On the Hunt [Kira][Merle]

Storm walked in after Merle, trying his hardest not to check out his flanks as he did. Storm looked around at the garden. It looked like it had once been a nice garden. It looked like it would've had so many different kinds of foods. Storm frowned. It was pretty sad. He noticed there were some holes in the dirt, and the foot prints were going in and out of them as well.

Storm walked over to one, and leaned over to look in. "Its like... A tunnel of some sort. Too small to be a mole rat... What do you think, Kira?"

It actually were a quite nice garden that Merle had managed to set up, to her surprise was it actually impressive that he had gotten anything to grow at all as the ground in most places was to radiated to make anything real grow. But then again she had never understood the need for vegetable that ponies, perhaps there was good money in it.

She walked out to the hole in the dirt that Storm had pointed out. "Well you are right that it is to small for a mole rat." Kira walked then over to the one of the places Merle had pointed out were he had found the climb marks. "I don't think they climbed at all Merle, look closer at this it looks like something had tried to chew at the wood."

She just stood still there for a moment and thinking about that before coming up with an idea. "Um... I don't know really by maybe it could have been radbits that had gotten in. They just about eat anything the can."

Merle's head hit the fence. "Of course they tunneled in. Why wouldn't they? I didn't spend all the time building this to keep them out of the ground." He sighed. "Everything respected the walls in the stable. Nothing to dig under them, doors to be walked through and walls to stop you. Food when you needed it and ponies that—well, at least they didn't shoot you. It might have been a twisted experiment, but it wasn't a bad place."

Taking a deep breath, he turned around, tail lashing the wood. "Well, we're out here now. We can either give up as prey or we can take it on as hunters. This might be a rough place to live, but I'm going to try my best. And if I can make it even slightly easier for others to do the same, well, that just makes it that much better for all of us, right?

"Now, you say it might be a radbit? Let's go find it!" Merle checked the knife he kept fastened to his leg, mirroring the Pipbuck, and spread his wings. The tips brushed the walls as he flew over the top, before flipping backward and landing on the other side. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it didn't take long to find the other end of the tunnel, half hidden under a particularly root-like piece of wood, and what may have been tracks leading away from the house.

((OOC EDIT: I was trying to figure out how to get him to the other side of the fence with the flip-trick, and wasn't going for anything he meant to be overly flashy. I was imagining the scene with Kira and Storm standing in front of the door, and I wanted Merle to end up facing the wall when he landed.))

Storm was impressed by Merle's little flip trick. He knew he wasn't near coordinated enough to do soemthing like that. However, he could try, but then he couldn't. He turned and looked over at Kira, who couldn't fly at all. He would rather stay by her side on the ground than try to impress some guy.

Storm walked ahead and opened the gate in the fence. He proceeded through, then held the gate open for Kira to walk through.

"Well, a radbit doesn't sound like it would be too much trouble... Assuming its like a normal rabbit, just... mutated, I guess. What is a radbit?"

Kira could almost feel the pain in her wing as she saw Merle do his little trick and she tired to hide her expression of both longing and pain, she did really miss flying it actually hurt. At least she could take some comfort that Storm understood her loss some.

"Well basically yes they are just like normal rabbits, or that was what that trader that was in town a few weeks back told me." She answered Storm as she followed him over to were Merle was. "Except that they eat about anything. But who know what more the waste have done to them."

Merle looked up as the two approached. "This looks like where it got in. I think these might be its tracks, but my eyes aren't particularly strong, and I doubt I'd be able to follow it once we get off of this soft ground, anyway. When we find it, though..." A predatory grin split his beak. "Are you ready to hunt?" A moment later, he shook his head, smile softening. This was a new feeling. Now he just had to keep it from getting out of control again.

Storm shrugged his shoulder and let his new hunting rifle bounce on his back. "Ready as I'll ever be," he said, but then blushed when he realized who he was talking to so casually. "I, well, um... I mean... The- the tracks look like they go that way," he said, pointing in the direction of the tracks.

"If we follow it as far as we can, we m-might be able to find... some other clues," Storm's head started to lower and his sentence faded off at the end, but was understandable still. Barely.

(footnote: level up)

Kria bent down to the ground a got a good look a the tracks, it was clear that these had been left by radbits not one but several. Well that was quite clear actually if she remember what the trader said they and an habit of breeding like well rabbits.

It was good that Storm still had a good eye with him as she still felt the effects of the alcohol from last night making it harder of her to concentrate on tracking, instead she started to think that this was actually really the second time she when out in to the wastes not including after leaving the stable and that make her somewhat nerves as she hear stories about all kinds of strange stuff out there.

Shaking these thought off, she instead turned to look now the track they were following and then over to Storm and final over at Merle. She had to admit without joking that he was actually quite handsome and could understand what Storm saw in him, now if he had only been in her age group back in the stable maybe she would also. She found her self staring at his flank and quickly shakes her had, no bad Kira he was Storms crush do not get between them.

Merle smiled at Storm's brief moment of clarity. If he thought about it, the only reason he was able to keep his own sentences straight was by thinking about something else. But that would require thinking about the situation and Storm Ray, and so the insight itself was pushed to the back of his mind before it could be recognized.

"I evidently can't tell whether radbits are climbing something or gnawing it, so I'll follow those of us with nice eyes." He grimaced as he realized what he just said. Working! Working eyes. Even "good". Although S—no, stay focused. Merle gave his head a shake, not noticing that Kira was doing the same thing. As his rather blurry view of the bare hills before them stabilized, he hoped that this trip would go a bit more smoothly than the first, and really only other time he was out in the wastes. But the thought that it should end in prey pulled at some ancient griffon instinct, and he found himself more anticipating the hunt than fearing the remembered raiders.

((OOC: I can't think of anything interesting to finish a travelskip with/for beyond finding the den or setting up a campfire scene, so, even if I did get in touch with you guys, I don't want to put it in my post. I'm ready to leave if everyone else is, though. For scenebuilding, Merle will be walking, especially when he notices the others are as well.))

~
The night came sooner than expected. The three had been on the tracks the whole time, even after the tracks had vanished. Storm had a decent sense of tracking, and he put it to use following after other clues. There were quite a lot, anyone could've followed the radbit's trail.

A campfire was set up, and Storm sat on his back side, picking at the flames with a stick. He looked over at Merle often, turning away whenever he may have spotted him. He wanted to say something badly, but couldn't quite find the gut to do it. He was hoping Merle might say something first.

Merle was sitting a short distance from the fire, watching the flames curl and dance as the stick disrupted the air around it. He occasionally glanced over to Storm, and sometimes was able to catch the smaller griffon quickly shifting his attention away. Merle remembered Storm doing the same thing back in the stable. When some ponies had told him of the crush, those habits had become clearer; unfortunately, they had also decided to tell everyone else. But learning of it had made Merle think about his own feelings. Some time after he stopped seeing Storm as often, though, it became something to ponder at some point, but without immediate relevance. Now, with him sitting right there, the his mind returned to that consideration.

Well, in the meantime, "So, um, how have you been?" Come on, really? "I mean, you said you've been hunting? Have you traveled much since you got out?" Better. "You certainly seem to know how to shoot, based how much you used that old gun. I know enough to make sure one works, but I can't really shoot them." Nice; personalize the question, it's not an interrogation. Or maybe that wasn't the question. "I've—" And that's approaching babbling, now. Let the nice griffon answer. "Sorry."

Storm shrank some in his seat as Merle started talking to him. His nervousness was getting the best of him, allowing him to think that even breathing was somehow embarrassing. A pink tint shaded across his face. Merle was talking to him! Asking questions... about him! Storm was flattered somebody even cared. Especially since that somebody was Merle.

"I- I've been, um... hunting, yeah. I started when I got out, I- um... We, me and Kira, needed money, and, um... The griffons wanted meat, and, um, so we got it for them. And sold it to them." Well that was a nice response.

Storm shook his head. He needed to stop being so flustered and nervous about nothing. "I mean, well... I've been okay. Since I left the stable. I don't really go too far away from Stableton... Just far enough to hunt things. I don't really go anywhere without Kira, either. She watches my back, and I-... well, I try to be useful."

"That does sound like a good way to get caps. I have to wait until something breaks, so I started the garden to try to get something to trade when everything works, but...well, you've seen how it turned out. And it's nice that you have someone you trust with you; it seems like you need it out here." Merle shuddered as he remembered the burn of bullets cutting through his fur.

But about that last part. He thought had heard it correctly, but it seemed to be a bit incorrect. "I'd say that you have been doing more than just 'being useful,' though. Even if I had better eyes, I doubt I would have recognized some of those tracks, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to follow them as easily. I think...right under those rocks we passed. I would have lost it, I mean. The trail." Well, it had started nicely, at least.

((Footnote: Level up. Also, would "flank" be appropriate for griffons as well?))

Kira had been drifting in and out of sleep since they had stopped, it was kind of her own fault for had been staying up so late last night drinking. Well if this showed her anything at least she would learn not to do that again if they would go out hunting.

She had just managed to hear the later parts of the conversion but now had she turned her attention to the conversation. "Storm... I'm not sure how to say it so I just say it. You are more then useful." She scratched her head with her claw trying to get what to say. "You know back in the stable, if it were not for you then I would not have been able to get out of there alive. I probably would have gone mad as the rest of them."

((Yes flank would also apply to griffins as pip used it for Gwad))

Storm smiled. He was happy to hear his friend and Merle say he wasn't as useless as he thought, but he knew in his head that Kira did a lot more for Storm than he did for Kira. However, he would settle for just saying thanks anyway.

"Thank you," he said with a blush, lowering his head some. He didn't even want to bring it up that during the escape from the stable, Storm had done nothing other than shout "Run!" and punched one pony out when he tried to grab Kira.

Still, he smiled happily and sent a caring glance over to his best friend. Then he turned back to Merle. "So... How did you escape, anyway? I didn't see you outside at all when we got out."

((and yes, anything that walks on four legs like a pony will have flanks))