A Hunting We Will Go

<table><tbody><tr><td><div style="padding:15px;"><div><div><div style="border:8px solid #ffffff;width:125px;height:125px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3GtjtM3.png" style="height:125px;"></div></div><div style="text-align:justify;">Some people loved the woods, and some people hated it. Angelo had no particular interest in them. He had spent his whole life in the city, and the closest thing he had to 'nature' was central park. He simply didn't have any appreciation for it, and on his time off he would never have spent his time in the forest.

But it was not his day off, and Angelo didn't have much of a choice.

Someone had been poaching deep in the woods, and he'd been sent by the police to meet up with a warden to try and hunt them down. Poaching wasn't the sort of crime that would generally be high priority, but considering the island's population of shapeshifters and other sentient animals, it couldn't be overlooked.

His uniform was hardly good camouflage, but it wouldn't matter in his case. He didn't need camouflage. If anything, being more visible would help the warden find him as he waited near a trailhead.
</div>[/thoth] @"nightstripe" </div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>​

<table><tbody><tr><td><div style="padding:15px;"><div><div><div style="border:8px solid #ffffff;width:125px;height:125px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3GtjtM3.png" style="height:125px;"></div></div><div style="text-align:justify;">Angelo found himself amused that the man who arrived at the trailhead had just as many scars as he did. They were both more or less covered in them, but while the man wore his hair cropped close to his head, Angelo let his grow, hiding the worst of it.

It was obvious he wasn't much of a talker, but Angelo wasn't going to let that bother him, and he took two big steps towards the guy before sticking his hand out for a shake.

"Name's Angelo." No need for 'Officer Genovese' with a man who was essentially a park ranger. "They sent me out here to assist with the poaching issue." Too much risk of something going wrong, and park rangers probably didn't have the right to technically arrest someone for something like that. Or did they? Angelo wasn't entirely clear - the biggest park he'd ever stepped into was Central Park.
</div>[/thoth] @"nightstripe" </div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>​

<table><tbody><tr><td><div style="padding:15px;"><div><div><div style="border:8px solid #ffffff;width:125px;height:125px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3GtjtM3.png" style="height:125px;"></div></div><div style="text-align:justify;">Definitely not very talkative. Well, he'd dealt with worse. He grinned despite himself, letting him fall in behind Thresher for a moment before speeding up to keep pace beside him. "I can handle a walk." Which was a slight exaggeration. He was fit, but he'd never been much of a walker.

"To be honest, I didn't realize why poaching would be such a big issue, but it makes sense. Half the things in the woods are citizens." Or deserved to be citizens, anyway. "Does the... park services have any idea?" Was there a parks service? He wasn't sure what it was that Thresher even worked for. For all he knew, Thresher was actually a lone agent, a concerned citizen who owned some land out there in the woods.
</div>[/thoth] @"Nightstripe" </div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>​

<table><tbody><tr><td><div style="padding:15px;"><div><div><div style="border:8px solid #ffffff;width:125px;height:125px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3GtjtM3.png" style="height:125px;"></div></div><div style="text-align:justify;">Hm. So he was wrong, and it wasn't the shifter they were worried about. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Maybe it made him a bad person, but he wasn't actually all that attached to animals. He'd never really had a pet growing up, and his experience with animals was limited to short zoo visits and the occasional guard dog. Not exactly a nature lover by any stretch of the imagination.

"Well, the animals then. So what's the difference between a poacher and a hunter, exactly?" It might have seemed like a very simple question, especially for a cop, but it wasn't one that had actually come up before. He dealt with the city, not with the woods.
</div>[/thoth] @"Nightstripe" </div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>​

<table><tbody><tr><td><div style="padding:15px;"><div><div><div style="border:8px solid #ffffff;width:125px;height:125px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/3GtjtM3.png" style="height:125px;"></div></div><div style="text-align:justify;">Well, at least he wasn't going to hold it against him that he wasn't some animal loving hiippie. "Gotta make sure the environment doesn't get messed up. I can get that at least." They'd covered that in school. The danger of endangered species and all that. He supposed it mattered all the more on a place like the Manta Carlos Islands. If someone killed off the last of the wolves, there was no chance more would be able to wander back in to fill the space. There could be no migration except between different parts of the island. If something died off, they'd have to literally import it from elsewhere, and that might not even work.

"So I guess someone's been shooting something they shouldn't, and now we get to hunt it down. Easy enough." All the easier with a guy who was essentially a warden. He was probably good at the forest - he'd be able to find them in no time at all.

"If you think they're close, just say something. I can... well, do this thing where I vanish. I'll be able to get close to them without them running for it." It wouldn't work on an animal though.. but he doubted it was. Even he was pretty sure he'd be able to tell the difference between a poacher and a wild animal.
</div>[/thoth] @"Nightstripe" </div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>​