[SE] Feelin' low with my walls up high

// Different night, same rodeo //

"Y'know," Colt drawls with a long sigh, muffled through the black bandana she's drawn over the lower half of her face. "I thought it'd stink less here this time of year," she admits, and though it can't be seen, her nose wrinkles. Carefully she picks her way through the marsh, boot occasionally skating over the frozen methane and cracking it, fresh rot and stink releasing like a breath she fights not to gag against. "Can't imagine the smell during the hottest time of the year though." Like anything festering, it does worse with warmth.

She'd not been eager to return here after the toad tongue lashing she received last time, especially with her quiver not yet improved. But, well, when help had been asked to gather food for King's End and the oncoming Longnight, Colt decided fuck it, why not take the already difficult task of hunting and make it even harder by doing it in a rather inhospitable and disgusting region? "Remind me never to open my mouth again," she mutters to Alys by way of apology, cringing as mud she thought was more firm splashes up her jeans with gods knows what.

She's already not a hunter by trade, but she knows enough to manage. Except, tracking herds in familiar land, as familiar creatures she'd grown up alongside, with easy to follow prints pressed into meadows is a hell of a lot easier than wandering through this murk. "Sure hope these gilled musk deer are worth it." Even if they find them, they still have to bring them down, and then haul them back. Although, Colt has that covered for them, her hand holding the lead of a larger, drafty unicorn gelding. He could bear quite a few carcasses, and he's smarter than her horses, so he's not liable to get himself stuck so easily.

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

The Feverlands had never been high on Alys's list of places to visit, but she had to imagine that if one was going to visit the region, this would be the time of year to do it. After all, surely it would stink worse in the heat of summer than it did now. Not that that made the stench any more bearable; the seer wore a permanent wrinkle upon her nose, her brow creasing as she tried to decide if it was worth trying to breath through her mouth to get past the smell.

Still, Alys wasn't one to complain, and she shot Colt a crooked grin that looked a bit more like a grimace as they traipsed through gods-knew-what and muck that splashed up the back of their calves. At least they were wearing pants. Perhaps that would save their bare skin from the worst of the mud. "Could be worse," she mused aloud, sidestepping a suspicious-looking patch of brown. "At least the Void's gone." Indeed, they hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Family since their departure. For now, at least, the demons had seemed to keep their word.

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

Colt gives a low, dry laugh, nodding her head and shaking a finger at Alys. "That is a silver lining I don't think I'll ever get tired of." Her hand flips out suddenly for balance as the quagmire keeps hold of her boot for a minute, and the memory of getting stuck here before flashes back sharp and cruel. She grimaces, jerking against the hold of the muck, toes curling to keep inside her boot. This one wrenches free without much fuss, although it does sling some of the mode and her less smooth motions make the lead taut as the unicorn fusses behind her. She glances back and gives a reassuring tug on the line, letting him know the intentional pressure to follow.

Movement in the distance is caught by the unicorn first. His head lifts, ears perking, and Colt watches the way her looks. "There," Colt says low to Alys, motioning out with a hand for her to stop. Ahead, a small herd wades through the mud, chewing on reeds clinging to life amid the chill and the disgust. Colt's nose wrinkles. "If you are what you eat, I don't understand why these are supposed to be delicious."

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

Alys nearly paused as Colt got stuck in the mud, but she knew better than to linger in any one spot for too long. If she did, she risked her own boots being sucked into place, and that was something that she detested more than anything. Fortunately, Colt freed herself without too much trouble, and they moved on without much fanfare.

Suddenly, their unicorn pricked its ears, and Colt motioned to follow its gaze; Alys did, pausing on the least treacherous plot of ground she could find, and wrinkling her own nose in disgust. "I couldn't agree more." She paused, thinking. "Maybe they're like everything else and just taste like chicken," she added drily. Or maybe they were just as disgusting as anything from the Feverlands would be. Only time would tell.

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

Colt's lips twist in a smile behind her bandana at Alys' words. "Some big chickens," she returns, hoping to the gods they taste better than that. She navigates to more steady ground as well, lightly tying the unicorn to a nearby tree, although it looks half dead. If anything spooks the beast, it'd probably wrench the whole tree out of the quagmire and take off, so she hopes the deer are all that's nearby in this forsaken place.

She retrieves her sharpening quiver from the saddle and slips it over her back, a slew of arrows already inside. Her bow is claimed next, remaining in her hands as she glances back over at Alys. "Ready?" she asks softly. "We'll creep up a bit closer, then take aim. I'll go for the right side, you go for the left." She'd be leaving the unicorn here to avoid unnecessary movement and size to blow their stealth.

Once Alys steps in beside her, Colt stoops down and begins to prowl through the murk, the stink unnoticed now as her focus is intent upon the herd mucking around. She doesn't mean to linger too close to Alys, giving them each a better chance of hiding with some distance. Splitting up the direction of their aim might also land them two dead deer instead of one, and should help confused the herd.

Edging in as close as she dares, the sound of squelching mud not terribly sly, Colt settles near a tree. She glances across to Alys before reaching up to her quiver, nocking a sharpened arrow. She waits, then nods across at the seer, so that together they can aim and fire as one. If they miss, they'll have to be running after the group on foot, or grab the unicorn and try to track them again.

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

Alys snorted in response, shaking her head with a rueful smile. Surely their prey would taste better than a giant chicken might, but one never could tell, could they? The seer followed along as Colt tied her unicorn to a tree and began to prepare for the coming hunt. Alys joined her, stringing her own bow and checking the quiver of arrows at her waist. She was a passable hunter, she was proud to say, although perhaps a bit out of practice at present. It had been a while since she'd been forced to track her own food down - these days, she had enough to pay someone else to do it for her, and she'd never been quite so aware of the privilege.

In any case, she agreed readily enough to Colt's plan, breaking off from her friend to slink through the mud and muck and towards a very dead-looking tree that might be large enough to hide her figure from their quarry. Keeping low to the round, Alys snuck closer and closer, doing her best to keep quiet despite the squelching footsteps that followed her. Eventually, she made it to the tree and glanced to Colt. On the woman's signal, Alys drew her arrow, sighted, and loosed, all in one fluid motion peering around the tree. She hoped she'd hit something - otherwise they'd be starting from scratch, and the seer was not inclined to spend more time here than she had to.

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

Although Colt doesn't much consider herself a well practiced hunter either, she has dispatched a few void beasts around her land and with the guild, and did hunt a few times with her father when she was younger. It's a useful skill to be sure, but since Colt mostly raises food these days rather than hunts it down, she isn't sure the title is very fitting for her. Maybe there's more muscle memory than she gives herself credit for though, or maybe luck is just on her side for once.

The tracking and the waiting and the sneaking is by far the hardest part of hunting in her opinion, and this hellscape makes none of it easy. For all the difficulty though, the deer can't easily pick up their scent and the mire moans and groans with its own fetid melody of gas escape, even this time of year. So the pair of half-hunters that they are, manage to make their shots. Both capable marksman, its perhaps Colt's extra sharp arrows or angle that sends her aim true enough to fell the deer immediately. Alys' arrow however, sticks into the side of the beast, wounding it, but not killing it.

The creature let's out a mournful cry and the herd scatters in an instant, though the wounded one is gradually dragging behind. "Shit," Colt mutters to herself, watching the animal struggle to run as she pops up from her crouch. "ALYS! Follow it on foot while you can, we can't leave it like that!" Doesn't much matter to her how Alys feels about the situation, but Colt has no intention of letting it die slow and painful like it will. She's already sprinting back over the frozen mud towards the unicorn she tied off behind them, now cursing her decision not to leave it closer by.

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

While Colt's arrow flies true enough to fell her target, Alys's must have wavered - or perhaps not been aimed well enough to begin with. Her deer bleated in pain as it rushed to follow the scattering herd, though it lagged behind as a result of the seer's arrow embedded in its flesh. Cursing, Alys hopped out from behind her crooked tree and hurried after the little beast, already knocking another arrow. She needed to put the poor thing out of its misery. It wouldn't be right to leave it to suffer.

Calling upon her magic, she cloaked herself in invisibility as she ran as best she could through the muck and mire. Hopefully, if the deer didn't think it was being followed, she could get closer than she might otherwise be able to. At the same time, she manipulated the air around her, sending her scent around in an arc to block off the deer's escape. Her goal was to make the creature think she was somewhere up ahead so that it might falter in its haphazard escape attempt - and it was at that moment that she planned to strike.

---

Illusion (Abandoned/Hybrid): Can create 100% compelling and complex illusions within a 30ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered | Cost: Action

Air manipulation (Abandoned/Hybrid): Can manipulate the air. Must be within a 30ft radius and allows the user to levitate medium-large sized objects up to 5ft above the ground . Control is excellent.
Type: Grey | Rank: Upgraded | Cost: Action

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

She slides to a stop before the unicorn gelding, boots slick with cold swamp and balance a teetering thing that she doesn't have time to bother with. She lurches forward, hauling herself steady against the tree, but it all puts him on alert. Hands thick with gloves fumble in her haste to untie the steed, leather dragging and catching on old bark, drawn taut as the unicorn's head surges back, balking at all her abrupt movements. "Ho," she snaps at him, gaze flicking over at the horn like she's daring him to make a stupid choice right now.

The simple tie gives—it would have sooner if she'd undone it correctly—and Colt is looping the lead across his neck and back around into makeshift reins. She'd not meant to ride him, and even the rigging on his back is for hauling, not sitting, but she'll make do. Clambering up with the help of the tree and some effort, Colt kicks him into motion. His stride is urgent with the energy she's fed him, but it's wary as he steps and squelches over the bog, the kind that's coiled tight just under hide and hair and ready to come undone in a blink. His head keeps high, ears twisting back and forth with a worry he hasn't been able to pinpoint but is sure of with the way she is.

Meanwhile, Alys' tricks have worked well, the less than intelligent creature corralled by sense and instinct. Its body ripples with uncertainty, a hardwired need to avoid more of this pain, to survive, giving it quick actions that makes it slow at the image of danger up ahead in her scent. It also depends on the pattern of its herd, but its lost sight of them with its slow gait, and this new reality is sinking in, that it's got the predator now between it and the others, so it starts to turn back.

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

Colt had disappeared, but Alys was hardly aware of that fact, her own attention so firmly on the injured deer that nothing else seemed to matter. Mud squelched beneath her feet as she slowed from her run, desperately trying to control her breathing lest she give away her position. Her magic seemed to have worked, for the poor, injured creature had slowed and started to turn back; still, she'd prefer that her next shot ended things, not wishing to prolong the beast's suffering and delay its inevitable demise.

Carefully, quietly - Alys drew an arrow from her quiver, nocking it deftly into place as she raised her bow. Sighting down the arrow, the took a few deep, calming breaths as she took aim. And then, on the next exhale, she loosed. With the arrow aimed for the deer's heart, she hoped that this time, its death would be quick and painless - or at least as much as it could be, given its existing injury and fear.

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

The unicorn beneath her consumes the sloppy ground with an ease provided by cloven hooves, one of the reasons she'd chosen this gelding over her usual options. Her speed is no longer necessary though, which isn't something she realizes until the distant shape of Alys comes back into view. She forgot in her hurry that Alys had more than a bow and arrow at her disposal. Colt always has to depend on her mounts and the tools she keeps on hand, decisions cut sharp and quick with limited choices available otherwise. Still, wasted as her own efforts had been, she's relieved the deed is done—the arrow Alys' looses downing the deer permanently.

"You got it," she says, only a touch breathless as she rejoins the seer and slides off the snorting unicorn's back. Some of the run and the easing of her own worries have made the anxious beast less on alert, but he's still jumpier than before. She pats at his neck in a steadying manner once she's back on the ground, taking his 'rein' back to a lead. "Good," she sighs, her bandana wavering with the force of her exhale, the shape of it still fighting stench and frost around the lower half of her face.

"I think we're good then, two should be plenty, and the herd's long gone anyway." The one Alys just shot is closest now, so Colt moves towards it, glancing back at Alys as they walk. "I think maybe we were a touch too far," she offers as explanation, catching the crease that Alys had worn upon her approach. "Mine was sharpened in a quiver by Frey, so it landed deeper." A shrug. "The downside to hunting one way or another. S'why I prefer ranching." She might not also be the butcher, but she knows she sends her cattle off to a manufactured death that's sure and swift.

"How'd you catch up to it anyhow?" she wonders, guessing at magic but not quite sure what. She pauses by the body, leaning down to grab the front feet and waiting for Alys to grab the back so they can haul it up to the unicorn and tie it down.

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //

Alys

The arrow flew true, and the deer went down, much to Alys's relief. Relaxing her stance, she had just released her hold on her illusory invisibility and began to trudge to the dead creature's side when Colt caught up to her. At the rancher's explanation, Alys tilted her head, curious about these Frey-blessed arrows. Though she rarely hunted these days, a bow was still her weapon of choice, and if Caido had taught her anything, it was that she should always be prepared for a fight. Perhaps she'd have to look into some weaponry of her own - after her current quest was completed, of course.

For now, though, she plucked her arrows from the dead deer, sticking them back into her quiver before she helped to pick up the beast and hoist it onto the unicorn's back. "Illusions and wind," she explained, her voice strained from the effort of lifting the deer. "I made myself invisible, and then used my air magic to send my scent in front of it. I was trying to make it think there were more of us up ahead." And it had worked well enough, it seemed. Illusion and misdirection were Alys's strengths in battle, and that had once again proven true.

I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

// Different night, same rodeo //

Each encounter she's had, small or large, has taught her something. Every time, her take away is how much she's still lacking. Too few tools, too straight forward with her thinking, too untested in the world after secluding herself in her island of a ranch. "Smart," she commends of Alys' answer, 'brows lifting with an impressed arch. She mostly keeps Accepted employed, easily forgetting to use the traits of the more naturally gifted. Abandoned and Accepted always want her to pay them more, and they tend to ruffle the feathers in the bunk house, a little too cocky about their abilities when it comes to all the peacocking cowboys are want to do.

"Probably should have used that plan from the start," Colt mutters after securing the deer to the unicorn and walking alongside Alys back to the other one. "Might have managed to nab more than two then, but this'll have to do." She leans down to collect her arrows now, then together they lift and tie down this deer. "Because, I dunno about you, but I'm done smelling this and walking through it." A glance down at her mud-flecked attire from her mad dash across the terrain says plenty. "Let's go home.'

[FIN]

Colt

// Set me on fire, put me out like smoke //