Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
Seasonal Fighting Prompt
Defender
Bloodletter
12-06-2020, 05:06 PM
Large black paws crunched fallen leaves beneath them as Alastor slunk his way through the woods, his head low to the ground and nose twitching as he followed the scent of his prey with singular fixation. The smell of the nearby deer was making him salivate, the man's mind already working on how to trap his kill so he could provide another meal to his waiting alpha and her pup. With the unforgiving winter fast approaching and Lurid still out of commission thanks to her broken leg, all the responsibilities of their survival had been thrust upon his shoulders. It was not something he took with great delight, but it was something he did out of necessity for them. He silently wondered what Lurid would have done had he not abandoned his post to come look for them. How would she have survived? The short answer was she wouldn't have; the long answer was she and Kichi would have both died slow, horrible deaths of starvation. Perhaps now Lurid would be happier with his disobedience. Sometimes a little rule-breaking was required for the benefit of everyone.
As the scent he was trailing got stronger, Alastor began to maneuver, positioning himself downwind of his prey until he saw the animal right on the edge of the forest, almost into the Submerged Woods; a beautiful buck, lean and delicious. This was perfect. If the animal tried to make a run for it, he could run it down easily out in the open field of ice and trees. The red-brindled man drooped lower to the ground, sneaking closer, watching each careful step he took to make sure he didn't alert the deer to his presence. He crept closer, using the trees and underbrush to mask his approach until he was almost upon the animal. That's it... Just a little closer now...
A snap from nearby made both wolf and deer lift their heads, and then the deer took off like a shot, sprinting out into the Submerged Woods. Alastor snarled and cursed under his breath, lifting his head to bare fangs against whatever had disrupted his hunt. But instead of another wolf on the hunt, Alastor was staring back into the big, empty black eyes of a bear cub lumbering its way out from a nearby cave, happily murring and huffing to itself. Alastor's expression froze. A lone bear cub was one of the most dangerous creatures to come across. Because a lone bear cub was never truly alone. Black eyes turned from the cub toward the cave just behind the baby animal when a louder, annoyed call came from within. Before Alastor had a chance to back up or run, a grizzly bear came plodding out, only slightly larger than he was, growling for her cub. Alastor's heart stopped beating as a thrill of actual fear gripped him. The bear turned her head and spotted the massive black wolf standing out against the greens and browns of the arctic forest, meters away from her baby and very clearly in front of her den.
Oh fuck. The bear roared at Alastor, rising up on her hind legs and snorting huge breath clouds of steam. Alastor took a trepidatious step backward, keeping his body turned toward the bear to react if she made a charge at him. Just as he feared, the bear dropped down to all fours and advanced on him, slowly, roaring with a ferocity only a protective mother could muster in the face of an imminent threat. Alastor's paws matched the bear's, walking him backwards with every step she took closer. By now, the cub had run back inside the den, but the threat to her baby was still present. Easy now... Just back up slowly and don't make a threat of yourself... Alastor thought, knowing speech would be wasted on the apex predator. The bear roared, more aggressively this time, and charged at the wolf. Fortunately for him, Alastor had enough distance between them that he was able to roll out of the way before the bear's claws came swiping at him, tearing chunks off of the trunk of a pine tree he had been next to just moments before.
A flurry of expletives rushed through Alastor's mind when he saw the five deep gashes and tears in the tree's bark, and the dire wolf wasted no time in springing back to his feet. He shifted his body to face off against the bear, ears folded flat and onyx eyes narrowed while yellowed fangs were bared, a vicious snarl rumbling in his throat. He had no intentions of fighting a creature so obviously more powerful than him, but if she wasn't going to give him a choice, he wasn't going to make this easy for her. Another primal roar from the bear and she charged, but again Alastor was able to sidestep as she snapped her jaws at him. Alastor seized his opening and lunged, latching his jaws onto the side of the bear's neck and thrashing, digging his fangs into the bear's skin, flesh, and fat. The bear bellowed in surprise and tried to shake the wolf off, but could not unlatch him. Alastor bit down harder until he tasted blood in his mouth and heard the bear cry out again. Then what felt like a sledgehammer slammed into his ribcage, knocking the brute loose and sending him careening into a nearby tree. Alastor grunted on impact and crumpled to the ground, gasping as the air was knocked from his lungs. He'd forgotten that a bear's arms had a wider range of movement than his did, and he had still been in the danger zone even while attacking.
The bear reared up on its hind legs and roared at Alastor, her size dwarfing him while standing despite the dire genes in his blood. Using her intimidation tactic as an opening, Alastor rushed forward with a growl, diving for the bear's hind leg and snapping his jaws around her ankle to give it a hard tug to the side. The bear toppled easily, her weight bringing her to the ground with relative ease. Alastor wasted no time in leaping onto the bear's back; now out of the way of her claws and jaws, he unleashed a feral assault on her, sinking his teeth into the back of her neck and shoulders and any exposed part of flesh he could reach. The bear cried out in a panic, bucking and throwing her weight around to try and throw the dire wolf off, but Alastor dug his claws into her back to hold himself steady, riding the fighting bear like a cowboy on a bull. The metallic taste of blood brought a rush of serotonin and adrenaline to the demonic wolf, pupils dilating with each drop he lapped up like a heady wine.
Despite his current advantage over his opponent, Alastor's confidence was shaken when he felt his world shift suddenly, and the next thing he knew he was hanging from the bear's back by his claws and teeth as she reared up, still trying to reach the wolf on her back. Alastor clung to the bear, knowing he was safe so long as he was out of her reach—or so he thought. That belief was shattered when the bear threw her weight backwards, slamming Alastor into a tree and pinning him hard between the trunk and her own body weight. Alastor released the bear with a wheezing gasp as the pain caused every muscle in his body to tense up. Thankfully there had been no branches in the way, or he would have surely been impaled. The bear leaned forward, then threw her weight back again, slamming Alastor into the trunk once more for good measure before she fell back to all fours, the dark-furred dire wolf collapsing in a heap to the ground just behind her. Alastor's head was spinning, his ears were ringing, and he was having a hard time getting breath into his lungs. The first thing he saw as he came back to his senses was the bear's jaws coming at him.
A pained yell escaped the dire wolf as the bear's jaws grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, shaking him back and forth. Thankfully, since he and the bear were close in size, it was less like a rag doll and more to try and disorient him further. Even luckier, her teeth had missed catching his spinal column by an inch, getting nothing but fur and muscle. It still hurt like a bitch when she tried to toss him about, and Alastor swung his paws wildly at the bear's face until he felt his paw pads meet the side of her face. Then he dug his claws in. The bear roared as one of Alastor's claws pierced her cornea, gouging out her eye and partially blinding the predator. Alastor wasted no time in scrambling forward, trying to put as much distance between himself and the bear as he could get. Breathing was still a chore, each inhale coming in labored and painful, and as Alastor stumbled away in his dizzied state, the wolf found himself standing at the edge of the Submerged Forest, his paws skidding on the sheets of ice that had once been a river.
A roar behind him let Alastor know the bear was still coming at him. He tried to spin on the ice, but his paws couldn't find any traction, and instead he ended up flopping about when the bear charged into him, crashing into him at full force and sending him skidding across the ice. Alastor dug his claws into the ice, scraping at the ground to stop himself and gain a foothold to stand up again. The bear growled and slowly advanced on the wolf, each heavy footfall seeming to shake the earth. Alastor coughed a couple of times, tasting fresh blood in his mouth, and got up. He glared at the approaching bear, watching each of her moves carefully. She took another step forward, putting all of her weight on the ice—and then the cracks began to form in the ground. Alastor watched as the cracking ice spread out around the bear, making its way over to him. Eyes widened in realization; parts of the ice hadn't fully frozen over for winter yet. Taking a few slow, cautious steps backwards away from the cracks, Alastor looked up into the glowering gaze of the bear. Then he smiled. He didn't need to overpower or outrun the bear. He only needed to outsmart her.
"Come on... Come on, come get me..." he teased and coaxed his opponent, taking a step back for every one she took forward. More cracks began to form in the ice below the oblivious bear. "Come on, you big heavy bitch! Come get me before I get a taste of your little cub!" Alastor snarled and snapped his jaws at the bear, an obvious challenge. The bear roared once more and lunged forward, both front paws coming down hard on the ice.
CRACK!
With a loud snapping and popping, the ice broke, and the bear went plunging headfirst into the frigid waters of the Submerged Forest. Much to Alastor's surprise, the current of the river was still flowing beneath the ice, and was much stronger than he expected! He saw the bear get pulled down into the deep water fast, watching her kick and struggle to get back to the surface. Although she seemed to be managing the river fairly well, the bear would come up to the ice and scratch against it in a desperate gambit to find where she had gone in, the loss of half her vision clearly disorienting and confusing her as she struggled to stay alive. Alastor grinned and paced over top of the bear as he watched her fight to stay alive. It was all in vain, and although he could see where the ice had broken, she didn't have as much luck from below. As the seconds stretched into minutes, Alastor watched with sickening glee as the bear's motions became slower and more sluggish as oxygen deprivation took its toll on her. Finally, the bear's movements stopped, and he watched as the hulking shadow of her body drifted deeper and deeper until it vanished from sight. He had won.
Standing alone on the ice field of the Submerged Forest, Alastor took a moment to catch his breath. His lungs ached with every inhale and exhale, and although he couldn't tell if he'd broken any ribs or not, he was definitely going to be bruised and sore for a while. He winced at the stinging on the back of his neck, then reached a tentative paw up to feel the sticky wetness matting his fur. He was bleeding, but it didn't feel too severe. He would heal in time. But now he had lost his meal and had nothing to show for it except some new injuries. Lurid was not going to be too pleased about that. Alastor hung his head as he came down from the high of combat and collapsed back onto his haunches, watching his breath dissipate in ghostly clouds from his mouth and nose.
A bellow from back where he'd came caught the wolf's attention. Black eyes peered up back towards the forest, red-tipped ears priced to catch a second bellow as it came echoing around him. The cub. It was calling for its mother. A twisted smile slowly spread its way across his face as Alastor got back on his feet and made his way across the ice towards the forest, taking extra care to avoid any cracking spots. The closer he got to the cave, the louder the crying became and the wider his smile grew until he was standing at the mouth of the makeshift den, peering into the darkness at the orphaned baby bear with a wicked smile. The young animal would not survive the coming winter without its mother; it would be far more merciful to put it out of its misery now. Besides, now he would have something to bring back to Lurid after all.
"Mama's not coming back, little one..." Alastor said as he approached the cub. "Don't be afraid. I'm actually doing you a kindness..." The cub tried to run past Alastor in fear, but the dire wolf moved faster, catching the cub by the back of its neck as it went by and sinking his teeth through the bear's flesh until he felt bone against his teeth. The bear cried louder and tried to squirm away, but it was no use. A swift and hard yank, twist, and pull and Alastor felt the snapping of vertebrae. Then the world was silent once more, save for the quiet laughter starting within the desolate cave.
"Speech" | Thoughts
Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
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