Killed him but didn’t eat him? Something is definitely up.

Maybe a glutton?

Doesn’t that typically require actually eating? Even in that case, just a bite.

Or worse, a predator who used that death as bait to follow the other rabbit to his den.

I can see this as more likely. That or it's a set up to get at Rask.

Im on the set up side of this theory

as am I

I smell framing

Many predators will kill something and come back to eat it later, notably foxes. It saves on them having to chase down something when they're actually hungry and not on top form.

Edit: Not to mention some predators will absolutely kill something for the thrill of it. (Cats)

Something tells me another marten is in the woods.

so, she been STALKING HIM DAY AND NIGHT, the rest he was with their "chief" but RIGHT AWAY IT'S HIM?
what does she think he is? FLASH? GEEZ...TAKE A CHILL PILL!

A meat-eating carnivore that naturally predates on pretty much everyone she knows.

Still he doesn't have SUPER POWERS! Lol

Right but he's on the suspect list just for who he is and while she was talking with Oren she WASN'T watching him. There's a good five minutes where he was off of her radar so he'd be the first one she'd suspect.

yeah...she should lay off the coffee at this point...

Of the many problems she has I doubt coffee is one of them.

It was an expression lol

To save everyone else the hunting, we met Craic on Page 76

And look at page 130, bottom row, middle frame. Fur roughly matches Craic's, and the predator does look kind of like a marten's mouth, but what is that red area in the top right of that frame? It doesn't look like big red predatory eyes. I'd say that specific frame is happening right as he's talking.

Or maybe I'm just seeing things \o/

Maybe it was a fox?
Cuz that’s the only thing I can’t think of when it comes to red animal and in 130 you sort of see red on a muzzle

I dunno, that doesn't look like a fox muzzle.

Page 130 is very obviously just a flashback to one of Rask's kills.

Ooooh shit, the wolves from before maybe? Or a new threat entirely. Either they killed for sport or they got interrupted.

Oh! Time to see Prey hunting a Predator in the forest! Finally we will be able to see how Oren and the other prey fight and kill the invading predators! I bet it will make Rask have more faith in his safety in that place if he sees Oren and the other prey kill bigger and stronger predators!

wouldn't put it past the nutty rabbit to kill craic and blame the pinemarten

agreed, she crazy

blame the new guy for everything!

Or a racist rabbit who needs to get more people to hate a certain marten and what are a few deaths compared to that noble cause, hmm?

Not impossible, but it'd be pretty difficult to fake something like that.

Not really, the rabbit killed a child before. She has experience and she seems radical enough to try this method.

Ohhh, thanks for telling me!

Edit: It looks to me like a flashback of protagonists days hunting.

Rask was showing us how he views his life, and what he thought he would be doing if he wasn't there. He's a predator, and he knows it, and he likes the feel of the kill, the warmth of knowing he's going to survive another day. We aren't seeing that he's actually killed something, but that he's daydreaming about it.

He is literally in the position of a person who has been living paycheck to paycheck and suddenly they've been shown a better way to live and given the out to get there. They're better off, but they're also in a world they don't understand right now. Old habits die hard, but he's trying to make it work. He just needs to wrap his brain around the concept of not hunting certain things. It's not an easy thing to do. Not with a homicidal doe watching you like a hawk and just waiting for you to step a claw out of line (her line, not Oren's) so she can kill you. But the threat of murder is a powerful motivator.

Page 130 is very obviously a flashback for Rask and has nothing to do with the current situation.

In an incredibly extreme situation to spare them being killed in an agonizing manner yes.

She already believes she's in an extreme situation with an enemy residing in her home.

Never underestimate what a fanatic will do when they think they're pushed into a corner. Regardless of whether you can see options, they've already ruled those out because they can't reconcile them with their worldview/internal narrative.

Right but not *that* extreme, she was trapped in a hole and she had HEARD her last child get slowly killed along with pretty much her entire community.

Her objective at this point is to make sure it *never* gets to that point ever again.

You are using logic.

Desperate people and Sociopaths are not known for making logical decisions. It is already established that she is a bloodthirsty individual.

Chances are she probably didn't hurt the character, but I wouldn't be surprised if she did to get her way.

She's not a sociopath, what's more is she is (violently) protective of her fellow herbivores. Killing one to get her way WOULD be out of character for her.

Besides she's supremely confident Rask will slip up eventually and then she'll get her wish.

It's not a question of how desperate she is, it's a question of whether or not you can mimic a predator attack with a spear point around a bunch of prey animals with a good sense of smell, so who would probably be able to smell blood on you and the complete lack of predator scent.

Any defensive wounds would give her away. Any wounds on him that were just stab wounds would give her away. Any scent of blood on her, or lack of scent of predator, would give her away. The throat wound being too neat would give her away, a lack of tracks would give her away.

And it doesn't really make much sense with her motivation. I get people like our (serial killer) protagonist and want to hate on Hemlock, but they need to see this from her perspective; her opinion really isn't 'radical' when there's only been one predator who's been able to live with them peacefully, and all the rest would eat her and are in fact biologically dependent on doing so.

Evidence is all well and good, but your interpretation of what we've seen is no better than Hemlock's. At least she owns her bias.

What I've seen over the last few pages is a predator coming to grips with the fact that certain prey species are off the menu. There are still plenty of things he can hunt, but he's not used to having to think of some things he would naturally eat as being off-limits.

Martens normally eat vermin like rats, mice, voles, rabbits, and such. Anything smaller and slower than they are would be fair game. The reason they're needed to do that is that those species are fast-breeding ravenous omnivores that will strip the countryside barren and leave it without a green leaf in less than a month.

We've been told that the species breed and mature at the same rates, which makes predation and unlikely survival strategy for a species to take when their prey are slow breeding and slow maturing. Even with a plethera of prey types to choose from, species would be going extinct repeatedly. Also, the "Gluttons", wolverines and badgers, wouldn't be allowed to survive by the other predators, because they waste meat. The other predators would look on their first murder spree and decide that needed to stop immediately. And now they've invented war and genocide.

There's a lot of problems with your line of logic, and once you head down that rabbit hole, you're stuck with no place to turn around and come back. Let's just work with what we have, hmm?

We also see no evidence that Rask killed anyone in the hollow, and he certainly hasn't been beyond the confines.

What it looks like is we don't have enough information to draw conclusions and any who try to draw conclusions are just being silly.

Huh boy...this has the stink of conspiracy and murder all over it

Uh-oh.

be an interesting turn around. the prey hunting and killing predators. technically Rask n Egg could eat n consume the predators they kill. they still get the protein and fat they need to live and survive winter as well.

It's a lil' worrying more people think it's Hemlock than them that think it's a predator other than Egg or Rask.

Mostly because predators kill to eat. Even if they're toying with their prey the way the cougars did, the whole point is to eat. It makes no sense that just the throat would be ripped out. It sounds a lot more like someone slit Craic's throat.

You mean apart from the many, many predators that explicitly go for the throat?

Or say foxes that will kill more than they need and return later to eat their fill?

No, people just hate Hemlock and will twist the narrative to suit this even if it makes no sense. This is especially prevalent on FA.

The possibilities are:

1) One (or more) predator is lurking around in the forest waiting for a good time to return to feast.
2) One (or more) predator is lurking around hoping to lure out more rabbits to kill and eat.
3) Someone murdered Craic in order to frame Rask.

The thing that bothers me most in the narrative is that there was no call for help. Unless Craic was either unarmed and attacked very swiftly or supremely cocky, he should have been able to call out for help. The only other option is he was attacked from behind and his throat slit so that it looks like an attack from the front.

Certain predator species do specialize in ambush killing, which depending on how quick the death was, would prevent a noticeable cry.

This is true, which is why I leave that option, but I keep thinking how the wolves reacted to entering the woods. I mean, I guess that it's possible but given what happened with Egg... I guess a predator would work but a murderer seems a more interesting twist.

Possibly but it wouldn't be Hemlock. I get why people dislike her but above all else she is protective of the other herbivores, killing one of them would be out of character for her.

Not only that but she's fully confident that Rask will provide the excuse she needs to kill him sooner or later, there's no need to fabricate something.

I agree, while Hemlock has been hostile to Rask, it would be a bit strange for her to kill another herbivore, as her goal right now is around protecting them from hunters. Like you pointed out, Hemlock is fully convinced that Rask will slip up eventually, so what benefit would there be for her to try something and risk getting caught herself, like Chitrakayah said above. The scent of blood would be on her if she had been the one who killed Craic, and given the fact that the prey can smell blood, a useful defense to help identify danger, it seems too risky.

I'd agree that if it is murder it can't be Hemlock. As you said, it doesn't fit her psychology. Plus it'd be nearly impossible time wise.

It may, of course, be some ambush predator and somehow Rask gets involved.

you're guilty 'couse,.. DUH

Hasn't their Surveillance System been watching him 24/7? Unless they're gonna lie, or didn't make it through the first day of the job without being lax, then he's got an alabi.

Ever tried watching the same thing for more than 10 minutes? It's not easy, especially when it's dark and a lot of the herbivores do /not/ have good night vision.

Teagan is kind enough to give us studio lighting for the most part.

Sure I have. Like watching for a particular artist to post that they're open for a couple of slots, and those slots fill up in literally seconds. So I've watched FA posts for hours straight hitting refresh constantly.

So it can be done, if you're dedicated.

Oh absolutely, but out of everyone in the hollow Hemlock is probably the only one that dedicated and she was chatting with Oren.

Also again, night vision, Rabbits do /not/ have good night vision. (Or Squirrels AFAIK)

Wolves... that's my bet.

A wolf, maybe, but given the size difference I doubt there'd have been much left of the body once a wolf took a bite out of it unless that wolf was very young. More likely a fox.

This story is becoming more intriguing and exciting. She is so hyped with anger and fear, that she wants it to be the Marten, rather than stepping back to get all the facts. You are a master storyteller. Well done⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐