Even a rabbit or two would help supplement their supplies - and the mountain women knew just how far a scrawny winter hare could be stretched, with stew and herbs and enough tenacious will. Hilda could see that Imenry had that will in abundance, at least, and if the skald were not already predisposed to like everyone who crossed the path of her wyrd, she would have still liked Imenry.
There would be time for chitchat and bonding later; this time was for the hunt, and in this Hilda was as serious as when speaking the kennings and sagas of her people, entirely focused on her surroundings, the timing of her breath, the silence of her footfalls as she placed one travel-worn boot after the other along the forest floor. The temperate woods of the south were a change from hunting deer in the north, where pine needles carpeted the world and the slightest swish against a bow or thick pad of shed needles sent deer fleeing in all directions. Not so lost in memory as Imenry - though indeed, she could remember such occasions as her first hunt, her first Darkspawn kill, her first real bow, with a fifty-pound draw made for a child of the Anderfels alone - her dark-adjusted eyes saw the quiet shape at the open space of the creek first, and she halted Imenry with a featherlight touch to the elbow, nodding to the shadow of antlers amongst the moon-dappled trees. A young stag and small, from the size and placement of the shadow on the rocky banks, but even a small stag would feed their party for days, if the meat was treated carefully. Perhaps there were others at the creek as well.
Then, a careful gesture to indicate she intended to circle around; their chances of taking the stag would be greater if they had two angles of approach, This tacit warning given, Hilda silently drew an arrow from her quiver, bow in hand, and skirted to the side for a different, but not necessarily better angle. The skald's senses were alive and on high alert, listening, waiting for Imenry to find her position. Hopefully the stag would bolt toward Hilda if the other huntress did not fell him immediately.