Madrigal nodded, unconvinced. "But, then you'd have to wait for them to walk under you. With these," she gestured lovingly towards her blades, "I can throw them from pretty much anywhere. More options." She grinned, twirling a knife in her hand. "But, we can try it your way first, see how that goes."

Sage shrugged again. "I can jump, although maybe we could use me as a backup." He thought for a second. "Or I could borrow a throwing knife, u less you want to come up here. You have more options because you can move your arm more than you can under a rock," he pointed out. He grinned. "I don't care as long as we get something."

"Nah, I'm good down here. I have magical abilities when it comes to blades," Madrigal said, and then snickered. She shrugged and reached up and handed a knife to Sage. She settled back down in her spot. It was cool, shaded, and slightly damp. It was also the perfect chance for her to practice her breathing techniques. Usually, she would have liked to have done so with her eyes closed, but she was on the hunt and would therefore have to make do. She focused on her breathing, and the sounds around her.

It took a while, Madrigal didn't know how long because time deserted her as she meditated. There was some slight movement in the brush across the river, and Madrigal fixed her eyes on it. For a second, she was sure it had been a trick, or maybe a big butterfly fluttering it's wings, but soon enough, a small deer emerged from the shelter of the forest and made it's way to the river-bank. It looked around for a while, and Madrigal used this time to ever so slowly reach for a knife. She hoped that Sage had gotten high enough to stay out of the deer's sight as it lowered it's head to drink. Either she would get it, he would get it, or they both would, but she wasn't going to look to see what he was about to do.

Madrigal let her blade fly.

He chuckled and took the knife before swinging back up into his branch, leaning against it casually and closed his eyes, waiting for something to come. He heard the grass move in a way different from the wind pattern and popped his eyes open, not moving any other part of his body until he saw the deer . Sage let his own blade fly at the same time Madrigals did. He saw her aim for the heart, so he chose to aim for the head. Even if one of them missed, which was highly unlikely, the other knife would kill the deer. He swung down so he could see Madrigal again. "It's pretty small. Should we get that one and try for another or not?" He didn't really care, but while they were out here, if they didn't think a deer this small would be enough, they may as well get another one now.

Madrigal stood from her position amongst the rocks and huffed a chuckle. "Good aim..." She said, walking towards the river. She took her boots off to keep them dry, and waded through the water.

The water was shallower than she thought it would be and only came up to her knees. When she got to the deer, she checked for a pulse and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was dead. Both blades had found their marks- two perfect killing blows. The deer had been close enough and still enough for a good shot. If it had moved, it was likely that one of the blades wouldn't have landed. Madrigal admired Sage's handiwork. She stroked the animal's fur, checking its body for signs of disease. She whispered her culture's final rights and stood.

Sage jumped from one tree branch to another to get over the river and dropped down next to Madrigal. He leaned over it's head and ran a hand along the forehead. Well the part that didn't have a knife sticking out of it. He checked the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth for any signs of sickness before stunding up. "It's small but healthy. Good work." He squinted up at the sun briefly before looking at Madrigal. "We have about five hours of daylight left. We can clean it and camp out by the lake, or we can bring it back to the cabin and sleep there. Your choice. Either way I'd like to be up by dawn so we can steal and get on our way before the day gets far "

"You're right," Madrigal said, remembering Sage's previous question. "We should wait for another one. We can stay for another hour. It'll take two hours to get back to your cabin, which will give us two hours of sunlight to skin, cut the meat, and hang it up for the night. If we stay here for the night and wait to catch another, we can gut and cut this one and start drying it out, but then how will we get it all back to your cabin?" There were logistical issues either way. And then a though popped into her head. "We wait for another one, make out way back to your cabin. Carry them whole. We don't do anything with the meat until we leave. When we stop tomorrow night, we deal with it. It'll be easier to carry them as whole animals than to carry half dried meat and deer skins for the day."

He thought about her idea and then nodded. "The only issue is that any other animals coming here will smell the dead deer. We'll have to string this one up and hope nothing eats it while we hunt for another." He put his foot on the side of the deers head and pulled the throwing knife out of its skull with a cracking noise. He rinsed it off in the water and flipped it in his hand before palming the handle again. "Or I can go sneak around in the denser part of the forest while you sta here. Theres certain spots where herds stay...I can pick out the best sized one and get it quicker than if we both sit here again."

(Lmao sorry, network error.)

Madrigal contemplated Sage's points. "I was going to suggest moving a little upstream, but I don't mind your idea. As long as you're comfortable going off on your own, I'm comfortable staying here on my own." She followed Sage, rinsing her own knife. "Leave this with me, I'll keep it safe." She hauled it up and onto her shoulders, settling it's weight evenly. Her thighs protested at the extra weight. She hadn't trained properly in months, and it showed. "Maybe I'll do some squats," she lowered herself into a squat. "Or maybe some lunges," she demonstrated this too, groaning. "Damn, I'm so unfit."

Love it when the internet plays up