Finally! An IC Eagle Hunting log. Boo-yah!

In Mossflower woodlands somewhere...

Eagles: Riana, female, of the golden variety.

Martens: Liam, male.

Paw on his hips and his walking stick [in paw] the marten pauses to take in the majestic scenery of the open road. A more northern climate the grass was still green, the trees more pine than elm. And the road empty. The marten was alone.

( He was dressed in a large fancy traveling coat with a white fox fur inline and a dark brown tan exterior. He wore a wide floppy hat made of the softest cloth with a feather on the side. )

Somewhere under the richly garments and traveling coats was Liam. He could only pause, take a deep breath and smile all the while thinking, "If I take another step my legs will fall off."

Traveling was, admittedly, a lot harder with actual gear and clothes to travel with. Yes, that was it. His layers of flesh and fat gained from a sedentary life style have nothing to do with it. Yes, totally not the reason he was nearly out of breath.

No, it's because the marten is fat and juicy. His clothing and gear have literally nothing to do with it. High above, circling on a thermal, Riana Thunderbolt, golden eagle extraordinaire, is watching the chubby creature wend his way on his journey. That's it, Mister Marten. Take a little break. Stand there a little longer. Destiny is on the wing....

Far from the troubles of Ferravale the marten is feeling...at peace. No more book keeping, no more squabbling heathen customers, no more employees, no more of the strife that befell the village every three months. His inn burning down was the best thing that could happen to him!

Well, possibly. Maybe. Perhaps this was an over reaction, pulling out all his money and leaving to the far winds, like he did when he was poor...and skinny. The marten sighs, leaning heavily into the walking stick. No matter, the latter problem should fix itself in a few...hundred...miles.

"I think I'm going to be sick, what am I doing, I should have stayed and rebuilt the inn I should have I..." Liam shakes his head, then calms himself. "No, everything is fine. This is for the best. This is the start of a new adventure! You'll see. Everything will be /fine/." He lifts up a paw to take another step forward. The first step to a new adventure...or his doom.

Well, if Riana gets her way, it'll be the marten's doom. Silent as a shadow, the huge eagle folds her wings and dives. At the last possible moment, she spreads her wings and brings her talons to the fore, aiming to grab the chubby mustelid from behind! She hasn't had a nice fatty meal in months.....

The marten gets one step, then another. See, this whole walking business isn't so hard. He'll be back to his old slender self in no-

And then just like that the marten is air borne. It's quite the unusual feeling since just a moment ago Liam was positive he could not fly. Perhaps this was the effects of being light headed, or he collapsed from a heart attack and he is hallucinating! He knew all this exercise was bad for him! No, wait, there is a tightness about his waist and chest, like something claw-like digging into his sides...like talons.

It is a moment after he finds himself launched into the air that he realizes the danger he is in, "GREAT OOOGLY MOOGLY! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He screams.

Riana screeches in delight! Off she flies, flapping her massive wings as she lugs off her prize. "Oh, stop screaming! You'll wake the whole forest, little marten, and I don't want to have any owls chasing after me...." She starts heading East, towards her eyrie. "Now, tell me. How would you wish to die: by my delivering a death blow, or from my dropping you from a great height?" At least she's giving him a choice.

The marten gulps. Already his mind is racing, trying to over come the knee jerk reaction of 'OH GOD I'M GOING TO BE EATEN' and actually do something that avoids that fate. "I er...how kind of you to give me a choice." He watches his canteen fall from his belt and into oblivion. The thought of falling from this height is actually quite terrifying. "They both sound rather...fatal though. Perhaps there is a, um, third choice?"

Riana laughs. She actually laughs! "They're supposed to be fatal, little marten; how else would I be able to eat you? And there is a third option, but I don't like it; it's too......messy." Tilting sideways, she brushes by a huge three-topped oak and adds, "I could impale you on a dead tree, but then everything gets everywhere and I just.....would like to avoid that as much as possible. I have to live here, and I try to avoid having this part of the woodlands be a mess." Straightening up so she's flying normally again, she grimaces. "Those /beastly/ little vermin that attacked the otter holt by the river made the worst mess, burning down the...buildings and things. I couldn't hunt at /all/ that day because of the smoke, and of /course/ they /would/ have arrows so I couldn't hunt /them/ as retaliation! Of all the nerve...." A huge bowl shaped nest can barely be seen in the top of an approaching tree.

The thought of being skewered on a tree causes the 'little' marten to whine. "Yes yes! All very fine and good!" He tries to keep his voice calm while shouting in terror, "But...but...butbutbut eating me would cause a mess! Oh yes, a GHASTLY mess. A bigger mess than you could possibly imagine! See, see, seeeee, uh, see I'm /important/." Truer words have never been said, thinks the marten. But now to put a spin on it. "I'm a...prince! Yes! A princely pine marten. If I die beasts will scour the woods for me. When they can't find me then there will be war! Death! Destruction! More woods and villages burning and clouding your skies!"

Riana gives the marten a little shake. "Prove it. You don't seem very princely." The eyrie is drawing nearer. The marten is running out of time. "Let me tell you a little story, marten. I am the daughter of an eagle King. I understand the way you pathetic little ground dwellers run your kingdoms and palaces. One of my family's tutors was a mouse, and he taught us many things about you ground dwellers." The eyrie is drawing nearer and nearer..... "So tell me, little marten, what proof do I have that you really are a prince?"

"Besides being a plump princely pine marten, heh, say that five times fast." The marten taps his claws together as he thinks, "I don't have any actually, proof on me persay but...if you were to put me on the ground, I think I may be able to prove that I'm a prince! A respected prince! A FEARED prince!" His heart beats faster and faster the closer and closer they get to the nest.

"Do you take me for a fool?? You are just trying to escape!!" Riana thunders angrily. "No! Describe this proof to me, and then, /if/ I decide that this proof is accurate, /then/ you may show me on the floor of my eyrie. And hurry little marten," she begins to circle the huge tree holding her equally massive nest, "For I am running out of patience, and my belly is painful within me from lack of food."

The marten gulps, "Well you see there IS the problem, because...the proof is on the ground! The beasts of this forest know me! Honest! All you have to do is follow me around and see how they react to me being there!" The nest of DOOM makes him whimper, "What do you got to lose? Do you really think /I/ am capable of out running a bird like /you/?"

"You cannot outrun me," Riana says simply. "However, while /you/ can run under the trees, I have to fly /above/ them. That doesn't sound very adventageous....to me." She lands in her nest and tosses the marten onto the hide-littered floor, far away from where she has decorated the wall with the weapons of her prey who fought back. "Time's up, Lunch. Any last words?"

The marten lands with resounding thud on the nest. He wastes no time in rolling onto his rump, staring up into the eagle. Liam quickly considers his options. Beg for mercy? He has a feeling no one has tried THAT before, if the hides around him are any consideration. He sits up, crossing his legs and his arms. Arming himself with a very stern look Liam says, "No." The marten's tail thrashes about behind him, "No as in, 'I'm not going to play that game'. Look miss tall dark and brooding, I ain't got no fancy words to say. I don't have any family, and no one will miss me. Not really. I'm also going to save myself some dignity and not plead for my life." He gulps, "At least try to. I'm a merchant at heart so...so name your price? What do I have to do to NOT end up as your meal and..." He peers into the corner at the halberd and the fox hide, "I say, is that...is that Xia?" He rubs his chin, "Huh, I always wondered what became of her..."

Riana goes to hold the marten still as she glances at said fox hide. There are quite a few in here. "Oh, that one? I don't know what her name was. She fought back, and I like to keep mementos of the strong ones." She does come from the Northlands, after all.....just like those crazy lunatic vermin who attacked Camp Willow a few weeks ago. "....no beast has ever tried to...../bribe/ me out of eating them before." She turns back to look at him, releasing him as she does so. "You ground dwellers are a peculiar little bunch. Tell me, what do you think you could /possibly/ have that would be of any interest to me? Besides your flesh and hide, of course." She settles down, her massive legs hidden by her fluffy chest and belly feathers. "And thank you for not pleading yet.....that is simply /aggravating/ when prey begs and whines and pleads like a hatchling...."

The marten takes quick note not to plead and whine like he was planning on doing. Good to know. "I make no promises to the latter." He says with a smile, that's right, keep the bird who is about to murder you in good spirits. A little humor, a little laughing and maybe, just maybe, he can walk away from this with his tail intact.

"But, anyway. What I have, what I have..." What is the bird interested in besides eating him and using his hide to decorate her nest? "What don't I have! I'm a merchant.......prince. A merchant prince! Yeaaaaaaaah. There is no end to things I could offer you! You like fox hides? I know of a another brown furred fox back in the village I came from! Hefty fellow, his hide would match Xia's, er, the fox hide here." Oh that felt odd to be sitting next to the hide of beast he knew. Try not to think about it, Liam tells himself over and over again.

Bringing her dangerous beak close to the marten's face, Riana smiles in a way that might make him more scared than he actually is. "I only like the hides of the beasts I eat....wait, what village?" She brings her face closer to him....he may want to lie down. "Are you talking about the village with the little white cat in it? ....Blisa, the one with Blisa in it? She's my ally.....persuasive little creature....why are you /not/ in your precious little village, Lunch? ....are you running away from her???" Tell the truth, Liam. It might save your life....

The marten leans back until he is almost laying across the nest. "Blisa?" Now there was a name he didn't expect to hear here of all places. "Daughter of Scioto, the chieftain of Ferrivale?" Seeing an opportunity to save his hide the marten leaps for it. "Yes! Yes I know her! I...I'm not running from her. She's my friend! She helped me when I was going through a harsh time with blankets and food. Her father let me run the inn there..." The marten shrugs, "Until it burned down at least..." He smiles as he adds, "Did I mention that she would be sad if she found out I was eaten, by YOU no less. For shame, picking up peoples allies and eating them..."

Riana goes to peck the marten....not hard enough to draw blood, but she might break a rib on accident. "Why were you fleeing the village? I have sworn to help Blisa should she need it, but my territory is on the North side of the river. What is going on in the village?!" She is in no mood for games right now...

The marten yelps, out of reflex he slaps at the beak as he is pecked in the shoulder, "OW! Watch it with that beak! How should I know what's going on there? I left the village, I mean I didn't flee it I...look!" The marten sits up, "When I left everything was fine. Well, sort of fine. Someone burned down my inn but stuff like that happens every other day of the week. That's, part of the reason why I left that and...well, /YOU/ wouldn't understand." The bird is going to eat him, not play shrink for him the marten says to himself.

Grabbing the marten again, Riana stands, giving him a dirty look. "Only because you know Blisa am I not killing you.....right now. If it turns out that you were lying to me, I shall eat you happily." She lifts into the air, doing her best to take him with her. "Come, little marten," (at least she's not calling him Lunch anymore) "perhaps I can find Blisa in the village and we can settle this. Tell me what your other reason is." It's a command, not a request.

"I thought I was going to die there. Grow old and die, after a life time of the same thing over and over and over and OVER AND OVER AGAIN. And then the inn burned down, and everything was gone. No more responsibilities, no more schedule, I was...I was FREE! There! I said it! I'm happy the inn burned down! Do you hear that universe! I'm happy I'm no longer an inn keeper! I only regret not burning it down myself! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHhahahaha...ha." Realizing where he is the marten passes a terrified glance at the bird, "I uh, er, I mean..." His words fail him as he struggles to explain what just happened.

Not only does Riana now have a marten to drag around, she has a crazy one. Seriously? Giving him a shake, she says, "I shouldn't've let you talk.....you're a stressful little nuisance." As her massive wings propel them towards Ferravale, she mutters, "I really ought to just eat you and not bother with showing you to Blisa. You're kind of heavy...." she's not getting physically tired yet, but she might eventually.

And then suddenly the pine marten is not. The heavy burden the overweight creature proves to be suddenly just...gone as the pine marten slips from his fancy coat. It's completely 100% unintentional, as only a mad beast would willingly toss themselves from this height.

Thankfully there is a tree to break his fall.

Unfortunately there is a tree to break his fall and the heavy set meal disappears into the sharp and pointed branches below.

"What in the-- HEY!" Riana immediately circles back and searches for her missing meal. "I knew I should've just eaten you.....you did that on purpose!!!" She circles, and circles, and......may miss him escaping!

If by escaping one means being thrown into the open hole on a tree trunk, then sure! Fur filled with pine needles and twisted into a shape that would snap the spine of any creature short of a weasel the marten chuckles as the adrenaline high begins to wear off. He...he wasn't going to be eaten! He survived! Liam moves a bit, then pauses, not quite sure how to get himself out of the convoluted position he finds himself in. Or he can wait here until the eagle get's hungry and goes away. Yes, that seems more sensible.

She really should have just eaten him.

Riana will indeed eventually get even more hungry and fly away....but she's gonna keep the coat to help her remember the marten by. Woe betide him should he return to this area of Mossflower.....

Thanks for reading!!