Post by avalikia on Apr 2, 2010 0:42:10 GMT -5
(OOC Note: This is the official start of the Umber's TP for this harsh winter. Following this scene Roscoe and Niabi decided that the Old Chestnut is perfect, and then would have informed the rest of the herd of the move. All members of the Umber herd should therefore assume that they know ICly and send their deer over there at their earliest convenience. In unrelated news, all predators should note that the deer are now all gathered at the Old Chestnut for their hunting convenience. Thanks!)
Characters:
Niabi - Female Elk
Roscoe - Male Whitetail Deer
Leilani - Female Elk
Setting:
Sparse Copse
----------------------------------------
Though there had been some concerning signs for some time, it's only now that Niabi is starting to realize that this will definitely be a bad winter. The snow is too deep; it's shouldn't be like this until nearly mid-winter. And at this rate, it will end up being... oh dear! She'd thought that the copse would provide well for the elk this season, but now she's not so sure. It wouldn't have to be much deeper for the majority of the food to be too buried out of reach, but she hasn't told anyone else of the problem yet. Most of them are probably too young to realize the danger, and she doesn't want to worry them until she has a plan. And that's what she's mulling over as she walks through the copse, seeing the potential trouble for herself. But she's forced the troubled look from her face, just in case she runs into anyone.
As much as he might've not wanted to admit it, Roscoe did know that this was going to be a very rough winter from the get go. The temperatures were too extreme, they reminded him of home, and this was far, far from home. He would be concerned, but he was confident enough in his abilities to lead the whitetails and the elk combined. They weren't used to these temperatures and conditions, he was sure. It took a lot for him to get up the gall to wander here to the copse, but here he was, alone and convinced that he would help the elk in this .. crazy winter. His walk was slow, obviously in no hurry, but his eyes were focused ahead and searching around for any of the elk; particularly Niabi or Ojalo.
On the other hoof, Niabi has no winters to compare this to thus far, and that is also of great concern to her. She's had a few bad winters, but so far this seems worse than any she remembers. And those that she remembers were winters she'd rather not repeat. However, she is confident that she'll be able to figure out what to do. She's learned much from the winters she's already survived. And the last thing she expects to see is Roscoe in the copse, though a moment after she spots him she remembers the whole wolf thing. Has he come to yell at her at last? Nevertheless, she looks coldly neutral as she approaches him, giving him a formal-sounding, "Hello. What brings you here?"
The rut has successfully distracted him and Roscoe still hasn't learned anything of the predators in his glade, so no, that is not why he has arrived here at the copse. Instead of giving her an angry sort of look, he actually clears his throat and flashes a very tiny grin. "Niabi, nice to see you. Hope you're doing alright." He says, a bit presumptuous of him perhaps, but he meant well. "I came to talk to you about the elk.. and your food sources here. I'm sure they've already begun to dwindle, as the glade is already a source of concern. I.. would feel much better if the elk and whitetails would stick close this winter." Nodding his head, he takes in a breath and looks down at the snow, idly scuffing at it with a hoof to see how deep it was here.
The buck's first few comments seem to have no effect on Niabi. Given the amount of anger she holds for him, even though she keeps it well under the surface, she hardly believes that he cares about her well-being. But what he says next shines a light on that belief as if pulling it out to be closely examined. Considering what he said for too long of a moment, a bit of her concern comes to her face, "It /is/ looking very bad. I've never seen snow like this." She pauses to glance over the copse. She'd already had the thought that they probably wouldn't be able to stay here, and if they moved it would be better to move sooner rather than later. And joining with the whitetails seemed sensible given the number of predators during bad years, but, "Where would we go? There won't be much food anywhere at this rate, and there's no point in joining together if we'd starve together." She easily switches into trying to solve their mutual problem; were it not so critical of an issue, she'd have questioned Roscoe's motives but in this case she feels it's safer to assume he's sincere. She can always change her mind later, after she's heard any ideas he may have.
Leilani slowly walks out into the copse after spending a few days wandering elsewhere. Particularly not wanting to come straight back after her previous night and risk leading wolves back to the herd. Overall she doesn't look any worse for wear, though very close inspection may reveal a few grazed tooth marks just above her left rear hoof. She looks around at all the snow, rather worried herself as she remembers that snow fell much later in winter last year and the year before. This was not good. She nodded politely to both Roscoe and Niabi though as she made her way over toward them.
Knowing that he was treading on thin ice with the lead cow, Roscoe bites his tongue before he says anything that could be considered offensive or anything like that. He was trying to do good here, and defending himself and trying to prove how good of a leader he was by just talking. Instead however, just as he was about to speak up, he sees the other elk that he hadn't met yet, and nods politely to her as well. But, he was here on business. "I'm quite used to winters like this. Back home, this was the norm. Regardless.. it's still very harsh and I'm well aware that everyone here doesn't have much experience with weather like this. I had hoped to move down to the clearing, or near the chestnut tree." Nodding his head, he puffs out his chest a bit in a breath and looks toward the south.
When she hears the sound of approaching hooves, Niabi turns and smiles when she spots Leilani walking through the snow, but she's quick to turn her attention back to Roscoe. Normally she'd greet a herdmate properly, but while talking to Roscoe she's very much on edge even though she keeps her expression carefully neutral. "Not much experience?" she says, shaking her head, "I'll admit that this appears to be the worst I've seen thus far, I've more winters than you and none were easy." But aside from that statement, she'll not argue the point. She's tired of arguing with Roscoe. "I must admit that it would be good to come together so that we can face the predators that a hard winter brings, but food is the main concern. Leilani here is one of two elk to join us recently, and I don't know how many whitetails there are. Regardless, there's a lot of mouths to feed, so if we are together there will have to be a lot of food. And what I remember of those areas is good, yes, but will it be enough? So much will be buried soon," she says with a frown as she too looks to the south.
Leilani continues on, coming closer to Niabi and Roscoe, staying quiet but already guessing that the buck most be an important member of the whitetails if Niabi is having this discussion with him, and would have bet on him being the leader if asked. She comes to a stop a couple lengths away and just listens.
"Regardless of your age, Niabi.. I've seen winters this harsh every year of my life, in fact, this is quite the normal weather there. So." He says this smugly, wanting to get his point across firmly, and rudely if it was taken in that context. At this point he didn't mind. Either they accepted his help or they didn't. Looking up to the sky, Roscoe clears his throat and gives a shrug of his shoulders. "The ground food will be completely buried soon, yes. Either that or it will lose most nourishment anyway. There are other food sources though, ones that are perhaps a bit more risky," He says this with an exhale and a nod of his head, knowing that he was correct, "but worth it."
Frowning heavily at Roscoe's tone, Niabi narrows her eyes, "I not surprised to hear you say that. You've never shown any respect for me aside from my brute strength, and sometimes my knowledge of herbs when you needed it. I'm just the big, stupid elk to you, aren't I? I couldn't possibly be aware that there are other food sources. Or where they might be found. And clearly I need your help if I'm at all to survive." She shakes her head and half-turns away, as if to leave. But then she sees Leilani, and that causes her to stop. Wavering for a moment, she finally says, "This buck only pays attention to the elk when it suits him. He thinks he knows better than everyone about everything and has to be forced into working with anyone else. But he's offering help we could use. We don't need it, but it could be very important this winter. What do you think?" Which is probably the last thing that Leilani expected, but sometimes things become more clear when you explain the situation to someone else.
Leilani blinks, looking rather surprised, both at Niabi's description of the buck who now stood just a bit less than a dozen feet in front of her, and also that the lead cow was asking for her opinion. She looks between Niabi and Roscoe a bit while she mulls over ideas in her head before finally speaking. "Well... I think that if the winter is going to be harsh, we should accept any help we are offered, whether we believe at this time that we need it or not. Better than finding out you needed that help later when it's too late." She said as her attention changed to focus solely on Niabi for most of her answer.
Listening to Niabi's words, the buck rolls his eyes and wastes little time before he turns around, ready to head back to the glade and gather the whitetails, to herd them together and usher them into the safer vicinities of the forest further to the south. "I've offered my help to you and your.. followers. So. If you don't want my help, fine. It'll just keep the wolves and cougars off us." He says rather coldly, flicking his tail and turning his full attention back to the west in order to head back home. Obviously Niabi's insults haven't bothered him.. just maybe inconvenienced him a bit.
Listening carefully to Leilani's words, Niabi hesitates for a moment before sighing heavily and nodding her head. Leilani is right, of course, and she has to admit that most of her reluctance is simply because she loathes the idea of having to work more closely with Roscoe again. But she'll choose what's best for the herd over what's best for herself. "We want your help," Niabi says loudly at the buck's back, "But let me make one thing clear; we don't need it. And we expect your full collaboration - we work together or not at all. Is that okay with you?"
Leilani turns to watch as Roscoe begins to leave, then turns back to Niabi as she finally calls to him, and finally back at Roscoe again, to see what his response is. She doesn't say a word though.
Glancing back at Niabi, the buck smirks and shakes his head. "No. I think you need my help. And if you don't /need/ it now, then I believe you can wait until you do." This is said with the same smug smirk, knowing that they did in fact need him. "I don't think /I'm/ the one that needs to be living up to your expectations either, Niabi. I'm the one offering help here." The colder, bitter part of him probably thought something along the lines of 'you could starve for all I care,' but of course he doesn't say this. He does think it, however.
Eyes narrowing at those words, Niabi is silent for half a moment before she says, "Well, since you put it that way, we don't /want/ you either." And that seems to be that as far as she's concerned because she turns completely around and starts heading back towards the center of the copse. As helpful as Roscoe and the other whitetails might be, if that's the sort of attitude she can expect from the lead buck she's sure that joining with them will be more harm than good. Winter is the worst possible time for a power struggle and they'll probably be better off anyway.
Leilani is left in a rather awkward position now, felling like she was the neutral ground between the two. Having never met Roscoe before today, she did not know why they were fighting like this. She looked to Niabi as she began walking away, then back toward Roscoe. "Can't we set aside our differences and try to get along for just one season?" She doesn't inflect the question in the direction of either Niabi or Roscoe directly, leaving it to both of them equally.
Glaring at Niabi as she turns around, Roscoe really /wants/ to just leave. Let the elk deal with the winter themselves, and if they died in the process, it was their fault on part of Niabi, for being so stubborn with him. A sneer is given, but so too is a scoff, and he turns back around, looking from Leilani then back to the lead cow. "Don't be stupid. It'd work out to both our benefits if we just.. worked together for once."
Though she walks without a backward glance and doesn't even flick her ears back to listen to Leilani, Niabi is still easily within earshot for the buck's words and they cause her to stop, though she doesn't look back. "That's exactly what I said," she says, carefully neutral, "Together. It would benefit us both. But not if you're going to stubbornly insist that you're the only one who knows anything about anything, then it can't be done. Regardless of what happens we will weaken this winter, and bickering among ourselves will weaken us further. /Can/ we work together? Because if we can't then it will hurt us to try and fail."
Rolling his eyes, Roscoe flicks his tail and ears simultaneously, and nods his head after a moment. "Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have come here and offered to help, now would I?" He asked, smug as he normally was. Perhaps he was taking himself far too seriously, but he was overwhelmingly confident in his abilities to survive and keep everyone; elk and whitetail alike, safe this winter, and Niabi was a serious ego-crush. The princely buck didn't particularly like ego-crushes. "You want me to respect your authority.. and I would like the same from you."
While it wouldn't be true to say that Niabi is completely confident in her ability to do her part to lead the elk through this winter, that's more a reflection on how serious she knows the responsibility is. But she must admit that having the whole herd together would be helpful if it can be managed. Ears tilting backwards at Roscoe's reply, Niabi nods her head and turns herself back around. "Okay," she says, mostly because anything she'd say other than simply agreeing would probably be undiplomatic. "Then let us discuss where there would be enough food for the entire herd. I haven't looked near the chestnut or the clearing very carefully; do you think that there's really enough food around there?" she asks, quickly going into problem-solving mode now that it seems some needed lines have been drawn.
"I haven't looked there yet myself either, but I do believe that more food would be there. If not, the meadow to the north might have something.. though that would be considerably more dangerous, and I don't particularly want to have to resort to it at all." He says, glancing toward the north. Remembering that there was a farm there, however abandoned it may or may not have been. The two-leggeds hunted more around this time of the year, and laying out bait piles was commonplace back home. "My first assumption was near the chestnut tree, I suspect there may still be predators lurking in the clearing. Or, if not, it wouldn't provide a stable place for very long." Scuffing his hooves boredly in the snow, Roscoe takes in a breath and looks away, turning around again. "It'd be better if we all went together to look at it."
Listening and nodding, Niabi comments, "I have my doubts about the meadow; plenty of grass there, yes, but it might as well not be there with how deep the snow will probably get unless the wind pushes it around. And there's precious little else there." She also nods her head to the rest of it, but elk are much less concerned about predators than whitetails; their greater size means that even those predators that they share are less of a threat. Food is much more important. "Very well," she agrees about looking together, though she turns her attention briefly to Leilani, "You may want to come along; you'd learn a lot, I'm sure." But whether her herdmate follows or not, Niabi follows after Roscoe.
Leilani listens quietly, being the youngest present by far, she didn't really have anything to add. But as they talk of leaving to check out the prospects for a new place to find food, and Niabi recommends that she come along, she nods softly. "Sure, not like I have anything better to do."
Characters:
Niabi - Female Elk
Roscoe - Male Whitetail Deer
Leilani - Female Elk
Setting:
Sparse Copse
----------------------------------------
Though there had been some concerning signs for some time, it's only now that Niabi is starting to realize that this will definitely be a bad winter. The snow is too deep; it's shouldn't be like this until nearly mid-winter. And at this rate, it will end up being... oh dear! She'd thought that the copse would provide well for the elk this season, but now she's not so sure. It wouldn't have to be much deeper for the majority of the food to be too buried out of reach, but she hasn't told anyone else of the problem yet. Most of them are probably too young to realize the danger, and she doesn't want to worry them until she has a plan. And that's what she's mulling over as she walks through the copse, seeing the potential trouble for herself. But she's forced the troubled look from her face, just in case she runs into anyone.
As much as he might've not wanted to admit it, Roscoe did know that this was going to be a very rough winter from the get go. The temperatures were too extreme, they reminded him of home, and this was far, far from home. He would be concerned, but he was confident enough in his abilities to lead the whitetails and the elk combined. They weren't used to these temperatures and conditions, he was sure. It took a lot for him to get up the gall to wander here to the copse, but here he was, alone and convinced that he would help the elk in this .. crazy winter. His walk was slow, obviously in no hurry, but his eyes were focused ahead and searching around for any of the elk; particularly Niabi or Ojalo.
On the other hoof, Niabi has no winters to compare this to thus far, and that is also of great concern to her. She's had a few bad winters, but so far this seems worse than any she remembers. And those that she remembers were winters she'd rather not repeat. However, she is confident that she'll be able to figure out what to do. She's learned much from the winters she's already survived. And the last thing she expects to see is Roscoe in the copse, though a moment after she spots him she remembers the whole wolf thing. Has he come to yell at her at last? Nevertheless, she looks coldly neutral as she approaches him, giving him a formal-sounding, "Hello. What brings you here?"
The rut has successfully distracted him and Roscoe still hasn't learned anything of the predators in his glade, so no, that is not why he has arrived here at the copse. Instead of giving her an angry sort of look, he actually clears his throat and flashes a very tiny grin. "Niabi, nice to see you. Hope you're doing alright." He says, a bit presumptuous of him perhaps, but he meant well. "I came to talk to you about the elk.. and your food sources here. I'm sure they've already begun to dwindle, as the glade is already a source of concern. I.. would feel much better if the elk and whitetails would stick close this winter." Nodding his head, he takes in a breath and looks down at the snow, idly scuffing at it with a hoof to see how deep it was here.
The buck's first few comments seem to have no effect on Niabi. Given the amount of anger she holds for him, even though she keeps it well under the surface, she hardly believes that he cares about her well-being. But what he says next shines a light on that belief as if pulling it out to be closely examined. Considering what he said for too long of a moment, a bit of her concern comes to her face, "It /is/ looking very bad. I've never seen snow like this." She pauses to glance over the copse. She'd already had the thought that they probably wouldn't be able to stay here, and if they moved it would be better to move sooner rather than later. And joining with the whitetails seemed sensible given the number of predators during bad years, but, "Where would we go? There won't be much food anywhere at this rate, and there's no point in joining together if we'd starve together." She easily switches into trying to solve their mutual problem; were it not so critical of an issue, she'd have questioned Roscoe's motives but in this case she feels it's safer to assume he's sincere. She can always change her mind later, after she's heard any ideas he may have.
Leilani slowly walks out into the copse after spending a few days wandering elsewhere. Particularly not wanting to come straight back after her previous night and risk leading wolves back to the herd. Overall she doesn't look any worse for wear, though very close inspection may reveal a few grazed tooth marks just above her left rear hoof. She looks around at all the snow, rather worried herself as she remembers that snow fell much later in winter last year and the year before. This was not good. She nodded politely to both Roscoe and Niabi though as she made her way over toward them.
Knowing that he was treading on thin ice with the lead cow, Roscoe bites his tongue before he says anything that could be considered offensive or anything like that. He was trying to do good here, and defending himself and trying to prove how good of a leader he was by just talking. Instead however, just as he was about to speak up, he sees the other elk that he hadn't met yet, and nods politely to her as well. But, he was here on business. "I'm quite used to winters like this. Back home, this was the norm. Regardless.. it's still very harsh and I'm well aware that everyone here doesn't have much experience with weather like this. I had hoped to move down to the clearing, or near the chestnut tree." Nodding his head, he puffs out his chest a bit in a breath and looks toward the south.
When she hears the sound of approaching hooves, Niabi turns and smiles when she spots Leilani walking through the snow, but she's quick to turn her attention back to Roscoe. Normally she'd greet a herdmate properly, but while talking to Roscoe she's very much on edge even though she keeps her expression carefully neutral. "Not much experience?" she says, shaking her head, "I'll admit that this appears to be the worst I've seen thus far, I've more winters than you and none were easy." But aside from that statement, she'll not argue the point. She's tired of arguing with Roscoe. "I must admit that it would be good to come together so that we can face the predators that a hard winter brings, but food is the main concern. Leilani here is one of two elk to join us recently, and I don't know how many whitetails there are. Regardless, there's a lot of mouths to feed, so if we are together there will have to be a lot of food. And what I remember of those areas is good, yes, but will it be enough? So much will be buried soon," she says with a frown as she too looks to the south.
Leilani continues on, coming closer to Niabi and Roscoe, staying quiet but already guessing that the buck most be an important member of the whitetails if Niabi is having this discussion with him, and would have bet on him being the leader if asked. She comes to a stop a couple lengths away and just listens.
"Regardless of your age, Niabi.. I've seen winters this harsh every year of my life, in fact, this is quite the normal weather there. So." He says this smugly, wanting to get his point across firmly, and rudely if it was taken in that context. At this point he didn't mind. Either they accepted his help or they didn't. Looking up to the sky, Roscoe clears his throat and gives a shrug of his shoulders. "The ground food will be completely buried soon, yes. Either that or it will lose most nourishment anyway. There are other food sources though, ones that are perhaps a bit more risky," He says this with an exhale and a nod of his head, knowing that he was correct, "but worth it."
Frowning heavily at Roscoe's tone, Niabi narrows her eyes, "I not surprised to hear you say that. You've never shown any respect for me aside from my brute strength, and sometimes my knowledge of herbs when you needed it. I'm just the big, stupid elk to you, aren't I? I couldn't possibly be aware that there are other food sources. Or where they might be found. And clearly I need your help if I'm at all to survive." She shakes her head and half-turns away, as if to leave. But then she sees Leilani, and that causes her to stop. Wavering for a moment, she finally says, "This buck only pays attention to the elk when it suits him. He thinks he knows better than everyone about everything and has to be forced into working with anyone else. But he's offering help we could use. We don't need it, but it could be very important this winter. What do you think?" Which is probably the last thing that Leilani expected, but sometimes things become more clear when you explain the situation to someone else.
Leilani blinks, looking rather surprised, both at Niabi's description of the buck who now stood just a bit less than a dozen feet in front of her, and also that the lead cow was asking for her opinion. She looks between Niabi and Roscoe a bit while she mulls over ideas in her head before finally speaking. "Well... I think that if the winter is going to be harsh, we should accept any help we are offered, whether we believe at this time that we need it or not. Better than finding out you needed that help later when it's too late." She said as her attention changed to focus solely on Niabi for most of her answer.
Listening to Niabi's words, the buck rolls his eyes and wastes little time before he turns around, ready to head back to the glade and gather the whitetails, to herd them together and usher them into the safer vicinities of the forest further to the south. "I've offered my help to you and your.. followers. So. If you don't want my help, fine. It'll just keep the wolves and cougars off us." He says rather coldly, flicking his tail and turning his full attention back to the west in order to head back home. Obviously Niabi's insults haven't bothered him.. just maybe inconvenienced him a bit.
Listening carefully to Leilani's words, Niabi hesitates for a moment before sighing heavily and nodding her head. Leilani is right, of course, and she has to admit that most of her reluctance is simply because she loathes the idea of having to work more closely with Roscoe again. But she'll choose what's best for the herd over what's best for herself. "We want your help," Niabi says loudly at the buck's back, "But let me make one thing clear; we don't need it. And we expect your full collaboration - we work together or not at all. Is that okay with you?"
Leilani turns to watch as Roscoe begins to leave, then turns back to Niabi as she finally calls to him, and finally back at Roscoe again, to see what his response is. She doesn't say a word though.
Glancing back at Niabi, the buck smirks and shakes his head. "No. I think you need my help. And if you don't /need/ it now, then I believe you can wait until you do." This is said with the same smug smirk, knowing that they did in fact need him. "I don't think /I'm/ the one that needs to be living up to your expectations either, Niabi. I'm the one offering help here." The colder, bitter part of him probably thought something along the lines of 'you could starve for all I care,' but of course he doesn't say this. He does think it, however.
Eyes narrowing at those words, Niabi is silent for half a moment before she says, "Well, since you put it that way, we don't /want/ you either." And that seems to be that as far as she's concerned because she turns completely around and starts heading back towards the center of the copse. As helpful as Roscoe and the other whitetails might be, if that's the sort of attitude she can expect from the lead buck she's sure that joining with them will be more harm than good. Winter is the worst possible time for a power struggle and they'll probably be better off anyway.
Leilani is left in a rather awkward position now, felling like she was the neutral ground between the two. Having never met Roscoe before today, she did not know why they were fighting like this. She looked to Niabi as she began walking away, then back toward Roscoe. "Can't we set aside our differences and try to get along for just one season?" She doesn't inflect the question in the direction of either Niabi or Roscoe directly, leaving it to both of them equally.
Glaring at Niabi as she turns around, Roscoe really /wants/ to just leave. Let the elk deal with the winter themselves, and if they died in the process, it was their fault on part of Niabi, for being so stubborn with him. A sneer is given, but so too is a scoff, and he turns back around, looking from Leilani then back to the lead cow. "Don't be stupid. It'd work out to both our benefits if we just.. worked together for once."
Though she walks without a backward glance and doesn't even flick her ears back to listen to Leilani, Niabi is still easily within earshot for the buck's words and they cause her to stop, though she doesn't look back. "That's exactly what I said," she says, carefully neutral, "Together. It would benefit us both. But not if you're going to stubbornly insist that you're the only one who knows anything about anything, then it can't be done. Regardless of what happens we will weaken this winter, and bickering among ourselves will weaken us further. /Can/ we work together? Because if we can't then it will hurt us to try and fail."
Rolling his eyes, Roscoe flicks his tail and ears simultaneously, and nods his head after a moment. "Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have come here and offered to help, now would I?" He asked, smug as he normally was. Perhaps he was taking himself far too seriously, but he was overwhelmingly confident in his abilities to survive and keep everyone; elk and whitetail alike, safe this winter, and Niabi was a serious ego-crush. The princely buck didn't particularly like ego-crushes. "You want me to respect your authority.. and I would like the same from you."
While it wouldn't be true to say that Niabi is completely confident in her ability to do her part to lead the elk through this winter, that's more a reflection on how serious she knows the responsibility is. But she must admit that having the whole herd together would be helpful if it can be managed. Ears tilting backwards at Roscoe's reply, Niabi nods her head and turns herself back around. "Okay," she says, mostly because anything she'd say other than simply agreeing would probably be undiplomatic. "Then let us discuss where there would be enough food for the entire herd. I haven't looked near the chestnut or the clearing very carefully; do you think that there's really enough food around there?" she asks, quickly going into problem-solving mode now that it seems some needed lines have been drawn.
"I haven't looked there yet myself either, but I do believe that more food would be there. If not, the meadow to the north might have something.. though that would be considerably more dangerous, and I don't particularly want to have to resort to it at all." He says, glancing toward the north. Remembering that there was a farm there, however abandoned it may or may not have been. The two-leggeds hunted more around this time of the year, and laying out bait piles was commonplace back home. "My first assumption was near the chestnut tree, I suspect there may still be predators lurking in the clearing. Or, if not, it wouldn't provide a stable place for very long." Scuffing his hooves boredly in the snow, Roscoe takes in a breath and looks away, turning around again. "It'd be better if we all went together to look at it."
Listening and nodding, Niabi comments, "I have my doubts about the meadow; plenty of grass there, yes, but it might as well not be there with how deep the snow will probably get unless the wind pushes it around. And there's precious little else there." She also nods her head to the rest of it, but elk are much less concerned about predators than whitetails; their greater size means that even those predators that they share are less of a threat. Food is much more important. "Very well," she agrees about looking together, though she turns her attention briefly to Leilani, "You may want to come along; you'd learn a lot, I'm sure." But whether her herdmate follows or not, Niabi follows after Roscoe.
Leilani listens quietly, being the youngest present by far, she didn't really have anything to add. But as they talk of leaving to check out the prospects for a new place to find food, and Niabi recommends that she come along, she nods softly. "Sure, not like I have anything better to do."