kills to make up for any harm the youth might suffer, no reason why her attention should have been turned away from her apprentice. Even with the risk to her apprentice, she still thought of game, or rather the game that she didn't have.

If Wilem hadn't been an idiot and run off then she might have gotten a rabbit. Meat, fur and fat that could have been used by the city but now it was lost, only a might have been. Because the boy had to be an idiot.

The huntress continued on her path along the trail, not moving fast in her eyes but beginning to outdistance her other apprentice. It wasn't until she heard a shrill cry for help coming from behind her that she turned around to discover that Aleisa was no longer with her. Cursing the pair of them, she turned back and retraced her steps. Cry became a scream of terror and Azira tried to pick up her pace. Her attempt of speed was in vain however as instead of speeding up she ended up going more slowly as she slipped and slid on the partly melted snow. She had to catch herself against a tree a number of times before she finally forced herself to go slower despite the desperate cries coming from nearby yet out of reach.

As she picked her way over a fallen log, she heard the howl which drowned out the youth's screams and made Azira's blood run cold. The girl was dead. She might still be screaming her lungs out, trapped but she wasn't getting away alive. For a moment, the huntress paused, questioning whether an attempt to save her apprentice was worthwhile. Aleisa was screaming her heart out after all so the wolves were sure to attack her if they weren't already and if the Avora came in amongst them, she'd become their meal too. But despite what her brain was telling her, she moved forward, the desperate cries pulling her forward even when the sound began to become choked, she kept moving. She unslung her shortbow, reaching into her quiver for an arrow to nock. The arrow was pointed downwards in readiness as the girl crept forward into a small clearing.

The only thing she could see was red.

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[Azira]

It took her longer than it should have to see anything aside from red. Stained snow, splotches of blood everywhere. Scarlet on white, approaching black in some places, welling in prints on the ground. Then her eyes moved over the hulking forms of three wolves. They looked gaunt, their bodies affected by their diminished food source. They weren't short of food now as they ripped into her young apprentice, tearing chunks from her body with zeal. Blood was gushing from various wounds and what Azira could see of the girl's face had taken on a pallor already.

It didn't sink in at first, the meaning of what she was seeing wasn't making any sense to her yet. All she could do was stare at the gorging creatures, watching blood and flesh shower the wolves' fur. It only really hit home when she looked into her apprentice's face and locked eyes with what she thought with the staring orbs of a corpse but to her horror, they moved. Bile rose in her throat and the meagre contents of her stomach tried to make an escape. As she retched, one of the wolves lifted its head and began to growl. They wouldn't be eager to abandon their kill but the huntress was still afraid. If they thought she was a threat then they'd attack her but she didn't know whether to run or hold her ground. Holding her ground would probably lead to an attack but she was in no shape to run anywhere as her breakfast was fast making a reappearance on the snow.

The sound of her vomiting must have been taken as an aggressive sound because the wolf took a step away from the... kill and one step closer to the Avora. Another one looked around as the young woman staggered backwards but it quickly returned to its feast, not willing to give up meat for the chance of getting more. The one that had begun to advance seemed torn between the meat and the moving prey. It let out a howl, which made Azira continue her retreat, fearing the arrival of more wolves. Another took up the call from a near distance that seemed to come from behind her. Another and another. The girl didn't know where to go, she felt surrounded, trapped. If she moved she might tick them off, if she stayed still she might get eaten, she'd be much safer out of their reach.

The gaze of the huntress fell on the trees nearest to her, checking if she would be able to climb any of them. Probably but it was better to try to make an escape first. Turning her back on the eating wolves, she began to head back the way she'd come, sticking close to the trees in case she needed to make a hasty escape. Her steps were slow so she wouldn't slip. Not only would she slow herself down if she went faster but if she slipped and slid everywhere then she was likely to attract unwanted attention to herself by making too much noise.

Wilem had been forgotten entirely and Aleisa was heading the same way in Azira's mind. She was far too focused on her own well being, her own survival, to think of anything else. Aleisa was only on her mind because she could see her own body being left in that state if she became the next meal. Even the thought of it, combined with her fear made her want to throw up again but her stomach could only manage a few dry heaves before she was able to stagger on.

It was quiet now yet she couldn't hear the approach of more wolves. The only sounds she could pick up was sound of eating, growling sounds as they ripped off chunks of meat and crunched on bones. She wasn't even sure that it would be possible to hear the wolves at all when they came for her. They were fairly silent, right? The girl couldn't be sure but she wasn't thinking very straight just then. All she could do was dart glances around, seeing imaginary wolves in every shadow. When she did meet the gaze of a real one however, she panicked, backing hastily in the wrong direction, heading back towards the others.

The new wolf was more bold. It began stalking towards her as she tried to beat a retreat. Another one appeared a few feet to the left of the first. A whine escaped the girl as they slowly advanced and she was scared to look behind her, expecting to find herself surrounded. A cross between a whine and a whimper this time as she imagined teeth tearing at her and her blood staining the snow. She could imagine the sting of the wounds, reminded of the scar on her leg from the bear attack years ago. It was bound to be something similar. The young woman could only dwell on the idea of the pain rather than thinking about escape. The next sound that came from her mouth was a scream as an arrow suddenly sprouted from the side of a wolf.

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