Timestamp: 2nd of Cylus, Arc 722
For almost a full arc, Praetorum had busied himself with Rharne and his seemingly endless stream of customers, from merchants requiring muscle, to knights seeking training, to what sometimes felt like everyone and their mother wanting weapons and armor crafted for them. He'd done little but run his business, teach students, train his mercenaries, and take job after job after job.
But he'd never forgotten his goal at the end of it all, never forgotten the path that had been laid out for him. Four tasks, each more difficult than the last—to gather followers, to build a home, to grow a kingdom.
To earn forgiveness.
He'd completed the first, gathering around him five loyal companions. Ricky was too much a follower for Prae to consider him for a leadership position, but Clarissa had been with him since their days in Yaralon, and Syd, Valbjorn, Liv'ana and Aelyn had all proven both their mettle and their loyalty to him over the past arc. The fourth task... Prae knew he would have to face eventually. The second and third, though, Prae had been preparing for.
He had watched Elisabeth and Balthazar grow Haven, and had some idea of what he would need. The details, he would need to wait to figure out until he knew more of what he was doing, and more importantly, where. But the basic skills that he would need to live, to thrive, to build a home... those would be the same no matter what. So it didn't matter that Prae could afford to dine well every trial, it didn't matter that the keep's larders were always stocked, it didn't matter that there was no real need for Prae to fend for himself again.
Every so often, Prae would find some time to head deep into the Mistral Woods, and go hunting.
Which was how he'd found himself here, squinting at a set of tracks in the snow. It was of some kind of hooved animal, that was plain enough to see. Aside from that... Prae wasn't really sure. He thought it probably wasn't too big—at least, based on the size of the hooves and the width of its gait. He couldn't tell what animal it was, but he could tell it hadn't been in a hurry. Here and there, he could see where the creature had disturbed the snow, probably rooting around for food. There were spots where the tree branches had snapped off too—caught by a pair of horns, perhaps? So he was looking at a male deer, or reindeer, or something like that.
The tracks were.... well, Prae couldn't really tell how fresh they were. But at the very least, he was certain they weren't more than a day old—it had snowed last night, heavily, and these tracks would have been obscured if they'd been here then. All in all, not very much useful information—but enough for Prae to figure that he could probably track and kill this animal.
Probably.
Following the tracks was easy enough, with the snow this thick on the ground. Still, Prae kept an eye out for other signs of the creature's passing—bark scraped from a tree, fur caught on brambles, a pile of dung nearly hidden at the base of a tree. It was easier to spot them when Prae already knew that the creature had been past, but if he'd had to rely entirely on those signs... He most likely would have lost the creature ages ago.
Still, it was good training for his eye, and his sense of smell, and his instincts, so he continued slowly tracking the creature, scanning the surroundings all the while. At Prae's slow pace, it took almost a break for him to catch up to the animal. An unreasonable amount of time if Prae were hunting for food, certainly, but given that this was merely practice, better slow than sloppy.
Prae saw the animal before it saw him, and stilled in his tracks, shuffling carefully behind a tree. It was quite a distance away, eating something on the ground, its back towards him. This was a bad angle, Prae knew. From behind, there was no place Prae could shoot at it that would kill the animal immediately—it would run, bleeding out all the while, and Prae might well lose his quarry. Not to mention the pain the animal would suffer before it died, its body wasted and uneaten. No, Prae needed to get closer, and he needed to get around to its side.
For a defier like himself, there was no need to test the air currents to figure out which way was upwind and which way was downwind. He just knew—and more than that, he could change it, frivolous though it might be to use magic for such a purpose. No, the point of this exercise was to hunt an animal without the help of his various magics, marks, and other abilities. To succeed on the basis of his own skill and wit. So, he began circling to the right, knowing that that was downwind of the buck, and that it wouldn't be able to smell him from that direction.
Prae took it slow, knowing that he was not the sneakiest of all Ithecal, even out of his plate armour. He kept behind trees where he could, and ducked around the underbrush where he couldn't, all the while making his way to a spot where he would have a good angle to shoot from. Luckily for Prae, the creature seemed engrossed in whatever it was eating, and didn't look up even once as Prae finally, finally found the perfect angle, between a tree and a pile of snow that Prae was positive used to be a shrub. It was still quite a distance away from the creature, but Prae didn't dare get any closer, for fear of scaring it off.
For almost a full arc, Praetorum had busied himself with Rharne and his seemingly endless stream of customers, from merchants requiring muscle, to knights seeking training, to what sometimes felt like everyone and their mother wanting weapons and armor crafted for them. He'd done little but run his business, teach students, train his mercenaries, and take job after job after job.
But he'd never forgotten his goal at the end of it all, never forgotten the path that had been laid out for him. Four tasks, each more difficult than the last—to gather followers, to build a home, to grow a kingdom.
To earn forgiveness.
He'd completed the first, gathering around him five loyal companions. Ricky was too much a follower for Prae to consider him for a leadership position, but Clarissa had been with him since their days in Yaralon, and Syd, Valbjorn, Liv'ana and Aelyn had all proven both their mettle and their loyalty to him over the past arc. The fourth task... Prae knew he would have to face eventually. The second and third, though, Prae had been preparing for.
He had watched Elisabeth and Balthazar grow Haven, and had some idea of what he would need. The details, he would need to wait to figure out until he knew more of what he was doing, and more importantly, where. But the basic skills that he would need to live, to thrive, to build a home... those would be the same no matter what. So it didn't matter that Prae could afford to dine well every trial, it didn't matter that the keep's larders were always stocked, it didn't matter that there was no real need for Prae to fend for himself again.
Every so often, Prae would find some time to head deep into the Mistral Woods, and go hunting.
Which was how he'd found himself here, squinting at a set of tracks in the snow. It was of some kind of hooved animal, that was plain enough to see. Aside from that... Prae wasn't really sure. He thought it probably wasn't too big—at least, based on the size of the hooves and the width of its gait. He couldn't tell what animal it was, but he could tell it hadn't been in a hurry. Here and there, he could see where the creature had disturbed the snow, probably rooting around for food. There were spots where the tree branches had snapped off too—caught by a pair of horns, perhaps? So he was looking at a male deer, or reindeer, or something like that.
The tracks were.... well, Prae couldn't really tell how fresh they were. But at the very least, he was certain they weren't more than a day old—it had snowed last night, heavily, and these tracks would have been obscured if they'd been here then. All in all, not very much useful information—but enough for Prae to figure that he could probably track and kill this animal.
Probably.
Following the tracks was easy enough, with the snow this thick on the ground. Still, Prae kept an eye out for other signs of the creature's passing—bark scraped from a tree, fur caught on brambles, a pile of dung nearly hidden at the base of a tree. It was easier to spot them when Prae already knew that the creature had been past, but if he'd had to rely entirely on those signs... He most likely would have lost the creature ages ago.
Still, it was good training for his eye, and his sense of smell, and his instincts, so he continued slowly tracking the creature, scanning the surroundings all the while. At Prae's slow pace, it took almost a break for him to catch up to the animal. An unreasonable amount of time if Prae were hunting for food, certainly, but given that this was merely practice, better slow than sloppy.
Prae saw the animal before it saw him, and stilled in his tracks, shuffling carefully behind a tree. It was quite a distance away, eating something on the ground, its back towards him. This was a bad angle, Prae knew. From behind, there was no place Prae could shoot at it that would kill the animal immediately—it would run, bleeding out all the while, and Prae might well lose his quarry. Not to mention the pain the animal would suffer before it died, its body wasted and uneaten. No, Prae needed to get closer, and he needed to get around to its side.
For a defier like himself, there was no need to test the air currents to figure out which way was upwind and which way was downwind. He just knew—and more than that, he could change it, frivolous though it might be to use magic for such a purpose. No, the point of this exercise was to hunt an animal without the help of his various magics, marks, and other abilities. To succeed on the basis of his own skill and wit. So, he began circling to the right, knowing that that was downwind of the buck, and that it wouldn't be able to smell him from that direction.
Prae took it slow, knowing that he was not the sneakiest of all Ithecal, even out of his plate armour. He kept behind trees where he could, and ducked around the underbrush where he couldn't, all the while making his way to a spot where he would have a good angle to shoot from. Luckily for Prae, the creature seemed engrossed in whatever it was eating, and didn't look up even once as Prae finally, finally found the perfect angle, between a tree and a pile of snow that Prae was positive used to be a shrub. It was still quite a distance away from the creature, but Prae didn't dare get any closer, for fear of scaring it off.
