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Post by PenguinwithSocks on Dec 6, 2009 1:03:04 GMT -6
Penguin was curious about the rest of the Inn, but that could wait. "I want to go hunting," she said, trying to sound matter-of-fact about it. She didn't want him to know that she had never hunted her own food before. Now that the sun was out and she was rested and fed, the task of hunting did not seem quite as daunting. She followed Scourge's path around the gaping holes in the floor (despite what he'd said, she didn't trust the rotting floorboards to hold her weight, but she was hardly going to show any fear) and met him at the bottom of the stairs.
The two moved outside. The day was beautiful; the sun was shining, and little white clouds dotted the sky. The path with the human's moving buildings seemed less imposing in the daylight; no monstrosities were passing by at the moment, but Penguin supposed that they too would look smaller in the sunlight. The derelict old Inn was the only thing not particularly touched by the sunlight-- if anything, the day's arrival only helped to point out the inadequacies of the building. The roof was caved in in several places, and none of the windows had panes in them. The chimney was hardly worthy of Saint Nick and his bag of presents as the bricks had fallen in and left it looking like the stub of arm that's left when a human man loses his hand. The paint was past peeling; it was gone, and termites had eaten holes in every board they could find. Not a pleasant place, but for some reason, Penguin liked it. Despite everything it had been through, it was still standing.
Scourge headed for the tall grass, and, not wanting to be left behind, Penguin followed. Adreneline coursed through her body; perhaps today would be the day she would make her first kill. She lifted her head and sniffed the air; this place was teeming with small animals, she could tell, but her scent was not trained enough to tell her of just what kind. She would have to follow Scourge's lead in this endeavor, as badly as she wanted to do this on her own.
She tensed. There was a rustling in the grass just to Penguin's left. She slowly turned her head in the direction of the noise and, without thinking, upon the second rustle pounced.
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Post by Redclaws on Dec 6, 2009 13:13:05 GMT -6
'Let's go hunting!' She said. Scourge smiled and replied, "Suits me. Let's go." He turned and headed out the door with Penguin on his heels. (If wolves even have heels...) They walked along the thunderpath, and even though it held horrible memories for them both, Scourge assured her it was the quickest way to the hunting grounds. They walked in silence for a little while, jumping back a few feet whenever a monster came storming by.
Finally, they reached the fields. It was a pretty huge field, and it wasn't very field like. It was just a whole bunch of tall grass that seemed to devour anything that went inside. Since it was kind of intimidating, and he was the only one who knew where they were giong, Scourge went first. "Now walk quietly, and don't make any sudden movements." He knew he probably didn't have to tell her this, because she seemed to be a great hunter. How else could she be so plump and have such a nice and shiny coat?
They stalked through the grass for a little, when suddenly, Scourge's nose picked out the scent of mouse from all the grass scent. He pinpointed it, and started creeping towards it. His pawsteps light and quick, he slowly crept closer... closer... until... *whoosh!* Penguin went speeding past him and leapt through the air and landed about 4 feet away from the mouse. the little creature freaked and ran away. Scourge made a desperate attempt to snag it as it ran, but the mouse had too much of a headstart. The prey scurried away into the grass.
Scourge turned to Penguin, all respect lost. "What on Earth was that?! What kind of a hunting technique was that?!" Suddenly realizing how mean he sounded, he softened, and helped her up out of the grass. "Penguin, if you would've just told me you didn't know how to hunt, I would've taught you. But now you still don't know how and we're both hungry." He sat down and beckoned for her to do the same "Okay, the first thing you need to know about hunting is, 'mouse feels you, rabbit hears you.' It's kind of like a hunter's golden rule. When stalking a mouse, stay light on your feet, because they can feel vibrations in the ground. With rabbits, you have to be extremely quiet because of their large ears." He licked his paw and brushed it over his ear. "Pouncing can't just be jumping at a piece of prey, it has to be an attack. Pretend it's another wolf you really hate. After that, it's all up to the correct timing and power of the jump." He scratched his head with a hind paw. "Scenting is easy. Once we get a new mouse, learn the scent, and then try and train yourself to be able to pick it out from a bunch of other scents. It gets much easier with time." He stood up. "Ready to try again? Or have you had enough?"
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Post by PenguinwithSocks on Jan 7, 2010 15:30:52 GMT -6
"Oh, please, you just had breakfast! You're not hungry, you just wanted to yell at me!" Penguin was not happy. She'd just made a fool of herself; of course she didn't know how to hunt. The humans did not provide challenging prey; food was simply placed in front of her, enhanced with nutrients and fully ready to eat. "Not like a single mouse would have done you any good, with how skinny you are!" Immediately after saying it, Penguin regretted the words. "I'm sorry Scourge," she said quickly.
She sat down. "You're right," she muttered. "I've never hunted before. I've never even eaten hunted food." It killed her to admit this. She sighed. "I'm going to try again, ok?" Without another word, Penguin turned her tail on Scourge and crept her way deeper into the tall grass.
This can't be as hard as it seems. What was it that Scourge said? Light feet for mice, silence for a rabbit? What on earth was the difference-- weren't you going to be quiet anyway if you're light on your feet? Penguin settled for doing both and padded lightly and silently. What if what she hunted was neither mouse nor rabbit? The rule seemed a little silly. She wanted bigger game; a mouse or rabbit wasn't going to keep her satisfied for long. Maybe that's why Scourge hunted so often, all he went after was the smaller game.
Suddenly, Penguin scented something entirely different. She crept forward, not recognizing the scent. Through the grass, she saw a small herd of deer. This is the sort of prey she was hungering for in the zoo.
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Post by Redclaws on Jan 16, 2010 0:33:07 GMT -6
Scourge chuckled to himself as she trotted off, in a desprate search to prove herself. She was quite intriguing, and Scourge was amazed at how differently she approached the world than any other wolf he'd met before. Not in the way that felt like love, her harsh temper and arrogance ruled that option out, there was just something that felt... different aobout her. There was more to this wolf than met the eye, and Scourge was determined to find out what it was.
He followed her through reeds, a lot quieter than she, for even though she looked like she was trying to be quiet, she had really caused quite a ruckus, and birds flew up on either side of her, shouting out warnings to all other prey around. Scourge didn't bother her with that though, instead, he let her have her fun. She wouldn't learn anything from just being lectured to!
It was all Scourge could do to keep himself from bursting out laughing when he saw her gaze rest on the deer. She had to be joking! She couldn't even catch a mouse, and she was trying for a deer? What a joke! As quietly as he could, he watched as she stalked to about 30 feet of it, and then she rustled some grass. The deer bolted away, but not before Penguin sunk her claws into its flank. It wasn't enough to kill it, or even slow it down. Hopefully it was enough though, for Scourge knew that she would not be happy if she found him with tears in his eyes from holding back laughter. As she grumbled back towards him, he couldn't wipe the goofy grin off of his face, and a giggle popped out. Realizing he'd just put his life in danger, he immediately apologized and hung his head, awaiting her rage.
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Post by PenguinwithSocks on Feb 26, 2010 23:10:42 GMT -6
Almost. She almost got the blasted deer. Penguin hadn't gone out with the intention of showing Scourge up, but she certainly wasn't enjoying the smug gleam in his eyes as she came back towards where he was standing. At any rate, she must have been able to show some sort of ferocity, as after one look from her Scourge quickly apologized and hung his head. Penguin didn't really care. She was hungry, she hadn't gotten the meat, and she had made herself look like an idiot in front of the first wild wolf she'd met. Not the dazzling life of a free wolf. She had to continue to remind herself that this life was still much better than the zoo.
Penguin stalked past Scourge and headed back to the Inn. She wasn't hungry anymore; embarrassment and disappointment had ruined her appetite. She rather hoped Scourge would just leave her alone, but she doubted she could count on that. Although he was hospitable (and, although she didn't want to admit it in this mood, kind), she just didn't want to have to deal with anything after this.
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Post by Redclaws on Feb 26, 2010 23:33:17 GMT -6
Scourge watched with dismay as she trudged off towards the inn. He didn't mean to hurt her feelings, he was just having a good time! Faes are so unpredictable. He was about to follow her and tell her what she did wrong, but that was probably the last thing she needed. So he stuck around and managed to scrounge up two mice and a rabbit. With his catch swinging from his jaws, he headed back to Old Rock.
When he arrived, he followed her scent upstairs to the room she had slept in the previous night. She was curled up in her little corner, staring out the window at the vast world in front of her. Scourge dropped the food at her paws and sat next to her. He wanted to lick and groom her like any friend would. However, he also valued his life. So he kept his tongue in place and waited for her to pick her prey.
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Post by PenguinwithSocks on Feb 28, 2010 21:07:55 GMT -6
"This is so stupid. This can't be how wild wolves live. Their lives aren't much better than the wolves at the zoo! They're pathetic, just in a different way. They live off what they can get, just like those wolves who followed the food-carrying humans everywhere. Does anyone out here live just to enjoy life? Doesn't anyone aspire to be anything else? The wild is such a disappointment. It's just as limiting as the zoo, but worse because here you can't see the limits. And I'll never be better than any of them because I don't know how to be; I'm just as limited as they are.
I'm trapped."
Penguin's thoughts raced wildly through her brain as she tried to sort through the agony of losing the most tantalizing prey she had ever smelled. She was almost there; she had almost felt like a wolf, a true, wild wolf, doing what she was born to do, but she fell short. It was the most gut-wrenching feeling in the world, know that she escaped only to be trapped again. And that Scourge, so willing to accept everything that happened, never questioning whether life could be any better. She couldn't stand it. There had to be more. There had to be a reason she felt like this. She was going to find out why; she was going to find out the reason she escaped from the zoo.
Scourge walked into the room just then, carrying a couple of his small prey. Fresh, from the smell of it. Penguin didn't look at him; she just kept staring out the window as if his presence wasn't in the room, as though he weren't staring at her like she was some sort of oddity. He walked over and dropped the prey at her paws, took a few steps back, and silently sat down.
As if it weren't already overwhelmed with emotions, Penguin's heart swelled a little. However content he was in his rut, Scourge was a kind wolf, and Penguin was hardly appreciative of that in her thoughts. He said nothing about her embarrassment, nothing about the way she bit off much more than she could chew (literally and figuratively). He just sat there. Looking terrified of her, admittedly, but leaving her to her peace.
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Post by Redclaws on Mar 8, 2010 9:53:16 GMT -6
The silence was unbearable for Scourge. She just sat there, staring out the window, obviously doing some heavy thinking. Scourge sighed and turned to walk out, but then he stopped and went back to her. "Is something wrong with me Penguin? Everything I do seems to rub you the wrong way. I feed you, you tell me you can get your own food. I take you out hunting, and you yell at me and storm back here. What's going on? You're more than welcome to stay here, but I'd like it if you could be more social and friendly." He paused and for the first time realized her odd odor. "Where do you come from? You smell of people." Suddenly, Scourge's mind put together the pieces. Can't catch food, puffy and proud, smells like people. "You're from the zoo aren't you!" Her horrified and confused expression made him realize his assumtion was right. Cool.
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Post by PenguinwithSocks on Jun 6, 2010 21:46:22 GMT -6
Penguin leaped to her feet. "If you ever so much as *think* that word again, I swear..." but no conceivable threats came readily to her mind. She wasn't a threat. She was a zoo animal. A tame wolf. The humans' plaything. And now Scourge, this kind, strange, sad little wolf, knew it. Penguin didn't know why she cared so much that he knew, but she did, and she didn't want to spend one more minute in the presence of the wolf who had figured her out. She stormed past him, racing down the stairs and out the front door of the old building, before stopping and catching a whiff of the path that had almost killed her not long ago. She wasn't cut out for this. Not by herself. But although Penguin could admit this to herself in her most private of thoughts, was she willing to admit this to Scourge? She stood there for a moment, deliberating. Would he even be worth anything? He was barely half a wolf, but then again, so was she. OOC: Sorry it's short, gotta get back into the swing of things
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Post by Redclaws on Jun 7, 2010 7:21:45 GMT -6
Scourge didn't really know what to do. He didn't expect his realization to bring such a reaction. He figured she'd get over, and that she just needed a little time to herself. So, he busied himself with attacking a dust bunny that was blowing around from a draft in the wall. It blew into a corner and he couldn't get it out. He whined and scratched at it, but he couldn't get to it. He soon found a leaf, and laid on his back, batting it over his head with his paws. He then heard a noise and went to investigate. It was coming from the basement!
He creaked open the door and cautiously stepped on the first stair. It was pitch black and he couldn't see a thing. He tried to find the next step in the darkness and couldn't seem to. He'd never been down here before, for he'd never needed to. But now there was something down there, and he wanted to know what. He barked at the darkness. He heard nothing but the hollow echo of his bark. He tried to find the next step again, but there was still nothing there. Wanting an adventure more than anything right now, he decided to jump. It couldn't be too far after all. He leapt down and felt his legs crunch under him. He heard snapping as the bones in his legs crumpled under him. He yelped and lay there on the stone floor. Not budging. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to breathe. "Penguin!" He called out. He could only shout her name once before weariness and pain overtook him, and he laid his head to rest. He wasn't dead, but it wouldn't take forever either.
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