The First Hunt

Vanya was tired of being a burden; unable to pull his own weight in his Colony. Every other Enderman in their small community helped in their survival. They hunted, they protected their territory, patrolled their borders to make sure no dangers entered. They cared for the eggs and the young. They cultivated the land, gathered salt and seasoning and herbs to cook and cure the meat of what they hunted; they cooked the meat and tanned the hides; but Vanya could do none of that without his sight. One had to see an animal to be able to catch it. Scent and sound alone was not enough.

Each time he heard one Enders in the Colony bringing food to Kaitu as he cared for the twins, Vanya felt worse. As the one that sired the twins, he felt that it was his place to provide meat to the Elder. It was not everybody else's place to pick up on his slack. It frustrated him to no end, even if the Colony was happy to care for their blind member.  No matter how many times they reassured him that it was fine, that they had plenty of hunters, he just couldn't shake the feeling that he was a burden.

When he came across Arzhel as a pup, he had the idea of training the pup to help him hunt. Vanya had no idea he'd grow so big he could be ridden. And as Arzhel grew bigger and bigger, and Vanya realized he could ride the creature his excitement grew. More and more possibilities opened up for him. From there, they had practiced together every day. Learning how to communicate; learning how to use eachother's strengths to stalk animals. Many escaped before the pair could get to them; but each failure only helped them learn how to better hunt and work together. The crisp winter morning was like any other; with the exception of a certain sense of excitement building in Vanya's chest. He would do it. He would hunt. And he and Arzhel would bring something back to the Colony. He was determined. Arzhel had gotten huge; a powerful muscular creature that Khiva jokingly called a beardog. Kaitu had read up on what it was; a creature called a Tokota. The Elder had helped him learn about Tokotas and how to train them. It made him happy to see how much Vanya's confidence had increased in the time he'd been working with the big beast.

Vanya and Arzhel had been tracking a herd of caribou for a few days.

As he prepared himself, Kaitu let out a light chirp. "Good luck out there." He said softly. He sounded tired. He'd barely slept since his twins had hatched. The two bickered and squabbled consantly leaving him to wake up every time he tried to sleep.

"I think I can do it this time." Vanya tilted his head towards the entrance of the den he had been sharing with the Elder since they'd mated. He could hear the wind outside though the huge bear hide hanging over the cave entrance blocked the cold air from getting inside. It was warm and comfortable, a cheery fire lit in a small chimney Kaitu had carved out himself with his claws. The crackling of the flames and the smell of wood smoke relaxed Vanya. But it did nothing to dampen the excitement he felt building already. "Arzhel and I have been tracking a herd of caribou for days. We've found one that is old... and I think he's wounded. It's an old injury, there's no blood. But if it slows him down enough we should be able to catch him. Especially if we can separate him from his herd."

"Looks like I'll have some fresh caribou tonight, hm?" Kaitu smiled.

"I hope so." For a moment his confidence wavered, though a big shaggy head pushing against his hand and a low whuffing had the confidence and smile returning. "Well, it is time for me to go." He said. He knew the den well enough to make his way to the entrance and push the bear hide aside without any help. He also knew the general area around the den; but once they started to get further on, he relied on Arzhel more and more. As they approached the herd, he swung up onto Arzhel's back. He crouched down and listened. 

This was where Vanya's extremely heightened sense of smell came in handy. He caught  the scent of the caribou they had been tracking right away. He was towards the outside of the herd. The sound of his hooves on the frozen ground gave it away too; that slight unevenness to his gait due to his left rear leg. It was one of the bigger ones, surprisingly, that they had singled out. The caribou was not only lame, but old. Vanya held on tight as Arzhel growled and snapped and snarled, frightened the herd into running. He focused his strength and snapping jaws on their target. As the herd took off in a panic, the lame old male lagged behind. Exactly as they had expected. As he lagged further, Arzhel snapped his jaws at his legs. The sight of the huge beast sent him veering away from the herd. His eyes rolled back in his head in panic. Arzhel his head back with a whuffing noise. Vanya quickly adjusted his hold on Arzhel as the beast harassed the herd and whipped them into a frenzy. Their target made a very bad decision. As he  veered back towards the herd he caught sight of the flashing fangs of the Tokota. Rearing back, he veered away from the herd a second time. In his panic he slipped on some loose icy stones, and fell down a sharp incline. That injured his lame leg even more. He was able to get up again, but he could barely put any weight on that leg.  They continued to chase the herd as far from their target as they could.  That way he couldn't rejoin. It would make it much easier to hunt him down.

The caribou stumbled a few times as his run slowed to a trot, then to a walk. Ears flicking, he looked all around. After a while, he thought he'd lost the predators by some strange stroke of luck.

As soon as they had chased the herd far enough, Arzhel headed back in the direction their intended prey had ran off in. Vanya started to sniff at the air. The scent of fear came to him, as well as the distant scent of blood wafting up from the valley the Caribou had fled into. One hand twitched, before stroking upwards towards the Tokota's ear. This was how he told him where the Caribou had gone. Arzhel set off in a steady lope. As they got closer to the tired and injured caribou, Arzhel crouched down lower on the ground to stay out of sight. The Caribou had a false sense of security. It thought it had shaken its hunters. Thus, it lowered its head and pawed at the ground to uncover frosted over vegitation to eat. Ears flicked back and forth alerty as mount and rider slowly inched closer, and closer. 

The sound of the caribou's alarmed huff alerted Vanya before he felt Arzhel lift his head, fur shifting as his ears perked up. Arzhel let out a soft whuffing sound to inform Vanya to prepare himself; they would be moving soon. Vanya's tufted ears twitched towards where the sound of hooves on frozen ground could be heard. He heard a second alarmed huff as the caribou sniffed the air carefully. The large animal lifted its head, ears flicking all around as it listened intently. But Arzhel crouched low and still behind a frosted over bush; the Caribou saw nothing and smelled nothing with them being downwind. Lavender eyes followed their prey's every move. The Caribou's breath formed clouds of fog around its face with every breath it took. Arzhel didn't move a muscle; he remained calm and still. The Caribou, deeming the faint sound he had heard to be nothing but his own nerves, lowered his head to search for more frozen grass and plants to eat.

As the caribou slowly lowered his head to graze, Arzhel rolled his muscular shoulders and slowly lifted his large paw and set it down carefully on the ground. Despite his carethough the frozen dirt and cold stone beneath the beast's weight made a soft crunching sound as the paw came to a rest. The caribou's head shot up again. As the wind changed directions, the scent of predator filled his flared nostrils. He suddenly realized that his current location was no longer safe. He let out an alarmed call before lurching into a full run. He stumbled and nearly fell which cost him precious time. Vanya could tell from its uneven steps and the smell of blood growing stronger that it was, indeed, injured from his earlier fall.  Trying to run was aggrevating the injury and making it, and the smell of blood, worse. He was putting very little weight on its lift rear leg, which slowed the panicked animal down considerably. Vanya felt Arzhel tense and crouched down against his back. He his knees gripped the Tokota's side as his hands took hold of his thick white mane in a firm grip. He needed no saddle, or tack. He commanded Arzhel through subtle touches and shifts of weight; and the Tokota did the same in return. The subtlest of movement could clue either party in to what was going on. A saddle or tack would have interrupted that special communication the two had with eachother. The lifting of his head, tensing of muscles, and the excited huff of breath had all told Vanya to hold on and crouch down to make the air flow around the two of them and not hamper their speed. He moved with the great beast beneath him as if the two were one. He would almost seem like an extension of the black Toko's white mane.

Vanya was much taller than any ordinary Tokota handler. Most of those who trained the beasts were human. Vanya was very much not human. The only similarity was his basic shape but even that was very different. His frame elongated; sharp fangs and claws, feathering and a heavy coating of thick, soft, dense and very silky fur which shone in the winter sunlight. Tufted pointed ears on the side of his head, icy blue eyes set in a black scerla. But his species were naturally incredibly light for their size. Standing just over nine and a half feet tall, Vanya weighed no more than 120 pounds. Much of this was due to how his species were supernatural in origins. A combination of energy based and flesh based. This gave them many strange abilities, though one of their main abilities Vanya could not use. One had to see where they were going to Teleport. But he was very much blind; he couldn't even make out light and shadow around him. As useful as teleportation could be to hunt, Vanya didn't need it, with his big black-furred mount. He heard the caribou's hooves striking the ground, the softer but heavier padded thumping of Arzhel's paws followed by the subtle scrape of his claws on the ground. Even at their speed, the cold did not penetrate his dense fur.

The Caribou didn't have much of a chance to get far. They had slunk up close enough that even if he hadn't injured his rear leg so badly he would have been hard-pressed to escape the hunters on his trail.  The small team of two gained on the caribou quickly. Once again, subtle signals told Vanya to shift his weight as they got in striking distance, allowing Arzhel to leap up without dislodging his rider. His fangs snapped into the Caribou's good leg. A sickening crack sounded as bones snapped and crunched between the Tokota's powerful jaws. He tried to kick at the Toko, but his injured leg was too weak, and now his other leg was badly broken.  Vanya quickly launched himself off of the Tokota's back, and onto the Caribou's. His razor sharp claws sank in with ease as he bit down on the back of the beast's neck. The caribou tried once again to kick at Arzhel, but as the injured leg struck at Arzhel, he let go and dodged with ease. The Caribou crashed to the ground.  Vanya felt the beast falling; heard the deep-chested panting and growling from Arzhel. He leapt off and landed lightly on the ground beside Arzhel. He listened as the caribou struggled to get up againwith gurgling gasps of breath. But he was bleeding out, quickly. Vanya's fangs had severed his spinal cord. His foreleags wer out stiff, rear legs able to do nothing but twitch. His breath gurgled with blood from where Vanya's sharp claws had slicked his jugular. His feeble struggles slowed as he quickly bled out on the ground. Vanya was well out of the reach of the big, muscular form flailed and twitched on the ground.

Vanya knew the exact moment the Caribou breathed its last labored huff of breath before its life left it and it lay limp on the ground. He smelled the faint shift... between life, and death. The albino Maltese ignored the sticky blood on his fur. He could clean that later. He moved carefully to the Caribou before he grabbed its forelegs. He hauled it up so the forelegs and head dangled over his shoulders. He was easily strong enough to do so, even if he appeared so thin and lean. Some could consider it frightening how easily he lifted such a bulky animal, but it was normal for an Enderman. He had supernatural strength. Once he had his prey situated, he let out a soft whistle to Arzhel. Arzhel knew what that meant. He whuffed back before turning to walk back home. He took great care to shuffle his paws so Vanya could follow the sounds of his movement. Seeing Vanya following Arzhel, dead caribou slung over his shoulders, one could hardly tell he was blind. With Arzhel's help... he felt as if he was not blind at all. He swelled with pride, head high and strides long and confident. His sightless eyes stared straight ahead, but they still looked bright and proud, ears carried higher than he had ever carried them before.

Vanya had finally become a functioning part of the Colony. He could finally hunt, and provide meat and animal hide to his Colony, and his children. Catching Kaitu's scent, Vanya let out an excited greeting chirp. The squeaking and chirping and tiny growls told him both twins were awake and playing with Kaitu sitting nearby to keep watch over them. Vanya came to a stop beside Kaitu, where he let the carcass drop. 

"Now that is going to be delicious!" Kaitu said, inspecting the caribou carefully. "Good clean kill, too. Great job!"

Vanya swelled with pride again. He smiled more than he had since his brother died. Kaitu smiled as well. It was so good to see Vanya smiling again, after so long. 

"Arzhel, come." Kaitu beckoned the Tokota over. He walked over and bumped his forehead against the Elder's chest. "Thank you." He said simply, scratching and petting under his chin and around his ears. Tail wagging, Arzhel panted under the praise and petting. "Such a good boy you are. I'm glad Vanya found you, you have no idea how worried about him I was when I came across him here. Pffbth, I've already groomed myself, thank you. I have no need of that big tongue of yours!" That last part was spoken with a laugh as Arzhel licked his face. "Vanya, would you like to keep an ear on the twins while I take this meat to the Smokehouse?" 

Vanya tilted his head back and nodded. He went and lay down by the twins. Arzhel flopped down beside him as the hatchlings squeaked and tumbled and played like two tiny kittens. Vanya was truly happy in that moment. Nearby, an unseen entity smiled as well, the cold spot left by the ghost not noticeable against the cold winter air outdoors. Yuto was happy for his brother, and proud.

Yuto: ask-the-maltese-endermen.tumbl…

Total = 23
3(fb colored shaded) + 2(complex bg) +13(2739 WC) +1(non-com) +2(handler) +2(hunt)