Patients are still new people

The stroll was amiable, but as they reached the kill pile – which seemed to be like a communal cache for recent kills… did they process them later on? He assumed they did – he spotted the shifty, cocky movements of coyotes. His hackles sprang up, as Mortis bounded forward with an indignant yell.

For a second, he nearly leapt forward again, but his current disability restrained him, and he realized, as the yotes scattered then converged to defend their pilfered hog, that he wasn’’t going to be able to fight them… not on his feet.

A coyote spotted his less than whole-bodied movements and veered toward the perceived easier opponent, back humped, face snarled in a grimace. Cairo dropped abruptly with a muffled grunt as the coyote sprang the last few feet for his throat.

He was reminded of his fight with the third lion he’d ever tangled with as the much smaller coyote came over him, surprised for a second as the wolf it had attacked fell over. Cairo arched his back and snaked his jaws upward under the coyote’s guard and around its throat, thrashing his head as his teeth punctured flesh and vein, and pressing the inside of his good foreleg to the coyote’s shoulder to throw it to the side.

He released the rapidly drooping form and rocked to his hips, front half upright in time to see another coyote, hanging back from the brawl, decided the less able wolf was a better target and bounded forward.

He met the coyote with a rumble and snap of the jaws to impress upon it that attacking him was abad idea, giving the coyote a moment of pause, long enough for him to glance for Mort and assess the situation before lunging for the yote that was testing his bluff already… you’d think they’d see one dead coyote and run.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think