Crocodile tears

As the pair wait for openings to attack, Fern finds her eyes keep wandering from the crocodile to her fighting partner. The scars on his neck are still visible along with his missing toes and tail. The need to protect him overrides everything, even her own pain, as she moves and snaps. The skin of her still healing shoulder pulls and stretches, throbbing in displeasure. Fern doesn’t care, the pain is the furthest thing from her mind as she looks to Rudy, a strange feeling fluttering in her chest for the briefest moment. The crocodile snaps his head toward her, opening its jaws wide and growling at her. It keeps its tail toward Rudy, swinging widely at the mottled gray wolf.

Fern weaves and turns with the beast, preforming a strange sort of dance with the predator. Narrowly making it away from the snapping jaws, Fern laughs at the crocodile as it stares angrily at her. She has angered it and the crocodile turns its jaws toward her and away from the mottled gray wolf. Rudy’s words reach her ears and Fern changes her angles of attack to try and drive the creature back into the water. Growling deeply, Fern darts in aiming at the crocodile’s front left foot. It has its head slightly turned away from her to look toward its tail where Rudy is.

However, she never gets close to the foot as it quickly snaps its head back toward and aims to close its jaws around her head. Fern barely dodges the bite and has to quickly scramble away from a follow up snap. The crocodile seems to have enough of them as it turns toward the water and starts to dash for it. Fern’s shoulder aches and she hangs back, hoping Rudy can finish what they started.


"Fern"