Sitting in the cave I worked diligently to smooth a long sapling tree's trunk into a suitable bow, using a rough stone to sand the splinters and inperfections from its as of now impure form. Smiling I place the bow aside, knowing it is far from complete but the rest can be put away for another day the patience needed to complete it at 100% being even more than what will already be put into it. Standing up I brush the dust of wood away and walk to the mouth of the cave, pulling from storage my sword, dagger, and orginal bow. Looking back I wonder if Kar was wanting to hunt or check the traps spread through Manaer. Putting my hand to my mouth I use my fingers to whistle sharply and call him from hsi resting place. "Kar! Bro. What you want to do today? Im kind of bored working on my bow I also think we are running low on dried meat and herbs." Waiting at the mouth of the cave tunnel I watch and wait for Kar.

The whistle shatters that silence of my quiet meditations, forcing my eyes to snap open, my hand curling around the bow that lays at my side, my other reaching behind for an arrow. My grip on the bow, and arrow relax, as I hear my brothers voice resounding through the cave. I uncurl my legs, releasing them from their crossed position, raising myself from the floor in a single motion. Even as I am rising, my fingers curl around my bow, slipping it onto my back. My eyes dance around the small cavern I made within the cave, my recluse for the times I need to be alone. Seeing that I have left nothing of importance, I make for the ledge. Not even bothering to look, the motion so familiar to me from the countless times of doing so, I step off of the edge, my knees bending just as I hit the floor of the main cave, ten feet below my sanctuary. Pushing up into a standing position once more, I take a moment to listen, recalling the exact direction I heard my brothers voice from.

My movement is quick, and near silent, as I cross from the lesser used portion of our cave, into the entry way. My eyes fall upon Cadeyrn, standing near his bow. Allowing a smirk to dance over my lips for just a moment, I drop into my hunters crouch, moving slower then before. It takes me nearly five minutes to transverse the few yards that lay in between us. As I reach him, I rise slowly, my fingers flicking a single throwing knife from the pouch on my chest, before throwing it over his right shoulder, chuckling silently. "Brother, you must remember to keep your voice down. We do not need unwanted attention now do we?"

Laughing I look back to the opening of the cave looking at the light as it flows into the mouth of the cave "Bro we both know sound doesn't carry out of here and even when it does it echoes to much from the other caves for it to be traced back." Turning my back to Kar I pull the knife from the stone and toss it back not even bothering to worry about possibly stabbing my brother knowing that the arc of the shining blade will land the handle in Kar's hand. "So what are we going to do: hunt, check the traps, collect fresh herbs, maybe just scout and see if we have any worth while targets coming our way?" I don't bother looking back, I know its not needed. Kar and I work as a team, he would pick one and I would follow we were equals, but I never decided what to do. Kar was wiser, I was clever. He could plan things out and I could make them work no matter what holes were in the plan. He was the distance man while I was the upclose and hands on type. Standing still I wait for Kar to push forward into the tunnel.

My lips flicker up into a broader smile, as I hear the words dropping from my brothers mouth. I don't bother taking my eyes off of his back, as my hand comes up, gripping the knife just behind the head of the blade. "I could trace it brother, if it came down to it. Any hunter could, that's how we hunt in enclosed places, or mountains. These are things that must be considered. I feel we are fine for the time, but future, perhaps it would be wiser to not tempt fate, who has already been gracious to us, getting us here." My eyes break away from Cade's back, the knife in my hand beginning to twist and twirl in between my fingers, the blade coming close to the delicate flesh of the inside of my fingers, coming closer and closer. Before it can bite into my skin, which it would have with just one last twist, I slip it into its pouch on my chest piece. Raising my head slowly, my attention falls back onto Cadeyrn.

Hearing his words, I think for a moment, taking a quick inventory of everything that we have with us in the cave complex. In my mind, I begin a mental check list. 'We are running low on big game meat, herbs, and we still have a decent amount of smaller game.' My attention focusing back on to him, I speak, my voice quiet and quick. "I think we should do a combination of them. However, we will focus on hunting, any of our traps we run into we will check, and if we see any herbs that may be particularly valuable to us, we can stop and get them as well. We may as well press a little deeper into the forest while we are at it, scoping out more area. I think we should move a little way towards the canyon, and the homelands of Incendia. We have not moved much that way, and we may find larger herds of animals a little farther a way from the mountain." Brushing past my brother with barely a sound, I whisper, just as I reach the entrance of the tunnel. "Of course, this is just what I think the best course of action would be. While we travel, we would also be able to set up new traps."

I grinned walking with Kar, my feet only just pressing to the stone of the cave floor as I start to move myself faster into the open crisp air of the Manaer. After the cave where the stone conducted heat from Kar and I's body and our nightly fires the open air of the early winters woods was a refreshing change in pace. Walking to the right of the cave entrance I check the first trap, a small pitfall large enough for something the size of a medium pig. Inside I spot a brace of rabbits, just a few small adolecent bunnies and their mother. With a shrug I reach into the confides and break their necks, ending them quickly and with as little pain as possible. They would be dinner or a side dish, depending on how the hunt went. Opening a self stitched satchel I diposite the animals and once more cover the pitfall for use again.

Now ready to check the rest of the traps and hunt I draw my bow and a arrow keeping them both in my hand incase of an emergancy. "Kar if i die today you know what to do." Smiling I look to Kar, my eyes glistening lightly with the seriousness of the statment, knowing full well it is possible that I not return home, or that Kar might not return. Each venture into Manaer or even staying within the cave was dangerous, I had to be ready. I had to be strong. Reaching into a small pocket of my satchel i draw out a small rune and place it on the shaft of my arrow with only a motion it would freeze all the arrow was touching meaning if my arrow stuck home on an animal it had the potential to drop it.

As soon as my feet break the barrier, the end of the solid stone beneath my feet, and the beginning of the much softer soil of the forest. I roll my shoulders, my nostrils flaring out as I take a deep breathe through them. The bite of the much cooler air, settles my body, as I find myself once more in my element. My arms reach high above me, stretching out the soreness that found its way into my muscles during the hours of mediation. With my fingers locking together above my head, I push my arms higher and higher, my spine cracking as I do so, releasing pressure that had built up within it. As the last of the cracks escaping my back, my right arm swings towards the earth, my body stretching to the left as my hand presses near the ground at my left foot. My ribs arch upwards, the flexible chest piece following the curve of my side. My body raises smoothly, before dipping to the other side, my left hand pressing against my right foot this time. Raising again, my left hand pressing against my chin, as I crack my neck first in one direction, and then the other.

Nearing the completion of my routine before hunting, I remove a thin piece of rope from my wrist, using it to tie my hair into a ponytail. I cast my gaze over towards my brother, watching as he begins removing several rabbits from the closest of our traps. My eyes slip away from him, to the animals within his hands, taking note of the fact that many of them seem to be younger, the only large one appearing to be the mother of the liter. Enough meat to make for a reasonable side dish to a main meal, or a very small dinner, all depending on how the hunt turns out. Tapping my finger against my chin once, I remove my bow from my back, my fingers dancing across the surface of the bow itself, and then the string, checking for any damage that may have occurred during the night.

My attention is forced away from my bow just as I complete my inspections, by the sound of Cadeyrn's voice. Unlike him, my lips are pulled into a straight line, my mind already slipping into the hunting instinct. "Yes brother, I know what to do. Just as you know what to do if I do not make it back alive." My eyes cast towards the trees, before they fall onto my brother once more. "Follow the best you can on the ground. Everyonce in a while I will make a bird call, to help keep you on track." The same words that I speak every time before the hunt begins, feeling dead as they fall from my lips.

I force my gaze away from him, knowing very well that this maybe the last time I ever see him alive. Before any more thoughts of this can roll through my mind, I take off. As I reach the nearest tree, I bend my knees, pushing off of the ground almost as soon as I do. I grip the lowest branch with one hand, swinging myself up quickly. My eyes dance to the next branch I must make it to, as I set the bow into its place on my back. My body lunges through the air, gripping onto a branch on the next tree about ten feet above the previous one. I wait for the time, making sure my brother begins his progress into the woods.

Closing my eyes I take a slow deep breath before launching myself at a full sprint and disappearing into the brush of the wood hurdling over trap wires and pitfalls not triggering a single trick place into the woods by Kar or myself. The familiar rush of cool air was welcomed into my lungs as I slowed from my sprint and began to walk slower, quieter, my body closer to the ground each breath soft and deep taking in the scents of the wild. My face was as cold as my brothers had been before Kar had taken to the tree's, I was a cold killer now.

Silently I stalk forward, listening to the sounds of birds knowing one will be my brother, yet while listening for that I keep my senses spread, noting in my mind the direction the call of a bull came from, the aroma of afterbirth from a random creature to my right. It all called to me, called to my hunter side, to the bobcat whose blood flowed so hot inside my veins. All things were targets, some were better than others all drove me with the lust of sliding a blade between its ribs. Eyes narrowing, feet digging into soft earth and pine needles, my arrow and bow drop the arrow sending a jolt of cold through the fallen leaves. Hands reaching to my hips I draw from hiding two long curved daggers each one with three paper thin blades. Gripping the hilts I move forward each step sending air whistling between the razor sharp blades.

The weapons were of my own design crafted with tight precise measurements, though without the skills to personally make the blades I had contracted a blacksmith of Incendia, during one of the few trips into clan territory. These are my pride during the hunt, used only when the game would allow. This was one of the few times I would use it exclusively, one of the only times I would ever risk the hunt for personal satisfaction. Kar understood me when it was these times, Kar knew me to well at times like these. Thankfully I have Kar to protect me though the hunt comes first. I will never sacrifice our home for my life.

Continuing forward slowly I stop with a sudden jerk, I had gotten to relaxed, I had forgotten the rule of the wild. The sound of rushing steps was both a blessing and a curse. I was in trouble, or soon would be. Drawing small sheets of sticky paper I stick it to the finger guard of my daggers, the right hand sparked with electricity being channeled through small vein like tendrils. In the left water seemed to flow up and down the surface of the blades collecting along the edge sharpening the weapon while also giving it a new shine that when paired with the other was as deadly as the wilds themselves.

"Kar. I messed up. I will be with you soon, do not worry. Though I wont complain for a few arrows rained down into whatever the heavy beast wants to bite me." The words were almost whispered, like a prayer to nature itself. It was something I only did when things seemed hopeless. Now was one of those times.

My eyes fall downwards, towards the underbrush of the forest. His form filters around the trunks of the trees, that I nimbly jump from, some sixty odd feet below me at most points. At others he can be as low as ten. His feet move as quickly on the ground, as mine do through the branches of the trees, as I lunge farther and faster with every leap. My eyes never leave his form, having no fear of colliding with branches, not yet at least. For the time being, we are still in familiar territory, meaning trees that I have scaled hundreds of times before. When he begins to pick up speed, and my feet begin to fumble on the landings, I finally tear my gaze away from his figure, knowing soon enough he will be flying through the forest to fast for me to keep track of with my eyes alone.

I begin to slow my pace, knowing that even with my skill, it would be a very poor choice to keep leaping as fast as I had been just previously. My breathing slows even more so, as I make shorter jumps then before as well, not wanting to risk over jumping a branch, and not having something to land upon. Letting my eyes drift back towards the ground for a moment, taking time to judge the distance that it is to the ground, along with looking for any traces of animals. One eyebrow raises without thought, as I see no traces, not even little birds flitting through the branches. My head snaps up, as I search for a large enough branch to support my weight for more then a couple of seconds.

Finding the branch I am looking for, I begin moving faster, letting go of my conscious thoughts, giving in to my animalistic instincts. The height, which is now over a hundred feet at most points, does not even phase me. The branches that slap against my face, making small cuts into it, are brushed off, no concern for the tiny droplets of blood that begin to seep from the tiny wounds. All focus, is on reaching the branch. I silently count down the yards, 30, my feet push off of a branch, before landing on another, pushing off of it just as quickly, landing on the next. 20, my movements become faster, more precise, my muscles clenching just before I land on a branch, making pushing off come much faster, much smoother. 10, the branch is just within my grasp, just a single lunge if I plan it correctly. The muscles in my legs tighten, before my legs uncoil, sending me soaring through the air. I begin screaming inside my head, realizing just as I leap that I miscalculated the distance. 15 yards. I begin falling before I reach it. My hands shoot up, as my body falls past the branch. I feel my fingers managing to grab a hold of the bark. There is no time for relief, as I pull myself up as fast as I can, most of my body protected from being damaged by dragging across the bark.

A single sigh passes through my lips, before my instincts take control of me once more. My breathing is cut off, my eyes slipping close. Thoughts roll through my mind. 'There must be a reason that all the animals have fled the area. The mountains are near, could it be a dragon?' The thought shatters the instincts, as fear rolls through me, imaging fighting such a beast without my brother. Just as quickly as it comes, I shake it away. 'No, I would have heard the beating of its wings. Must be some land predator.' I take a single breathe, just as I hear the sounds I have been waiting for, the sound of an animals feet pounding against the earth of the forest.

Just as I am turning to fly through the air in the opposite direction of the beast, which is large by how hard its feet slam to the ground, I hear another sound. A whisper, carried upon the wind to my ears. My brother, asking for me. And with that, I am me again, the instincts being pushed away. My body hurtles through the air, towards the area I had heard his voice, in the direct path of the animal that has scared away the rest of the game. I fight the urge to call out to him, to let him know I am on my way. I know I can not say anything, least I bring the danger upon myself.

The trees begin to thin out, becoming fewer and fewer, very slowly. I furrow my eyebrows for a moment, before I realize that a clearing is coming up. I find myself glancing around, looking for a perch, so I can see the clearing perfectly, so I can wait for the beast, and the shot I will need to take. I find it, just in time, as I have to throw my body to the left, just as I push off of the previous branch. Even as I land, my hands are reaching for my bow, and an arrow, the string drawing back just as I slip into my most accurate position, kneeling, with one leg almost completely off of the branch. As I take a breathe, the Chimera breaks through the underbrush, into the clearing where my brother sits. I curse softly under my breathe, realizing I do not have a shot at the moment, and must wait.