What A Day

It was grace, calculated and refined that the scarred brute stalked his prey with. He was hungry, a target already chosen and unknowingly stalked from the shadows. What the laws of survival had offered him tonight was the form of a sleek deer, grazing passively along under the moon’s glow. Silly thing. Silent as a wraith, Caedes closed the distance between himself and his quarry, muscles coiled beneath his fur as he prepared to strike. With a sudden burst of speed, he launched himself forward, closing the distance rapidly - precise in his manner of attack. Lunging, his powerful jaws snapped shut around the deer's throat. A brief struggle ensued, but the deer soon lay still, its lifeblood staining the ground as well as the brute’s chest and chin.

Yet, victory was short-lived.

As Caedes lifted his head, a light pant escaping him, the air was rent with the chilling yips and howls of a pack of coyotes. Six of them emerged from the shadows, their eyes gleaming with hunger and malice, their mottled coats blending seamlessly with the darkness. Immediately, Caedes's lip curled in a snarl as he assessed his situation. Though smaller than him individually, the coyotes possessed a cunning that made them dangerous in numbers. Maybe not enough to kill him, but the thought of such small, weak little things marring up his hide more was… infuriating. Caedes was not one to back down from a challenge, especially not in the face of their overconfident one.

The largest of the coyotes, a mangy brute with a scarred ear, stepped forward, baring his teeth in a mocking grin. Caedes's gaze hardened, his hackles rising in defiance, his eyes blazing with anger. That one was first. He knew that the coyotes would not let him leave without a fight, and if they wanted his catch, he was more than willing to give them a reason to remember where they were on the food chain. Without a word, Caedes lunged at the leader of the pack, his jaws snapping shut inches from the coyote's face as it dodged, another coyote coming to nip at the massive brute’s side. A pest.