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Ja'qar moved through the woods as a silent but deadly predator. He knew not how to mask his movement or remain silent anywhere else, but here he was a hunter. Instinct guided his path, his paws touched down where he knew they would make the least sound and his senses lead him to his next prey. Ja'qar was a hunter, a predator as fierce as any natural beast this forest had seen. There were his betters in strength and skill, but what he lacked in size and experience he made up for with his cunning mind.
The sound of his breathing was not labored. Ja'qar bore great stamina, leaving a normal hunting session such as this hardly challenging and making it far from possible to be winded. A gentle, frozen mist escaped past his fangs as he loped through the wilderness with a casual grace. No mark of his passage was left in his wake as he hunted. His heart thudded in his ears with excitement as he closed in on his pray, a wounded fawn that had been separated from it's mother. Ja'qar had smelled it's blood before he had found it's trail, making it quite easy to track the creature down. It was in a lot of pain and if left to it's own devices would either die or be found by it's mother, if it's mother was still alive that is. The latter was just as bad, if not worse. If the mother found it, it would give it's life defending the fawn from other predators. If was not already dead from just such a fight. If it was, the fawn would bleed or starve to death. Both painful ways to exit this world. That is, of course, if they did not come. Ja'qar knew they would come however, just as he did. The smell of blood in the air would draw them as surely as it did sharks in water. But Ja'qar was fast. He would make it there first and end the creatures suffering. It would be a painless, merciful death compared to what some predators might attempt.
A good enough reason on it's own to hunt the creature down, at least to some. Ja'qar could not deny the excitement of closing in on prey though. He would not deny it. What gave his eyes that gleam, that spark that suggested something far more wild and dangerous within him was the enjoyment of that excitement. He was a hunter. He not only excelled at it, he reveled in it. Though nature could be beautiful, even kind, Ja'qar knew and loved all aspects of it, even the dangerous and deadly.
Beside him ran another wolf, much like he. It's fur was white and pure as the driven snow, just like his. It's steps were silent and it's movements graceful, just like his. It loped through the woods as if it had been born to run, just like he did. In any other form this being that ran beside him was translucent, ethereal. He was a spirit that did not truly exist as Ja'qar, a flesh and blood creature, did. In this form, however, Ja'qar always saw it as he did everything else. In this form, the form the spirit running beside him had granted him, Ja'qar saw the true nobility of the spirit in a way no other could claim to have done. This form was as much because of his ancestral blood as it was the gift of the spirit and though the spirit did not always appear next to Ja'qar, the barbarian knew it was always there with him, guiding and watching over him.
Ja'qar. Named spirit warrior by some, hunter by others, and even friend by few. Ja'qar, soon of a shaman and a hunter. Ja'qar, the wolf, descended upon his prey with exultation. The fawn did not even notice his arrival, not until it was too late. It did not feel the hunters jaws clamp down on it's throat and it did not feel the ebb of it's life as it took it's last breath. The death, compared the vicious creature that pushed it to the ground and stole it's life away, was peaceful and painless. A small mercy, but the only mercy a hunter such as Ja'qar could grant.
Before the body of the fawn had even finished hitting the ground another predator appeared. It was a wolf, though to say it was like Ja'qar and the spirit would be false. This wolfs fur was a dark, matted brown. It's body was not like Ja'qar's, which was layered with lean and powerful muscles. Instead it looked to be half starving, as if it had not eaten in weeks. Judging from the scars it bore and the age it appeared to be, this wolf was an older Alpha chased away from it's pack by a younger. That it chose to flee instead of fight with it's life said a lot about the creature. That it took one look at Ja'qar and the spirit, the barbarian briefly wondering if animals could see it as he did, and started backing away said even more.
Ja'qar bared it's fangs at the coward before him and took a purposeful step forward. The wolf took note of Ja'qar's stance as well as the stained fur around his jaws. It was trying to decide if this meal was worth it. Ja'qar could see it's hesitance and took advantage of it by taking another step forward, this time adding a deep growl to the movement. The growl made the wolfs fur stand on end. It was a primal thing that welled up from deep within the barbarian, much like the power from his transformations. The wolf took another step back and then turned tail and fled. A pack might give chase, but Ja'qar was alone on this hunt, save for his companion, who could not affect the world the way Ja'qar could. So the barbarian let the wolf flee and turned to his prize.
The fawn was indeed injured. Badly. It looked to have fallen and broken one of it's legs. It had been bleeding for a while and from the small amount that was pooling now, Ja'qar judged it didn't have much time left before it had been killed. The barbarian shifted now, needing fingers instead of paws to do what came next. His power surged from within him. His body, fur and all, rippled as it began to change. Just as before he was enveloped in a white cloud before more could be seen, though to the more astute eye it almost seemed that he became that cloud. When it faded Ja'qar stood before the fallen fawn, a shifter once more. He knelt down and began his work.
Perhaps three hours later he returned to his camp. Ja'qar had already cleaned the skin at the river to the north of his camp. Now he set about preparing the meat to allow it to be stored for a longer period of time. He used a fire to dry it out and then proceeded to salt it. With that done he set the strips of meat up in a small cloth bag of his and proceeded to close it with the rope he had purchased. He slung the rope and bag of his shoulder and moved away from his camp, stopping within sight of it but far enough away that the smell wouldn't attract creatures to it. With a heave he tossed the bag over the branch of one of the trees around him and tied the rope high enough to keep the smaller creatures from getting to it
With that done Ja'qar once again ventured out. This time he remained in his humanoid form, again having need for his hands. He didn't need to really track down what he was looking for now. He recalled the spot just fine and his sharp gaze had him finding the natural path to it quite easily. He was gathering the leaves and berries he needed in minutes and returning to camp soon after.
He spent a few moments preparing, but it was something Ja'qar did often enough that this too did not take that much time. With an old wooden bowl he had traded a hare's fur for and a smooth river stone he had found Ja'qar proceeded to ground the berries up in the bowl. They were black and between the skins and juices left a somewhat messy drink. However, when combined with the oil from the leaves he had found, the substance became a great deal more like ink. It wasn't very good for writing but when prepared and stored properly it did wonders to create a harmless dye one could use to decorate one's body with symbols or, as Ja'qar had learned, to disguise ones hair color. It took an hour of grinding the leaf in the bowl to get the proper consistency and another hour to store it in a small leather pouch, of his own making, and cleaning the bowl with some of his water.
With that done the last of Ja'qars preparations was made. He had enough food for perhaps two days, if stretched, for himself, he had enough skin to repair his boots one or maybe even twice if he needed, and he had enough dye to last him weeks. A good day or preparation to be sure.
With all said and done, Ja'qar had little to do but relax now. He took to this task just as happily as he did hunting, leaning back and taking in the gentle light of the afternoon sky as it pierced the canopy overhead.