It was no surprise when the paler woman sought her out. Raela had no trouble with being around her, and the thin woman had already begun settling in quite well with the rest of the pack. For that she was thankful, because it meant she would need to expend no extra energy on the matter. Now she had only to strengthen the female's bonds to both herself and this new home. She reacted most pleasantly to being summoned; having no pressing matters to attend to on this cool and refreshing day. No incidents had occurred for a little while; save for Calanthe's nightmares, and she had already stopped worrying so horribly over Eirian and Vitani's presence. Ari still wandered from the territory on a basis far too regular to be to her liking, but there was little she could do about it. It was Minka and Gent who would have to make the tyke understand the rules, after all. 

She turned to face her company with a smile and a wag of her tail. The deference and respect of her bow was both taken and returned with the slight motion of her own muzzle as the other wolf sprung headfirst into her explanation. Raela's smile deepened and her tail flicked faster for a moment. “That's a great idea; don't worry, everything is pretty quiet today,” she offered, glancing around. There was a silence as she mulled over just what it was they ought to go hunting for; well aware that the larger prey would be out of the question. Calanthe was a good learner, but no two wolves were so good that a mule deer or a whitetail wasn't pretty dangerous. There was always aquatic prey, and that's when her thoughts clicked into place. Sunshine eyes brightening considerably as her posture straightened, the woman turned her attention back to her pack mate. 

“I know of a couple beavers that're trying to set up a dam down by one of the rivers if you want?” Without much more ceremony she nodded and headed off in the direction of the big rodents. At least tracking wasn't needed as much as it was with other prey; the animals were sure to be near their skeletal dam. It took some time to get down the small mountain of course, but by then her muscles had warmed and she was primed for the chase. The feeling before the hunt was something Rae would always enjoy. The air in her lungs was charged with electricity just knowing of the exertion to come. Quietly flowing water lured them in and soon the dam was in view. Swiftly Rae's head dipped low, and she slunk toward the nearest foliage at a hurried trot. 

She wasn't sure exactly how many there were, so some scouting was in order. She fully hoped her companion would follow suit and alert her to their positions. The Crest subordinate cast a wary glance her way; waiting to see what she would do. It was a learning experience after all. They had done a little something like this before; on that stormy day once the rain had lifted. Hopefully Calanthe would come back with the same number she could see; and even better if this second pair of eyes turned up more of the little buggers. Their tell-tale ripples in the water made them easy to see; but if any were on land or beneath the surface, they'd have to be patient. Better to wait some while and catch them all than rush in and miss opportunities to bolster the caches. 

Beavers. Well... that hadn't been exactly the kind of prey Calanthe had been hoping to take down on her first "official" hunt, but she had to admit they were certainly a more challenging prey creature than skinny, sickly old rabbits. Or frogs. Or hairy, noisy little squirrels that were really only good for quick snacks during a move to a new den location. And beyond all of that, beavers and their little atelier-homes could be absolute menaces to their surrounding habitats, with their dams causing all sorts of chaos both in the water and on the dry land surrounding it. Nature was a fragile beast, and changes as great as those even a small beaver dam could inflict could lead to permanent change and even damage.

The pale woman dipped her head at Raela's suggestion and said, “That sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm game.” She had heard tell that beaver hunting could be dangerously tricky; if memory served, neither Barran nor Amani had ever been entirely enthusiastic about hunting the little beasts, although @Cathair had always seemed almost to welcome whatever risks were involved. Maybe beavers were dangerous game, after all. Calanthe found herself eager to find out, and followed Raela without any complaints.

The trek down the mountain felt as though it took forever, but Calanthe found herself grateful for the chance to focus her thoughts rather than irritable about the extra time it was taking for this hunt to actually start. She knew from past experience that she needed to stay calm, collected, and have her attention and senses focused in as sharply as they could be on her surroundings. This was not hunting to stay alive, but it was still a vital outing; nothing could possibly be more important than making sure the pack's caches were fully stocked.

Calanthe immediately sought out shelter once the dam came into view; this expedition would fail before it ever had the chance to begin if the furry creatures below saw either of the wolves and spooked into their dam or down below the surface of the water. Moving as swiftly and silently as she could, the pale woman moved away from Raela to the shelter of a relatively thick patch of brush, hoping her light-furred pelt would not give them immediately away. From here she watched the dam and its surroundings intently, eyes sharp for any sign of movement. One... Two... Two. She sat still and watched for what seemed an eternity, but only those two ever showed themselves. A new mated pair? She wasn't sure; she had never taken the time to watch beavers closely enough to know whether they were even stationary, let alone monogamous.

It also didn't matter. Calanthe raised her head and managed to catch sight of Raela; moving carefully, so that her body remained concealed by her cover, she lifted one foot and put it down twice, then glanced demonstratively at the dam - I see two of them. Then she glanced again to the dam and crouched lower, her attention split between it and watching for Raela to give her the signal to move. She only prayed she wouldn't embarrass herself today - or worse, lose valuable food for her pack. Look down, spirit, and show some mercy, if you can...

Just as she'd hoped, the woman took this exercise in stride. Calanthe had moved to another location to provide a compounded view, and was as patient as Raela needed her to be. It was certainly easier than trying to teach an excitable pup how to stay quiet and simply observe. Her own eyes had tracked the pair, watching the ripples and predicting their next appearance above the surface until she had picked out a decent pattern. They kept returning to the foundation of their dam to lay down branches and logs. It was not complete yet but it was enough to make their job harder should they happen to duck beneath it. The river was the next thing she turned her well-hidden eyes upon.  It was not so deep here, but if pursued the animals would surely rush into the deepest waters they could find. 

And this presented a problem. The shallower water; the area they needed to drive the animals towards given the two options was on the other side of the dam, which was now growing in depth due to the barricade. If they were chased inside the structure they would surely try to hide and defend themselves; and she didn't need the two of them taking home anything more than a scratch or two today. For a moment she directed her thoughts elsewhere; managing to inquire with her expression as to how many her companion had already spotted. As soon as her paw stopped moving Raela nodded decisively. Okay, so they had one each. The choice was then to split them up or to attack and subdue one together before bringing down the second. They needed the creatures to be on dry land if this was to be easy. 

Her ears pinned back with a moment of suppressed frustration as she sized up the quarry once more. If they charged through the water they would be slow, and the beavers had as much of a chance at swimming past them as they did scattering onto the land. It was like the time she went fishing with the boys; she could use herself and Calanthe as barricades and drive the critters out; but it required some setup first. Acknowledging that this was probably their best bet, the woman turned her eyes onto the other girl again with a hardness that asked for her attention as she tried to lay out the plan. They'd have to get down river a little ways, and one of them would have to slink over to the dam and scare away whichever critter tried to make a dash for it; perhaps catching them as they tried. The water would be quite chilly by now; but if they were quick it would be a small price to pay for all the meat in two adult beavers. They needed every ounce they could get before winter. It's a struggle, it's a war...

With a motion of her muzzle she tried to point to where she wanted the woman, then gestured to herself and the dam. Raela tipped her head forward questioningly; because as soon as it was understood, they would move. 

Calanthe watched, her yellow eyes riveted to Raela as the older woman laid out a plan of attack. It seemed as though Raela wanted Calanthe a little ways down the river, while Raela herself would remain at the dam... Ah. Raela must want to chase the beavers in Calanthe's direction, simultaneously setting herself up to catch one as she went and allowing Calanthe to hopefully barricade the other - or both - from fleeing into deeper, more rapidly flowing water.

All right, that made plenty of sense to Calanthe. Their best bet would be to keep those hairy things out of deeper water and away from the shelter of their dam... though the dam itself looked as though it wasn't finished. The pale woman hoped Raela wouldn't end up taking a nasty tumble in the middle of frigid water and the splinters of a broken dam.

Nodding once to show she had understood Raela's instructions, Calanthe turned and crept carefully down towards the water, using the surrounding plant life and the beavers' own lapses in attention to edge towards her spot without prematurely setting them off. She tried most of all to keep Raela just a step ahead of her. The agouti woman needed to be in position by the time Calanthe made her move, or the whole plan would be for nothing.

Somehow, through some miracle or show of skill on both of their parts, the women managed to get into position without either of those beavers noticing them. The thick plant life growing around the river likely helped, providing them with ample cover - though it had slowed their progress to a nail biting crawl as they had carefully avoided rustling the leaves and branches. Calanthe waited until Raela was in place and seemed prepared to move; as she sat, her eyes flitted from Raela to the water to the bank to the beavers, Barran's voice echoing in her ears as though her father stood beside her: "When the beating of your heart is like the beating of a drum, you are ready to begin the hunt."

Raela was in place.

Calanthe burst from her own hiding place into the shallow water, setting up a vicious snarl and snapping her jaws so that the beavers scurried. With any luck, this venture would not end in total failure - but the game was just beginning.

And that was it; with a nod of confirmation both wolves turned from each other; beginning the agonizingly slow trek toward their given positions. A ear flicked back to catch Calanthe's movements behind her as she made her way down stream. At this point, it was trust that kept her from trying to teach Calanthe anything more. She had already been over stalking, and if the woman failed this time it would be her own fault, and they would just have to find something else. Thankfully though with the quick learner her companion was proving to be, the predators slipped along through the undergrowth; eyes flashing dangerously each time the fat rodents moved a muscle. The creatures were ever oblivious though; despite a few hair-raising moments when she herself had faintly rustled something. 

Before too terribly long she was beside the animal's construction; sizing up the architecture with careful deliberation. Her foot-falls would have to be perfect to keep her moving swiftly once she broke cover and to keep her out of the water once she was up there. There were only so many branches and clusters of logs that could even hope to hold the woman's weight. At last her sunshine eyes turned down the river; finding that Calanthe was in much the same position that she was by now. Wordlessly their eyes connected, paused, and as soon as Raela saw the tiniest hint of a flinch in the female's muscle, she lunged. 

The racket of the other girl's snapping jaws and growling was present but thoroughly drowned out by the drumming of her own thoughts. Before Raela could do anything herself she had to be atop this thing. Ears flattened for maximum speed, her front paws landed on the slippery twigs but somehow kept her upright. In a bound she was moving for a gap in the construction, while the splashing of both the beavers and Cal filled her good ear. With a grunt she landed again; this time on a log that wasn't quite capable of barricading the rushing water. The cold liquid gushed over it, and even more so now that the wolf's mass pushed it down. The sudden cold sent a shock to her limb, but she simply clenched her jaw and moved again.

Her back feet had much more trouble with this narrow walkway though, and one slipped off the left side as she shifted her weight to cross to the dam's main body. There was a splash but Raela was already moving. Front paws scrambled to lock themselves on some decent foothold; a sturdier stick or just something. The whole incident was over in a second or so, and she leaned down over the structure with her front feet nearly touching the flowing water as one of the creatures came toward her; just as planned. The hunter hesitated, watching the submerged body get closer and closer while Cal worked out her part of the deal. Her eyes didn't dare move from her own quarry now.

The beavers scattered at Calanthe's entrance, both initially heading back towards the safety of their unfinished dam. Calanthe started forward a step, snapping her jaws again, but resisted the urge to chase the things outright; if she did, both of the little pests might slip past her, or she might encourage them into their dam regardless of the agouti wolf scrambling atop the barrier.

Thinking of Raela did cause Calanthe's eyes to stray upward, and for an instant time froze as she watched Raela slip, slip again, and seem to scramble to keep herself out of the water. So much seemed ready to go wrong - Raela could twist a leg or paw during her scramble, could fall into the water and hurt herself that way, could break the damn, could be attacked outright by the beavers with their huge teeth and sharp claws--

Calanthe shook herself away from her spiralling thoughts just in time for one fuzzy brown shape to go charging past her - one of the beavers had taken notice of Raela and reversed its course, running past the easier wolf to evade in a suicidal attempt to escape the scene entirely. Whatever these two were, they clearly had no loyalty between them.

Calanthe scrambled around in the shallow water, her claws scraping against the slick rocks and loose silt lining the bottom of the river. As she went, her head shot forward so that she could snap her jaws at the retreating beaver in a desperate attempt to latch onto anything, even its tail or a hind foot. Water splashed around the pair as prey and predator thrashed towards deeper water, one fighting to escape, one desperate to prevent the attempt from succeeding - and Calanthe's teeth met in the beaver's tail!

The pale woman tightened her grip and threw her weight back, half-numb paws churning against the river bottom as she dragged the beaver back. The pull against her teeth suddenly changed - the opposing drag disappeared - and Calanthe found herself flying sideways towards the dam as the beaver turned on her in desperate fury, its sharp teeth snapping inches from her nose before Calanthe released its tail and struggled to her feet. The damned thing lunged at her again, clearly not content to have been set free, and Calanthe wasn't entirely sure how she avoided being bitten a second time, only that she did and leapt between it and deeper waters again in the same movement, sending the whole world spinning madly out of control as water and land blurred together for one wild moment.

She snapped her own jaws at the insolent little hairball, furious at the insult that it offered. She was the most dangerous creature here, not this - this - insignificant little food-thing! All thought of Raela had been chased from her mind; if the agouti woman had gotten into any trouble, she was going to have to deal with it on her own. Calanthe had one very, very stupid beaver to put back into its place. Permanently.

She was oblivious to the eyes watching her as she fumbled on the wet sticks; not even daring to look up once she spotted the edible creature swimming straight at her. The woman's ears kept decent track of the other hunter and her splashing, but it was background noise unless that beaver decided to come her way and pose a problem. It would seem not, though, and instead she was left with this one. The water under the dam was fast and cold, but she knew already that she would absolutely have to set foot in it to catch this one. Golden eyes were affixed to its distorted shape as the water rippled and changed it. Closer, closer... her muzzle was turned sharply down with ears pricked and parallel with the riverbed. It was moving fast but in her adrenaline-induced state it was still slow enough to track, and predict.

Any closer and the vermin would escape beneath the logs. Now. Rearing up and balancing her weight just long enough to send her forepaws lashing out in front of the frantic animal, Raela lunged. Water flew up at her closed eyes; spraying her whole chest and thoroughly coating the woman's legs as she plunged down. Thankfully it wasn't so terribly deep. Her lungs tightened against the cold and Raela grimaced as her eyes forced themselves open. She had to know where it was going. The blur caught in her vision changed course, but it wasn't exactly what she wanted. Instead it ricocheted away from the wolf and toward the rest of the dam, leaving her mere milliseconds to rear up again and leap after it in a flurry of splashing water and clacking teeth. 

Panic took her thoughts for a few heart-pounding seconds as her cream-colored feet fought to be just frightening enough to change its mind. Water flew at her eyes and the Crest wolf shook her skull again and again. Where is it where is it- her thoughts scrambled. A water-tinged lump of fur snagged the predator's attention and she struck; finally convincing it that this was a bad place to be with a well-aimed fore-paw. Calanthe's struggle had been drowned out by her own, and she was already chasing after the thing; trying to assure its ascent to the banks in every way possible. It was going alright so far, minus the slip up. She could only hope Cal was doing her part just as effectively. 

Calanthe's beaver turned tail and fled towards the bank, and Calanthe herself was close behind the wretched little meatbag, snapping her jaws and barking savagely after it - and not entirely out of the need to keep the thing running scared. Water-smoothed rocks and pebbles turned to packed down mud, and the white, frothy walls surrounding Calanthe as she charged after her quarry quickly became little splashes as she fought the edges of the river. Now all that she needed to do was catch that beaver before it vanished into the--

She skidded to a halt as the thing again turned on her, teeth snapping as it whirled around and puffed itself up in an attempt to look bigger. Her stop wasn't sharp or fast enough for its liking, and quicker than she could manage to leap away it latched on to her leg. White fire danced in her vision as Calanthe shrieked; her leg might as well be on fire itself, and was the blasted thing chewing on her?!

Her teeth met in the beaver's scruff, and without stopping to think rationally she ripped it off of her leg and flung the stupid beast away... back towards the damned water! Calanthe snarled and raced after the - well, she could call it a good great many foul things, but honestly the important thing at the moment was keeping this little pest from getting away, especially after it had had the audacity to draw blood on her! This beaver was going to die many, many, many times over before she was done being thoroughly enraged with it!