Another harsh wind blew across her face, her hair frantically flying all over, bits of snow hitting her as more of it got picked up off the ground. "Why does it always get so damn windy..!?" She yelled out a bit in frustration, taking the time to stick the bottom of her glaive into the snow covered ground she walked on. Despite the fact she was used to these temperatures already, the blizzard like conditions made it pretty much impossible for her to see anything. The sun wasn't helping either, if anything it was making her situation worse since the light reflecting off the white of the snow was practically blinding. So she decided to settle for the time being, crouching low to the ground sticking both hands into the snow until she felt the ground. Luckily a lot of the snow was soft, made it difficult to trek through sure but it at least allowed her form two chitinous poles with a solid connection to the ground. More plates were formed in between them and she repeated this process quite a few times until she had fully encircled herself. She chose to create the shape of this shelter as if it were an igloo, the top of her shelter given a dome that gave her just enough head room for her to stand comfortably so long as her tail remained low and against the walls.
"Ah.. right, forgot about the door." She spun around once, randomly picking a spot on the wall where she'd work on the door, tracing her fingers forming the outline causing the chitin on the inner part of her tracing to crumble away while the rest on the outside of the tracing stayed intact and functional. The opening itself was just large enough for her to get in and out of so long as she crawled, as she didn't want to leave enough room for wind to easily blow inside. She then sat down on the snowy ground against the wall behind her, tilting her head back, trying to consider whether or not coming all this way was a good idea. If she were anyone else? She'd be dead, but due to her ability to adapt to such harsh conditions the cold and the snow weren't a threat to her health at all. She could honestly spend the night here naked if she so desired, she just got tired of the wind and lack of visibility.
Her mind began to wander, trying to pass the time as best she could mainly by thinking about what she should do next. "Mmh.. supposedly the creature isn't far from here.." Better take another look at the contract, maybe she missed something? She reached down, popping her pouch open then pulling the rolled up contract into her hands. Opening it once more, noting the lack of specifics on the creatures description. The only thing about it was that it liked to expand itself with air in order to float, and that it tended to prefer cold climates at high elevation.. There wasn't anything about what it ate, or what would be the best method of taking it down. At the very least she hadn't been restricted on what to do with it so her options were down to three. Capture it and release it elsewhere, kill it, or drive it far away if neither option could be done. There wasn't a picture of the creature either, just a rough sketch of a sphere with a rodent like face. "Weird design... oddly cute though." She sighed a bit, rolling the contract up then placing it in the pouch. She couldn't get paid without it, needed to keep it in good condition.
The next few hours were rather dull, the most she could do was spend time sharpening her glaives blade as well as the survival knife she used to carve 'proof' of contract completion or various survival uses. Nearly falling asleep towards the end until the ground practically quaked beneath her, startling her from her near slumber into a fully awoken state. "What was that!?" She exclaimed, sheathing the knife and grabbing the glaive before quickly crawling out of her shelter. The wind died down considerably, but it was still snowing rather hard as if the blizzard was going to start again at any moment.. The sun was blinding still too, but a little more bearable than it had been before. Another noise in the distance, a small growl that she couldn't exactly pinpoint nor make any sense of. It wasn't like any other animal she had heard before.. No matter, it wasn't a good idea to psyche herself out anyway so she headed for the source of the sound to the best of her ability. The wind kept trying to push her back though, and it just so happened to be towards the sun too so that wasn't helping.
"Come on, where are.. you..?" Although she couldn't see much, something very large and oddly circular in shape hovered overhead, eclipsing the sun enough to allow her to see its silhouette contrasting the bright sky. She barely had any time to react at all when the creature above plummeted towards the ground after emitting a snarl that made her spine tingle. "Son of a!" She just barely managed to dodge it, she nearly got crushed! Quickly rising to her feet she grasped the staff of her glaive tightly and turned to face the creature that attempted to squash her. Finally able to get a good look at it, she could see that its description definitely needed some adjustments..
The head was certainly rodent like in appearance and its ears were long and oddly pointed. The neck was thick too, covered in a white fur that looked surprisingly soft, standing on four legs with the hind legs being far thicker than the front two. Its body was oddly lithe, still big compared to other creatures in the area but given the size of this creature one would think it'd be far larger than it is.. The length of the creature about six meters or so, the tail at least counted for three meters! While she attempted to gauge its size a bit more, the creature itself let out another growl as it charged towards her, clearly not going to wait around for her to finish examining it. "Aggressive!" She quickly rolled forward and to the left of it, dodging its attempt to bite her once it got close. Though being this close to it had other dangers too, such as those claws on the front legs, so she couldn't take too much time to recover. She needed to get on the offensive herself so thats what she did, she used her glaive to her advantage, pushing it hard against the ground in an attempt to vault up into the air so that she could gain some height.
The attempt however was met with strict resistance, as the beast quickly extended its wings while she was mid-air and proceeded to launch itself skyward. The wind force from the flap of those wings was just strong enough to not only slow her down but actually push her back a couple feet away from where it previously stood. "Dammit, you aren't getting away from me!" This next move was tricky, but she had to try something else it get away.. she did NOT want to start over again!
Sasori landed quickly in a roll, watching as the beast continued to fly in the opposite direction of her towards a steep decline, she only had one shot. She bolted towards the creature with her glaive in hand, and with all of the strength she could muster she hurled that glaive as if it were a throwing spear. A chitinous chain continuously forming from its base, wrapping around her hand and forearm for stability, and the blade of her glaive struck the creature right on the thigh of its hind leg. "Yes! You're mine now!" Or so she thought, in her heated moment thinking of this plan? She forgot to consider that a creature of that size is going to be a hell of a lot heavier than her, not to mention stronger.
Her eyes went wide at this realization, uttering a soft "...Oh shi-!" Immediately yanked forward and down the mountain, she was at the mercy of the beasts flight path. The chain itself completely taut, holding with both hands in a vain attempt to slow it down. Then the creature began to descend at an angle, its flight path now in line with the angle of the mountain leading her down to the tree covered path below. That wasn't good..! Her speed picked up, forced to practically skii down the mountainside with very little control, barely managing to avoid the thankfully well spaced out trees on the way.
During the trip down Sasori searched desperately for something, anything large enough that could be used to potentially hook the beast or at the very least add enough force to cause the glaive to come out. Then she saw it, just ahead was a thick tree that was likely one of the oldest living ones down here, it should be just thick enough to not break from the impact force.. So she braced herself, extending the chain past her hand to form some much needed slack.. Then she waited, once she was close and just about to reach the tree she swung herself around it so that the chain was caught in between. The slack was enough to make her spin around it a couple times, thankfully allowing her to slow to a stop abrupt enough not to tear her arm off but it was definitely enough to dislocate it.
A short scream followed, now dangling from her dislocated arm for a few moments as the ground shook and a plume of snow became visible further down the mountain. "Ngh.. a-alright.. down we.. Agh..!" She groaned, letting the chain on her arm crumble away now that it wasn't needed anymore, her arm loosely swung about until she grabbed it. The air filled with a sickening pop as she got everything back in place again, eyes teary as she dealt with the pain. "Hahh.. aaahh f-fuck.. never.. never doing that again.." That fucking hurt! Still, she had a job to finish and at least now her arm was functional again.
She followed the taut line of chain down the path before her, noting the fallen trees that were apparently torn by the beast as it crashed down. She hadn't expected this outcome, but it definitely worked in her favor. Upon reaching ground zero, she slowed down to take in the scenery and make sure it was safe enough to continue forward. The creature had hit the ground so hard it practically created a crater of snow and dirt around itself. Many of the trees here were broken, given ample sunlight. The snow in the center of the crash sight colored crimson, and it didn't appear like the creature itself was breathing from this distance.. perhaps it died on impact? She hoped so, she wanted to hunt it but she didn't want it to suffer.
Sasori hoisted herself over the lip and proceeded to slide down the crater until finally reaching the center of it where the beast remained laying, semi-motionless. Turns out it hadn't died yet, but its wings were broken as were its legs, her glaive oddly intact still. Still protruding out from its thigh, though she left that alone for the time being. Moving towards the head, she saw it breathe, albeit weakly and felt a bit of pain in her heart. Especially when she locked eyes with it, there was a clear fear in them, but that was natural.. With a soft sigh, she sat herself down by its head and began to pet it. Her other hand grasping the hilt of her knife, bringing the blade up to the throat. "I'm sorry, may you rest in piece, I thank you deeply for providing me with your gifts of which will feed many and warm even more.." In a swift clean cut, she killed it and remained there while it bled out. She wasn't going to let it suffer, nor was she going to let it die alone either. She'd be there to keep it company until it finally passed on.
The second its life left, she slowly stood up and sheathed her blade. She accomplished the hunt, taking a tuft of fur from its body as well as removing a couple of its scales. "Alright, contract completed, only thing left to do now is head back and tell the village hunters where to find the body. They'll make good use of you, I promise." She stated, letting the chitinous chain crumble away the rest of the way so that she could grab her glaive and pull it out of the creature. Using it to help the climb up out of the crater, slowly walking down the path of the snowy woods so that she could reach the village and rest for the day. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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