lions and lambs

The relief that rolled off of Valkyrie was palatable as Kai agreed to help her. She looked as though she might start crying all over again, this time from gratitude. "Oh thank you," she said, taking a step towards him as though she might embrace him. In an instant she seemed to remember the urgency of the situation and was off like a shot in the direction she'd come from. "She's right over here! I don't know how she got in there, but the tide is rising and I'm afraid her she won't be able to breathe soon."

 

Valkyrie's distraught expression briefly turned to one of satisfaction after she had fully turned away from Kai. She wiped the expression from her features quickly in case the break in character caused her tears to dry up again. Really, she needed to practice her tears more often.

One ear flicked back occasionally to make sure he was still following and in no time at all they were there. The trap rope was hidden in the muck at the base of a tangle of mangrove trees that had grown together. In the tree trunks behind the hidden rope was a dark hole big enough for a young wolf to fit into.

Valkyrie stepped confidently up to the hole and peered inside. "Mommy's back, Rosie. I brought help. Are you doing okay?" Of course no sound could be heard from the hole as no child was in there. Perhaps Dutch could have fit in there but it seemed unnecessary.

She shot a fearful look Kai's way and then, after backing up a step so he could look in, tucked her paw to her chest. This action prompted him to do what she'd been hoping for and Valkyrie watched with barely hidden satisfaction as Kai leaned down to look inside. The moment his hind paws hit the spot Valkyrie shot a look up into the trees where Inga waited. Seeing the signal, the macaque shoved a net full of rocks out of the tree which triggered a series of similar nets of varying weights. The rope hidden in the mud was yanked upwards suddenly causing the loop at the end to tighten. The cumulative weight of the rock-filled nets yanked Kai heavenwards with ease.

Valkyrie stepped under him and looked up with a satisfied smile. He hung over her head like an angry pinata. "The world needs more wolves like you," she told him sincerely. It did; his willingness to help had made him easy to catch. "This is what's going to happen: my companion here is going to put a rope around your neck and then my wolves are going to escort you back to our camp. If you come quietly no harm will come to you. If you don't..." Valkyrie shrugged, her lips twisting downward in faux sadness. "We will do what we must to take you."

The cue to summon the rest of her hunting party, who were hiding nearby, was the opening line of her demands. Any second now her wolves would come ghosting through the trees. Together they would take this tusked behemoth into custody.