Brain Over Brawn

The endless sands had interested Isabella since she had first came to them, they had captivated her imagination, wonder, and most of all determination. But that did not mean Isabella just went to the sands, she explored the lands around them to further learn the ends and outs of the land. It was then that the fox colored female found something interesting. Not too far from where the sand stopped and the grass started was a ravine, and not much farther from there was a forest and a forest meant prey. It must have been there the dear was from that she and another female Dawn dined on, dead in the sands.

The discovery of the place was one that made her glad she always stepped carefully and was mindful of her environment, if she wasn't she was sure she would have fallen in. That gave her an idea though, if she almost overlooked it then no doubt some panicked animal would never see it, at least not until it was too late. Pacing back and forth in front of the ravine, she found a good safe path down then went the the forest to do what she loved, hunting. "Learn, track, stalk, pounce, kill." The five steps of hunting ran though her head as she started to get lower and lower to the ground and waled with longer and longer strides.

"Or in this case, learn, track, stalk, chase." The thoughts ran though her mind as she moved in the forest and paused with her nose in the air. Finding nothing of use in the air she put her nose the ground and let her icy blue eyes look for any signs. The first sign she found was one of scent and sight, some leaves that were partially buried in the soil from being stepped on. Taking in the scent on the leaves she found it to be the scent of a doe. Looking around she saw other tracks and found other scents, a heard was near. Her black lips lifted just a moment exposing her teeth to the air, she was eager to sink them into a deer, any deer.

Tracking the heard took time and pittance, she had to move slowly and avoid any branches or leaves in her way as well as predict the direction of the heard and stay downwind of them. Having been a wolf who loved to track it was easy enough and soon she found a heard grazing under the watchful eyes of a buck. The buck was rather large, too large to be of interest. Sticking to the trees she did her best to keep a good distance and go around the pack to pick a target. She soon found one, a young looking doe that could't have been more than a year old.

From there she moved again, putting herself behind the doe and in a straight line to the crevice. That done she lowed her body even more, readied her back legs and pounced throwing the heard into a frenzy. Her first few steps got her into a dash quick enough to be on the heals of the doe. Stretchering out her neck she sunk her fangs into it's rear left leg, clamping down as tight as she could. The doe kicked back with it's good leg catching Isabella on the right shoulder not deeply enough to do lasting harm but enough to bother her for a little while. Ignoring the pain, Isabella jumped back before jumping back; with the doe going forward and her going backwards she did a good amount of damage to the doe, enough to slow it down and certainly enough to make it next to impossible for the doe to jump.

Decreasing her speed a bit, now her only goal was to run behind the doe just enough to keep her running right for the ravine. There were a few trees to be dodged every now and then and she had to correct her own path to keep the doe going the right way but that aside it was a smooth run. Soon the forest came to an end, the grasslands meaning the ravine was near. It was all too near for the doe who did not see the crevice until she was too close and with the injury to her back leg there was no jumping. The doe fell in and hit the ground with a thud. Isabella slowed down to a lope as she started to pant. Walking up to the ravine she peaked over and saw the doe still at the bottom.

For a moment her tail wagged, she was far too small a wolf to ever kill a dear on her own with her strength so using her wits was a much better option. She did feel a little empty not making the kill with her own fangs, but at lest she got to cause an injury that had a roll in the death. Backing up from the edge, she turned her head and licked her shoulder as best she could, she could find herbs for it later, now she only wanted to make sure she did not leave a trail of blood behind down the way to the bottom. Time was important at this point, and not showing the path to the doe clearly would buy a little more time.

Taking the safe way down with a slight limp she made it to the bottom and went to the doe. Pausing only a moment Isabella lowered her head and thanked the doe for its life. That done she moved to the flanks and dug in, staring with the best meat first. The fall made somewhat of a loud thud after all and the smell of blood had a tendency to draw others. Thinking of others intruding on her prize she lowers her body putting her right front leg just in front of her on the doe protectively. Her ears and tail were up as she ate, to catch the sound of others and show she would not simply give up this prize.