The instant it took Halima to identify her target seared itself in her memory. Large, solid-amber eyes, that seemed to grow even larger when they recognized the immediate danger of being in Halima's sights. A black-nosed snout- surrounded by silver-white fur- made a slight move to the right; trying to put the tree between the Mawangi elf and itself without losing eye contact. The lemur let go of the overhead branch with its left hand and made what looked like a palm-forward, calming gesture. Realizing that her draw arm was in muscle distress, Halima lowered her bow and eased the nock off the string. "Oh! Little one, I do not know if I am more mad or relieved. You do not have to sneak up on me. I would welcome you any other time. But now is not so good. I have to go see the raptors; the ones that live in the nearby hills, and that claim these lands as their hunting place." The lemur grew more at ease, now that the lady elf had lowered the bow and began speaking in quiet, soothing tones. Curiosity mingled with caution; but caution won out, as the lemur moved back and away, signaling an end to the encounter. Halima watched the little creature go, curious herself; if anything she said had registered with the jungle primate. A thought path for another day, she decided, as she had to concentrate on the task at hand. Tracking the raptors would be challenging enough, then she had to communicate her intentions, and hope those intentions were well received. During her morning regimen, she committed a spell to memory that would allow temporary communication with the dangerous animals. She hoped, as she set out to track the hunting party back to their rocky home, that she would have good reason and good fortune to use it.
The trail proved easier to follow than she first hoped. Halima made distinctions between the hunting tracks and the returning tracks; the westward tracks indicated the returning raptors were now heavier with full bellies that made for deeper prints and set wider apart by the extra distention of the belly. "I hope having a good meal will put them in a good mood", she mused to herself, as the tracks came to the first truly difficult part of the journey. The lush green had given way to scrub miles ago, and the same could be seen of the scrub as it abutted the rocks and gravel of the Bandu hills. The trail became more about finding signs of the creatures' passing: a broken branch here, claw marks that indicate scrambling up a large boulder, or moving from shelf to shelf, but always higher. These predators did not appear to take any switch-back trails, but were straight-line oriented. She found signs of the smaller raptors moving further afield from their elders. The young ones seemed to be looking into every nook and cranny on the way back. Halima smiled in spite of herself – touched by the all-too familiar behavior, and picturing the ire of the elder raptors as they reign in the energy of the younglings. Imagining the squawks of the elders, she came out of her daydreams and realized she really was hearing them. The sounds were not far off, and she wondered how she had gotten this close so soon. 'Something must have delayed them, more than just the wanderings of the young ones', she thought to herself. Caution returned to her actions as she sensed a looming danger. Bow in hand, she moved to her right; higher on the ridge before her, which put the raptors' calls further to her left. She tried to make out distinctions, and could hear 2 "voices" in the calls; both were throaty enough to be the adults. That she didn't hear the young ones troubled her, and she thought of using her spell now, to discern what was making the adults so vocal. 'No', she thought. 'I will need the spell sooner than I thought, and its magic has very short limits'. Halima crouched lower as she approached the ridge. From this position it would be next to impossible to use her bow effectively, but she also lost more profile as she topped the crest, and stealth was more needed now. The ridge gave way to a bowl-shaped depression, and what she saw there angered the jungle elf like no other scene could.
