The Wildwood Curious Exploration

“Nice to meet you..Tyne” Sylva said, saying his name with some pleasure, it felt great to be able to actually say another wolf’s name and that canine to be around to be able to respond. After he replied to her question about eating the hare, the young wolf nodded “Upwind...alright.” Hunting upwind had been one of the few things Sylva had learned from her mother and thus she was fairly familiar with the concept. The wind was blowing from the other direction behind the heard, blowing the scent of the deer toward them, blowing their scent away from the herd.

As the rust and cream colored wolf wandered off to scout the herd of deer, Syla turned her attention toward the hare, pausing for a moment, she quietly repeated his name. “Tyne…” A small shiver of pleasure sent Sylva’s spine tingling. The name of another wolf, something that tasted like sweet honey to say for the lone wolf. It was a sign, a sign of a bond, no matter how small that bond was, Sylva wouldn’t forget it. It failed to register in the young wolf’s mind that she hadn’t even given her name yet.

Eventually, after a few moments Sylva snapped back into reality as her stomach rumbled again and she glanced toward the hare “Well now, we can’t have you giving us away….” She stepped toward the bloody hare and dug in. Sylva lived by her own code, as such since Tyne had helped catch the hare, and she was unsure if their hunt would be successful with the two of them, she made sure to only eat what she saw as her fair portion of the small meal before standing, licking the blood from her muzzle and giving her thick black and chocolate brown fur shake before starting off after Tyne.

Eventually, finding his scent and following it quietly, the small lithe shadow stepped out behind Tyne, sniffing the the air as she walked before stopping. Another wolf? She was both excited and nervous at the prospect. Another wolf could mean another friend or...a rival, unaware of the local pack scents, it failed to register to her that this herd could be some pack’s target. Stepping quietly, she slunk up to Tyne’s side, about to tell him when she spotted what he had been looking at, a silvery wolf.

Oula Whitebark
a holy soul in a foreign land

Oula lay in wait along the leeward side of the herd, her senses strained to the fullest extent as she tried to get a bearing on just how close the other wolves were, and more importantly, whether they were converging on the same prey as her. At the sound of paws crunching in her direction her muscles tensed, a defensive lowering of her head and a cautious sway of her short brushy tail level with her spine. Just because they weren't of Willow Ridge did not mean that she could let her guard down. Her eyes settled upon two wolves, a tawny male and a much smaller female at his side.

As she watched them, the pair seemed to keep their distance. That they hadn't charged up to her with fangs bared was a good sign, not only in avoiding an altercation but keeping the herd from noticing the presence of the predators. But it left Oula with a conundrum; the pair was unlikely to give up their quarry just because she had showed up. She didn't want to leave empty handed after coming all this way.

Slowly she turned towards the two, her tail swinging low and non-threatening as she softly tread closer. She stopped a few body lengths away, her sage gaze glancing into woods in the direction of the deer, before meeting gold and then brown eyes of the wolves before her, sizing them up. They were both young, the male seemed big enough that he could maybe hold his own, but the little black yearling looked like a stiff breeze could knock her over. They were a goring waiting to happen.

"Just the two of you?" She scoffed in a hushed tone.

Standing silently he waited for the other wolf’s actions. They seemed to have spotted him and didn’t seem threatening, granted the silvery wolf was quite a ways away. A quiet crunch of snow behind him caused him to peel his attention from the other wolf. It was Sylva walking silently towards him. Hummm so she can be stealthy he says to himself recalling the whole rabbit incident. The dark yearling comes by his side and also notices the other wolf. “They seem to be alone” he whispers quietly for they were still near the heard.
 
Looking back to his left he sees that the silvery figure was making their way towards him and his tiny companion. His muscles tensed slightly, he didn’t want to possibly miss a chance to practice his hunting skills…even if there was only two – maybe three- of them. As the stranger came closer details became more apparent. This stranger was an older female whose size was comfortably between his and Sylva’s. Her pelt was a mixture of light grays, creams and whites while her eyes were a pale sage color. Her stance was non-threatening which allowed the agouti to relax a bit. However despite her non-threatening posture, her tone and words were laced with what sounded like disapproval. She wasn’t in the wrong with this disapproval…he and Sylva definitely didn’t have a chance at catching a health adult deer but he was hoping that there was a sickly one that they could handle. “Yea just the two of us…we were hoping there was a sickly one in the heard that we could separate easily” he explained in a hushed voice.
 
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Who is she..? Sylva wondered as Tyre whispered to her that the other wolf seemed to be alone. Her soft hazel gaze narrowed slightly as the larger female started toward them. Instinctively she pressed her dark colored pelt against her friend’s. Sylva was scared, she wasn’t even trying to hide it until she realized that Oula was coming directly toward them. She shifted her posture as the female came closer, seeing her non threatening stance, Sylva became a little more confident, standing to her full height, a highly intimidating twenty seven inches as Oula spoke.

She tilted her head slightly at the hushed “ Just the two of you?” but before she could say anything, Tyne spoke up. it was true, with only two of them, the chances of taking down a good, healthy deer were absolutely zero, but...maybe with a third wolf...maybe they could make a temporary alliance of necessity to bring down a worthwhile meal. Slowly she took in all of Oula’s features, from the fur mixed between greys and creams to her larger stature.

“Would you be willing to join us? We would all benefit from it, a larger meal for each of us.” As she spoke her gaze drifted toward the herd, unaware that Oula carried the scent of a pack, for Sylva it seemed to just be her scent, but then, her nose twitched as she realized that Oula carried the scent of other wolves. Suddenly worried that she may have offended a pack wolf she quickly stammered “I-i I m mean, unl-unless you're hunting for your pack, I hadn’t realized that you were in one w-when I offered...I don’t..”she ended up babbling for a few moments, mostly uningelligenble nonsense before she sucked in a breath and contemplate smacking her head against the snow in frustration..

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(This post was last modified: Feb 24, 2016, 04:18 PM by Sylva.)

@Tyne @Sylva Felt like I was holding this one up so she's exiting in this post

Oula Whitebark
a holy soul in a foreign land

Sage eyes narrowed slightly as the pair explained themselves, hoping that fortune would smile upon them and bless them with an easy target. Sure, between the two of them they could probably separate out a doe with a lame leg or an aging bull, but then what? She just couldn't see them actually succeeding in the take-down short of a miracle.

She had been hoping they would realize the futile nature of their plan, and perhaps just leave the herd behind for her pack to pick off later. The offer to hunt along with them was kind at face value, but to her it seemed a waste of her effort. Any meat she helped kill should go to her and her pack, not two strangers who would rightly take two thirds of the cut. She wasn't starving, and while the pair before her could do with some filling out, they weren't really her responsibility. Every hunt was a calculated risk, anything could go wrong, a hoof to the head, a broken limb, trampled, or worse, and she wasn't willing to risk her hide for charity. And that was all assuming they were honest wolves that wouldn't just mug her once the prey was killed.

Her attention sharply shifted to the babbling of the little black wolf, stumbling and falling over her words as if they were so many stones and brambles along a path. Nope, definitely not worth her time. Oula lifted her snout, managing to peer down her nose at both of them despite the male being taller than herself. "You might want to stick to the hares." She said icily.

With a flick of her tail she turned, trotting off.

(This post was last modified: Feb 28, 2016, 05:16 AM by Oula.)

OCC Comments: @Oula no worries! Thanks for jumping in :)
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Sylva’s babbling tumbled from her ebony lips. Tyne watched the expression on pack wolf face become unimpressed. The silvery female raised her muzzle as if to look down upon the two loners. Her words were as icy as the snow beneath their feet "You might want to stick to the hares" and with a flick of her tail she turned and trotted off. “Well then” he snorted looking back at his smaller counterpart “guess we know our answer”.
 
The pack wolf’s words floated through his consciousness. She isn’t wrong he admitted to himself. It was a stretch for him and Sylva to actually succeed in bringing a deer down on their own. But it never hurt to just see that the herd looked like.
 
Tyne motions for the dark yearling to go further down wind. Hoping that she would understand he looked in the direction of the herd. Crouching lower to the frozen ground the tawny male creeps closer through the brush. Carefully moving through the brush he finally was able to see the deer. Gold irises looked each individual animal over two-fold looking for any weaknesses. Each deer he looked at seemed relatively healthy, too healthy for only two yearlings to bring down. Backing out carefully he went to where Sylva had gone to see if she had any luck
 
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((@Oula it was fun meeting her! )))

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The small loner cocked an eyebrow as the larger silver female looked down on them both with what felt like contempt. When Oula spoke Sylva didn’t know what to feel or how to react. She hadn’t met many wolves in the time she had been alone, Tyre had actually been the first one she had conversed with in months and he had been very nice. Deep inside, she had hopped that maybe all of the wolves she would meet might be that way, but Oula had been a wake up call for Sylva, showing the stark contrast between the many shades that a wolf could come in.

She tilted her head as the silvery wolf trotted off, at first she hadn’t heard the beginning of what Tyre had said, but she did catch the second line. “Yea.” She nodded in agreement, though her thoughts drifted back to the female “She was a little cold don’t you think?”

Sylva wondered briefly if something she may have said offended Olua, but she quickly abandoned the thought when Tyre motioned for her to move downwind. She pricked her ears, not to detect any noise but to feel the gentle breeze blowing by.

Let’s see...it’s it’s still blowing toward us, so downwind is toward the deer… Slowly she place one paw in front of the other as she moved toward the trees and squeezing behind them, her dark pelt aiding in visual camouflage as she crept toward the deer. A small but mute sigh escaped Sylva’s maw as she observed the deer, she wasn’t sure exactly what to look for. She was highly uneducated in what set the lame or elderly apart from the healthy does and bulls. It seemed like all the deers looked the same, so either they were all sick, or they were all healthy. Something told her that it was the latter, as a herd of sick deer would have been easy pickings for any pack.

Sensing more than hearing or smelling Tyre approaching Sylva angled her snout toward him. Assuming that he had come to see how she was doing, she shook her head in the unival ‘no’ gesture.

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Hope of catching a decent meal was dwindling as the dark female silently told the tawny male that she hadn’t had any spotted any weak links in the heard either. Then it occurred to him that she might not know what to given that she’s never hunted deer before. “Do you know what to look for in order to decide which ones are weak?” he asked in a low voice. The agouti yearling decided that even if he and the girl couldn’t catch a meal he could at least teach her a bit about the dynamics of hunting deer. He moves closer to her side gently moving her so that they both were facing towards the herd.
 
He looks at her chocolate brown eyes for understanding. Once he received what he was looking for he looked the herd over with shining gold eyes. Tyne didn’t see any overly weak links but he could roughly tell which were experiencing their first winters. He remembers his father teaching this lesson to him when he was around his companion’s age. “So what you wanna do when you’re looking a herd for any weak links if look for individuals with injures; a limp, healing or fresh wounds or anything that would impair their ability to get away. If there isn’t any with visible injuries, you wanna look for those who are either moving slower than the rest or those who are wandering away from the rest of the herd”. Gold irises peel away from the prey in the clearing to check for understanding in his chocolate counterpart.

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As Tyre came closer and asked his question, Sylva shook her head. “No.” She whispered “I don’t know…” Her brown eyes focused on the small herd as the agouti male nudged her back in their direction. His pelt brushing against her’s made her tingle slightly, the contact brought some comfort to her as he explained the various things that you had to look for in a deer.

“Injuries like a limp or an old wound..” Sylva repeated to herself. Ok so, if they look frail or elderly, wandering away from the herd…She glanced back toward the herd, hazel orbs observing with this new information.Hm…She thought to herself, all of the herd seemed to be fairly healthy, close together, none straying and no obvious debilitations.

They may not be catching a meal today, but this was valuable knowledge that Sylva intended to remember and she filed it away for later before glancing back at Tyre “So...what now?” She inquired, tilting her head slightly to the side as her attention diverted away from the herd of deer. There had to be something else they could do right? or would they simply go their separate ways for now.

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(This post was last modified: Feb 29, 2016, 08:18 PM by Sylva.)

OOC Comments: @Sylva So if you'd like Sylva can tag along and it can be assumed that they split off later on or they can split now. Which ever you'd like :)
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The tawny boy was pleased to see the young girl absorbing the information given to her. She seemed to understand what to look for, as her words echoed his. Determining that they would be unable to be successful he turned to move away from the clearing and the herd. Trotting to a safe distance away he turns to face his chocolate companion. Now what? He thought but before he could formulate his thought into words Sylva spoke exactly what he was thinking. “Uhhh – I dunno to be honest” he responds with a tiny sigh. The woods around them were peaceful and he could hear the herd of deer slowly moving away from them.
 
Gold irises go from the surrounding scenery to the hazel orbs of his companions. Tyne wasn’t planning on going back to his pack mates just yet for he wanted to gather more information about this strange land. “My plan is just to roam some more if you would like to tag along” he offers with a warm smile. Having some company would be nice, he wasn’t use to being by himself for long periods of time, but he hated just sitting around doing nothing. Whether they parted ways or she came back with him would be determined later.
 
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