Post by Toiro on Dec 3, 2013 4:30:00 GMT -5
Toiro padded noiselessly along the smooth mountain path, slowly descending towards the more sheltered cover of the forest. Although it was still decently warm in Shyia, the chill of winter was beginning to nip at the air, and the peaks of the Tia’deli mountain range were beginning to become a dangerous place, with the snowline already starting to creep further and further down the mountainside. Soon it would reach the dens – Toiro had made a mental note to make sure to warn his and Aludra’s pups not to stray too far from the caverns of Lerelm in case they were caught out in a snowstorm.
The approach of winter also meant that it was becoming more difficult to find sufficient prey for the Airila pack to feast upon, and that was in fact why the former hunter was out today. Having managed to catch naught but a scrawny stoat up in the snow, Toiro had decided to try his luck on the more forested slopes instead, where the activities of prey animals could still be frequently heard.
And lo and behold; almost immediately upon entering the woods, his nose caught a musky scent which - although faint - was undoubtedly that of caribou. A pleased smile spread on Toiro’s face as he followed the trail a little further to confirm that the smell was in fact from a decently sized herd of beasts, likely the same ones he’d distantly spotted out on the plains of Tiayr a few days ago. What luck that they had decided to cross over into Shyia; it was uncommon that such a large herd was to be found in the far northern areas of Anikira so close to winter, to the point where Toiro had even been wondering whether to send a hunting party out of the territory to pick off a few of the large group. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary now, and with any luck he would be able to safely take down one of their number this very afternoon.
The alpha paused to debate whether or not to call his hunters to him to assist with the hunt. On the one hand, having a team to work with would make it much easier to make a successful kill, but on the other, it might take some time to organise whoever came and he didn’t want to lose the opportunity by standing around while the caribou might be moving back towards the border and thus out of the pack’s reach. After a moment’s thought, the grey wolf decided that he must still be sufficiently far enough away from the herd to hope that the caribou would not be spooked by his howl, and even in the unlikely case that they were, they wouldn’t move far so it should be a fairly simple task of catching up to them. So Toiro lifted his muzzle towards the open sky and let loose a long clear howl, calling to his packmates in the area. “A fairly large herd of caribou has recently moved within the borders of Shyia territory, and I believe I have caught their scent near the base of the Tia’deli Mountains. Is anybody up for a hunt today?”
((OOC: This thread is mostly meant for @dimitri, Tala, and @5572, but others are welcome to join too as long as they are able to hunt ^^))