<div class="floatright"><div align="center">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/thumb/0/0f/Tumblr_peecsbhDs51w10awxo1_1280.png/391px-Tumblr_peecsbhDs51w10awxo1_1280.png)<br/><strong>Nug (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=296167.msg14511406#msg14511406)</strong></div></div><br/>Nug's tongue extended slightly, as if she might taste her quarry on the breeze, before she began following the small sign he couldn't help but leave in his wake.  It was impossible to eliminate entirely the marks one left on their passage through life, a fact that any hunter worth their salt was well aware of.  The others might consider such thoughts too high-minded or esoteric, but she found the notion strangely comforting and also very sobering.  No one was ever entirely forgotten, and at the end, all anyone had was the impression they left behind.<br/><br/>Some people didn't think that mattered, but she wasn't so sure.  The way one was remembered meant something.<br/><br/>Her brow furrowed as she spotted a bush that looked...off, and stopped to crouch beside it, casting off the deeper thoughts that tried to intervene on her hunt.  Sometimes it was good to be introspective on a hunt, allowing your subconscious mind to wander as you focused everything else on your senses...it allowed one to catch things they might otherwise miss for looking<em>too</em>hard.  Now, though...<br/><br/>Bending, she raised a few of the branches to peer at the subtle impressions in the soft soil, before dipping her fingertips into the faint fluid that marked the midpoint of the declivity.  Her nostrils flared as she sniffed her fingers and smiled slowly to herself, chuckling and rising to her feet.  Her prey was distracted by his own desires, which worked in her favor...though the sight of his secretions and the smell of his arousal worked to intensify her own.<br/><br/>Even as a slight shudder of lust hummed through her, she heard the shivering of a branch that stood out from the soft susurrations of the wind in the leaves, and her head whipped around toward the noise with a soft hiss of anticipation.  In a heartbeat she was moving up the cliff side, swift and surefooted, her arms flexing smoothly as she nimbly drew herself up toward where she'd heard the sound coming from.  "Here I come, little one!  Better run, rabbit, run!"<br/><br/>She laughed as she topped the rise and looked over the area, once more falling onto the skills she'd honed tracking far smaller, more careful prey.  After all, a real rabbit didn't want to be captured and ravished by the beast hunting it.  Her pupils expanded as she passed into tree shadow, her superior night vision allowing her to pick up on clues that her bunny wouldn't notice out of inexperience...and perhaps haste.<br/><br/>It wasn't long before she found the footsteps, dropping to study them closely with her cheek practically resting on the ground, she noted the slight disparity in weight distribution and the faint indications that they'd been trod more than once.  Oh, but he was getting better...much, much better.  Her delight in his improvement made her even more excited and determined to catch up to him and...show him just how impressed she was.<br/><br/>Standing once more, she smiled to herself before trekking back toward the river at a fast clip, following it back in the direction from whence they'd come, suspecting that her quarry might be returning to the starting point of their hunt -  or very near it - and knowing she would move far more swiftly on dry land than he would in the water.