"Hah, bagged another one."
Taking a few swift steps forward, Vaylah walked through a couple of thistles and lifted up a rabbit by the ears, plucking out the green feathered arrow that had pierced through the rabbit's fragile eye. Smiling, she tossed it to Ava, who casually caught it and threw it into a burlap bag on the side of her horse.
Walking back, Vaylah remounted before going over to Ava's side to high-five, and Ava gave her a slow glance before reluctantly returning the gesture.
Chattering, Vaylah said, "That's six now. What have you gotten? Hmm?" Letting out a small laugh, Vaylah gave Ava a provocative look before riding forward.
Rolling her eyes, Ava patted the mane of the horse she was riding and followed afterward. After Ava had 'graduated' from Vaylah's lessons after learning how to shoot, ride, and shoot and ride, Vaylah had somehow become even more casual and, while drinking, had wailed to Ava about the fact that she didn't call her big sister. Of course, Ava didn't fall for the obvious ploy, and Vaylah, smart and talented as she was, remained a child at heart and got a somewhat petty competitive streak about it.
This time, the deal was whoever could hunt more and more valuable quarry would have to satisfy one request of the other, within reason. Of course, even without asking, Ava was clear on what Vaylah wanted. Ava, on the other hand, decided this was a good way to ask for some targets for the range she was building. Anyways, although Vaylah would never say no, it was still better to keep a clean record between friends.
Of course, a hunting challenge wouldn't be fun if it just depended on luck, or at least that was what Vaylah claimed, so the two of them rode together, which made it so that the crux of the challenge was who could spot and hunt prey faster. And, of course, although neither of them would have cheated, to make things clear, Vaylah got two sets of arrows, one with green feathering and one with red feathering.
Over the past half hour, two rabbits, two squirrels, a pheasant, and a fox had been shot through the eye with a green feathered arrow, while a grand total of a single rat had been shot by a red feathered arrow. It couldn't be helped. Vaylah only a slightly better shot than Ava, but perhaps more importantly she had more experience in the forest and was more familiar with animal patterns, and she was much more enthuthiastic about the whole thing and rode a bit in front of Ava, giving her a chance to shoot before her.
Scratching her head, Ava let out a yawn before opening the burlap sack on the other side of the horse. Although it was a fair competition… it was a hunting competition, not a shooting competition. Letting out a small smile, Ava slowed down the pace of her horse while calling out in front, "I'm going to look around here for a moment. I'll catch up in a moment."
Waving a hand, Vaylah responded, "Alright, but don't blame me if I have eight by the time you catch up!"
Watching Vaylah rush off, Ava smiled before dismounting and rummaging through the sack. Over the past year, she had gone hunting quite a few times on her own and even ended up regularly providing games for the Foxes Respite. But, because she had training with Kassidy in the city, she rarely hunted for several days straight, which meant that the prey she could catch was somewhat limited if she wasn't particularly lucky.
Thus, she ended up testing some methods for trapping she had learned from a book, only to find they were entirely unusable. Of course, whether this was user error or because the book was bogus, only Ava would know, but after some minor adaptations and some trial and error, she had figured out how to make a rather nifty trap that made use of only natural materials and a little bit of rope.
Looking around, Ava found a branch and looped a rope around it before setting up a semi-elaborate knot and leaving it on the ground with a couple of fruits she had picked up along the way. Although it wasn't perfect, with any luck, she'd get some prey for free, and if not, at the very least, it might give her a couple of tracks.
Tying up the sack, Ava looked in the direction Vaylah had set off and went in the opposite direction and set up another trap before circling around and setting up a third trap before heading back towards Vaylah, following a river. While she was riding, Ava happened to see a small boar drinking water by the waterside and quickly pulled out her bow and fired a shot that landed in the boar's cheek. Frowning, Ava watched the boar begin to flail about before running and kicking the side of her horse, leading it to run parallel to the boar.
Stringing another shot, Ava took a moment to aim before releasing the arrow, sending a red feathered arrow straight through the boar's eye ending its struggle.
Circling around, Ava examined the boar and plucked out the arrow before frowning. Although it was a good catch, they had only come out prepared to catch some small prey and didn't have the staff or preparation to bring back something as heavy as a boar. Although this boar looked rather young, it was still rather fat, and Ava estimated it weighed at least two hundred pounds.
Thinking for a moment, Ava examined the boar and couldn't bear to give up the meat, and after a moment of thought cut off the two small tusks and threw them in the bag before roughly cutting up the boar and throwing in her now empty burlap sack and the prey bag on the opposite side, doing her best to balance the weight.
Although it would be a little tough on the horse, it would be able to carry this much and her, owing to the fact that she was rather light as long as she didn't send it on a heavy jog. Mounting the horse again, Ava roughly guessed where Vaylah would be and started moving.