Common Text
Xanthean Text
Kashehino Text
Zi'da 25th, 717
Qit'ria pushed her way out of her tent, wiping the grogginess from her eyes. She'd managed to get a break or two of sleep the previous night, which was slightly better than usual. Those damnable cursed sores upon her chest oozed and throbbed and burned all day and night. She was irritable, even more so for her normally prickly nature. Approaching her low fire, mostly glowing coals, she threw more tinder on it, and sticks, stirring up the coals and bringing it back to life.
She sniffed at the meat she smoked on the apparatus she smoked, satisfied that it was done. Poking it at it, found it nice and tough, meaning it wasn't raw any more. Could probably stop an arrow, but her teeth would easily tear through it. She moved past it, Kashehino silently following her, as she left the clearing of her camp, moving into the trees. Her bladder was ready to burst, and so, her normally careful eyes were not scanning the forest as she made her way to the edge of her territory.
Passing her tripwire trap, she moved another spear throw's distance southward, as she'd last marked her territory to the east. Once at about where she considered her territory to end, along a slight stony rise, she picked a nice prominent boulder. Moving over to it, she climbed up on it, and pulled her breeches and loin cloth down to her ankles. She squat down, positioning herself so as to best cover as much of the side of the boulder as possible. And with a sigh, relief came, steaming up from where it splashed against the cold Zi'da stone. Her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the feeling, and once down, she gave a bit of a bounce shake and started to rise up.
That's when her eyes opened up, and saw the four deer standing there, just a bit down hill of her, watching her. One had antlers, three did not, and two of those were smaller, juveniles likely. She slowly pulled up her pants, eyes not moving. Once back on, she reached back to grab a javelin, only to be reaching for empty air. Her eyes grew wide. She'd sharpened her blades and spears the night before, and left them sitting in her tent. She had nothing with which to hunt them.
Anger and frustration welling up within her, she let it loose in a feral snarl at the four deer, letting it echo loudly around the woods. But much against her expectations, these deer didn't even flinch, let alone turn tail and run. She watched as long fangs lowered out of their mouths, and their eyes turned to red. They then did a raspy, snarling hiss at her, and her stomach dropped. Whatever these were, they weren't prey deer. They were predator deer. And she was unarmed.
Without another moment wasted, Qit'ria immediately jumped backwards off the stone she'd peed both from and on, landing down into squishy, damp soil. She immediately turned and began to run, arms pumping heavily. She didn't bother to look behind her, knowing it would only slow her down. And it didn't matter either way, as the two adult Oh Deer were faster. They'd already caught up, running at either side of her, just out of reach, but coming closer as the foliage allowed. They were hemming her in, to give their fawns a chance at killing something. She was training prey.
She saw the two parents in her peripherals, and was immediately able to guess their intentions. As fast as they were, if they'd intended to run her down themselves, they would've done so. Looking ahead, she saw the particularly thick patch of briers that had her pull cart hidden on the other side. This gave her a really reckless, stupid plan. She put everything she had to get just a bit more of a burst in speed, digging her feet deep and pumping her arms hard, gaining just a tiny bit of a lead, no more than foot on the deer to her right.
Her opportunity coming up, she veered diagonally to the right, and jumped on a log with one foot, then vaulted off it, shoulder first in a bit of a dive. She struck the deer in the shoulder with her own, knocking it a few feet off course. This sent it barreling into the briers, and heard a heavy thud as it slammed into her cart. Qit'ria hit the cold ground hard knocking the breath out of her, but wasted no time. Getting her hands beneath her, she pushed up, facing the way she'd just come from, and there she saw them, just as suspected, the two fawns running at her.
She heard the other deer rustling a bit in the distance, likely turning around to continue the assault on the huntress. As the juveniles bore down on her, she ran right at the them, snarling loudly. One broke rank, and veered off, heading for its uninjured parent. The other kept coming. Moments before they were meant to collide, she dropped her body back into a slide, clamping her feet together. She felt her heel strike the fawn in the leg, and the thin bone cracked, though didn't snap.
The baby cried out loudly and fell over past her.
Qit rolled over onto her belly after the slide, and used the position to get her legs beneath her better. Her feet slipped a bit in the slick half snow, half leaf litter, as she saw the mama had turned around, and was barreling on the creature that injured her mate and baby. Qit'ria angled her run to get ahead of the creature, but it adjusted as well to match her. Mouth open, snarling his blaring, it was about to crash into the huntress and maul her. She pressed off one foot into a short jump as it lunged at her. It's mouth bit around her forearm, but the big fangs had missed, trapping her arm in its mouth. She snarled and hissed at it, striking it in the head, repeatedly as it clamped down, shaking its head to further bite into her.
Grabbing onto its ear, she tore it right off and the deer stumbled backward, dropping her bleeding arm. The uninjured baby was nearby, checking on its injured brethren, and that gave Qit'ria an idea. She wasn't prey. She was predator. So she feigned a lunge in the direction of the injured fawn, and the mother immediately dashed into the way, stamping her feet and snorting in pain. But Qit'ria was already gone, immediately breaking into a run at her camp after the feint, breaking through the tree line moments before the mother deer.
Qit'ria ran for the campfire in the center of her plot, and leapt over it, smashing into her smoking apparatus, grabbing on of the poles as she was went. She watched her smoked meat fall into the fire, the meal she'd planned on eating for the day, and truly got angry. She turn and swung blindly, assuming the deer had been following close. It struck the deer in the side of the head, tossing it off balance, forcing it to step into her fire, further crushing her smoked meat. The flames only mildly licked the deer, but it jumped up out of it as if stung by a hundred bees at once.
Scared of fire. That was good. She threw the stick at the deer as a distraction as she rushed forward, grabbing a half burned stick, and skipping back snarling. The mother stamped and snorted, hissing loudly as Qit'ria answered in kind with an angry roar. She waved the burning stick out in front of her and the deer seemed to be weighing its options. Qit'ria saw movement at the tree line and saw the other fawn there, watching from a safe distance.
Snarling again, she turned and ran at the baby. It scrambled awkwardly and turned tail, and its mother took off after it, putting her babies safety a priority above a dangerous meal. As they ran off, Qit'ria let loose a howl at the top of her lungs and threw her flaming stick into the woods after them. Her territory! And she'd defended it! She hoped they told other deer to avoid her lands. Stomping back, she looked down at her arm, and growled at the sight. It wasn't too bad, since it had been the smaller interior teeth and not the longer fangs. Reaching into her tent, she grabbed her spear, and stomped over to the briers where the male had fallen.
Peering in, she could see the deer twitching, bleeding from the mouth. One of its antlers was broken off from the collision with her cart. She pressed the tip of her polearm against the creatures hide, below the ribs. It didn't even move, either it couldn't feel it, or couldn't move. It didn't matter either way. She pressed into the hide, expecting her spear to penetrate up into its lungs and heart. But it didn't budge. She leaned into the spear, pushing down on it hard, feeling it depress but not puncture. Scowling she drew it back, and slammed it down and felt it pierce. Barely. Just enough to slightly cut it. But that was enough.
Qit'ria rocked it back and forth, widening the cut a bit, then pushed it in slowly until finally with a ploop, it stabbed up into the creature's heart, and it finally died. Once dead, she grabbed some rope and her cloak, covering herself with it as best she could as she crawled into the briers, tying the rope around its neck. Crawling back out, she pulled the deer slowly out of the briers and into the center of her camp. She fetched every single one of her blades and weapons, trying to find which would cut best through the hide. But now it seemed that it cut just fine with any knife, spear, javelin.
It made no sense to the huntress. The hide had been so tough in life, and was just normal, thick hide in death. But nonetheless, she cleaned the deer, saving the hide, as much meat as possible, the bones, and antlers, both the broken one and whole one. She threw the offal into the river for the fish. While at the water, she dunked her arm in the frigid current, rubbing at the wounds. She'd watched Faith clean her wounds previously, saying that mud was bad for them. So she remembered. Once back at camp, she wrapped her arm up in some cloth, and set about to finally having breakfast, now that she no longer had to pee.
Xanthean Text
Kashehino Text
Zi'da 25th, 717
Qit'ria pushed her way out of her tent, wiping the grogginess from her eyes. She'd managed to get a break or two of sleep the previous night, which was slightly better than usual. Those damnable cursed sores upon her chest oozed and throbbed and burned all day and night. She was irritable, even more so for her normally prickly nature. Approaching her low fire, mostly glowing coals, she threw more tinder on it, and sticks, stirring up the coals and bringing it back to life.
She sniffed at the meat she smoked on the apparatus she smoked, satisfied that it was done. Poking it at it, found it nice and tough, meaning it wasn't raw any more. Could probably stop an arrow, but her teeth would easily tear through it. She moved past it, Kashehino silently following her, as she left the clearing of her camp, moving into the trees. Her bladder was ready to burst, and so, her normally careful eyes were not scanning the forest as she made her way to the edge of her territory.
Passing her tripwire trap, she moved another spear throw's distance southward, as she'd last marked her territory to the east. Once at about where she considered her territory to end, along a slight stony rise, she picked a nice prominent boulder. Moving over to it, she climbed up on it, and pulled her breeches and loin cloth down to her ankles. She squat down, positioning herself so as to best cover as much of the side of the boulder as possible. And with a sigh, relief came, steaming up from where it splashed against the cold Zi'da stone. Her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the feeling, and once down, she gave a bit of a bounce shake and started to rise up.
That's when her eyes opened up, and saw the four deer standing there, just a bit down hill of her, watching her. One had antlers, three did not, and two of those were smaller, juveniles likely. She slowly pulled up her pants, eyes not moving. Once back on, she reached back to grab a javelin, only to be reaching for empty air. Her eyes grew wide. She'd sharpened her blades and spears the night before, and left them sitting in her tent. She had nothing with which to hunt them.
Anger and frustration welling up within her, she let it loose in a feral snarl at the four deer, letting it echo loudly around the woods. But much against her expectations, these deer didn't even flinch, let alone turn tail and run. She watched as long fangs lowered out of their mouths, and their eyes turned to red. They then did a raspy, snarling hiss at her, and her stomach dropped. Whatever these were, they weren't prey deer. They were predator deer. And she was unarmed.
Without another moment wasted, Qit'ria immediately jumped backwards off the stone she'd peed both from and on, landing down into squishy, damp soil. She immediately turned and began to run, arms pumping heavily. She didn't bother to look behind her, knowing it would only slow her down. And it didn't matter either way, as the two adult Oh Deer were faster. They'd already caught up, running at either side of her, just out of reach, but coming closer as the foliage allowed. They were hemming her in, to give their fawns a chance at killing something. She was training prey.
She saw the two parents in her peripherals, and was immediately able to guess their intentions. As fast as they were, if they'd intended to run her down themselves, they would've done so. Looking ahead, she saw the particularly thick patch of briers that had her pull cart hidden on the other side. This gave her a really reckless, stupid plan. She put everything she had to get just a bit more of a burst in speed, digging her feet deep and pumping her arms hard, gaining just a tiny bit of a lead, no more than foot on the deer to her right.
Her opportunity coming up, she veered diagonally to the right, and jumped on a log with one foot, then vaulted off it, shoulder first in a bit of a dive. She struck the deer in the shoulder with her own, knocking it a few feet off course. This sent it barreling into the briers, and heard a heavy thud as it slammed into her cart. Qit'ria hit the cold ground hard knocking the breath out of her, but wasted no time. Getting her hands beneath her, she pushed up, facing the way she'd just come from, and there she saw them, just as suspected, the two fawns running at her.
She heard the other deer rustling a bit in the distance, likely turning around to continue the assault on the huntress. As the juveniles bore down on her, she ran right at the them, snarling loudly. One broke rank, and veered off, heading for its uninjured parent. The other kept coming. Moments before they were meant to collide, she dropped her body back into a slide, clamping her feet together. She felt her heel strike the fawn in the leg, and the thin bone cracked, though didn't snap.
The baby cried out loudly and fell over past her.
Qit rolled over onto her belly after the slide, and used the position to get her legs beneath her better. Her feet slipped a bit in the slick half snow, half leaf litter, as she saw the mama had turned around, and was barreling on the creature that injured her mate and baby. Qit'ria angled her run to get ahead of the creature, but it adjusted as well to match her. Mouth open, snarling his blaring, it was about to crash into the huntress and maul her. She pressed off one foot into a short jump as it lunged at her. It's mouth bit around her forearm, but the big fangs had missed, trapping her arm in its mouth. She snarled and hissed at it, striking it in the head, repeatedly as it clamped down, shaking its head to further bite into her.
Grabbing onto its ear, she tore it right off and the deer stumbled backward, dropping her bleeding arm. The uninjured baby was nearby, checking on its injured brethren, and that gave Qit'ria an idea. She wasn't prey. She was predator. So she feigned a lunge in the direction of the injured fawn, and the mother immediately dashed into the way, stamping her feet and snorting in pain. But Qit'ria was already gone, immediately breaking into a run at her camp after the feint, breaking through the tree line moments before the mother deer.
Qit'ria ran for the campfire in the center of her plot, and leapt over it, smashing into her smoking apparatus, grabbing on of the poles as she was went. She watched her smoked meat fall into the fire, the meal she'd planned on eating for the day, and truly got angry. She turn and swung blindly, assuming the deer had been following close. It struck the deer in the side of the head, tossing it off balance, forcing it to step into her fire, further crushing her smoked meat. The flames only mildly licked the deer, but it jumped up out of it as if stung by a hundred bees at once.
Scared of fire. That was good. She threw the stick at the deer as a distraction as she rushed forward, grabbing a half burned stick, and skipping back snarling. The mother stamped and snorted, hissing loudly as Qit'ria answered in kind with an angry roar. She waved the burning stick out in front of her and the deer seemed to be weighing its options. Qit'ria saw movement at the tree line and saw the other fawn there, watching from a safe distance.
Snarling again, she turned and ran at the baby. It scrambled awkwardly and turned tail, and its mother took off after it, putting her babies safety a priority above a dangerous meal. As they ran off, Qit'ria let loose a howl at the top of her lungs and threw her flaming stick into the woods after them. Her territory! And she'd defended it! She hoped they told other deer to avoid her lands. Stomping back, she looked down at her arm, and growled at the sight. It wasn't too bad, since it had been the smaller interior teeth and not the longer fangs. Reaching into her tent, she grabbed her spear, and stomped over to the briers where the male had fallen.
Peering in, she could see the deer twitching, bleeding from the mouth. One of its antlers was broken off from the collision with her cart. She pressed the tip of her polearm against the creatures hide, below the ribs. It didn't even move, either it couldn't feel it, or couldn't move. It didn't matter either way. She pressed into the hide, expecting her spear to penetrate up into its lungs and heart. But it didn't budge. She leaned into the spear, pushing down on it hard, feeling it depress but not puncture. Scowling she drew it back, and slammed it down and felt it pierce. Barely. Just enough to slightly cut it. But that was enough.
Qit'ria rocked it back and forth, widening the cut a bit, then pushed it in slowly until finally with a ploop, it stabbed up into the creature's heart, and it finally died. Once dead, she grabbed some rope and her cloak, covering herself with it as best she could as she crawled into the briers, tying the rope around its neck. Crawling back out, she pulled the deer slowly out of the briers and into the center of her camp. She fetched every single one of her blades and weapons, trying to find which would cut best through the hide. But now it seemed that it cut just fine with any knife, spear, javelin.
It made no sense to the huntress. The hide had been so tough in life, and was just normal, thick hide in death. But nonetheless, she cleaned the deer, saving the hide, as much meat as possible, the bones, and antlers, both the broken one and whole one. She threw the offal into the river for the fish. While at the water, she dunked her arm in the frigid current, rubbing at the wounds. She'd watched Faith clean her wounds previously, saying that mud was bad for them. So she remembered. Once back at camp, she wrapped her arm up in some cloth, and set about to finally having breakfast, now that she no longer had to pee.
