Hunting Buddy

It was pleasant to have a company running with him. As a pup Rudy was always stuck limited to how far he could go and had plenty of company back then.  The more time he spent hunting seemed the more time he spent on his own and these days Rudy liked not being left alone with his thoughts.  There didn’t need to be some long conversation going on, another presence was a distraction away from the recent trauma.

When they got to the water buffalo Rudy slipped off in the brush near Ezra smugly looking at the sleeping prey.  The idea of setting up a trap wasn’t really what Rudy had in mind.  He had imagined the fun of a hunt that included chasing the prey down until it was too tired to survive the pursuit of wolves and their relentless attack.  What Ezra offered was a good suggestion, the sort Rudy had to acknowledge was the right thing to do if this was about a serious hunt instead of casual fun.

Rudy imagined long ago as a pup and the elk herd when it took flight and then looked at the well-muscled buffalo.  “'If' they hop over it, the adults could probably charge through easy without caring if they break it.” Rudy wasn’t negating the option just offering up the potential comment as he shook away the memory of how that had ended.  Resin had saved him.  She had been an impressive sight that day and fortunately, she hadn’t been hurt by his foolishness.

“Let’s do it.  If you’re right and it works it will be an easy kill.  If it doesn’t work it could still slow or confuse some of them.”  Rudy eyed one of the adults towards the outer edge, lip twitching.  It wasn’t the smart choice though if they had calves they could get too.  Rudy imagined he needed to be smart at times.

Rudy made his way quietly to start grabbing lose vines or breaking off some growing from tangled webs.  He heard Reddy nearby up higher in the tree’s likewise breaking off some vines that had wrapped about a helpless tree.  When he had a good enough supply Rudy would head towards a set of trees that appeared a great target to herd the water buffalo through.  Mom had taught him about setting snares and it was one thing he had never really practiced again after that.  Maybe he should start doing the boring parts of hunting also.

Rudyard Carpathius