Sharing the Hunt

[Vaelitha Skysong]

As Karael knelt on the sandy rock, peering at the majestic Courser nosing the sparse shrubs, she looked over her shoulder and spoke gently to the two Kaldorei close behind her. Caliyen Starbreeze and Amplisa Featherspring stood close, kneeling as she did, and peering at the Stag she pointed out carefully.
"We are fortunate to be upwind from the beast", Karael whispered softly, her voice barely carrying to the two of them.
They had agreed to accompany her to the Stonetalon Peak, and Karael was glad of it. She had spent far too much time in her own company, and the interaction was one she craved. The Hunt was so much better when shared.
"Indeed", replied Amplisa.
"Amplisa, will you take the shot with me? Caliyen, once we fell the Courser, run in and end it's life." Karael notched in an arrow, pulling back the string and increasing the tension as she aimed. With a breath out, she let the arrow fly, seeing another pass in her periphery as Amplisa followed suit. It took moments for the Stag to fall, and the three of them rushed over to the body of the beast, crouching. Caliyen knelt at it's head and with gentle hands, took her knife to it's neck. With a quick pressure it was over, blood flowing freely from the stag's ruined throat.
"It is done", she said quietly, wiping the bloody knife on the now dead Courser's hide.
Karael stood and peered down at the body, a smile of satisfaction on her lips. She looked up at the two others and shared the bright smile with them, feeling the warmth of companionship.
"Let's get it to the camp", she said, slinging her bow over her shoulder."

[Caranir Elmheart]

Heaving the corpse up the slope was harder than they'd anticipated, but the combined efforts of the three elves eventually won out against gravity and the Courser's body was laid at the edge of their camp, just inside the grove. Celegil's late arrival brought the group up to four and she set about building a fire while the hunters jokingly bemoaned the lack of a male whose strength would have made handling the fallen prey much simpler.

Caliyen ran a hand over the beast's pelt as the others talked, noting the luxurious feel of the Courser's hide. While she had seen corpses before, this was her first stag hunt as the creatures were rare to find in Darkshore. A piece of her wanted this pelt, the rational part of her mind protested that it would find little use in her relatively spartan possessions but this was overwhelmed by something else. Sentiment, perhaps?

When it came time to allocate the different roles of butchery, Caliyen called quickly for the role of skinning. The momentary expressions on the faces of her fellow hunters told her that perhaps she had been a little too fast in staking her claim, she had not brought the animal down after all. A stumbled apology earned her a brief smile from Karael and they set to work, Caliyen quietly thanking her father for the numerous opportunities she'd had to practise this as a child; she did not want to ruin the hide now.

Amplisa set to work butchering some small sections of the meat for Celegil to cook while Karael moved to assist Caliyen in seperating the prized hide.

[Amplisa]

Amplisa firmly started out separating the stag's flank for the approaching dinner, but her inexperienced hands stalled her in her strive. Eventually, she grew more confident, and the meat was separated from the body, if not skillfully, rather dedicatedly.

The ecstasy of the kill still pumped adrenaline through her veins, and only after she was finished, it struck her how intense the feeling actually was. Victory is a dish for heroes, she stated to herself, and cut out a chunk of the newly roasted meat for herself to enjoy. Rather ignorant of the intense debates across the campfire, she took a first bite, and closed her eyes.