High Hawk Season

He crept through the forest as quiet as a mouse, wall-eyed, his ears pinned to his skull and his tail tucked firmly between his legs. He let out a series of low whimpers as he crawled through briars and under fallen trees, jumping at the slightest sound rather than doing what he came there to do. His stomach grumbled irritably in an attempt to remind him to keep his focus, but it did little to quell the fear that somewhere something bigger was watching him.

He had never been much of a hunter in all honesty, his sister had always been the one bringing home food while he saw to it that her many ailments were cared for. When he was younger his brother had teased him relentlessly for his ineptitude with hunting and he would never forget the look of shame on his father’s face when he started to cry over the first rabbit he had killed. He huffed and shook out his fur attempting to clear the bitter memories from his head. Maybe he wasn’t as good of a hunter as some wolves, he was a better healer than most, and that was definitely important right? ….Right? “R-r-r-right.”



Talk