[H] Brienne, Coyote, Cinnamon
Tokotas hunting short story. /// 6(1218 WC) +2(hunt) +4(non-com) +2(handler) =14
Like most mornings around this time of year, it began crisp and cold with a thin layer of hoarfrost covering just about everything in sight. Their day began as such, with the deeper patches of ice crunching gently underfoot as they passed although none seemed too deep to pass with any kind of difficulty. At its deepest, the larger patches of snow barely seemed to come up more than half way up Brienne's legs, leaving most of her belly warm and dry with the longer bits of her mane across her chest collecting small, tangled balls of snow and her own share of wet fur. Behind her, Coyote and Cinnamon trailed placidly, letting the bigger beast carve their path for them rather than waste half the morning trying to chug along at either side of her.
As they set their course, Biter manifested quietly, their equivalent of a 'handler' preferred to stay out of broad daylight at any given point of time, but understood the merits of actually having a guiding hand assist the puppies while they hunted. They weren't actually puppies, of course. Biter just liked to think of them as such - his own big puppies who didn't care if he styled himself a king or not. As he draped himself over Brienne's shoulders, the dire twitched an ear to acknowledge him, but kept plowing a path through the snow without hesitation. It had taken some practice to keep her from starting when he did that, though most animals might react poorly to having something like Biter just pop up out of nowhere and sit on them. Biter pulled his hood up more tightly around himself, the longer bits of red cloth billowing behind him as a breeze swept past, bringing with it a few flecks of snowy powder that caused Brienne to adjust her path just slightly to keep it from her eyes.
Such continued in relative silence save for the calling of birds as the sun crawled lazily into the sky, not quite ready to approach its zenith whilst the Tokotas and their rider neared a familiar clearing downwind. Biter slid from Brienne's shoulders with eerie grace whilst Cinnamon and Coyote padded up behind them, heads and tails low until the bigger female chuffed softly and returned her attention to the clearing. Biter slid tenderly into a bush, pulling his red cloaks about him protectively; all this outside stuff was taxing, but not without its own merits. Clicking softly in place of words, the creature extended a thin, bony arm and gestured vaguely in the direction of a herd of caribou, taking care not to expose himself to the light or to move the bush enough to draw attention.
Coyote and Cinnamon melted away into the undergrowth, their paws crunching softly as they broke new ground while Brienne carefully padded in the opposite direction, her path taking her to the far end of the clearing. Biter needed to do little more than wait now; he'd given the silent instruction to retrieve a caribou, or two, or three, or however many they could manage without coming into too much danger from those powerful antlers and hooves. If it were nighttime, he might ride with one of them but such wasn't the case and the die had already been cast. All he could do was wait...
Ahead, the herd was grazing placidly, the more experienced animals pawing aside snow in search of fodder while their young emulated, or begged their mothers to yield up their spots. For the most part, the herd kept close together, the only far-ranging individuals being younger males who hadn't yet been excluded from the herd. Beyond their heavy breaths and the way the snow crunched beneath their feet, the clearing seemed quiet enough - almost peaceful, as far as clearings of big animals went. Biter wasn't particularly sure.
Still, the quiet exploded abruptly into a flurry of activity as Coyote burst from the undergrowth on the far end of the clearing. Whether or not she had immediately selected a target went without confirmation for the time being as her long strides carried her into the action, tongue lolling from her mouth white with froth and wet with drool as she bit and snapped and harried any Caribou foolish enough not to run at full flight from the sight of her. For what felt like an eternity, the flurry of activity went too quickly for Biter to track, even after relocating to low-hanging tree branch in an effort to get a better view of the action.
It wasn't until Cinnamon, faithful and neat as ever, emerged to replace her that their madness seemed to have a method to it - that was how the phrase went, right? As Biter looked on, Cinnamon seemed to pick up where Coyote left off as she fell back to catch her breath; taking after a particularly slender cow who appeared to have no calves to look after. This boded well, as Biter always felt terribly sad when his puppies brought back puppies from other species. Needless to say, calves hadn't much in the way of salvageable materials, though their meat was tender and soft. He let that train of thought depart as Cinnamon harried the cow along, snapping at her haunches, careful to not let her close to the herd, which had begun milling about nervously near the far end of the clearing. They hadn't departed yet, and likely wouldn't for some time as long as the danger appeared to have passed. Should one of the Tokotas turn back to the herd, however, they were like to flee although that seemed not the case for the moment.
The chase seemed to go on for hours, although Biter was keenly aware that only about a minute had passed before Brienne abruptly came crashing through the undergrowth, seemingly having deemed their quarry within striking distance. Just so, the sound of impact echoed across the way and Biter waited patiently for the dirt and dust to settle. This part of the hunt was always the one he detested most, but only because it took time for the puppies to be done with it and the hunt to have ended. He would need to string up their prey somewhere safe if he intended them to continue, and later secure their catches evenly to them if he had any hope of bringing them home. Brienne rose from where she'd crouched and let the cow's neck slide from her mouth, seemingly satisfied that it wouldn't put up a struggle any longer whilst Coyote and Cinnamon padded up behind her. It took a few minutes for him to get over there, what with his dislike of sunlight and all, but once he did, he patted each of them gently between the ears (as best he could, considering that each animal was much taller than him) and gestured for them to join him in the woods once more.
While they rested and readied for another chase, it would give the herd time to relax and offer Biter the unique opportunity to look over their catch and prepare it for transport as best he could. Saying nothing, he simply clicked his overlong teeth at them and the trio of Tokotas seemed satisfied enough with that.