Come bother my boy...

[wolfborn_were]

Who: Emery Deluca (wolfborn_were) & ANY OF YOU
I'll take you all on!
What: new character meet and greet?
When: any time in November, before or after member event
Where: Lockwood Forest
Warning(s): May include some animal death, since... werewolf. Hunts for his food.
Note: Just the one general open prompt, so no cut. I can add some closed prompts as well -- feel free to hit up my inbox.

You've probably got your reasons to wander around in Lockwood Forest. Making friends with those cute little ghost animals, maybe. Wood-cutting, since this island is pretty low tech compared to home. Foraging for helpful plants or hunting for wild game to supplement your groceries.

But there's something... someone who is making his home in the forest. Did your plans include running across a wolf? Or, worse yet, a werewolf?

Comments

[tisnotthehouse]

Yeeeeesss, excellent.

Tarantulas spins quickly, increasing his size so he can build the web more quickly. Then he shrinks down, and climbs into an upper corner of the web; should the plan succeed and prey becomes trapped inside, his fangs and silk will be ready. And Emery shouldn't worry; his venom won't spoil the meat...

[wolfborn_were]

{Rolled a one, but that's why he's working with someone, heh...}

Emery attempts to take down an older deer, who is standing at a slight remove from the herd. He lunges for it, but totally misjudges the distance. He lands hard on the ground and the deer aims a kick at his head before the herd goes scattering in several different directions.

But at least one hurries in the direction where Emery left Tarantulas to build the web. Slowly, still aching from that hard landing, Emery gets to his feet and follows that particular target.

[tisnotthehouse]

[And Tara rolled a 9 on web effectiveness and a 5 on that jump. The mighty hunters indeed XD]

Tarantulas thought he was ready for anything, but he made a miscalculation: a deer is not only larger than a rabbit, but also much more dense. When a running deer hits his web it stretches -- and then starts to break. He curses and jumps down onto the deer -- and its entire body jerks and bucks, throwing him off.

He lies on his back for a moment, legs in the air, trying to work out what just happened.

[wolfborn_were]

For a wolf, when hunting deer up to eighty percent of the attempts end in failure. So Emery isn't surprised to see a broken, empty web when he arrives. If Tarantulas still needs a hand up from that spill, Emery will gladly give it.

"Hm." Emery picks up a shred of web, and rubs his thumb against it before trying to use the claw on his thumb to cut it. "You figure out what went wrong with your web?"

Before Tarantulas can answer, Emery notes, "I messed up my initial attack as well. Drove the healthy ones toward you, too." No one is at fault because they both messed up.

[tisnotthehouse]

No worries. Tarantulas's daze only lasts for a few seconds, and he's able to scramble back up to his feet on his own. He scuttles over to the remnants of his web, touching the dangling strands with his pedipalps.

"The strands were too thin," he says after a moment. "And I believe I placed them too far apart. It started to break as soon as the deer hit it." He laughs quietly and glances up at Emery. "So of course I tried to jump on it and bite it, and I expect you can guess the rest. What shall we do now?"

Not give up, he hopes. But with the herd scattered, will they need to find another angle of attack?

[wolfborn_were]

"If we keep downwind of the herd while circling back to where they scattered, we might be able to find the trail of another old or sick target." Emery replies. "If you wait up in the trees, I can drive the target toward that spot. Break one of their legs and let you drop down to bite it."

That way, they won't be relying on the webs, which take time to spin.

"Of course, I'd expect you to get clear after biting it, so it doesn't hurt you. We'll keep the deer cornered til it dies."

[tisnotthehouse]

"Yes, let's try that!" Tarantulas agrees eagerly. He knows how they move now, the deer won't throw him so easily next time. Or if it does, at least he'll be better prepared to land on his feet.

It takes them some time to circle around the herd, of course, but Tarantulas is in a much better mood now, the failure of their first attempt perversely making him more interested in the process. He's ready to make a completely new set of mistakes.

[wolfborn_were]

Making new mistakes is the name of the game -- you have to fail to figure out what works, sometimes.

Emery takes his normal wolf shape for the stealth of it, creeping low to the ground as he stalks his new target. He'll have to get upwind of the herd for a moment, in order to be in the right position to drive the older deer toward Tarantulas in his tree... but even that helps. A few of the younger deer raise their heads at that wolfish scent and move uneasily... and clear a path to the older one.

Emery bursts out from cover, and shifts in mid-run to his hybrid shape. He stretches out and rakes his claws against the deer's side -- the deer bolts right for the trees!

Right toward Emery's hunting partner.

{And that's an 18 - woo hoo!}

[tisnotthehouse]

This time, Tarantulas is ready. He leaps, landing on the deer's shoulder and quickly injecting it with his paralytic neurotoxin. The deer immediately begins to twist and buck, and he jumps clear -- earlier than he'd hoped, but the foreleg on that side is already beginning to drag, slowing the deer's movements.

Perhaps slowing it enough that Emery can catch up and hit it again?

[wolfborn_were]

Emery is a few steps behind the deer by the time that Tarantulas jumps clear, and manages to get his jaws around the deer's back leg on the same side. Those jaws close, there's a muffled cracking sound as the bone breaks -- Emery releases and drops back to avoid the deer's last desperate kick to defend itself.

With both legs on one side of its body disabled, the animal falls heavily. It thrashes around enough that Emery pauses a moment.

"Can you pin it down with webbing? If it moves less, I can disembowel it clean."

[tisnotthehouse]

"I believe I can do better than that," Tarantulas says. He grows larger before putting a clawed foot on the deer's head, holding it down. A second foot pins its uninjured foreleg, while a third stops its body from thrashing. Tarantulas swiftly dips his head and sinks his fangs into the deer's neck, just beneath its immobilized head.

So close to the brain, this time it takes his neurotoxin only a few seconds to work. The deer kicks just two more times before falling limp, and ceases to breath just a few seconds afterwards.

"There," Tarantulas says, a little breathless himself from all the excitement. "To the victors go the spoils."

[wolfborn_were]

"Any preference on the organs?" Emery asks. "I know humans don't like most of 'em, and I don't know if you do or don't."

Eating in the field will help recoup the lost energy from the hunt, and the rest of the carcass will be lighter when they haul it back.

"And that poison you put in... any parts we should leave alone?"

[tisnotthehouse]

"I'll eat anything except the bones," Tarantulas says, shrinking back down to a more reasonable size to let Emery get closer to the carcass. "The meat and organs should be fine -- my venom affects the nervous system directly -- but let me remove the injection sites just in case." He transforms and takes off his backpack, getting out a sharp knife which he uses to peel back the hide, beginning with the deer's chin.

"We should skin it first," he explains. "Unless you want it for something, I'll take it back into town with me. Leather seems to be in high demand around here."

[wolfborn_were]

"I don't need the skin for anything. I'm just glad we figured out a good hunting strategy."

Once the deer has been skinned, Emery does disembowel it... and step back, allowing Tarantulas first pick of the meat and organs. A sign of respect, and an overture of friendship.

ready to wrap soon?

[tisnotthehouse]

Yes, Tarantulas is also feeling very pleased with their success. He carefully cuts the spots where his fangs pierced the deer's flesh out in little half-circles -- which are immediately popped into his mouth -- but he otherwise leaves legs and neck to Emery, preferring the viscera. In turn he splits the liver in half and offer part of it and the entire heart to Emery, not wanting his...his friend...to miss out on such an important source of nutrition.

"I enjoyed this," he says quietly. "I learned a great deal, but apart from that -- it was good to hunt with a partner."

[wolfborn_were]

Emery eats the organs laid out of him, and munches on one of the haunches as well.

"We should do it again some time," Emery says agreeably. "I think we work together well."

{OOC: I do regret taking so long with this thread so we don't have much time for deeper CR, but feel free to later refer to other hunting trips that took place "off screen" if you wish.}

[tisnotthehouse]

[I will! And I'll miss Emery very much, but I'm glad we got to finish this thread <3]