Norlach led the pace up the flank of a steep hill, weaving around boulders and snow-covered logs with the ease of someone who'd spent well over half their life traversing these lands. His broadly whitened face was to the ground, while a patchy, cinnamon-brown tail waved in step behind him.

Just behind the older male, Orcai was keeping pace. The bi-colored female would stop every once in a while to tilt her onyx ears to the sounds of the forest, listening for both danger and potential prey.

Beyond these two, Cael had fallen back by several paces. Like Orcai, he wasn't quite as familiar with the rugged slopes of the Croal Mountains as Norlach was. It was a bit more open than the familiar, fern-choked lands of the Silver Glades, but the uneven terrain and the way scree would sometimes shift beneath his paws, made the wolfdog a little nervous.

There is a fresh scent path of bighorn sheep, leading a little further up into the mountains.

A nearby pine tree bares the markings of a porcupine's teeth, with fresh tracks leading east.

A few meters down the slope is the long-dead carcass of a muledeer buck who perished during the rut. Not much is left to make a meal out of, but some dried flesh still clings to the bones, and tracks of smaller scavengers are numerous around the site.

Cael initially deviated from the main path and made a cautious approach to the scent of old bones. There he circled, dipping his ebony head down and nosing about at the sun-bleached remains of the fallen deer and giving some of the dried meat experimental nibbles. "Guys, there's a bit left down here. It's not much..." He wrinkled back his muzzle as he turned his molars against a strip of frozen, desiccated flesh, finding it not entirely appealing or easy to chew. "..there might be some marrow left in some of these larger bones." After managing to snap off a small morsel, the wolfdog looked back up the slope, his tail waving slightly.

Orcai had already detected and quickly passed up the scent of the porcupine, knowing the meal would be too small to feed the three of them, and potentially more trouble than it'd be worth. She looked instead to her friend down the hill and smiled softly, "Maybe we can take a few bones back with us on the way back."

"We've got bigger game." Norlach announced, drawing the attention of both canines his way. He'd just stumbled across the scent trail of the sheep. The alertness of his gaze as he looked up the mountain, and the tense stillness of his form told the others that it was time to get serious. "Lets move up, and see if we can find them." His head went down, level with his shoulders, and he began to wind his way quietly up the steep slope, hoping to spot the sheep before they spotted him.

Orcai flashed Cael a look before falling in line behind the older male. Cael hastily swallowed the bit of hardened skin he'd been working on and scrambled up the slope after the other two.

A few hundred yards of trekking through steep terrain would reveal a small band of ewes foraging in a shallow ravine, having descending from the steepest parts of the mountain to feed on shrubs and other plant life buried beneath the snow.

A total of four bighorn ewes are in the ravine, while one is grazing along the lower edge of the formation. All appear to be relatively healthy, with no obvious sign of illness or injury. But with the wind in the pack's favor, they herd hasn't yet noticed the approach of the predators.

The second Norlach spotted the lone ewe on the edge of the ravine, he froze. It took a beat or two before he realized there were more, just a little further in. Five all together; five opportunities for a meal tonight. But, which one to go for? Quietly, Nor half-turned his head back and whispered in a voice so quiet that the slightest breeze could dash it away, "Five sheep ahead. Lets take a moment to watch them, and see if any move into a better position."

Orcai's stepped had slowed dramatically when Norlach stopped. The black and white wolfess now trekked carefully as she caught up with the other, minding where her paws landed so as not to make excess noise. In this manner, she eventually moved up beside the brute, and finally set eyes on what had given him pause in the first place. Rather than murmur back to him, Orcai merely nodded her understanding, and turned all attention to the ewes.

In all his time spent in the wilderness with Orcai and her pack, Cael had learned the art of stealth hunting. He come a long way from the relatively flat world of Atroe City's slums to the varied and ever changing terrain of the forests and fields, and even if he didn't particularly have mountain climbing down pat, the ebony mongrel still managed to move with surprising silence as he squeezed up behind the alpha pair and waited for further instructions.

Luck continued to favor the pack, at least where wind was concerned. None of the five had yet noticed the three canines stalking them. But the one along the ridge began to slowly make her way up the edge of the ravine, and away from the waiting pack. The other four ewes began to meander in her general direction as they grazed, ready to return to the safety of the upper mountains once they'd had their fill here.

The window of opportunity for the pack was quickly closing.

Norlach subdued what wanted to be a snarl of frustration as the small herd started to put distance between them, and worse yet, began to move in a direction he knew the pack wouldn't be able to follow for very far. Thinking quickly, the older wolf hastily formulated a plan and dropped back a few steps to speak in a whisper-quiet voice to his two companions, "Orcai, you and I will rush along either side of the ravine, and try to reach the start of it as quickly as we can. If we're fast enough, we may be able to get there before they all have time to climb out, and then we can chase them back down the mountain." Norlach looked to Cael next, "With any luck, we could get one heading in your direction, and you can ambush them."

Cael's ears went back slightly, and a tongue flashed out briefly against his muzzle in an anxious gesture. Finding Nor's expectant stare more than a little intimidating, the coal-black wolfdog sought reassurance with a glance to Orcai.

"You can do it, Cael. If anything else, you just need to keep at least one of them running downhill, and not back up into the mountains." Orcai then reached forward to plant a lick against the other's cheek, but Norlach stepped briskly forward into her space and rumbled, "Now's not the time for softness. If everyone does their part, we'll have a meal tonight. Get your head in the hunt, Cael. Orcai, lets go." He gave the other only a moment's time to prepare before rushing towards the ravine.

Orcai had little time to try and smooth over Nor's bluntness with her long-time friend. As soon as the older male sprinted forward, Orcai was charging out too, but heading along the opposite flank of the ravine. She didn't bother targeting the ewe that was on the outer rim, unless by chance it happened to stumble. She stuck to the plan, and push herself hard to try and reach the start of the ravine before the other four sheep made it out...

The wolves managed to advance a few dozen yards over the rocky, shrub-dotted terrain before the ewe on the precipice of the ravine spotted them. She bleated a warning to her flockmates before kicking into a swift race that saw her quickly and nimbly gaining ground.

The ewes within the ravine bolted just as quickly. But in their rush to escape from the narrow entrance of the ravine, one older female was sideswiped by a younger companion and stumbled. She fell, and rolled several times along with a small cascade of stone and earth before recovering her footing. As her three companions managed to clear the passage and begin their mad scramble for safety, the elder sheep hesitated. Norlach was coming in fast from the side, and Orcai was closing in from the opposite direction. She could dart out before the wolves reached her, but it would put her dangerously close to their fangs. The ewe turned back, and began to run back down into the ravine, banking on putting more distance between her and predators.

The ewe's path would lead her out of the open end of the ravine, and straight towards the heavily forested area where Cael was waiting.

The short, fast-paced rush up the steep terrain had Norlach's muscles screaming and his lungs heaving, but the burst of effort seemed to have paid off. With a bit of luck on their side, they'd managed to single out one of the sheep and drive it in a more favorable direction. Norlach didn't slow his pace as he dove into the ravine, making sure they didn't lose this sudden advantage by putting himself between their prey and it's retreating flock.

Orcai was not far behind Nor when she rushed past the steep edges that defined the entrance into the rocky depression in the mountain side. And though the bi-colored wolf had a bit more energy behind her stride than the elder Norlach, she reserved some of this as she just behind him in pursuit of the sheep. Down in the forest, Cael had remained semi-crouched within a cluster of wind-stunted spruce trees, letting their dense needles and drooping branches obscure his dark form. His eyes had been glued to the elder ewe since the moment she took a tumble, and now that she was heading his way, the ebony wolfdog felt his heart begin to pound.

This was it. His chance to show Norlach that he was a capable hunter. And to show Orcai that he was just as worthy of her attention as the older male. All he had to do was wait for the perfect moment, and aim his bite.

Instinct took over as the ewe drew closer. And when she was close enough, Cael rushed forward and leaped, trying to snag her shoulder or neck and wrestle her to the ground until the other two could catch up...

The rest of the flock continued up the mountain, quickly reaching safer heights. The elder ewe, meanwhile, had little recourse but to keep running in the opposite direction, with her attention split between the two wolves behind her, and the dense vegetation she was beginning to move into.

Without knowing of Cael's hidden position, the sheep ran almost straight for the hidden canine. By the time she saw the shadows shift and lunge out in the form of a predator, she had no time to dart in a different direction or try a any other evasive maneuver. Cael had her by the upper shoulder, nearly bringing the ewe to her knees, but she persevered. At almost double the brute's weight, the ewe bleated in alarm, but kept charging down the slope, trying to shake the predator off, or smash him into any one of the trees she was barreling past...

Cael held on for dear life. From the edge of his vision, he could see Norlach and Orcai closing in as they charged headlong into the trees. All he had to do was maintain his grip, and slow the ewe down long enough for the pair to catch up.

Thwack!

A pine branch caught him along the upper hip, taking a few clumps of black fur with it.

Crack!

The side of his muzzle and forehead were caught square on by hearty spruce sapling, jarring his hold on his prey, and leaving a stinging series of abrasions to his face. Cael persevered though, taking these hits and a few more during the wild rush down the side of the mountain.

Behind him, and closing in fast, Norlach wove his way between tree trunks and slipped beneath low-hanging branches, picking up speed until he'd at least caught up to the hindquarters of the fleeing sheep. Pushing himself, the older male swept in from the side, trying to grab her flank and wrestle the ewe to the ground once and for all...

Orcai had kept close to Nor during the descent, having fanned out a few feet to his side as they neared their prey. She had winced internally at the few times she watched saplings shudder under the impact of Cael slamming into them, or the whiplash of branches that had clawed against her friend's body. But he'd held on, and Orcai wasn't about to let his sacrifices be in vain. While Norlach went for the haunch, Orcai pressed further forward, breaking rank from Norlach to reach for the ewe's muzzle...

She might have been able to throw Cael off eventually, but the tenacious wolfdog had clung on long enough to give his pack the time and opportunity to catch up. She took Cael and Norlach both for a short ride, trying again to bash them against trees and branches on her way downhill, before Orcai finally ended her desperate run.

The ewe soon fell, sliding a few feet with the pack before coming to a stop on the steep incline of the mountainside, amongst a pile of displaced leaves, stone, and soil. After after a short, two minute struggle against the trio, the bighorn lay silent. The Silver Glades pack had made a successful kill.

Ignoring the sap and needles that clung to his fur, and the few bruises he felt welling along his shoulder and lower side for the blows he'd taken during the struggle, Norlach held tight to the ewe, and had even dug his paws in and thrashed his head whenever he got the opportunity, just to help throw her off balance and slow their wild descent down the mountain. Once the sheep was finally down, with Orcai at her snout, Norlach turned his teeth viciously against their prey, and didn't let up until all fight had ebbed from her. Once that happened, he lifted his reddened muzzle, tongue lolling from his mouth, and looked across at the others, "Fine work, you two."

The least battered of the three, Orcai had also clung to her quarry until the ewe's last breath, and retained that grip until Norlach relinquished his own. She dropped the snout, briefly flexed her aching jaws, then let her tail hang loose in a well-earned victory, "Thanks to your planning, Nor." The black and white wolfess stepped forward to give him a lick beneath the chin, cleaning away some of the blood, even if it was bound to be sullied the moment they began to feast.

From there, Orcai turned to look at Cael, who'd began to step back from the sheep, his eyes averted. With a softened smile, she called out to her anxious friend, "..and your skills, Cael. You did well, holding on as long as you did."

The ebony male looked up, his honey-colored eyes a widened in a moment of surprise. He even dared a quick glance to Norlach, and was further amazed to not see a fang of warning bared at him, as was per usual at the dinner table. Instead, Norlach's tail was as loose and neutral as Orcai's, giving Cael permission for the first time to eat along side him. "Lets fill our bellies, and carry back what we can for later."

Cael hesitated of course, but when the elder wolf didn't offer a growl of rebuke or a flash of ivories at his slinking approach, the wolfdog began to tear cautiously at the shoulder of the ewe, his tail low but wagging furiously for the compliments he'd received from the alphas.

The trio feasted on the ewe until their bellies were full and clumps of reddened wool littered the sloping forest floor. Each then worked off the heartiest piece of meat they could handle, and under Norlach's lead, made their way back to the Silver Glades.