Hunting Madness

Kotori lay in the damp grass, a bit of blue ooze sliding down the line of his jaw where it had started at his ear.  Where willows and grass joined there was little chance of the deer a distance away to notice him.  He would of attacked it long several minutes ago but he was hit by distraction after distraction.  It was stupid things, noticing a nearby firefly and then realizing at somepoint he was instead watching a batch of them with no concept of how much time had passed.

Unseen individuals spoke around him but he could never quite make out what they said.  Whispers of at least three that left him out of whateer conversation they were having.  It was probably a fake conversation and just something his mind created, it was doing too much of that lately.  Kotori wished he could just plainly hear what they were saying and be done with it, the unknown topics had him pay all the closer attention hoping to make out words.

The final irritation was the dull headache that frequently came upon when he tried to struggle with a deeper focus on an activity.  It wasn’t horrible, just a dull ache that felt it would last forever even though he knew it would fade if he quit trying so hard to concentrate.  With the night seemingly eternally Kotori had no idea how long he remained to lie there other than the bit of ooze on the grass.

Squeezing his eyes shut and opening them he forced himself to watch the deer eating, glad to know it was still there.  Slowly the fuzzy-minded predator stood up, creeping to the edge of the willow’s leaves, hesitating for a second before charging forth towards the deer.  It was a healthy one, a deer that he had no problem with sinking his teeth into as it had no goose suggesting it was sick.  A nice healthy doe that would fill his belly along with others in the pack.

As Kotori got near the deer he was aiming a bite for its leg when one of those voices whispered words he could hear ‘kill it, kill yourself.  The words were gleeful and stole his focus so that all he bit was air and his stride slowed for a step.  Snarling he picked up speed to chase down the deer once again.  Could the deer do this?  Could the damn deer put voices in his head?  Anger seethed through the wolf even as he momentarily forgot the logic that he’d had a voice pestering him before he ever spotted the deer.

Kotori wasn’t paying enough attention to basic details and slipped on a bit of muddy water and tripped over a rock.  Once more the deer had been close but once again he missed it.  Whether it was determination or foolishness to keep trying to win the hunt the horned wolf got up again and ran after the deer.  It had slowed for two strides to see if the wolf had given up.  As Kotori was on his feet the deer once again was leaping away.


Kotori was working far harder than he should need to for this!  He was slowly gaining ground again on it but not as fast as he’d like.  The deer swerved away from him and Kotori spun to follow, sliding to a stop as a huge chunk of crystals were in front of him.  Snarling he carefully leaped over them so as not to touch any and then once more had to speed back up.  Kotori suddenly became aware of the mushrooms being all over the place.  Had there been so many when he started or was there more the direction the deer had chosen to run in?  

Come to think of it, was it darker here?  There weren’t as many fireflies as he liked to see, the plants were glowing as brightly as he wanted.  Kotori grit his teeth and strode after the deer assuring himself the dark wasn’t going to stop him.  Truth was he could still see just fine but he was scared of the dark so things dimming even a bit weren’t acceptable.  Had anything even dimmed or was it in his mind.

Shaking his head he chastised himself to focus on the deer.  When had it gotten that far away from him?  Kotori ran after it a few more strides before deciding to admit he had lost. Kotori slowed to a stop and watched the deer’s hind end slowly slip out of sight.  The large wolf let out a sigh and turned back towards home.  He was still new at training to hunt anyway and the sickness wasn’t helping.  It felt like he’d never manage to kill anything.  It was a long walk back home though he wasn’t sure how long.  Once more it was aiming to keep focus and twice he had to change course when he realized he’d started going the wrong way.

"Kotori Fatalis"