Not according to plan

She'd been very fortunate to run into a young and rather sickly elk cow. The poor animal had looked ill and feeble, and proved to be more so than expected when she began chasing the it and saw it limped heavily due to some sort of injury on her right foreleg. The take-down had been quite easy for a solo hunt, she reflected, burying her muzzle into the fresh, warm meat and scarfing down as much as she could as though someone might take the food from her at any moment. Of course, there was a good chance that the smell of blood would draw other predators to her kill. Especially in winter, when the snow layered the ground thicker with each passing day and prey was more difficult to find. All the animals, prey and predator alike, looked thinner during this season. That was probably why Abaven was having a problem with predators lately. Toes crossed that the spring would fatten everyone up, wolf or otherwise, and bring a much needed break from the trouble they'd been having.

So far Abaven had done reasonably well preparing for this winter, they weren't struggling by any means. It made her glad to know that, although she still felt like she needed to contribute a bit more. Sure, she spent time within the pack here and there, but she couldn't help but get a bit... antsy. It was just how she was. A hopeless wanderer with no cure for that desire to wander far and wide that plagued her like a sickness. She'd never really expected to stop feeling that way, though sometimes she kind of wished she could control her need to run off a little better. That was probably why she was the one and only - far as she knew at present - resident navigator though. As she sat there with the elk held firmly beneath her paws, licking a smear of blood from her muzzle, Cael decided that so far the north had shown promise. The mounds of snow ahead of her spoke of a beautiful but harsh winter wonderland, foreshadowing a lovely scene once she continued on. Honestly, it was a bit of a struggle to want to stay here when she knew there was so much more to see. She'd drug the carcass underneath a nearby tree, just far enough from the waterfalls cascading further down in the valley that they wouldn't drown out all other noise around her. Being alone, she didn't really want to put herself in any bad position that was avoidable.

Her choice of location ended up saving her from the ambush that followed. The coyotes had been moving on almost silent paws, creeping along down wind of Cael to avoid her catching their scent. One of them must have been more inexperienced than the others, because it managed to step on a twig. The soft crack made Cael turn to face them, her eyes widening in surprise when she was faced with a little group of three coyotes staring back at her with hungry eyes, one of them visibly irritated with the scraggly young male that must have made the mistake. With their tails up, ears forward, and lips all collectively drawn into snarls, they presented an intimidating little force. It definitely wouldn't be easy to fight them all off.

But she was gonna fucken try.

Cael shot to her paws, hackles raising along her back, lips peeling back into a snarl, tail flagging out even with her spine while her head lowered to align with it as well for balance. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward over the dead cow, placing a paw on her ribby side and growling at the group of yotes that proceeded to cackle and yap to one another, the larger male darting a step, then two closer to test Cael' limits. Caelestis was quick to leap forward over the elk and drive it back, snarling louder as the coyote jumped back to it's friends for only a moment before they began taking turns moving into her space, trying to get around her or get behind her.

Jumping back and forth through the snow was tiring enough, but the coyotes were merciless. They took turns diving at her, snapping at her here and there. Every time she focused on one another came out of nowhere and landed a bite. Charging at the largest of them, Cael let out a roaring growl and plowed into it, knocking the pest over at last. It wasn't exactly a clean kill. The coyote grabbed hold of her left front leg, it's teeth getting a vice like grip on the limb as she cried out in pain and began biting it's face as hard as she could, puncturing one of it's eyes while it's friend ran up behind her and bit into her right hind leg. Oww, shit! Several more wild bites later she finally got hold of the first coyote's throat and ripped into it, leaving her with one less little scoundrel to deal with.

Whirling to take care of the other two, she stared in disbelief as she was faced with not two but four coyotes. More had joined the group and looked just as bent on driving her away from her kill as the others had. Ugh. This wasn't worth the trouble. Looked like she was going to have to head home with empty paws and an empty stomach and get some much needed treatment for these wounds. Far as she could tell she was bleeding basically all over, which probably wasn't good.

Two of the remaining coyotes darted forward and Cael finally relented, turning tail and racing off before one of them could get in another attack. When she was far away enough that they stopped chasing her, Cael slowed her pace and began limping her way home. Her left foreleg was definitely going to have some kind of permanent scar. Hopefully that would be the worst of it. She couldn't afford permanent damage to her legs. Grumbling, Cael tried to be grateful she'd at least escaped in one piece as she hobbled back to Abaven.

-exit-