Thread: Dawn of the Aweless Age

Crouching deep with a nearby shrubbery she watched the grazing animals with a predator's eye. Her keen senses alert to their every move. She had been picked as hunter over the men in her clan because of her uncanny ability to sense the animals emotion. She could tell before they did whether or not they knew she was there. She edged slowly forward, balancing precariously on her tip toes. It was to be a long, cold, frigid winter. The sky reader had told her people some weeks back that their preparations for the snow would not suffice. So they had selected the prime from among their young to go on a quest for meat. Her people had been raised on the land. Building only temporary homes and traveling throughout the year from site to site to keep themselves in the optimal climate. Typically they strayed towards the warmer coastal lands but this Samhain a special request had come to their people from the Queen herself. She was to throw a grand Mid-Winter festival, days of celebration and feasts. A great carnival was to be hosted and the Al'tikaer people had been summoned to fulfill the role of entertainment. Known far and wide for their amazing stunts and magickal phenomenon. Their tumbling acts defying the natural law, while mystifying even the most scientific of man with their grande marvels of the ethereal plane. Nienna shook her head silently remembering how the people of her clan had immediately forgotten all sense of themselves. This would be their first winter in the West and none but she had began to plan for the rough weather that was headed their way. Certainly she was trained as well to be a performer, excelling beyond her brothers abilities in both acrobatics and magicks. This girl though, had a slightly more sensible head on her shoulders. She returned her gaze to the sturdy beasts ahead of her in the open meadow. Identifying one of the animals out of the herd. He was a massive specimen. He stood at least 20 hands tall, towering above the rest like some sort of God. His coat glistened in the cool morning air. It's brown and white spots rippling as he lifted his head chewing the sweet grass of the land. The skultari were known to be a gentle but prideful species. Only attacking when first shown aggression and with a tendency to be tamed. They made excellent work animals, used by several states for carting around their goods from nation to nation. But today Nienna wanted one for the warmth of their bellies and survival of her people over the next several months. It had been a hard decision for her clan to accept. Traditionally vegetarian aside from swimming or flying creatures they did not easily turn to the thought of killing such an intelligent and useful beast. But the leather of his hide would provide warm clothes for many of the tribes young, the meat would feed them throughout the winter if used in proportion to the rest of their typical diet. The organs a delicacy and the bones used as utensils and tools for intricate etch work in their many costumes. No single part would be wasted. Even the blood reserved for it's own uses. She stalked the animal, moving swift and silent like a cat moving in on an unsuspecting mouse. She came to the edge of the brush and took a deep calming breath. In one fluid motion she stood, arrow notched in the bows taught string, took aim and released. Just as the bow snapped from her fingers a loud raucous could be heard from the road just a few hundred feet from where she stood. The massive animal, alerted to the presence of others took off running, the heard following. Nienna cursed her luck and took of leaping after the fleeing animals. Her light footsteps hardly leaving a trace in the soft earth beneath her. The thin green suede hugging her curves swished as she leapt over rock and brush. Her heart pounded in her throat from the excitement. A part of her pleased that the animal had escaped, another angry with whomever it was that had disturbed her hunt. Her violet eyes scanned the horizon as she closed in on the road. Though the animals had taken to run they had strangely charged toward the sound as opposed to from it. Dark reddish black curls bounced again her muscular back and shoulders as she found her way through a thick cropping of trees. She stopped only when she heard his voice.