Solo Cloudy Day by the Sea (Part One)

[Turrin]

Time Stamp: 80th through 83rd of Summer, 514AV
Location: Unforgiving, North of Wind Reach.
Who: Turrin

Standing at the edge of the aeries, Turrin frown at the thick grey clouds below him, but when he looked up over the clouds, he saw Syna rising in the east. The endal wasn't to keen on flying through clouds thick with water to get close to the ground. Looking at Aponivi, he smiled at the large eagle as the deks were saddling the great beast. This morning his help was having difficulty getting the saddle onto the back of the giant bird. It was almost comical to watch the deks abuse the poor wind eagle trying to get the large saddle on him. Turrin knew that he should have stepped in a helped the great bird, but he wasn't going to take the chances of being nipped by the gaint bird. Aponivi tried his best to be civil, but when the deks hit him in the back of the head with saddle, the great bird let out a loud squawk in protest and nipped at closest dek with his giant beak. Suddenly, the endal heard Aponivi's voice in his mind, If they hit me in the head on more time, I am going to teach all of them how to fly! Turrin laughed at loud and responded, If you stop fidgeting, maybe they wouldn't struggle half as much. The wind eagle ignored him after the comment, but the eagle did take the endal advice and stayed as still as possible till the saddle secured to him.

Ignoring the plight of his friend, Turrin started to think about the area that he wanted to hunt and let Aponivi fish for Tuna. Turrin wanted to explore and hunt a valley in the northern part of the peninsula because other endal have spotted deer in the valley because of the berry bushes that line the banks of a shallow stream. Also at the mouth of the creek, it was populor place to set up camp, so the wind eagles could fish for tuna. The older endal woman told him that the best time to hunt the valley was late summer or early fall because the berries were in season, so the deer were active around the creek. It sounded like a place to spend his time hunting in the late summer, so Turrin was excited to head to the hunting spot since he hadn't had any luck in the valleys around Skyinarta. The myrian had a theory about the valleys around Skyinarta and the lack of food. He believed the amount of avora and chiet hunters in and around the valleys of Wind Reach were over hunting the area around the volcanoes, and the game fled to safer valleys away for the city. It was theory that he argued many times with his peers, but the full blooded Inarta were stubborn, so it mostly fell on deaf ears. Looking over at Aponivi, the wind eagle was finally saddled, and the dek were resting with there backs up against the wall. Turrin shook his head at the three of them and said outloud to deks, "Thank you for your assistance. Go see if any other endal need help too."

The deks quickly fled from his sight, and Turrin said mentally to his feathered friend with a smirk, See if you listened to me more. You life would be much easier.

Aponivi glared at his endal annoyance and replied, I tired of your babbling...go pack, so we can go...

Walking over to the sink in his bathroom, Turrin filled his water skin with freshwater. Placing the skin into his backpack, the hunter placed his flint and steal, compass, and a weeks worth of rations into the backpack too. When he was finished with the smaller items, the myrian placed the bed roll, tent, iron pot, and wood splitting ax into the saddle bags.

When Turrin was finished loading the equipment, he put on his camouflage leather armor and put the leather helmet in the saddle bag. When he finished putting on his armore, he decided to bring ten hunting arrows, five fishing arrows (for bow fishing in the stream), and five broad tipped arrows (in case of trouble) into the quiver. He placed the quiver into the other empty saddle bag along with his short bow. When he was finished with his quiver and bow, Turrin secured his talon sword scabbard, throwing ax, and kukri (dagger) scabbard to his waist.

Looking at the cloudy sky through the opening of the aeries, Turrin took his compass out his backpack to figure out his direction to his destination since the clouds were obscuring the landmarks on the ground. Normally, he would just fly close enough to the ground and figure out direction by memory by the landmarks, but the thick clouds didn't allow him to do it, so he decided to use the compass to locate his direction. Walking to the edge, Turrin flipped open the metal box to reveal a circle with a N, E, W, S on it face of the strange instrument. The contraption had little red arrow in the middle of it that always pointed to the N. Turrin looked at it for a chime and remembered the merchant who sold it to him told him that it will always point north.

Looking at it for about five chimes, he figured out the N meant north, E meant east, W meant west, and S meant south. Walking to the edge of the aeries, he held the compass in hand looked in the direction arrow was pointing too. The direction was out in front of him, and he remembered that he could see the coast of Storm Bay from this vantage point. Turrin remembered the endals saying that the small river's mouth was halfway up the northern coast of the bay, so he figured if he flew in the direction of E or east and stayed close to the coast. He would eventually see the mouth of the small river draining into the Thunder Bay. Closing the compass, he placed the compass back in his backpack and asked out loud to Aponivi, “Are you ready to go?”

[Turrin]

Securing the leather backpack to his back, Turrin looked over and saw the wind eagle nod his large head indicating that he was ready to go. Walked over to the great beast, he put left foot in the stirrups and swung his leg over the back of the giant bird. Turrin said to Aponivi in his mind, I think we should avoid diving into those clouds. They look thick with moisture, and I am not sure if it is raining under them. Turrin knew that he was a novice flier, so he wasn't to keen on flying in the rain. The endal knew his aeries was normally above raincloud line, but if the volcano got hit by a thunderhead, his aeries would most likely feel the brunt of storm. As Aponivi started to walk to the edge of the aeries, Turrin tightened his legs to the side of giant bird and tightened his grip on the side of the saddle. The endal was glad that the bird knew that he wasn't a expert at eagle riding by any stretch of the imagination, so Aponivi knew to fly easy maneuvers like slow banks, gradual dives, or climbs. When the eagle made it to the edge of the aeries, Turrin felt the bird jump off from their home and for a few ticks the endal felt weightless until the bird opened his wings, and the two of them gradually started to soar through the air.

As they flew straight from his aeries, Turrin mentally said to Aponivi, Lets just fly straight for half a bell while I look for a clearing in the cloud blanket. I want to avoid getting you wet as much as possible.

Aponivi replied with a mental laugh, Thank you Turrin. I doubt you want to hear by bitching all the way there.

They flew straight for half a bell than the endal noticed there was very little breeze around him accept for the occasionally cool breeze coming from his right of him. Turrin kept scanning the cloud blanket for a opening in the clouds, and he eventually saw a nice pocket to the right of him. Turrin quickly said to Aponivi out loud, “Aponivi there is a opening fly in the clouds to your right! Go!” Turrin pressed his legs against the sides of the eagle, tightened his grip on the saddle, and leaned forward and into the turn as the giant bird gradually closed his wings slight and banked to his right. Turrin felt the pull of inertia as the wind eagle and him started to decent and bank to the opening in the cloud blanket. It was a terrifying and exhilarating feeling at the same time as they tried to get through the opening before the clouds started to close. However, Turrin noticed because of his skill as a rider starting to shine when Aponivi couldn't descend fast enough to beat the clouds before they closed, so the rider and eagle flew straight into the fluffy wet clouds.

[Turrin]

As they flew through the clouds, Turrin was blinded by sheer amount of water vapor in the cloud, but after a chime or two, both of them were under the cloud. Turrin was completely soaked along with the eagle. Luckily the clouds weren't dropping any of their moisture yet, so the two of them lucked out for now. The morning under clouds were completely deary and temperature was uncomfortable because of the high humidity in the air. The myrian looked around him and Thunder Bay was off to his right and the mountains of the peninsula were to his left. Turrin noticed that he was to inland, so he nudged Aponivi with his right foot to indicate to the bird to gradually bank right and fly northeast to the coast.

It took them a bell to eventually make it to the edge of the coast and to be somewhat dry. Turrin mentally said to Aponivi when he saw the coast in the distance, Fly low enough, so both of us can spot the river. Also make sure you hug the coast, so we don't miss it. They flew along the coast for a bell, and Turrin could see the coast line was full of activity from other endal fishing for Tuna. The endal could tell some of the other riders have been in this area for quite a few days because he could see smoke from campfires billowing into the air. Aponivi made sure to make sure to avoid the black smoke as they continued down the coast. As he went further way from the city the coastal camps got less frequent. However, when he thought that he was out of the clear, the myrian saw a large brown wind eagle flying towards him.

Aponivi must have saw the other wind eagle too, so he slowed his speed slightly and allowed himself to just glide through the air. When the golden eagle got closer, Turrin turned in his saddle and saw a older man with long red and with a spattering of white in his hair. The myrian stuck up his hand and yelled over to the endal, “How is the fishing? Have you caught anything yet?”

The older man replied back, “Honestly, it could be going better, but I figured if I give it a day or two Veran will catch something eventually.”

Turrin frowned slightly when he said the fishing was just OK. He needed to bring back a couple tuna, but he could get by with one even if his pride would push Aponivi and him to catch two of the large fish. At least, he could always fall back on deer and other land beasts if the fishing goes poorly. The endal asked loudly, “Have you seen any seal or walrus in this area?”

The older man shook his head and replied, “The deer, bear, and wolves have been active along the coasts, but you would have to go far north to the tip of the peninsula to find seal this time of year. It warm down here, so the large land predators are to active.” The older endal paused for a moment and warned, “Careful out there, and I suggest you get to your destination and make camp. I think we might get rain come nightfall.” After his warning, the endal waved his goodbye and quickly banked to his right away from turning and quickly did a ninety degree turn. The myrian mouth dropped at the skill the endal had at riding his wind eagle. Turrin knew it would take years and years to get to the same skill level as him.

When Turrin was finished talking to the old man, Aponivi contacted him mentally, Veran told me that fishing was complete shyke closer to the city, but he thought we might have better luck at our location since we will have less competition; however, the wolves are more active up there.

Turrin said out loud in common, “I think the gods hate me....”

[Turrin]

Aponivi and Turrin continued their flight along the coastline, and he noticed that he was the only active endal this far east. The myrian knew it would only be Aponivi and him facing the hazards of Unforgiving, so he would have to take extra care on this hunting trip.. After about three bells of flying, Aponivi and Turrin spotted the mouth of the river. The endal contacted Aponivi, “I think we are here. Lets land and set up camp.” When the wind eagle closed his wings slightly and started to bank left, Turrin tightened his leg on the sides of the wind eagle, tighten his grip on the saddle, and leaned forward in his saddle. Turrin could feel his stomach go into his throat as the eagle started his gradual decent. Aponivi circled around till he lined up himself up with sandy beach when he was lined up for about a mile. The wind eagle brought in his wings slightly, so the decent was gradual onto the soft beach. Turrin realized the wind eagle a expert flier, so if it was just Aponivi without Turrin, the eagle would have just did a quick decent, but the endal's riding skills weren't up for it, so wind eagle had to land smoothly. Otherwise, Turrin would run the risk of falling off.

When they touched down on the sand, Aponivi came to a stop, and Turrin slowly got off his eagle and stretched after such a long flight. Putting a hand on the hilt of his talon sword, Turrin walked towards the mouth of the river. The endal heard from the endal woman that they built a makeshift fire pit of rocks and cleared out campsite. Once he got to the edge of the river, Turrin looked around and slightly up stream from the ocean; he saw a ring of rocks. Walking along the shore line of the river, Turrin noticed a half eaten salmon on the shoreline. The endal stopped above the fish, knelt down, looked around the dead salmon and noticed a lot of fresh tracks around the salmon. The tracks had a large indentation with five distinct toes out side of it with five thin lines above the toes. The myrian frowned because he wasn't sure how fresh the track because there was still a little bit of water in the large indentation and the fish wasn't starting to smell. The old endal said there were bears here, but he needed to see it for himself to confirm it. Standing up, Turrin saw the track never go as far as the fish, but they do lead back to the river. The figured it was a large predator, so he decided this campsite might not be the safest; however, if he kept the fire high, it might keep the beast at bay.

When he got the fire pit, he noticed the campsite wasn't recently used because there was large weeds in the camp. However, the underbrush wasn't to bad because the ground was a rocky and the trees surrounding him were mostly tall pine, so the ground was littered with pine needles and pine cones. The previous camper mostly a endal seemed to cleared enough trees for a wind eagle to safely land along with enough room for a comfortable campsite for two sets of tents. It was to primitive to be a forward site, but it was a good base camp for a single rider and his or her help. Turrin took out his kukri from his belt and started to clear out the large plant growth in the site. The myrian made sure to keep his hands off clear of the plants because he wasn't sure if any of them could irritate his skin. It took his thirty chimes to clear the camp of underbrush. Since he didn't want to touch it, he decided to kick the weeds to the edge of the camp. Looking around the camp once more, the rider noticed a few nuisance trees about three feet high scattered throughout the camp, so he would have to get his ax to clear them.

[Turrin]

As Turrin walked back to Aponivi, he noticed the river was only about twenty feet across at the mouth, and it was slow enough to rocky enough to get across without getting wet. It worried him slight because a large animal could get across with ease. However, the dead fish confirmed that there is salmon in the river, so he might not be eating rations tonight. When he got to Aponivi, Turrin said out loud with a smile, “I cleared the underbrush in the camp. It doesn't look like anyone has used it in a year, but I have clear some nuisance trees. You should have plenty of room to land my friend.”

Turrin heard Aponivi's voice in his head, Good, I want to get this saddle off my back and look for something to eat before nightfall. Is there anything else? The look on your face might be smiling, but the sound of your voice sounds unclear...

Turrin pointed by the side of the river and said with a frown, “There was a fresh half eaten salmon by the side of the river. I think that I will have competition if I go fishing tonight, and if you catch a tuna, we might have to take turns on watch to protect the catch.”

Turrin knew the wind eagle thought it was amusing because Aponivi squawked in amusement and replied, If a predator is dumb enough to come close to my catch, we might have a new trophy for our aeries.

Turrin smirked, patted the wind eagle on the neck, and said with a smile, “It is reassuring to hear that Aponivi.”

Walking back to the camp, Turrin heard behind him the great eagle taking off into the air. The endal looked off into the sky and noticed the overcast sky started to lighten in the noon sun. The myrian could hear the sounds of gulls landing by the river to pick the rest of the meat off the dead salmon. Turrin knew it would be a hot day because the temperature would rise in the afternoon and the humidity would make it muggy in the forest. However, the wind coming off the ocean was starting to pick up, so it might not be to unbearable. When he got to camp, Aponivi had already landed and was waiting for the endal. Turrin walked up to him, opened saddle bags, and took out the camouflage tarp out of the saddle bags. The endal spread out the tarp and removed all the equipment from the bags to lighten the saddle.

When he was finished with the tarp, Turrin nodded to his friend and the eagle raised his body, so he could undo all the straps on the saddle. The moved out of the underbelly of the bird and Aponivi laid on his breast. The endal walked to the side of the bird grabbed the edge of the saddle, bent his knees, and lifted up with legs. The leather saddle was heavy and awkward, so he could only lift up on side; however, the endal lift his arms and the leather seat up higher and started to walk away from the eagle. Turrin could feel his muscles in his shoulders, arms, and legs started to burn. Feeling the sweat on his brow, he had to stop to rest a moment, so he held the saddle half up with his arms and the other half on the wind eagle. When he was ready again to move the saddle, he used his arms to shuffle the rest of the saddle of the eagle. He held it up in the air for a chime, and he could feel the muscles in his back start to burn badly, so he quickly moved it away from the wind eagle and dropped it on the ground. The myrian started to rub his shoulders to stop the burning, and he smirked at Aponivi, “Alright my friend, I will get the camp ready. Good luck and happy hunting.”

[Turrin]

Watching the large eagle take off into the air, Turrin knew tomorrow would be the day Aponivi fished for tuna, so he would have to do his hunting today and tomorrow before the eagle got back with his catch. However, he needed to get the camp set up, so the first thing that he needed to set up was the tent. Luckily, it was one person tent, so it wouldn't take long to set up. He thought. Taking the canvas tent out of the bag, Turrin unrolled it into a square. In the middle of it was two six feet wooden poles, two six feet braided twin rope, and six metal stakes. Turrin looked at the canvas tent and notice had a metal ring braided into the both ends of the tarp. The endal grabbed one of the poles. He noticed one end was cut smaller than the rest of the pole to fist inside the metal ring on the tent, and the other side of the pole was cut into a dull point. He figured the pointy end went into the ground, so he took the pole and dung it into the soft part of the dirt; however, the dirt was dry, so it didn't go down too far.

Setting the pole on the ground, Turrin grabbed his metal pot walked down to the river, filled it with water, and brought it back to the starter hole. Pouring the water onto the premade hole, Turrin waited for the water to soak into the ground before he dung the pole into the ground again. When he was ready, the endal dung the pole about six inches into the ground. The Endal held it in place till the ground dried up enough to hold it in place. Placing the metal ring around the end of the pole sticking out of the ground, Turrin frowned when the pole started to shift to the right. The endal held the pole straight up a little longer. When it was safe to keep it the pole straight without his help, Turrin repeated the process on the other side. When the poles were holding up the tent, Turrin tied one end of the braided to the top of the front pole and the other rope to the back pole. Tying the twine to one of the stakes, Turrin used his foot to drive the stake into the ground, and he repeated the process on the back side. Taking the other stakes, he found the loops on each end of the canvas square and used his booted foot to drive the stakes into the ground. Taking a step back from his tent, Turrin noticed that the tent was lopsided and there wasn't enough tension on the back string, so he spent another fifteen chimes fixing his temporary building.

[Turrin]

When Turrin was finished with tent, the endal needed firewood, so he looked around the nuisance trees growing in the camp. He noticed a lot of them were baby pine trees, but a lot them were browning slightly in the needles. The endal wondered if they were dry since they were being blocked by the larger trees above them. Grabbing his wood splitting ax, Turrin took the leather cover off the metal blade, and he walked to the nearest tree. The endal needed to clear some of the branches on the bottom, so with two hands, he rose the ax over his head and swung down on a viable branch. The ax quickly cut through the thin branch, and he repeated the process till the bottom part of the tree was completely void of branches.

Looking at the visible trunk of the tree, Turrin widen his stance to swing at the trunk of the pine tree. Turrin rose the ax with two hands over his shoulder and swung horizontally towards the trunk of the tree. However, the swing missed the tree completely. The myrian swore to himself out loud, and this time, he lined up the blade of the ax with the tree. Keeping his eyes on the spot, he wanted to hit. He raised the ax again over his shoulder and swung towards the trunk of baby tree. The next hit was glancing, but he saw the inside of the wood was bright red, so it gave him a target. Lifting the ax over his shoulder again, Turrin swung the ax down onto the bright red target, and the ax dung half way into the three inch trunk.

Rising the ax over his shoulder again, Turrin took aim again at the trunk at the six foot tree. The swing was somewhat wild, but even if it glance it, dung enough into the tree for it to fall over. However, the tree started to fall at him, so he had to drop the ax and jump out of the way of of the tree. The tree fell over, and didn't quite get out of the way, so when the tree landed, he was hit by the branches on the way down. Luckily, he was wearing his camouflage leather armor, so the needles just scratched at the leather pieces around his legs. Standing up, Turrin brushed the off the brown needles off him, found his ax, and started stripping the trunk of branches with his ax.

When the six foot trunk was exposed, Turrin spread his feet apart lifted his ax over his head, and swung down on the trunk about two feet from the top of the tree. The swing was missed the trunk and dug into the ground between his feet. Swearing at himself in ancient myrian, he raised the ax again and swung down onto the trunk, the metal blade bite deep into the wood about half way. Lifting the ax again, the endal swung down on the trunk and split it in two. Turrin repeated the process about three times and cut the trunk into three pieces. Grabbing on of the pieces, he stood the log up on the ground, widened his stance by spreading his feet, raised the over his head, and swung the ax down onto the center of the log.

Once again, the myrian missed the log completely and cursed loudly in frustration at the world. Resuming his stance, Turrin lifted the ax again and swung down at the center of log and dung half way into it. Growling frustration, he lifted the ax again with the log stuck on it and swung it at the ground and split it in two. Laughing evilly, Turrin swore at log in ancient myrian, “You think you can best a warrior of Myri, Wood! Think again!!” Turrin completed the process of cutting up the tree until the tree was completely defeated by the warrior.

Looking up at the sky, the cloudiness of the morning was starting to clear and the sun was starting to come out. Turrin decided to move his branches and wood into Syna's light to allow the heat to dry out the wood more. The process of setting up camp and cutting wood left him hungry, so he dined on standard rations and water. When he was finished eating, he realized it was about to bells past noon, so he thought it was best to do some hunting before nightfall. Turrin cleaned off his ax head before returning it to the leather case, and he started to put the unessential items for hunting back into his saddle bags. Putting his quiver with his arrows over his shoulder, Turrin tighten the strap and secured the quiver to his shoulder. Putting the camouflage helmet onto his head, Turrin was ready for his hunting trip into the forest. However, he needed to cover the saddle, so he placed the camouflage tarp of the saddle and weighed down all the ends with for rocks.

[Turrin]

When Turrin was ready to go, he walked to the edge of the river than he started to walk up stream near the river. As the myrian started to look around at the forest. He remembered from Palia's seminar on tracking that he needed to look for a general habitat of his prey a subject called landscape tracking. Turrin was hunting herbivores, so he needed to see if there was enough plant life to sustain deer. The myrian continued walking and noticed little signs of any large herbivores. However, he noticed along the river bank was thick bushes of bluish black berries. The endal started to wonder to himself if these plants were a decent food source for deer and other woodland creatures. As Turrin walked farther down the trail, Turrin noticed there wasn't much grass on the floor of the pine forest since it was covered with pine needles and pine cones.

There was a few woody bush plants growing sparsely around him, but nothing suitable to sustain large herbivores like deer except for the berry bushes by the river. However, Turrin noticed the forest floor and trees were home to red squirrels and chipmunks. The squirrels were scurrying and causing a ruckus in the canopy above him. The chipmunks seemed fearless as they came to the edge of the trail looked at him for a moment and scurried into the thicket on the other side. Turrin noticed the small rodents seemed to scurry from bush to bush trying to stay out of the open area for long.

Turrin was curious about the reason for the rodents behavior, so he stopped his hike and looked up into the canopy. The endal knew the birds were in the trees since he could hear them chirping away or flying from tree to tree. As he scanned the canopy, Turrin noticed a large brown eagle sitting a twenty foot tall pine staring down at the forest floor. When he turned his gaze away from the eagle, Turrin figured with the small wildlife on the ground was prey for the eagle. Also, he figured this area was a good hunting spot for land dwelling predators like foxes, wolfs, and large cats. The endal wondered if maybe he should be looking for signs of predators instead of deer. When he continued walking up stream for about thirty chimes, he noticed on one of the pine trees there was scratch marks near the base of the tree.

Turrin carefully and quietly walked over to the tree and knelt down to examine the area more closely. Turrin noticed the scratches only went up about three feet. Standing up, Turrin noticed a few holes dung out in the ground around the tree. It could be signs of animal activity. Walking around the tree, he noticed a track in the soft soil next to one of the holes. There was a foot print with a prominent horizontal pad indent with five smaller pad indent above the larger pad indent. The endal thought about it for a moment and realized from the tracks and rubbings on the tree this was definitely a animal with claws.

[Turrin]

Turrin noticed the foot prints were heading under a woody bush, the endal stood up and figured the animal wasn't tall like deer or wolf, but the track was a decent size, so it wasn't the size of a squirrel or rabbit ether. Turrin walked around the bush, and he noticed the tracks came out the other side of the bush. Rubbing his chin, Turrin thought to himself, OK. The animal is a about the size of a small dog by the size of the track, but it is short enough to walk under the bush without disturbing it to much. Wait I should check the bush! Turrin crouched down and looked under the bush and noticed some of the bottom ends of the branches were broken. Turrin laid on his back to see father under the bush and notice a clump of hair hanging off the one of the branches. Reaching under the bush, he pulled out the fur and noticed it was three different colors grey, black, and white. Sitting on the ground, Turrin examined the fur and said to himself, “I wonder if it is a large rodent?”

Standing up, Turrin looked for the tracks. It took him about thirty chimes to find them again because the pine needles on the ground were thick, but the animal seemed to going from to bush to bush like the chipmunks. He wondered if it was trying to avoid large predators like eagles or wolves. Turrin continued following the tracks until he came to another group of holes in the ground. The endal wondered if the beast was a scavenger or a forager if it kept digging up the ground. Suddenly, the endal heard the haunting sound of a wolf calling in the distance. It sounded pretty far off, so he wasn't to concerned. Suddenly, he heard another wolf call out from a different location. This concerned him, but he wasn't going to let the rest of the wildlife scare him from a potential kill. The hunter needed to bring back something, and he would settle for anything at this point even a large rat.

Standing up, Turrin continued following the tracks till he came across some droppings of the animal. The scat was pitch black color and there was a few flies on it. Looking around the forest floor, he picked up a twig and poked it. It didn't take the twig long to penetrate the scat, so it was somewhat fresh. Turrin continued following the tracks until he came to a small clearing in the trees. The endal noticed that the bushes were thick around edges of the clearing. As he got closer to the clearing, he saw a large mound of dirt in the middle of the clearing. Turrin crouched down next to one of the bushes, and he saw a small trail through the grass leading up to the mound. Walking into the clearing, Turrin slowly walked through the grass till he got to the mound. When he was about six feet from the mound, he saw small bones, browning grass bedding, and white and black fur mixed in with it. Looking at the hole, Turrin decided that it would be a bad idea to stick his hand in the hole and see what happens. Turrin looked around and found a few holes dung just for scat. The endal smiled because he figured the animal would have to come out to take a shyke, so he decided to wait it out.

[Turrin]

Six bells past and there was no activity in or outside the clearing or near the hole. Taking a drink of water, Turrin was about to call it a night since he needed to get back before nightfall. He figured that he had about two bells before the sun starts to set. Crouched behind one of the bushes, he suddenly saw a large black and white rodent peek it's head out of the hole. It took it about five chimes to fully emerge from the hole. It immediately went to one of the latrine holes. The endal reached behind him and pulled out a hunting arrow. Placing arrow on the bowstring, Turrin slowly stood up from behind one of the bushes, so he wouldn't to alert he rodent to his location. Raising the short bow with his left hand, Turrin lined up the metal tip with the back of the beast. The endal pulled the bowstring to his cheek and readjusted his aim back to the middle of the back. Taking a shallow breath, he released the bowstring on the exhale. Suddenly, Turrin heard the wolf calls once again off in the distance and his prey started to panic at the call of the wolves. Turrin watched the arrow soar straight towards his prey. However, the panicked rodent moved just in time and the arrow missed the target by a foot and shattered in the dirt.

As quick as Turrin could muster, he reached back for another arrow a placed it on the bowstring. When he raised his short bow to take aim, the large rodent was gone. Turrin failed at killing the rodent, but when he got a better look at it. He wondered if the large rodent was a badger. He would have to confirm later. Turrin decided to leave the shattered arrow there. It would be a trophy for the beast that he bested a endal. However, he learned the animal seemed to be active in the evening. Maybe if he got up early, he could hunt it tomorrow morning before it went the bed for the day. Turrin turned around and started to head back to his camp. As he walked down the path, he could hear the crickets starting to chirping there nightly song. Looking up, he could Syna getting lower in the western sky, and he started to quicken his pace down the path. He didn't want to be caught out here at night. Taking a drink of water, he continued the down the trail.

When Turrin got to camp, he looked over and saw the giant eagle sunning itself in the last of the evening sun. The endal mentally contacted him, Did you have any luck on your hunt?

Aponivi turned his head to look at him and said, Yes, I dined on a deer tonight. It was quite small, but it was enough to satisfy me for now.

Turrin nodded and replied with a frown, My kill got spooked by wolves, and the rodent badger thingy ran back into it's hole, so I might be eating rations tonight if my luck at the river goes south.

Aponivi looked up at the setting Syna and said with nod, You might have a hour to fish before you need to start a fire. Good luck if you catch two fish give me one.