Break does not venture outside of Trench proper very often. A city boy through and through, patrolling the woods surrounding his house is about as outdoorsy as he gets. Likewise, if he ventures into the Trenchwood, it's almost always with Qrow at his side and usually the Huntsman's idea. Sometimes you just really need to whack a vicious beast.
All that said, Break also keeps a web of alliances around the town that extends out into the farms and gardens that lay past the Trenchwood. Break likes food, and has a great many people he likes to feed, too. Since that's the case it's only sensible to make sure the people who produce the food really like him, and so it is that he's spent his afternoon out at one of the farms that keeps chickens, using his darkblood to install miniature thorn hedges around the bottoms of the chicken coops. This time of year when food is scarce, certain weaseley predators get cunning.
It's been a satisfying day. February's blood problem has given him an urge to be helpful whenever he can be, and he's been rewarded for his assistance with a couple of freshly slaughtered chickens to take home and cook up for supper. Ange has come along with him, bribed with the promise that he'll show her how to make teriyaki for dinner, Break having gotten the hang of it himself a couple of weeks ago. Her company is a welcome addition to the walk between the Waystation lamp and the farm, and he's very much looking forward to settling in at home for another long, cold night.
Halfway to the lamp, however, Baltus — who spends these sorts of walks scouting around, keeping an eye out for danger — makes an unpleasant discovery. Just a few feet off the path, there lies the corpse of a very large snake, easily big enough to unhinge its jaw and consume a grown man in one go. It has horns on its face reminiscent of an ordinary viper, but the thing is clearly a beast. And it’s laying with its mouth open, belly up, cold and still.
"That wasn't here on the way in, was it?" Break asks, eyeing the thing with deep suspicion. Subconsciously, he places himself between Ange and the snake. But he's already casting his senses outward, not convinced they are alone.
It was not, Baltus agrees. Speaking Break's thoughts aloud, the omen eyes them solemnly as he adds, There are no marks on the body, so it must have died naturally. Even so, the corpse will attract others.
"Right by the path, too." Break frowns. "If the area isn't cleared out properly, someone's going to get eaten tonight, no doubt."
He does not know, nor does Baltus, that some snakes are capable of playing dead to fool predators…or prey, in this case. While he debates whether to secure the area himself or shuffle Ange to safety and make it the Hunters' problem, the snake waits patiently to see which of these warm bodies will stray within striking distance first.
cw: there will be a big mean snake in this thread
All that said, Break also keeps a web of alliances around the town that extends out into the farms and gardens that lay past the Trenchwood. Break likes food, and has a great many people he likes to feed, too. Since that's the case it's only sensible to make sure the people who produce the food really like him, and so it is that he's spent his afternoon out at one of the farms that keeps chickens, using his darkblood to install miniature thorn hedges around the bottoms of the chicken coops. This time of year when food is scarce, certain weaseley predators get cunning.
It's been a satisfying day. February's blood problem has given him an urge to be helpful whenever he can be, and he's been rewarded for his assistance with a couple of freshly slaughtered chickens to take home and cook up for supper. Ange has come along with him, bribed with the promise that he'll show her how to make teriyaki for dinner, Break having gotten the hang of it himself a couple of weeks ago. Her company is a welcome addition to the walk between the Waystation lamp and the farm, and he's very much looking forward to settling in at home for another long, cold night.
Halfway to the lamp, however, Baltus — who spends these sorts of walks scouting around, keeping an eye out for danger — makes an unpleasant discovery. Just a few feet off the path, there lies the corpse of a very large snake, easily big enough to unhinge its jaw and consume a grown man in one go. It has horns on its face reminiscent of an ordinary viper, but the thing is clearly a beast. And it’s laying with its mouth open, belly up, cold and still.
"That wasn't here on the way in, was it?" Break asks, eyeing the thing with deep suspicion. Subconsciously, he places himself between Ange and the snake. But he's already casting his senses outward, not convinced they are alone.
It was not, Baltus agrees. Speaking Break's thoughts aloud, the omen eyes them solemnly as he adds, There are no marks on the body, so it must have died naturally. Even so, the corpse will attract others.
"Right by the path, too." Break frowns. "If the area isn't cleared out properly, someone's going to get eaten tonight, no doubt."
He does not know, nor does Baltus, that some snakes are capable of playing dead to fool predators…or prey, in this case. While he debates whether to secure the area himself or shuffle Ange to safety and make it the Hunters' problem, the snake waits patiently to see which of these warm bodies will stray within striking distance first.