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[dramatispersonae]

Characters: Zero
Location: here then there
Time: (forward dated)
Description:

[A grey deer bounds up to you and stops with a clack of his hooves.]

Knight Thorn!

Comments

[hunting]

Brother Deer-sama? What's wrong?

[dramatispersonae]

Here you are! [His tail twitches as he circles in front of you. He seems rather excited.]

Remember when I sent you to hunt the one in the woods?

[hunting]

[Excited is good... ?]

I remember. I never found it. Sorry.

[dramatispersonae]

Oh, I know and it's fine! But now it has matured and grown, and easy to track - it is time for it to be your prey!

[hunting]

Matured?

[dramatispersonae]

[The deer nods]

It's been feeding and it's been growing.

[hunting]

It's been hunting more of your realm....

[Pulling out his gun and cocking it.]

I'll bring it down this time.

[dramatispersonae]

Then we shall go at once!

[The rears then stomps his hooves on the ground. You both are in a section of the redwood forest, a faint scent of haunch blood in the air.]

If you are able to hunt this creature successfully, you shall receive a reward - the extension to your change time that you wanted.

[hunting]

[Is a little surprised at how quickly that happened. But recovers almost immediately and shakes his head.]

Just let me hunt it for you.

[dramatispersonae]

Keeyahaha, then I wish you a good hunt! It will not be like any beast you've met, though perhaps a little like all the beasts you've met.

[hunting]

I guess it's a good thing your realm's given me plenty of experience then.

[dramatispersonae]

[Tail flick.]

Stay sharp, Knight Thorn. Hunters are needed just as much as any other in this world.

[hunting]

I thought you had more faith in me than that.

[dramatispersonae]

Of course, of course. Advice is not a lack of faith!

[hunting]

I'll remember it.

[dramatispersonae]

[He gives his usual laugh.]

Let the hunt begin!

[hunting]

[IT'S TRACKING TIEM.]

[beastly]

[the scent of haunch blood leads you onward; it's definitely coming from the west.]

[hunting]

[Moving quickly in that direction, hand also testing the hilt of his sabre.]

[beastly]

[the smell quickly becomes overpowering, hanging in the air like thick perfume. before long, you arrive at its source.

the remains of a haunch lie at the center of a clearing. they've been brutalized, almost shredded; bits of blood and meat are scattered across the ground. you can see ragged marks of fang and claw on what's left of the body, chunks ripped free as though eaten, but it's strange -- they don't all seem to come from the same animal, unless something out there has the jaws of a wolf and the long talons of a great cat.

bloody, catlike pawprints lead away from the kill, to the base of one of the huge trees of this realm and up.]

[hunting]

[Yeahhhh, that's never of the good, exactly.]

... So that's he meant by like all of them...

[Following prints, on guard.]

[beastly]

[perhaps, perhaps.

the prints lead up the tree, twenty or thirty feet, and clawmarks in the bark suggest whatever it is climbed.]

[hunting]

[Well... that makes two of us. Who can do that? It's kitty time. Yes, I can totally climb trees with both my gun and my sword in my mouth. DON'T JUDGE ME.]

[beastly]

[no judgement, only tracking. the prints level off, heading out along a branch, then gather themselves and stop. there's another branch a few yards away, and your kitty nose can smell the bloody prints coming from it...]

[hunting]

[Sniffs the air some and then lunges for branch.]