ORIGIN

Marrow trots along the trail with a slight spring in her step, a newly-weaved bag at her shoulder, tied around her leg with a vine. Already, the creation has proven useful; rolling around at its leafy bottom are now several carefully-picked green berries, to use in… something, later. She's not sure what, yet; perhaps she'll try it out as an adhesive, once she gets back home?

But that's a thought for a different time. All this thinking and creating and exploring in this cave of flora all new to her—it's worked up an appetite.

Her pace slows as she walks through the undergrowth, careful not to step on too many leaves as she begins sniffing around. With all these plants around… what new hunting techniques could she use?

And, as it seems, she's not the only one around in these forests. Once more, she stumbles across a creature new to her—this one similar to the bear she had encountered earlier, with her fur and paws, but much smaller, and sporting a bone-white pelt that was stark against the greens and browns of the trees.

"Hello," Marrow calls to her, voice soft to make sure not to scare off any potential prey in the area. "Are you hunting, too?"

Marrow inclines her head in a brief nod. "That would be lovely," she murmurs back to the wolf, taking a few gentle steps forwards to stand at her side. "Would you like to lead? You seem like a better tracker than me."

She's never hunted with a partner before, actually. Her life in Canis has been spent… relatively alone, all things considered. She is aware, of course, of another group in that cave—she's heard distant footsteps and smelled the scent of other animals—but she hasn't quite found a reason to reach out, yet. Much of her time at home was spent wandering, studying bones, or hunting… alone.

But she doesn't need to be coerced to accept the thought of sharing the hunt with another—in fact, she finds the prospect of hunting with a partner fascinating. Especially one such as this, clearly built for it with the same kind of fangs as the bear had! Oh, it'll be wonderful to actually see a predator in action… what an opportunity to study for her own creations.

Hm. Marrow's never hunted deer before. She's never seen the need to—usually, she's sated by smaller prey, things like rats, mice, or the occasional bird too slow to get out of the reach of a spell. Besides, the deer that run along the tunnels at the edges of Canis tend to travel in herds… and, furthermore, tend to be quite fighty if given a reason to. She usually chooses to avoid their herds, rather than confront them head-on.

But thinking about it, choosing to hunt larger prey would make sense for the both of them. There are two mouths to feed in this hunt instead of one, after all—although she could hardly eat an entire deer's worth of meat herself, who knows how much the animal next to her requires?

She certainly doesn't have a moral objection to it—the deer she had found wandering the tunnels, while similar in head shape and sporting the occasional fangs, were nothing like her. Nowhere close to sapient.

"I think two of us would be able to kill it," Marrow replies smoothly. "Let's see where its trail leads."

"A smart decision," Marrow whispers back, keeping the tactic in mind for later. Already, hunting with a partner is proving useful; she could never have pinned prey against something hunting alone. Usually, the rats she hunted slipped into a burrow or through bones if she didn't ensnare them successfully.

She watches that ivory fur slip away between the forest, then focuses on the deer, head lowering. She leans forwards slightly—just slightly—muscles tensing as she anticipates the hunt.

Snap!

Her hunting partner steps on a twig—unfortunate, she must not have noticed it in time—and Marrow's head twitches upwards instinctively at the sound.

And so does the pair of deer in the clearing ahead of her.

They leap up from their gazing positions, preparing to bolt, to run off into the foliage—and Marrow digs her hooves into the ground and quickly, quickly, calls for her magic. Calls for the plants to listen to her command—calls for a root near the edge of the clearing, near her, where one of the deer are bolting to, to rise up, tear itself out of the dirt, and trip the deer in its tracks.

She's never called on her magic this hastily, before—

—and it works against her. The tree moves, indeed—but not in the way she wants it to! No, that would be too easy; instead, the dirt in front of her shifts, and she finds herself hastily backpedaling just in time for a root to rise up in front of her, blocking her path.

Ah, bones.

Marrow gives the wolf a soft nod at her words. "No need for apology. It was simple misfortune."

She pauses, pacing from side to side in front of the tree root raised in front of her, head tilting this way and that as she tries to discern what about this plant might be different compared to the others. It looks the same… perhaps it was simply the hasty cast that worked against her.

She nudges at the wood with her nose and channels magic once more, stone humming vaguely against her fur as she pulls at the root, asking it to return to the dirt once more.

For a moment, the root does not respond, staying perfectly still, stretched out in front of her, unmoving and obtuse.

And then it swings forwards and smacks her in the knees.

A concise demonstration of what should have happened to the deer she was targeting quickly plays out in front of Comet, as Marrow topples to the dirt, bleating indignantly in surprise. From her position on her side, she stares wide-eyed at the root, disbelief etched on her face.

And then she starts laughing. Really laughing; chest heaving and Marrow gasping for breath as she processes the absurdity of the situation. Here she is, trying to hunt, and her magic seems to be doing everything except letting her hunt!

"What—" she wheezes out, "—what was that about?!"

She nudges at her face with one leg, hoof clicking lightly against her gemstone as her laughter begins to die down. After a few moments, she glances back up at the wolf and chuckles. "...misfortune on both our ends, it seems."