Larkcall Lowlands this captain goes down with the ship

The magnificent sight nearly took Cessair's breath away. She had been out this way on a scouting mission with @Raela not long ago, but they hadn't encountered a single living caribou on the whole trip. Now, right here at the edge of the timbers, there was an enormous herd! The animals' uniformity of color and shape and tranquility of movement as they swirled amongst each other was positively mesmerizing. Cessair could hardly look away, but look away she did. With their prey in sight, it was high time the hunters began strategizing. The inexperienced woman would leave that to her superiors, of course, but she figured that she might as well try to come up with a plan as a way of practice while @Gent and @Minka came up with the official plan.

Having never hunted caribou and having never hunted in a pack, however, Cessair could get nowhere with her own invention of strategies. She resolved instead to try to put herself in the mindset of hunting and to take mental notes when her king and queen announced their plan. Sweeping her copper-gold gaze through the hunting group, Cessair tried to assess her packmates' strengths and to interpret how they would affect her own actions and technique during the hunt. But the movement of her eyes stopped at her newest packmate, the yearling Gus. The older woman knew nothing of his personality, skills, or habits, but she could certainly see that he was nervous.

The sight of the bronze-colored boy all but trembling was almost amusing, as it was usually Cessair herself who was the nervous one. The only reason the fawn fae wasn't nervous now, she reflected, was because she was surrounded by capable packmates whom she had come to trust. Cessair felt she could understand the yearling's struggles, though, for if she were still as unfamiliar with her packmates as Gus must surely be, she would be just as nervous. With a compassionate smile adorning her muzzle, Cessair walked over to Gus. "Hey there. You look a little nervous." The older woman realized she hadn't paid her new packmate much attention yet, so she broadened her smile just a little, hoping not to intimidate him. ”We're a team here. I promise we've got your back!”

The thought of a real hunt had Minka's blood flowing hot within her veins, the queen could barely contain herself on the way out of the territory. As the lands got flatter she had to remind herself to contain her energy by keeping her pace to a trot rather than an actual run. While she loved being the alpha and having a pack, hunting had always been her natural calling, it had always been what she did to clear her head. There had never been a time in her life where she had needed to clear her head more than now, with Tokino gone she had come to accept and fill the role of single mother, but it seemed that she didn't need to. While she had never expected or asked him to Gent had seemingly easily stepped in and filled the role of father, and she was running out of time before she had to step in and explain what had happened to their actual dad. While she had told @Marianna, @Draven and @Kino about Tokino and who he had been as a dad to them she had iced over where he was now, just saying he wishes he could be there but wasn't. Minka knew this explanation wouldn't last forever, and the day grew closer and closer that the truth would need to be said.

Instead of focusing on this though Minka through herself whole heartedly into the hunt at hand, her mood only higher when she got to spend time with her children. Finally their group slowed as the large herd came into sight through the boughs of the forest surrounding them. At the sight of the stamping beasts Minka couldn't help the slow smile that spread across her muzzle, her feet itching to get to work. As Gent asked for further instruction she pushed forward so she had a clearer view of the herd, but they were still too far to pick out any defects.

Turning back to the members that they had brought with them she looked at the other six wolves, quickly assessing their strengths and weaknesses. That is until her golden eyes fell onto Datura who was clearly distressed, moving back towards him Minka felt her heart ache. He had been alone when she had found him, covered in dirt and obviously malnourished, was this the first time he had even seen a real hunt. Leaning down so only he and possibly Cessair could hear she murmured, "You can stick with me if you would like." Waiting for his answer before she nodded in acknowledgement she turned away to announce the plan. Looking to each wolf as she spoke their name she divided them, "Gent, Astraeus and Kova are on takedown, Raela, Cessair, Datura and myself will be the chasers. The water is shallower upstream so we can walk across relatively easily, the take down team can wait to ambush in the tall grass on this side of the bank there. My team will cross and make a wide enough loop towards the bottom herd once again using the grass as cover. Raela and Cessair will go to the very bottom of the herd and startle them into a run, this will give Datura and I who will wait parallel to them time to pick out the weaklings. We'll come in from the side and separate the weakest of the herd and drive them across the shallow part of the river and into the ambush. Any objections?" Minka paused then, looking each of the wolves around her in the eye and waiting for approval or disapproval.

Kova lagged behind the others distracted by the thick scent of caribou in the air and his own thoughts. He was thinking back to the other hunts he had been on, and all the fishing lessons. He didn't recognize the scent of caribou from anything he had seen or ate before, so the young wolf figured this prey must be something new to him. He had hunted white-tailed, mule deer, and moose, as well as a variety of fish, and small mammals. He was trying to picture what a caribou looked like while walking along slowly behind the others. Eventually though the pack stopped to look over the herd from a good distance. Kova nearly bumped into Cessair because he had not been looking too far ahead of himself, but thankfully veered to her left avoiding her before stopping. His curious blue gaze pulled away from his paws and the earth, switched to Cessair with apology running through them, then turned to look at the landscape.

It was a majestic sight. One that blew Kova's breath away.

Large spindly legged deer with strangely curved antlers milled about just across the river. Their mostly white coats glistened in the sunlight as they swept upon the banks of the river like a wave crashing at the beach. “Woah...” was all Kova managed to say as he looked down at them past Minka, Gent and the others. His ears perked as his mother began to speak of a plan. This caused the boy to turn and gaze at her with a serious and determined expression.

While Kova didn't get the same thrill out of killing that his mother did, he overall felt good about being able to help provide food for himself and the pack. He would hunt with as much enthusiasm as she did. When he heard his name spoken Kova shivered understanding plainly what the take down was. Though he was a bit surprised that Minka would have him working with Gent and Astraeus on such an important task. He was also wondering if they might have to swim across, but then Minka mentioned the chasing group driving the caribou across the river where his group was to wait. Kova nodded gently before looking back at the caribou. There were so many of them! How would the chasing group single out one from the others?

“Question... Do you want me hanging back helping Gent and Astreaus? Or do you want me fully trying to help?” Kova asked quickly before turning his gaze back to Minka and Gent for an answer.

Kova nodded to Gent then dove after his pack mates as they headed to their own position. He kept behind Astreaus and Gent by about a foot to watch them and make sure that he was doing everything right. Soon they slowed down and began to slink through the long grasses. Kova's fur snagged a number of times on the rough sides of the grass leaves, but this did not bother him in the least. It felt much like how another wolf might groom him. Gent then spoke up softly enough for Kova to have to quicken his pace a bit to get to the alpha's side and hear what he was saying. The dark brute spoke of patterns and predictions, and that eventually the more hunts Kova went on the more likely he would be to see them. Kova nodded silently completely aware of how close they were to the gigantic herd. Their hoof beats reverberated in his ears, distracting him enough that the boy turned to try and glance through the grass and see them.

Kova tried to think back on other hunts to see if maybe he had seen a pattern before. With the first hunt, the one he was only watching with Noble and his father, the rest of the pack had split a weak creature from the herd and chased it until it was very tired. Then they took it down nice and quick. The hunt hadn't been that scary back then. But was there a pattern? He then tried to think of the moose. The creature had scared the bajeezus out of him with its size and strength, despite the thing being injured. If less wolves had come to his rescue Kova wasn't sure f they would have been able to take it down. The moose turned around and fought instead of fleeing like the deer in the first hunt.. No pattern there... More thoughts swam around his head as the wolf looked to Gent and Astreaus quietly to keep an eye on them.

In the last hunt with Gent and Raela the deer had done the same as in the first hunt. It had tried to run, but when we got the baby it did what the moose had done and turned to attack us. Even when it was badly injured the deer tried to fight back.. Is that it? Most deer will run until they get hurt and then they feel that they need to protect themselves by fighting? The hypothesis formed clearly within his mind. Kova wanted to see if this same theory could be supported by the actions of the caribou in this hunt. He was much like a scientist testing an idea.