Putting On A Show

Relm answered his question by claiming he looked the type to enjoy a challenge, and Alastor had to stifle a laugh into a husky chuckle. She wasn’t wrong there. In all his hunting practices, Alastor had never exactly gone for the covert approach when it came to killing things, not that a hulking ebony behemoth of a wolf could exactly be surreptitious, and he was reminded of the bloodbath he and Manea had left in their wake when they’d conceived their first litter a year ago now. My, how the time flew… "Challenges are what makes my days fun," he remarked, affirming her suspicions with a toothy grin. "I won’t make you wait long." With their plan (or lack thereof) decided, Relm peeled off ahead of him and diverted around to one side of the herd while Alastor took an angle of approach opposite to her, the two wolves splitting to flank the herd from either side.

Once they got close enough that Alastor could see their beady eyes, his stalking picked up into a lope, then a canter, until he was running straight for the ungulates, heavy paws thundering over the rocky terrain. The dark dire brute burst into the clearing through some dry underbrush, making a beeline for for the herd with snapping jaws and vicious snarls. He likely could have simply gone for the closest elk and ended its life before it knew a predator was upon it, but where was the fun in that? Relm wanted a challenge and he wanted to run, so he’d manufacture a chase. The elk collectively bellowed in fright and began to stampede away from the dire wolf, who was manically laughing as he howled behind the herd, kicking them into a panicked frenzy. Little did the herd know, they were being corralled in the direction Relm had headed.

With the herd on the move, Alastor ran after them, powerful muscles rippling beneath his flowing coat as he tore across the tundra in pursuit, waiting to see if Relm would take one down as they came to her or if she’d start herding them towards the coast as well, his obsidian eyes seeking his hunting partner amongst the sparse pine trees. Trapped between an arctic ocean and two vicious predators, the Mendacium patriarch wondered what fate the doomed prey animals would choose: slow hypothermia or swift slaughter.

"Alastor"