Cedarwood Forest Teeth to Bone

RE:Deer have become more careless as they enter their fall feeding-frenzy.
Dated on the same day as their pack interaction (11/25) | For @Felix but if any other kiddos, @Joan @Ophelia, or even adults wanna pop in that'd be fine too! This is a little bit outside pack borders but not too far that no one couldn't hear/smell any commotion. Ace, if you want me to change anything let me know c:

teeth to bone, nail to flesh

The two had made way from the den to right outside the pack's borders. Deacon had kept his nose low in search of something for him to help Felix hunt. "You know how to track? Keep your nose alert and try to smell something, anything." His voice was a low whisper to the younger boy. "Mice, rabbit, birds, or maybe even a deer." If they were lucky a rabbit or bird's nest would be found and it'd be the prime example for Felix.

He didn't want to do all the work for the silver-hued boy, despite the excitement Deacon may have felt on doing some hunting and stretching his legs. It was more important to teach the younger boy beside him and let him get the experience. Deacon had already known some tricks due to his caretaker Enoki and his own mother Elettra. Granted he was no master, grand, killer of all hunter. Perhaps this would be a good learning experience for both of them. The Archer-Lyall did feel a smudge rude about not asking Veho to take Felix out on a tiny trip but it was just that right? A tiny trip for the two boys. Just a little bonding and teaching. Deacon was willing to defend Felix by the tooth and nail if by chance they ran into something bigger and much nastier than anticipated.

have you checked out my player preferences?

What was this feeling? Was it excitement? Dread? Anxiety? All of the above? The boy barely registered the older wolf was speaking to him, his ears swiveling forward to catch the words. His mind whirled to life, trying to process even as his cheeks burned beneath his thick winter coat.

“Uhm. No. Not really,” he muttered, dropping his gaze from the flank he was following through the woods. Was this something he should be doing with his father? Or his brother? But no matter how good they were at hunting, or other wolf-like things, Felix was fairly certain they couldn’t have helped him much, either. He was an absolute tyro in all adult things, with nothing going for him. The boy wished he could have shrunk down, disappeared into the ground, even as Deacon spoke.

“…I just…uhm… Like I told you. I like to count. Numbers. I collect rocks and…and I chase bugs, sometimes, too.” He rolled his shoulder as they moved, his shrug lost somewhere in the swaying movement of their easy trot. Sure, he’d been out of Cedarwood before, but this was with intent. With an adult. And that was fine, wasn’t it? The anxiety started to bubble up again, and the boy wanted little more than to curl up and return home, back to his sleepy little nest. “…maybe…maybe I’m just not very good at this.”

Deacon noticed how unconfident @Felix seemed to be and it made a frown form upon his dark lips. He listened to the silver boy muse about bugs, number, and rocks. The Archer-Lyall paused in in his tracks and turned to look at his young partner. "Hey, don't be so rough on yourself, okay?" He offered a gentle smile and a little bump of his shoulder against Felix's. "We haven't even started one lesson and you still have many years to learn the art of hunting." Truth be told, Deacon had only met one rather impressive hunter. It was Enoki, of course.

"So when you chase bugs, how do you do it? Ambush them? Maybe kind of corral them?" He was truly interested in the boy's work of Bug Hunting. With bugs usually being small he wondered if Felix was quick and nimble. Deacon had never been bug hunting so he was clueless on how it worked. But he was hoping if he could find common ground between bug hunting and deer (or any bigger-than-a-bug prey) hunting that Felix would be able to feel more confident in his capabilities.

Waiting for the silver boy to answer, Deacon sniffed around the air. Curious as to what may be nearing them.

have you checked out my player preferences?

Don’t be so rough on yourself.

But that was easy for him to say, wasn’t it? His father wasn’t the pack alpha, his mother wasn’t the pack alpha…or former female alpha. Where she’d gone, no one knew, not even Veho. And that didn’t even touch on the story of their papa. All of this left little time to teach Felix much beyond the bare necessities and that…that... It wasn’t his fault, and yet, it left the young Macieo feel like he was lacking in something important.

The gentle bump against his shoulder startled the young boy out of his thoughts, blinking owlishly before turning his mismatched gaze upon the older male. He’d just asked a question--

If Deacon listened closely enough, he could probably hear the gears grinding between the pup’s ears. “Well.. Usually try to watch them as long as I can to know what they do… And then I… Well, I guess I corral them where I want them, yeah.” The youth paused after a moment, his mouth twisting. “Unless they fly. Then…well, that’s usually where it ends, I guess. But that shouldn’t be a problem now, right? I mean, deer don’t fly.” At least, he’d never seen one of the white tails spread any wings and take off into the trees. But then again, he hadn’t seen a beetle fly until he’d nearly caught it.

“…I mean, they don’t…do they?”