- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas paced along behind Vjira, patiently watching, careful not to crowd her--a shift in the wind might mean that his scent would overpower whatever he was tracking. He-

-what was that noise?

He glanced back, quizzically, to find that Vedette was not eating so much as mincing her food. He didn't stop moving, just eyeing her over his shoulder for a moment--he didn't particularly care if she chose to practically bathe in the gore, but he did offer a helpful tip. "Agate, know that if you get blood on you, you will stink of it. It is not a scent that comes off easily--it can take a week or more, even with water; prey then may smell you coming, until it is gone." Blood was a metallic, reeking stench. Blood was strong. Blood was an odor that, once smelled in quantities, was impossible to forget.

He turned forward, pushing into the forest.

Here, it was darker: damp, rife with the scent of fertile earth. Vargas had to slink lower to fit beneath some of the hanging branches; others he brushed aside with the inexorable slow push of shoulders. But here, in the wet, rank shadows, he seemed more at home--more fitting--than he had out in the bright and open fields. Here, he moved with slinking grace, cat-like, prowling with soft steps across the dirt. His head was low, his tail held out behind him, his eyes cutting into the darkness of the trees.

There were more lessons to be had--lessons that would serve both children--as they went. "For the scent of blood... and for tracking, wind direction is your ally. Or your enemy, if you ignore it," he warned, his voice hushed as if the forest were some sort of sacred space--as if they were hunters here, stalking unseen. But would Vjira understand any of this lesson-? Would the Agate bother to really listen?

It didn't matter--he'd offer the information regardless. It was important to know it; there was no excuse, then, for not giving it to them. "Old scents," Vargas explained, "do not care for wind direction. They lay along the ground. But fresh scent-... It wafts like smoke unseen. This way, and that. Cold may bring it low, heat spread it high into the air. Damp will strengthen it--but all other scents, too. Dry will evaporate it all. If you track into the wind, it will carry the smell toward you; you can hunt without your prey smelling you easily. If you hunt against the wind, you will not smell much at all, and your prey will smell you coming--particularly if you are covered in blood," he went on.

Vjira had soon wound her way down the narrow ravine, and Vargas followed--close enough to be heard, but far enough to hopefully not disturb her tracking. He found it more difficult than she to navigate the steep slope; his bulk, agile and lithe as it was, was still a hindrance here and the bank slid out from underfoot more than once, the mud softly cracking and tumbling away. He had to brace himself as he went, and work at descending without going head over heels, without the whole slope avalanching away. It was hard going.

"But if there is a crosswind, you will find it hard to scent your prey--and they may find it hard to scent you. If a smell seems to come from ahead, when the wind comes from the right, then your prey is ahead--but far to the right. Do you see-? You will learn with experience, in any case. But remember always to note the wind--and learn to use it," he advised.

He came to a halt at the sound of popcorn-crunching bones, and peered quizzically at Vjira. He had just enough time (and just enough of a glimpse) to realize what she'd found, and done: she'd tracked down more bones, and just... consumed them. Vargas let out a quiet laugh. "Well--well done," he praised, amusement in his tone. "Your nose is good, at least. Would you two like to try and hunt down some food together-? With a tracker and a-" (here, he eyed Agate for a moment, her gore-splatters and all) "-...killer, it should be easy enough. Or you can track one another for practice," he offered.

He didn't particularly care what they did--if they wanted to just play among the trees, let them. Play was good practice, too. But he was giving suggestions, ideas, that they might use--suggestions that were more than frivolous concepts, in his mind. Suggestions that might teach them things.

@Vedette

Vedette eyed Vargas critically and grumbled, shaking herself off, blood and guts flying. She licked her tongue over her nose and followed after the pair, grumpy.

’Would'a been nice to know before,’ she thought.

She had to run to keep up, hissing with annoyance. Stupid Valkhounds and their stupid big bodies. Why couldn't there be smaller ones? It was annoying having to keep up with the brutes.

For a few moments, she forgot she had wings, but once she remembered, she took off like a rocket, wings flapping until she took to the sky, clumsily and ungainly at first, but quickly evening out. She swooped past Vargas and peered down at Vjira, only half-listening to Vargas.

"Bones?", she said, staring at the bone-eating Valkhound with a look of just... disgusted disappointment, "Bones? Really? Not meat? Hopeless."

Vedette loved to crunch bones, but dry, dusty bones were gross. Fresh meat and warm marrow was where it was at. Vjira had no taste.

"Let me roll in mud and then I'll catch a whole meadow deer by myself!", Vedette said back to Vargas, "I'll wash off the blood, roll in mud, and then scent fucking gone! Right? I mean that's what Twobutt did when he ran into that patch of stinkweed."

She cackled cruelly at the memory, having watched Chaos-Two return with a rabbit, absolutely miserable and smelling like a swamp, before retreating out of Draco to wash off, only to return covered in mud and even more miserable instead. At least they hadn't stunk as bad. Even worse, however, was that they'd made a lesson out of it!

Vedette's nose quickly scrunched and she looked up at Vargas, hoping he didn't make a lesson out of this either. He talked too much. Less talk, more action!

@Vjira

Vargas had not disturbed Vjira the entire time she was moving - the Valkhound easily ignored him to instead keep track of the smell on her nose. Once her brain took hold of something, it would not let that thing go. Which meant that if she got distracted, she would simply forget about the smell, but that wasn't much of a worry, since she eventually found her way to the bones she was looking for in the first place.

After she chomped up the bones, her head did turn, though, to Vargas' voice, of which she still did not understand. He didn't seem upset with her, though, which had her tail slowly wiggling in a flag behind her. Still, his words did not have meaning in her head, so she was lost to what he was asking. The hunger, though, she still did feel - something as small as those bones would not sedate the need for food. She was a large thing, and large beings needed to eat more than the small ones like Vedette.

Instead of nodding in understanding, the Valkhound took to attempting to sniff something out again - this time catching a smell she did not know on the wind. Of course, there also was... Blood, there, from Vedette's hunt. Vjira had not caught the blunt of that, however, and found something else. The Valkhound moved - trailing away from Vargas their parent and to where the scent was leading. She did find something, eventually - bison-like in shape. Inexplicably a meadow deer - the species Vedette wanted to hunt on her own. It looked... A little too large for something like the small prickly thing to hunt on her own - then again, Vjira did not know Vedette wanted to take something like that down in the first place.

There must have been a herd here - or a herd close by. Maybe all of the noise they were making made them bolt? At least she would have thought if she could think like that. She turned, to look at Vargas more than anything.

Was this good?

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas peered out at the Meadow Deer. "Not those, no, not unless Agate-One has some way of luring one off. Those are dangerous," he added, in warning, to both of them. Perhaps an experienced assassin could kill one--he was fairly confident he could catch one alone, with enough patience--but to simply find one standing around without a herd wasn't likely. The rest were undoubtedly quite close; perhaps just within the treeline.

He looked around, hoping for something a little less deadly on the first try. He cast out his magic, looking around, and--ahh. There. "Come," he said, and started off across the field--well away from the meadow deer.

As he went, he talked. "Yes, washing and mud would help. Mud is a good idea, but it is best not to bathe in the blood of your enemies or prey in the first place. Or any blood," he added, as an afterthought--as somehow, he expected Agate to take this a little too literally otherwise. He crested a slight rise in the meadow, massive limbs carrying him up and to the edge. There, he stopped, and grunted, nodding downward.

In the field below were the targets: a few Wind Hoppers, their rabbit-like bodies bright with swirls of color. Many were green, lending them good camouflage, but not all; and now and then more came, or went, via the tunnel mouths dug into the field. "Have fun," he told them, with a darkly-amused tone.

@Vedette

Vedette blew a raspberry and tumbled through the grass as she landed, grumbling, "That's no fun..."

Vargas was such a party pooper.

The small creature found one of the tiny streams that scattered from the river after a hard rain, winding through the trails that deer and other creatures tracked to get there. She threw herself into it and rolled around, getting more dirty than clean. She grinned to herself, happy that Chaos-Two would have to take the time cleaning her off. Served the wimp right.

She trotted along, much too happy with herself, covered head to toe in brown, her red eyes sparkling with mirth.

"I can catch fifty of those," she mocked, despite not knowing if the number was big or small, as Twobutt hadn't yet gotten to teaching her such a thing, "I'll go and scare 'em out of their hole, then Vag-Vjira can snap 'em up."

With that she prowled down one side of the hill, grinning. Darkness spread from her, chaotic magic welling up, sticky and disgusting. Black ooze dripped from her nose and eyes like tears and snot, but she ignored it, used to it by now.

She'd circle around the blinded rabbits and dart into their hole to scare them out. If they had nowhere to hide then Vjira could snatch them up easily.

@Vjira

Vjira watched the Meadow Deer with some kind of silent confidence. She could take one! But no, Vargas rumbled something out she didn't understand and then continued on like she didn't track down the herd at all. The rest of the herd could easily be there, and they were, too. Catching up to the one, they came out of wherever they were hiding before to create some kind of serene space between all of them, still not paying any attention to each of the other beings there. She turned away to follow Vargas when she noticed him getting too far ahead. Her stamping around like an idiot most likely alerted the herd, but they were done with them at that point anyway.

She only noticed the wind-hoppers when one of them vaguely moved against the grass. Their green coloring made it hard for her to make their shapes out exactly until they moved, but it was easy to tell at that point that there was two of them in the grass. Vargas made a rumbling sound, and Vjira didn't know what to do with it. They looked like they could run fast, and Vjira's first instinct was to sink lower to the ground, fur brushing the dirt underclaw as Vedette did some weird thing leaving her confused, but still eyes-on the rabbit shapes.

Whatever Vedette did seemed to work, as she left the rabbit-shapes careening in the direction of Vjira, who was standing out terribly in the grass. All purple and pink and yellow, nothing to hide there. Vjira wanted to eat them. So she moved to strike. All teeth and claws, Vjira ended up grabbing one between her forever-bared teeth, and the other crashed down between her claws on one leg. A screech sounded, most likely alerting that now-ignored herd again, but at least she got them right?? She dropped them down, a proud feeling in her chest as she looked at Vargas, and then tried to find Vedette.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas observed, magicka flaring up with unfamiliar strength. The sudden red thump of heartbeat pulses was intense in the Agate's abrupt shroud of darkness, and he watched closely as the pair moved in.

Agate's plan was clever--he had to give her that--and vicious, really. Merciless. Vargas approved of this, of course, and as she vanished down the warren holes (at least, he assumed that she did--he couldn't see the terrain, but he could see her sudden drop in height) he saw the bright red dots that were the Wind Hoppers scatter.

Vjira was ready for them, and he watched with a quiet grunt of approval as she pounced, graceful and single-minded--at least, to his mind. Well, bar the screech, at least.

One--no, two down--and then their brief, and surprisingly effective, hunt had come to a bloody but quite definitive conclusion. "GOOD," Vargas boomed, pacing over from where he'd waited quietly at the crest of the hill. "Good thinking, Agate; and a good kill, Vjira. And excellent teamwork, both of you." Vargas reflected on how much praise he'd given out today--but they had earned it. "Eat, if you wish; I will keep watch, and then you can do what you like for a time before we return to Draco."

@Vedette

Vedette popped her head out of the hole, able to see perfectly in the gloom she'd created. Her magic willed it so, that her eyes could see in darkness and find her quarry with ease, even as it fled her shadows. She watched as Vjira caught one, glad her plan had worked. She scrabbled out of the warren and shook herself out, though it did nothing to make her less dirty.

"You see?", she said to Vargas, hissing and baring her teeth in a ferocious grin, "I am useful. I am impressive when I'm not cooped up in a cave all day."

She'd eaten her fill earlier, but that didn't stop her from running over to the Valkhound and stealing the rabbit's ears, making off with them to chew and tear. Her teeth ached with the urge to destroy, and destroy she would. She'd eaten a meal she'd caught herself and even earned praise. If only Vargas had seen her potential earlier, then he'd have himself a wonderful little pawn to order about (as long as such orders were interesting, that was).

"Small and mighty," she mumbled to herself, ear flicking as a whisper crawled into her ear, worming into her brain. Stupid voices, she could have bad thoughts all by herself and didn't need them to think for her. Ugh.

Maybe chaos wasn't all that great sometimes.

Vedette sniffed at the ground and rolled, leaving mud and dirt all over the grass, though she was nowhere close to being clean. She dreaded going back to Twobutt, who'd probably grab her by the legs and drag her off for a bath. Ew.

@Vjira