Songs filled the trees, small and sweet melodies drifted softly within the breeze. It wafted and flowed; rattling and rustling the leaves and branches of the forests trees. The breeze freshened the icy air that once raged the night before. Every scurry and every rustle both within the trees and around the snow sang with life. Each mouse and each squirrel dance with each stride as they marked the map of the snow.
Tahliz stayed crouched behind the bolder his sister had ordered for him and their hound to wait. Qahnaar trudged through the snow, the thick layers made travel difficult but also made tracking effortless. Tahliz looked over to where his sister slowly made her way back, "the herd is further up the river, seems like the blizzard didn't faze them". Qahnaar reported once she was able to crouch next to her brother.
Tahliz nodded, sighing tiredly as his excitment had long been calmed, taking the chain off their hounds collar. "Think one bison would be enough? We already took half the day to get here" Tahliz spike softly, though his voice sounded more tired than soft in tone.
"We can only carry one" Qahnaar's voice was more stern. Tahliz is the oldest twin but Qahnaar always acted like the eldest sibling. Always covering for his mistakes and correcting him during trianing. "Besides, we can always fish up a few cods to make up for the wait" Qahnaar explained, patting her hounds head before standing up.
"Come on Canis-ferre" Qahnaar began to walk back on the path she already carved out. Tahliz couldn't help but huff, as much as Tahliz would love to scout out the herd himself, Qahnaar was the one who had a hunting trip before him, thus she was incharge and he had to follow her lead. Canis-ferre trotted happily beside Qahnaar, he was their mothers hunting hound before she passed when a polar bear attacked her hunting party. It was a day both Tahliz and Qahnaar would love to forget but seeing a mangled courps isn't something that one can just forget. With a shake to his head, Tahliz followed, feeling the icy facade that the cloud like snow sinks into his boots.
Each trud caused a crunching sound of the ice within the snow, Canis-ferre panted excitedly and sniffed the large trial the bison herd had left behind. Huffs and grunts came from the dog, his tail hit the sides of his legs each time he took a step closer to the prise. Tahliz looked longingly at the scard ground that the bison had shovelled out to gain access to the forage under the snow.
Tahliz was only in his fifth winter when he first saw a bison herd. He watched from the wall as the herd feed in the field down hill from the camp. He watched and noted as the bison used their horns to shovel the snow out the way then fested on the frozen scraps underneath. The way they ate was enough to spark an interest to study one but Tahliz and Qahnaar are not here to study the herd, they're here to hunt and feed the tribes young.
Canis-ferre took the lead this time, even though Qahnaar already knew where the herd was, their hound sniffed them the way. He trotted up the river bank and soon halted, his nose pointed to the herd that was grazing in the shallow snow. "Hey look, some already have their calf's" Tahliz crouched with his sister, going low to observe each one to find the best prey.
"They all have" Qahnaar corrected, pointed to a few cows that had their utters full but their stomach's empty and no calf to be seen. "Not all of them made it through the blizzard" Qahnaar had a saddened frown, Tahliz knew that his sister loved to watch the new calf's prance around in the melting snow of spring.
"Every creature would be suffering from a storm like that" Tahliz tried to comfort his sister, he wasn't the best at it but he would like to try.
"Yeah- expect from that beast that landed on our grate hall" Qahnaar frowned, her eyes sharpened like a hawk that just spotted its next pray. "Did you see how the Cheif collapsed? It was like it zapped his strength, do you think that monster could do that?" Qahnaar then looked more curiously at Tahliz.
"They're powerful beasts but I doubt it would have a power like that" Tahliz shook his head, pulling out the lasso from his belt.
Qahnaar shrugged, her crystal blue eyes were narrowed on the herd. To hunt a bison is tough work, to pick the best suited one is a wise choise, something that Tahliz remembers his sister explaining after she had done her first hunt before winter. 'Probably why we were chose to do this hunting trip, she has experience and I have the knowledge' Tahliz thought. He remembers back during their classes when Captin Glacies was explaining how to safely take down a bison. Use your hound to distract the herd, sneak up and swiftly lasso it's neck, if not their horn though it's not the best spot. This would cause the bison to react, doesn't matter the reaction, a seconed hunter can shoot it's head with their bow or slash it's throat.
"That one" Qahnaar whisper to her brother, pointing to a younger bull that was grazing a little off from the herd. Tahliz only nodded and began to crouch towards it, keeping a tree or large snow piles infront of him so the bison wouldn't see him. They sneaked in close, even Canis-ferre crouched low into the snow, though he kept with Qahnaar rather than Tahliz. Tahliz watched the bull, he stumbled and swayed with each step to graze, something was off. Tahliz narrowed his eyes, inspecting anything that could cause this, that's when he realised they were all covered in slashes and their fur was torn from their skin. They weren't from each other, the slash marks were too large to be from their horns, they were deep and many were able to heal but this bull didn't have much life left, hunting it would be a mercy kill. How did they not see the blood clot on the tangles of fur before?
It didn't drip to the snow so it wasn't the most obvious thing but yet Tahliz could feel his eyes widen and his eyebrow rise in shock. He couldn't tear his eyes from the deep wounds that struggled to clot and heal on the bull; he was so lost in his shocked trance that he didn't hear his sister shuffle up to him to whisper in concern.
"What's wrong?" Qahnaar asked in concern but also a slight irritation as to why Tahliz had stopped.
"They're all wounded" Tahliz whispered back, immediately hushing from seeing her unamused expression.
"You didn't catch that from up the hill? It's why I chose this bull, enough meat and he's not gonna cause much trouble" Qahnaar explained, her tone a hushed whisper. Tahliz only nodded, he didn't see it up there but down here it's easy to see, he pondered with a frown.
"Anyway, we have a bull to catch" Tahliz whispered, Qahnaar slowly and quietly made her way back to her spot, pulling at her bow and settling the arrow in it's spot, ready to fire. She gave a quick "wait" signal with her hand, pulling the arrow back on the bowstring, aiming carefully at the bison head.
Tahliz didn't need any other signal to know her plan, the bison was wounded, no need for a lasso. Tahliz quickly switched his lasso for his own bow, aiming his arrow at its head as well. Before Tahliz could take a breath to check his aim was right, a swift movement caused the bison to drop, the rest of the heard grunted and whined as they stampeded down the hill, they rushed over the frozen river that quickly cracked and slashed under them.
The herd paniced as they trudged up the bank on the other side, huffing as they dashed into the forest and soon left Tahliz's eye of sight. The bison that Qahnaar shot groaned and struggled on its hoofs, without a moment of hesitation, another swift arrow to the bison head caused the bison to drop again. Scarlet blood slatteded to the pearly snow underneath, panting it in the art of the swift hunt.
Qahnaar slowly paced the bison, her hound pouting just behind her. "Canis-ferre loves to chase, it's honestly funny to see him upset that he couldn't chase the bison" Tahliz thought with a chuckled softly, joining his sister as she tied the back hooves ready to pull it back to the camp. "That was underwhelming" Qahnaar had her own pout, her and her hound were disappointed in the easy kill.
"At least it didn't suffer much" Tahliz added, helping his sister to tie the rope to Canis-ferre's holter, then took his own part and the three slowly began to drag it back to the camp.
"I didn't realise how heavy these guys can be" Tahliz huffed. His muscles tensed as they slowly pulled the bison up the hill, it was slow and their hound whined when he lost his footen and slid back. Qahnaar quickly caught him and put him back on his feet.
"Yeah, should be down hill from now on though" Qahnaar pulled ahead, causing Tahliz to follow after her, taking a breath to pull with her. They took each step carefully and half way up the hill Canis-ferre's whined then yelped, causing Qahnaar to take his holter off and her hound limped up the hill.
"Shit" Tahliz muttered under his breath, "hold!" He called and the hound sat, licking his front paw. Tahliz and Qahnaar huffed and took deep breaths until the bison was able to sit ontop without sliding down. "Right, we can't pull this the whole way to camp on our own" Tahliz spoke, setting his rope down then patted Canis-ferre's head.
"Here boy" Tahliz grabbed the paw that the hound was licking, inspecting it and seeing that the pad was cut, the bleeding already stopped but bruising was already forming. "He ain't gonna be working for a while" Tahliz reported to his sister as she sat down, out of breath whilst looking at the bison with a frown.
"Yeah, we bit off more than we can chew, I think the Cheif was expecting us to bring back a calf or two" Qahnaar let out a long and exaggerated sigh.
"So what now?" Tahliz sat next to her.
"Head back, take Canis-ferre with you, he needs rest. Ask for extra help but bring back some fish- you have your fishing rod right?" Qahnaar ordered, she looked at her brother hopefully. Tahliz knew she was worried that the Cheif wouldn't like that they got more than they were supposed to.
"Yeah, I love a quick fish every now and then, you know that" Tahliz smiled, trying to help her relax a little.
"Good" Qahnaar pointed to the part of the river that the bison broke through, "actually, you rest, I'll fish". She then held her hand out where Tahliz then handed her the fishing rod and bait.