The Great Hunt Roleplay

[cheezeegriff]

The aurochs waited. Listened.
His ears twitched at the sounds of the forest, searching the bird calls, the falling leaves, the water in the distance for the sound of something foreign. Something that would give away the hunter's position. Silence told him he wasn't alone. The birds had fled, and monkeys called only from a great distance. He hardly breathed, hardly moved, waiting. Waiting an eternity.
An eternity passed. Nothing. The bird calls came back. The monkeys chattered closer. He could no longer hear the distant waterfall. The aurochs snorted, pawing the ground in agitation, skin shivering as he expelled pent-up energy. He took one step, then **SNAP**

**SNAP**
"Ouch! Ah, dammit," Figgy said, clutching his nose with both paws. He moved them away to see blood on his digits, and felt something hot dribbling over his mouth. "Great," he said, sticking out a big paw to lick at his fresh cut. Not the first time this had happened, and probably not the last. He had made his trap too highly sprung to set properly. Again.
Figgy paced around in a circle until the pain subsided, glancing back at the trail which he had followed. On one side it was bright, the trees seperated sparesely - the edge of the forest. On the other it was dark, where he was going. He'd heard strange things about this forest. Strange inhabitants too. Clans of melanin leopards that killed intruders. Spirits haunting ancient burial grounds. Ghosts. But by far the most tantalising prize would be the Aurochs.
Everyone knew about the Aurochs. Everyone knew that only a master hunter could kill it. "Well, I'm a master hunter," he said, licking his nose. "And I'll prove it! I'll prove it Mother, Father, Uncle Yop and Aunty Mabark. You might be fast but I can make traps. You'll see!"
Only once he finished his rant did he realise he'd aired his private thoughts. He had a habit of doing that. It was a little upsetting. Anyone within a cheetah's dash would know there was a lion in the forest, now. Not exactly the fastest or fiercest lion, but still, they'd be wary.
His one consolation was that the forest was a few hundred miles across. The chances of the aurochs hearing him were slim indeed. Which of course meant the chances of finding it - let alone trapping it - were even slimmer. Still, he'd only just started. Turning to the darkness, he said, "Looks like you and I will be well acquainted by the end of this. Will you be kind to poor old Figgy?"
Figgy grinned, and walked the darker path.

[Accalia]

The old bark of the ancient oak creaked with the breeze, its leaves rustling, and the gurgling river smashing its water against the muddy bank. All the sounds of natural forest life mixing to create a single atmosphere of peace. Although the forest was vast, stretching for hundres of miles, it had serveral different areas of micro-climates, meaning no two river bends were quite the same.

The harsh sound of metal against rock distrupted the peace of the river side. The birds nestled in the nearby trees fleeing in fear as Sekai dragged the steel across the boulder, the familiar sound of scratching filling the air. She held a small, almost completely blunt blade in her mouth, dragging its curved side against the rock. Another long scratching sound filled the air as she again dragged the blade down the rock. As she worked she hummed a small little tune to herself, a grin spreading accross her face as she dragged the blade down again.

The steel blade was small, a bit unprofessional in appreance, but seeing as she was on her own, nessicairy. She had no other lion or predator to help her, in fact if she found another predator they would most likely attack her.

The small hand-made blade resembled a claw, and that was Sekai's intention, she was not a strongly built lion, her body instead intented for speed, and so she needed the aid of small steel and flint weaponairy to even attept to bring down anything larger than a small dog. She had a small pile of similar blades, made out of a mixture of steel and flint beside her, but none of them made to nearly the standard she would like, though the more recent blades were better than those she had made when first arriving.

Upon finishing sharpening her final blade she pulled some strong roots from the ground, carefully using her teeth and free paw to fasten the blade over her claw. Once on it loooked rather peculiar, as she had to walk wath an angle to her paw as the balde was just that much longer than her own claws, but she often only fastened blades to one paw when walking around.

She began tucking the rest of her now freshly sharpened blades into a small root and grass strap that she then fastened to her arm, over her peculiar tribal markings.

*SNAP*

Sekai pulled suddenly on the grass strap in her mouth, tightening the strap far to tight, letting out a pained groan, quickly loosening the strap. The sudden out of place sound, and birds fleeing startled her, and she watched the dark flock of wings above head fly away. She wondered what could have made such a sound, it seemed to come from just a little further into the forest, maybe one to two miles down stream and into the trees. Suddenly the muffled sound of a lion talking out loud drifted towards her, it sounded too deep to be female, but that didnt matter much, another lion meant competition for prey, whether male or female. She decided it would be nessicary to check it out.

"Anyway, I have my blades and experience to help me," she thought rather gaily as she finished adjusting her pack and began to plod calmly in amongst the trees. "They might even become a companion." She had a bad habit of being optimistic when paniked, overriding the part of her that was rational, and walking blindly into bad situations.

She would find the path nearest her and hope that the scent of this stranger would be enough to lead her to them.

[cheezeegriff]

Evening came, and Figgy was busy setting another trap. One of the disadvantages of hunting by trap meant that he couldn't move around as much as other predators. He needed to stay near them to check them. "Last... one... for... tonight..." he said, using his substantial weight to heave on the vine and branch, to bring the branch down. Then he made his hairpin trigger, hooking the vine to the ground with a grunt. "There," he said with a sigh, then looked down at his vast paunch, giving it a pat beneath the fluff. "Thanks again for your help, buddy!" he said, for he knew if he were much lighter he wouldn't catch anything, much less an auroch. The more he could pull down on the branches above, the more they would pull back on anything that triggered his traps.
He took a moment to rest - he was strong, but his size meant he didn't have much in the way of endurance. Then he set back the way he came to inspect the traps he had left behind.
He'd only just stepped around the fallen roots of a once mighty tree when he came face-to-face with a lioness. Strange markings crossed one arm and the claws on one paw looked strange, and very dangerous. He knew he was in danger as soon as he saw her, but despite this - or maybe because of it - Figgy grinned hugely, and instinctively sucked in his stomach.
"Hello!" he said, waving one hand and bowing. "Nice to meet a fellow traveller. Especially one as beautiful as yourself. My name's Figgy - adventurer and inventor Extrordinaire. Would you care to share a meal with me? I have a kill not far from here and it's far too much for me. I don't eat very much... well... heh. For my size. Anyway." He stepped forward a little, trying to keep his eyes on hers, trying not to glance down at the claws on her paw. "What do you say? And who is this lioness who graces my presence?"