Crocodile tears

Rudy’s balance was still a problem if he made certain moves but he was learning what motions not to try when the situation is dire.  He could leap back and forward just fine but if he tried to do a tight pivot he’d be possibly in trouble but, the crocodile didn’t know that.  

Rudy nodded at Fern moving in and out, glancing at her when he could afford to want to make sure she didn’t get hurt.  It was bad enough he had hurt her once and it would be unforgivable if he let her get hurt now when she was trusting him.  Rudy snapped and snarled towards the head, impressive at how it could move sideways to try and get its head away from Rudy and swing that monstrous powerful tail at him instead.  Rudy follow the crocodile’s movements and was pleased to see if they kept this up it might turn right back into the water.  

Finally, with enough persistence he was about to hop over a swinging tail, bite the leg, and barely manage to evade the crocodile’s retaliation with its tail, its head keeping its gaze on Fern.  It appeared to have decided to fight each wolf with one of its main weapons.  Mostly it just wanted the wolves gone at this point.

“Drive him to the water!” Rudyard called it with some excitement as it seemed this might work.  “Be careful.”

"Speech"