It's always famines and feasts

The young wolf's stomach gave a distinctly upset rumble, but she supposed that was bound to happen when she decided to flounce away from home because she was big enough and had all the answers and didn't need her stinky mum yelling at her to stop trying to throw Ajax back in the ocean or bury Sakana in the sand or butt her head against Rexx's just to see who had the harder head.

In the distance, a mother dik-dik started yelling at her. It smelled amazing, even from here, but she knew she wasn't big enough to take down a full-grown one on her own... but didn't they only yell to get predators' attention when they had new babies around? She didn't know how she knew that (probably half listening to a grown-up when she should have been paying better attention) but Deluge wasn't about to question it either. She turned her nose to the wind, using the swaying, browning herbs of the garden as cover. They masked some of the smell, and she tried to tune out the shouty mother. She doubted her own mother would shout like that if she was in danger... nah she'd just have to be breathing and all the mothers of the world would be shouting at her.

Deluge started to stick her nose in clumps of tall grass and under bushes, snorting a little each time she poked open air. She was lucky she didn't nose punch a venomous snake the way she was going, but she was just so hungry!. She knew she must be getting closer when the scent of panic rolling off the mother wafted to her. She looked at the small antelope side on, seeing how it skittered closer for a small charge, and then darted back, as if goading her to chase it instead of whatever she was looking for. She didn't need to be a grown-up to know the speedy little rat on stilts would outrun her. Her movements stayed loose and disinterested, a poke here, a stomp there. She lifted her head to look across the garden and if the fawn hadn't chosen that exact moment to blink, almost directly under her nose, well then she might have kept walking in another direction.

As her head darted down to snatch at the young animal, a force collided with her shoulder, and she leaned into the momentum. Allowing it to propel her forward, calf dangling from her jaws by its slowly constricting windpipe and angry mother charging at her trying to stab her in the ass with its little horns. She just had to outlast it, sure she was gonna come away from it with bruises, probably even some cuts. She'd never been so grateful for her dire blessings as she was at that moment.

A flailing hoof from her captive caught her in the armpit as the mother dik-dik collided with her hip. Her grip faltered and the baby gasped a great breath in and screamed for its mother. She kicked out with her hind leg and adjusted her grip. It was hers now, she'd played the stupid game and she had won it! She wasn't about to give it back! Doing her best on splayed legs to gain some speed as she dragged the child away from its family, she growled a low warning for anyone that might be watching on. They'd best leave her alone or she'd come back and eat them too!

For some reason, she never thought it would take this long to kill something. Her shoulder and hip ached, and the mother was coming back to take another hip, lined up to strike at her ribs. In her frustration, the girl gave a thrash of her head, thick neck muscles whipping the fawn around like some sort of scrap. There was a ripping sound and the sickening snap of bones, though whether it was hers or her prey, she wasn't quite sure. She dropped the baby to turn on the mother, blood staining her muzzle as she pulled her lips back in a grimace. This was how it went, right? She had to eat, and they were food.

Deluge curled protectively over her hard-won prize, trying to protect her cracked and aching rib as the small antelope seemed to finally realise the fight was over. The young dire wolf stood there for a moment panting after the mother's retreat and then shook, her coat sparking with glow briefly under the setting sun. She scooped up her prize, wincing as she took stock of her aching shoulder, hip and ribs. She didn't want to hang around too long in case someone bigger and meaner than her decided to come and take it. Little did she know she was on a course to something that might just have been the biggest and meanest of them all.