Mæva changed course and started exploring the lands farther out west while the weather was cooler than what she imagined it would be in the summer. This far out west the weather was a pleasant temperature with no sign of snow, so far at least, but it was early in the season. Mmm, something smelled good and it wasn't just the grass. She smelt mule deer and blood. Following her nose she tracked down the remains of a mule deer kill. It was partially eaten and now only a pair of vultures were left at the carcass.

Mæva bounded toward the vultures with a snarl sending them scattering quickly into the air. With a grin she set down to work at the meat that was still left on the young buck's back. She didn't get far though when she caught the sound of something else moving in the grass. She looked up and licked at the blood on her mouth. A set of four strange looking dogs were coming toward her. She'd never seen such creatures before! The had huge ears and short, beautifully splotched coats. Some sort of wild dog. They approached as she growled, low and threatening but inside she was quickly trying to plan her escape. Four against one was terrible odds.

Eligos made his way along at a ground-eating clip. Not far behind right now though sometimes they'd been racing ahead were the seemingly inexhaustible adolescent malinois. Both Kida and Cypher - names he'd given them, as they'd been too young and traumatized when he'd found them to remember the names they'd presumably have been given by their malinois parents - were frolicking madly in the dead grasses. Imagine what their reactions would be if it were snowing - which, as high north as this particular land was, was a distinct possibility as the season went on.

Kida sprinted ahead, followed closely by her brother, but before they got out of sight they both skidded to a stop and stared alertly at something ahead of them. They were gangly young things, but both managed to look almost elegant as they stood poised. Then their ears went back and their hackles went up, and both burst into a fury of barking, prompting him to put on speed.

What he saw when he came up next to them was a scene with grim possibilities. An older pup, alone, with a scavenged kill that had clearly attracted unwanted attention in the form of a pack of wild dogs. Luckily the malinois ferocious salvo of barking had attracted some attention away from the youthful wolf. He didn't like that he was making a habit of rescuing other wolves from predators, but he couldn't leave an unprotected pup at the mercy of nature. Unlike with Aurielle this was unlikely to help him in any way, but he found himself moving again anyway.

Without a word he bounded past the pups to the young stranger, followed closely by both Kida and Cypher, and he threw himself between her and the wild dogs. The odds had suddenly changed from four on one to four on four, but considering that three of his possible fighters were pups it wasn't great odds for him either, though if they could manage to make it difficult enough the dogs might seek prey elsewhere without too much of a fight.

One of the wild dogs scooted forward. Mæva lunged and snapped sending the dog shuffling back but only for a moment. He barked at her. Her ears flicked back and she growled again. She heard barking in the distance and wondered if she was about to get swarmed by even more wild dogs.

Mæva was just considering making a run for it when a large male wolf appeared with two dogs on his heels. She didn't recognize what sort of dog they were but they seemed to be allies of the male wolf. "Thanks," she said softly. "If you help, I'll share the kill."

One of the wild dogs started circling to her left. He lunged and she did to, aiming lower than the dog that had leapt toward her. The dog's fangs seized her scruff, closer to her shoulders while her jaws latched onto his left front leg, just at the wrist. She bit down brutally with as much force as she could, aided in some ways by the pain in her neck. She grit her teeth through the pain until she heard a crack. In a moment the wild dog let go with a yelping squeal.

Eligos spared a glance for the girl and the kill she was guarding, face impassive but for a single raised brow. "No need," he said simply with a purely internal shudder. And that was all they had time for, as it seemed the wild dogs weren't willing to wait things out now that the odds were too close to even. One struck at the pup, clearly hoping to remove her from the equation. Maybe it thought that he wouldn't continue to engage them if the pup was already dead, or maybe it just was closest to her and saw it as an opportunity. Whatever the reason, the wild dog paid for its mistake when it grabbed her by the scruff and she crunched down on its wrist with a snap that made the dog squeal in pain and let go.

Eligos threw himself at the nearest two dogs with a roar, but didn't attack immediately. Instead he slipped between them, leaving them tanlged and confused a moment when they both tried to go after him at omce when he flashed between them, then he spun and slammed into them, tumbling one away while his jaws sought grimly to sever the dog's spinal cord to remove the dog - permanently - from the fight. Beside him he could hear the dog-pups harrying the remaining standing wild dog with a wild chorus of barking. When one would draw its attention, the other would dart in to slash at it and retreat when it turned on them.

Mæva was surprised that the man wasn't interested in the kill but she didn't have much time to think about why that would be, apart from him desiring some exercise. She scrambled to the side as another of the wild dogs leapt at her but she wasn't quite quick enough. It bit onto her chest but this would prove a costly mistake for her own jaws dove down, seizing hold of the wild dogs face in such a way that her bottom teeth pierced one of its eyes. The dog squealed and thrashed, slipping out of her grip as he stumbled backwards. Mæva snarled viciously, glad that at least this time she was close in size to her attackers.

With another of the beasts taken out of the fight when Maeva slashed it's eye, Eligos turned his attention to the dog he'd sent tumbling, only for it to scramble to its paws and take off in the direction others of its pack had fled. Cypher and Kida had the final wild dog down on the ground now, squealing as they mauled it like a squeaky toy, until a lucky crunching snap from Kida ended its squealing and it went limp. He ignored them as they continued to quarrel over the limp form to step back to the dog who was trying to drag itself away despite a broken back. He watched it struggle for a moment, eyes narrowed, until he finally took the final step close enough to give the creature mercy. "Cypher. Kida." Blood ran down his throat and chest from his jaws, but he turned a glance back to the pup, as the two malinois left off their messy play and returned to him attentively. The girl was bleeding, but not in a way that seemed to him to be debilitating. With two of their number dead and another two badly injured, the wild dogs would not be returning to trouble her further. Therefore, he had accomplished what he had set out to do, and inclining his head towards the girl in farewell, he returned to his path. She was welcome to her rotting-deer feast - he had to be on his way.

- exit