Oh, it was perfect! Everything was just right, the wind currents, his position, the prey, everything! His father would be so proud of him, he just knew it. After all, he did take all that time to teach him how it was done, and he was going to show Vlad that even though he was distracted at times, he could so listen and do things right.
He had to show him. He felt as if he owed it to him.
The boy shook such thoughts from his head. He needn't focus on that now. Now was the time to act. As he had said before, his father was expecting him home with the prey, and the Phantom boy would be damned if he was to fail just because he got distracted, like his father always scolded him for. Glancing over the steep side of the cliff side he was crouched under, he eyed the sweeping plateau before him, and his objective grazing the florescent grass which grew abundantly on the high moors. He had been there for about two, maybe three hours now, but as Vlad always said, patience, especially when stalking prey, was a virtue. One had to be careful, and smooth, never giving away your position until the very moment you strike, and the one you take down can no longer run. It was the way of the predator, and it had taken Danny many harsh lessons and even more nights with nothing in his belly to learn this.
And right now, it was not just him who would be benefiting from this hunt, his father was counting on him to bring home supper, as the wraith had told him before he had left to begin his hunt, he had business to attend to, whatever that meant.
Ah well, the phantom thought. He would worry about that at a later time. All that he needed to focus on now was what was in front of him. Namely, the heard of spectral, skeletal elk he had been skirting around for the past afternoon. It had taken nearly all morning and even after midday before he found the heard, but after looking over it for a bit, he had decided that it would make decent pickings. Currently, the phantom child had his gaze locked dangerously on one skeleton.
After deciding to take from this group, Danny had begun circling, looking for a weak link, and easy picking, and he had found one, singled away from the rest, grazing slowly on its own by an outcropping of purple rocks. To anyone else, the elk would look sickly, as was clearly marked by the languid way its green aura clung to its form as if it wanted to just drop off the creature, or the coughing, wheezing noise it made with every 'breath'. (After all, its a bit difficult for an actual skeleton to breath.) But to the phantom, these symptoms were simply a fantastic opportunity. Not only would the prey's condition make it slower on the chase and quicker on the kill, but it would mean less exertion on his part. He would need that strength to be able to fly home with his catch, and the less work he did in the actual hunt, the more energy he would have for that.
The Phantom waited, still couched below the ridge. He could hear the small thumps of hooves upon the grass, not far off. It was getting closer. He found himself panting, trying to scent the air. The snippy clipp rriip, chew chew chew of vegetation being torn from the earth by long flat teeth shot through his ears. Closer. His heart rate picked up in preparation, fingers curling into semblance of claws, claws like those of his father's whom he wished he could have. So close now. He could almost literally feel it. Were those thumps he was feeling the elk, or his own heart? A glance up, and Danny was met with hollow sockets leering down at him, the grin of death mere inches from his face, the cold breath of the deceased herbivore ruffling the snowy hair that hung in front of his eyes. A proverbial heart beat of a moment and then...
The Wraith breathed a deep sigh, exhaling nearly all of the breath left in his temporary lungs with it while he wrapped yet another bandage around the leg of the boy before him. He was rewarded for his efforts with a small whimper of pain. A scowl started to form on the shadow being's face as he heard the sound. Gods...how, in all the years of training and coaching he had devoted to this child, could the boy have made such a..a stupid..idiotic...a true statement of unfocused... "Father?" A young voice interrupted him from his muttered musings, and suddenly he realized those mutterings were not in his head, he was actually speaking them aloud. His little Phantom was staring up at him with uncertain eyes, one of which was blacked out, or, more accurately, dark-greened out. The extensive bruise made the thunderous scowl upon his face return tenfold. The boy before him squirmed a bit in his seat under the dark look.
There was a stretch of silence so tense and taught, to where the slightest snippet of sound could snap it in two. Finally, as if it would kill the boy if he didn't say anything, he sucked in air and opened his mouth to say something, no doubt to NOT atone for his trouble-making but merely make excuses for himself and his actions, as he normally did in such situations. Well. The Wraith was NOT having THAT THIS evening, not in any way.
"Do not, Daniel. I don't wish to hear it. You knew better. You knew!" The boy flinched under the deathly tone. So he should. However, that didn't stop him from being the foolhardy boy with the arsenal of comebacks he always was when his mind thought it was under some form of 'attack'.
"Well it's still not my fault! That old deer was nasty, and I wasn't prepared!" That did it.
"Of course you weren't prepared! You were no doubt distracted, gazing off into the distance like you always are, Daniel. Hadn't I told to keep to prey smaller then goats and sheep? Hadn't I!?" Gods below, are you even looking at yourself right now? You could have been killed!" The last line of the old Wraith's admittedly unintentional mini-rant echoed hauntingly around the small space, seeming to suck what little light the phantom's natural aura brought out with the last syllable, leaving the two feeling cold, and dead. The Shadow being almost felt remorse for his outburst. Almost. Suppressing a sigh that threatened to make it's way up his corporeal throat, he merely continued to glare down at the boy, who, not surprisingly, returned his glare.
Nothing more was said during the few minutes it took to finish wrapping the multiple cuts and scrapes the boy had gotten from his encounter. Good gracious. Really, the wraith thought, did the boy have no self preservation instinct at all? At All? What was going through that head of his when he came across that heard, as he had described it. Certainly not the fact that he was to young to take on something like that on his own, no. Most definitely not the possibility of his sudden attack on one of the heard members causing the others to stampede, that wasn't it. The Wraith father couldn't help it. In a much softer tone then before, so as to try and meant the situation, "You're not even full grown, Daniel. Why didn't you settle for what you normally do? I'm sure there must have been something else in the area of interest to you." The boy just rolled his eyes at the attempt of an apology from his elder, but decided to let it go. He knew that between Vlad and himself, saying "I'm sorry" was a hit on both of their prides that neither wanted to take, so the round about apologies were quite common.
"C'mon, old man. I'm almost eight, and then I WILL be full grown. What are you gonna do then, huh?" A twinkle the elder ruefully recognized entered the boy's eye. "Can't keep a force of nature like me down for long." The old one simple chuckled darkly, causing his young ward to draw back slightly. So he should.
"Oh, my foolish little phantom. Remember who it was that caught you all those meals, who guarded you from the big bad monsters that come around in the night, who taught you all that you know." And, true to the boy's nature,
"And I couldn't be more grateful, Vlad. Heck, if it wasn't for you, I might, gods forbid, have a social life." came the ever so snarky reply. The Wraith merely snorted at the sarcastic tone. He had adopted the boy under the pretense that he would be a good conversationalist, and so he had taught him the art of conversation. At times it seemed as though he taught too well, but thankfully tonight was not one of those times. The dig at the fact he spent his time with the wraith , and in reality, only the wraith sounded a bit more forced then normal like he was just doing it because he thought he had to. Not that he couldn't blame the boy for lack of effort. Daniel had been knocked about today, and was no doubt hungry as well due to the lack of a successful hunt.
One final time, the dark one sighed, and in helping the boy up decided to play the concerned parent again, putting what needed to be done before anything else.
"Come along Daniel. Lets get you to bed, and uh...I'll see what's out and about tonight, hum?" He looked down at the boy, truly expecting some spitfire snark, or even an enthused plea to help, but all he got was just a little nod, and a barely noticeable twitch of his lips that one couldn't really even consider a smile. And the wraith stood by as the phantom boy walked out onto the open ground of the canyon floor, then with a grace that would make most go green(er) with envy, the boy glided up and into the large fissure in the rocks that served as home. It was truly as sad sight to see. What could have gotten his boy so down in such a short period of time? Ah, well. He could ponder that as he searched for a meal for the two of them. The day had obviously been taxing, and he needed something to relax himself, not just from the worrying over the state of the boy's emotional health, but from the rather tense meeting he'd had with two other spirits while the boy was away, collecting information about this and that; simply the comings and goings of the Ghost Zone, along with some much needed ah...alone time, one might say. After all, the wraith thought, being a parent was fulfilling, but it was hardly a part time job.
Vlad mused while he slid through the Zone, his misty form conforming the landscape and sending out tendrils of dark substance, searching, feeling. Not even an hour ago, the boy would have been begging to make up for his folly this afternoon by wishing to join him. Not an hour ago, the mere mention that he was to stay home even if he was hurt would have sent him into what could only be described as a self-riotous hissy fit (and his being a phantom, the hissing was meant quite literally.) But all that piss and vinegar was just gone tonight, for whatever reason. Not like it hadn't existed; the boy trying to make an excuse of his poor choice of prey proved that it was still there, but it was rather like he felt Vlad didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of it. Why? The boy had shouted at him for far smaller issues, and with such enthusiasm. As the wraith found a large swath of open scrub ground, perfect for smaller prey ghosts to lure in, Vlad concluded there could only be but one reason Daniel was being so well behaved tonight:
Guilt.
It was something the wraith felt often, and in no small dosage either. Guilt was one of the few reasons why the wraith still did what he was doing now; hunting for the boy, doing things for him, when he knew the boy had the skill and know-how to do it himself. He felt guilty, at having taken Daniel away from what may have been a better situation for the boy, just to satisfy the hole he had created inside for himself. Ultimately, Vlad thought as his trick butterflies caught the attention of a wandering ghost-hawk, guilt was what made him keep Daniel with him at all. If events had played out how the wraith figured they should have, nearly five years ago, Daniel would be gone by now, off into the great expanse of the ghost zone to find a mate and forge a life for himself, leaving Vlad the Wraith alone, like he wanted. However, life is not always what we want it to be, Vlad thought as his shape morphed into something akin to a harpy for the kill. Vlad never wanted children, not until the boy came into the picture. Even then, the first few weeks of following Vlad around like a puppy grew tiring, and having to satisfy the boy's seemingly bottomless pit of a stomach left Vlad with little to no time to himself, making him irritable. Thinking back as the wraith pulled sharply on the hawk's neck killing it, Vlad supposed the first time he really felt the obligation of raising the boy for his own had set in the first time he had harmed the Phantom hatchling, though one could hardly call the boy who was fourteen in appearances now a hatchling anymore.
He had been having a rather bad night. It was storming, and badly too. After Daniel's unintelligible (the boy was not yet able to speak) cries for nourishment, the wraith had gone and gotten himself soaked to the bone for him, returning with little. He had brought nothing for himself, seeing as all Vlad had really wanted that evening was to be left alone to think and brood, but the boy was persistent; wanting to climb onto his lap and sleep on him. In all honesty, Vlad was still getting used to the idea he now had a tiny person to take care of, and in a fit on momentary anger at the antics of the boy, Vlad lashed out, hitting the phantom child square in the jaw.
In reality, it was no more then a mediocre smack, but to the two beings in the cave, it was like the horrible cracking sound that follows lightning, with the deafening boom after confirming your terror. At first, Vlad could only stare dumbstruck at what he had done, even when the boy started crying, little glowing green tears streaming down his small face. When the boy attempted to scramble back from him, Vlad moved with a swiftness that he hadn't thought himself capable of for one his age. Scooping up the wailing child, he shushed the boy, apologizing endlessly through the rest of that dark, stormy night that neither Vlad, nor Daniel wished to recall. Vlad knew Danny remembered it, yes, Phantoms had very keen memories, but he also knew, that sometime through the course of that night, Daniel forgave him as well, and perhaps, that was why Vlad felt so guilty. He didn't think he deserved the boy's forgiveness, for anything.
Coming back to the present time, the Wraith shook his head. In truth, this may not be what is wrong with Daniel. The boy might just be extraordinarily tired, or the dark one may just be hitting the nail on the head. He didn't know, and just being who he was, Vlad hated not knowing. But this was easily (or perhaps not so easily, knowing Danny's tendency to hide things) remedied.
With the bird dead (or at least, starting to dissolve into a state of purer ectoplasm to consume), and the wraith cleaned up, he prepared to return home to his fostered son and have a lengthy chat about why the boy felt the way he did.