[ericthered]

Peter breathed in the air, and could tell that ... well, those instincts didn't show up. He had to assume that one smell was urine from some sort of animal, though he couldn't tell what kind, and that this different smell was rotting leaves, and so forth. And while the animals couldn't see him, hearing him was a whole different matter. He'd done SOME stealthy woodcraft, but not anything like that needed to sneak up on an animal from behind.

Rider is getting quite annoyed, and starts saying things like: 'No! there's a stick there!', "why are you following the send of an ant colony?', and 'That way! it went that way!'. Peter rapidly improves, at least on the smelling front, but remains only slightly stealthy. He begins trying to stay to hard ground and the like. Though the comments become less frantic, Rider's mood doesn't seem to improve much.

After two squirrels hide in trees and he spooks a deer, Peter eventually gets on the trail of what Rider assures him is a fat porcupine, and they find the creature sitting quietly on a branch, munching on twigs. It is ... quite a large creature.

Rider:"Now, this part is tricky --- you either have to grab the creature correctly the first time, use a rock or stick, or take the pain and I'll fix it later.