The chase is on! Sort of

Rudyard · (This post was last modified: 12-25-2020, 12:20 AM by Rudyard.)

Rudy had found himself at his limit of energy after a botched hunting attempt on a rabbit. He had already spent the morning with mom on a hunting lesson and battled with Arty. Hunting had sounded like a great idea afterward but his body was now warning him it was at his limit. The forest area offered a variety of hiding spots to be tucked away, some better than others. A tree had become tilted with its roots partially sticking out of the ground and offering a nice hidey-hole just the right size for a pup. Making his way to it he lay down and fell asleep almost instantly.
Rudy woke up in stages of just soaking in sounds, realizing he was awake and finally his mind trying to determine where he was and what he was hearing. The sun had shifted in the sky and was starting on its downward descent but there was still some daylight left. Peering out the pup saw what he had been listening to was the sound of a heard of elk.

They were giants this close! The pup wouldn’t have to walk but a few strides to touch a hoof in front of his hide-a-way. Rudy waited and the elk eventually walked a few strides off before stopping for another bit of grass it liked. Rudy crawled out and sat down, noticing the elk either hadn’t noticed him or just didn’t consider a pup his size worthy of being a threat. Kind of irritating to think prey didn’t even care he was there. Maybe they didn’t notice him? Someday he could hunt one of these, perhaps leading several wolves into the hunt. Rudy took a moment to imagine his siblings with him, and Tika as they all chased down the biggest elk in the bunch for some family bonding.

How fast did they run anyway? How good were they at truly staying together in a group? The pup who felt himself perfectly clever looked at each individual elk, ears pricking up higher when he noticed one that seemed weaker than the others. It was clearly older and had scars along a back shoulder that seemed to suggest it had once barely managed to survive another wolf attack. Rudy looked from it then the other elk than the scenery around them. How would it look if he found a way to take one down? Was there any way he could cause it to trip and go down? Would the other elk stay to help or keep running? If nothing else chasing them should be fun and let him learn for later.

Some back part of his mind whispered asking what his mom would think. The whisper was soft and forgotten a heartbeat later as he was focusing on figuring out how to take on this quest. The tree’s got thicker to the west and that might slow it down? Even failing it would be fun and a great story right?

Rudy focused on the older elk and walked around so when he chased it he would be in what the grey pup felt was the best position. The change in his body motion caused several elk to stop eating to turn their head and watch him with more caution though certainly no fear. He’d show them soon enough.

Rudy wanted them to be scared at least and run! He couldn’t take one down just by biting its leg. It was important to get one either somewhere Rudy was higher up to get a chance at a higher body part or where it might trip and slow itself. Rudy gave a howl and bark before charging, trying to startle them. Finally, a few startled and started to run and the others seemed to decide they should copy what the others were doing. Rudy’s eyes struggled to keep only on his target as the elk were suddenly everywhere as they ran. For being injured the giant deer certainly seemed to move fast enough.

The herd started to slow as if starting to come to their senses of the size of the little thing actually chasing them. Rudy’s heart surged as they did what he wanted! There was a spot of ground a bit higher up near one of them. Ok, admittedly it wasn’t the old one he had wanted. It was another female but she seemed better muscled and free of heavy scarring. However, she also stood near a tree with a branch down low that slowly angled up. Rudy leaped up the branch and then leaped up to try and got on the elk’s back so he could dig into its neck. That had been the plan, but somehow that wasn’t what happened. The pup jumped but not high enough and that didn’t matter either since the elk easily stepped out of the way. There he was, their irritating mixed among them. Two of the elk had turned their attention towards him and his tail that had been up high started to sink down as he acknowledged this was a pretty bad spot to be in.

Rudy howled for help right before he took off running, dodging hooves as a few of the elk decided it might be better to just stomp the pup flat instead of letting the irritation run free to try again another day. Kotori was running faster than he ever had before and trusting those instincts of his to help him avoid hooves that seemed to appear everywhere. Rudy saw a hiding spot in a log and charged for it but found hooves in his way and peeled off

Peeling away from that spot his eyes darted around for the next. Hooves landed directly in front of him, then to the side. It felt like he’d been running forever and it hadn’t been a full minute. Fear was not something the pup was used to. Finally, the pup saw a thorny bush and dove in it. The thorns were sharp and prickly but his coat at least helped for some protection. They hadn’t left but they also hadn’t slammed their hooves into the bush. Kotori panted, waiting and inwardly begging the prey to leave.

"Rudyard"

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