I got stuck with the heaviness of my own words

@Hotaru! (It doesn't have to be a hunting thread or something lol, I just needed to think of a starter)

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This afternoon was when Izumi decided to do some hunting -- or at least make an attempt at it. The crane wasn't too well versed in this activity, but the girl could run -- and that has led to a few successes from time to time. It was fair to test that luck again and see if she could be of any use to the group's feeding cache. Fujiwara didn't wish to burden the group she traveled with if she wasn't making herself useful...

The princess stood at the edge of a rocky mountain, and in its corner lied a small burrow where a rabbit or other burrowing animal might've made its home. Izu wasn't exactly sure what to make out of this situation, but her mind briefly glimpsed back from when the Ryōshi — Hunters of her old clan would use sticks to try and lure them out by force.

Well, she was no experienced Ryōshi -- but it wouldn't hurt to try, right?

In her maw was a dead branch she had picked up nearby -- clearly not long enough to reach anything, but the crane was not aware of that -- and would proceed to poke the insides at the backward side-angle she was in. Hopefully, something came out from these efforts...

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The swell of her leg had stilled since her mother started treatment, though the pain that lingered along with tender flesh kept her pace slow. She hated everything about it. The pain was one thing, but now she only slowed their group, her mother fretted over her and Haruki was still nowhere to be seen. Perhaps things would have been better had he been at her side, but now the space he usually filled was cold and empty.

Why hadn't her leg healed yet? What made it so horrible in one day that it couldn't scab over and heal like a cut? She hated the pain, how it made her feel nauseous at times, but more importantly, she hated how it made her look especially amongst so many new faces. During one of their rests, Hotaru had wandered off to be alone, somewhere where she could wince and clean the oozing from her ankle without the stares of others. What she found instead, was a woman with a stick prodding at a hole.

She wasn't a stranger, she knew her from their group. Izumi if she remembered her mother's introduction correctly, though she had been of few words around her since. The pale princess weighed her outcomes, she could easily turn now and hope that the other would be too preoccupied to notice, but curiosity got the best of her. A careful hobble drew her near, ensuring that she never applied too much weight to her injured leg before she would observe from a few paces away. “What are you doing?”

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The sight of a blanched figure limping over to her did not go unnoticed in the corner of Izu's violet hues and at first, she believed it to be the snow empress checking up to see what she'd been doing, but upon dropping the stick to turn around and see, someone unexpected appeared instead. "Hotaru?" she breathed with a curious glance. The girl looked so much like her mother that it would've been hard to tell if she wasn't looking -- save for the notable height difference and a colored gaze that matched her own.

Izumi remembered when they first rescued the young girl from the forest during their run-in with an elken monarch, but the two of them never really sat down to talk to each other after that day -- even during their venture towards the mountains. Fujiwara wouldn't lie by saying she didn't wish to converse with the teenager, but finding a good time to do so nowadays seemed difficult.

"I didn't expect that we'd run into each other since I thought you were off with your mother, so I thought I'd busy myself with finding food for us all." There was another woman amongst them as well, but they had yet to be properly introduced to each other -- although the thought was set aside for now. "....how's your injury fairing?"

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The pale girl shook her head. It's true she hadn't minded sticking by her mother's side since they reunited, but Reiko hovered a little too much to her liking, and even with the pain in her leg stretching it felt good. “I've never seen someone hunt with a stick before.” Maybe that was more common in packs with thick forests. Back home she was used to blending with the snow and bounding in a race for life. She would have sighed had she been alone, but she didn't want to look like she was disappointed with her company. She just missed home.

“It's better. I'll be ok once the rest of the pain goes away.” As the conversation switched to her leg she stretched it out to the side, glancing once more at the lightly scabbed over and healing bite near her ankle. Even if she tried to fight it, some things just couldn't be fixed with anything but time. “I'm not sure why my mother is so concerned, I've been through worse. A little bite won't kill me.” Well, it could, but she didn't know that.

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"O-oh....this?" The realization of what she had been doing seemed to come to her, and Izumi's head was just as quick to turn away and hide the blood which rushed towards her pale cheeks. Was.....using a stick not how you hunted in this situation? "Well...this is how I'd seen others from my clan hunt when.....actually, never mind..." The crane said with a soft sigh as the stick she held dropped from her jaws. The crane was not too self-conscious due to Hotaru's comment, as she would've put the stick down eventually anyway -- the girl wasn't catching anything, nor did she know what she was doing. Izu just felt silly continuing this any further. Thankfully the subject was changed just as quickly as it was dropped, and the princess now focused on the topic of Hotaru's Injury. It did look better as confirmed -- much better from when the young girl was initially rescued.

The dovelette went on to explain her mother's concern with her safety, though the usual sentiment of not wanting to be fussed over wasn't shared -- rather, there was a small cloud of envy in the crane's chest. Izu didn't receive much of her mother's attention growing up, so much that the femme didn't think herself as a favored daughter in the woman's eyes. The only time she even bothered to show her the motherly affection she so desperately wanted was when it was too late...

Izu decided to push the thought away for now.

"I am not too knowledgeable on the subject of animal bites, but some are known to do serious harm if not treated properly." or kill, though Izumi wasn't sure Reiko would appreciate the conversation of  'You could've died or something, who knows.' being brought up around her daughter, so the princess didn't press.

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As the other spoke, the girl's head tilted with curiosity. So it was a method, or at least where Izumi was from, though she seemed to quickly move on to the next subject. She couldn't be sure why she seemed almost embarrassed to discuss it, but she knew better than to pry.

With the conversation switched to her leg Hotaru let her gaze drift along her leg as she listened with interest. “I guess that makes sense. Our fangs can kill, I just figured as the swelling went down that had been the worst of it.” It certainly felt better at least, but perhaps her mother knew more than she initially let on. Her mouth twisted to a light grimace before she shook off an uneasy feeling that had settled within.

“Well, it's in the past now. Do you need help with something? I want to help not sit around.”

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Maybe it was a good thing that Izumi informed the young girl, as it didn’t really seem like she knew anything about her injuries judging by the response -- hell, maybe it wouldn’t have been as bad to tell her that it could’ve been life-threatening as well, but the grimace on Hotaru’s face shut Izu up right away before that could happen. The crane assumed it was because she had said too much already, so there was no point in continuing. Hotaru didn't seem too upset though, and was quick to turn the subject back on whatever "hunting" she was accomplishing thus far. It was true that Izumi needed help with this, being far too invested to ask for any, so the dovelette's interest in assisting was appreciated to say the least. 

"Of course, uhm...have you ever hunted small game before? A rabbit, for example." With her request at not wanting to sit around, she would reluctantly accept -- though if she noticed the teen having a hard time due to those injuries, Izu would need to tell them to rest instead. Better to see how things played out....

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Luckily, unlike her mother Izumi didn’t seem to baby her injury even if it may have been more serious than she thought. Hunting wasn’t her specialty per say, but she had enough skill to keep herself from dying or starving so that was enough to her. The pale princess nodded to the crane’s question.

Rabbits were common along the mountains she grew up in and one of the easier things for someone like her to target. “I’ve hunted rabbits, yes. A few larger things too, but usually I just hunt small creatures if I’m on my own.” Which…admittedly wasn’t often. Wolves used to bring her food or she would find a cache herself when she was a child.

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"Is that so?" She said with a lift of surprise in her voice. Hotaru was quite young judging by appearances, so hearing that she'd pick up such an essential skill impressed Izumi -- meanwhile, the ink-welled woman was just barely learning the basics of how to do so herself. Starting with searching a burrow with a stick of all things...

Her eyes drew off of the young dovelette to search their surroundings. Unfortunately, the rabbit she had chased into the burrow earlier was the only one she'd seen lingering about, so no luck there. Although a strange-looking animal just a few feet away came to her attention -- it was short, pudgy, and of monotone coloring. What was it?

"What about that strange creature over there, Hotaru? Have you ever encountered an animal like that before when hunting?" The girl questioned, motioning a dark muzzle in the direction of the waddling creature to make Hotaru look as well. More importantly; was it edible?

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The girl only tilted her head at Izumi's surprise. Was it not normal that she could hunt? It seemed like a helpful skill even if she used to be waited on. It's already been proven that she wouldn't always have someone around to take care of her so she'd rather have the skills than not even if she wasn't the best.

Soon enough her skills would have to be put to the test as the crane gestured to some stumpy creature waddling nearby. Hotaru recoiled at the neck keeping her head back as she watched the thing walk by. “No— what is it?” It was bigger than the average prey she tracked. It seemed rather slow though maybe it would be easy to catch?

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She blinked once, "I'm not sure....a potential food item, perhaps?", and let a tounge run over her dark lips. It seemed Hotaru didn't know what she was looking at either, but that's exactly what the crane wanted to find out. Perhaps this could be a learning experience for both of them, and it's good size would do well to fill a good portion of the cache, too. More importantly, however, Izumi was just insanely hungry right now.

So she marched forward slowly, with a cautious sniff or two forward. Due to Taru's injury, she didn't see it appropriate to ask her to go first towards a creature the two of them knew little about. With good reason too, it looked like,

Because the stout beast twisted around to face Izumi, and hissed with an array of sharp teeth in her direction that caused her to shuffle back in suprise.

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The pale girl watched with hesitation as Izumi scooted forwards. It seemed she was ready to hunt the creature, so she would fall in line a few steps behind, though...the creature on the other hand did not seem ready to be hunted. It let out a startled hiss with pointed fangs at the crane as she quickly backed away. The princess having already been a few steps behind simply leaned back, her ears splayed back against her head as she stared in surprise.

What kind of prey...hissed. “Maybe we leave it—” With such a bizarre creature she didn't particularly feel like targeting it after that. Who knew what else it was hiding if it wasn't afraid of them the last thing she encountered that hissed was a snake and well...look where that left her. There was bound to be something else they could eat anyway even if they did have to search a bit longer.

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 As much as Izumi would've liked to take a moment and figure out what the hell that was, she was scared to find out and far too hungry to try chasing after it. This was the second time she'd be making a fool out of herself in front of Hotaru with this "hunting"  business -- this was getting tiring.

 "A...Agreed." the crane said after a moment of silence, as she too lacked the curiosity she initially had -- allowing a cloud of air to push out the animal's musky scent from her sinus as it wobbled away. "Let's try looking for something else on the other side of the mountain. Hopefully not one that looks like...whatever that was."

Last one from me <3

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The girl would watch as the creature hobbled off, an ear flicking at Izumi's words as she offered a mild nod. Food that didn't bite back sounded good and something she knew how to hunt would be better while her leg was still recovering. “Right...after you—” She'd allow the crane to lead the way as she followed at a tad slower pace while she worked with her sore leg.

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