Simple mistake

He had heard quite a few reports of saber cat and bear attacks coming from the Wildberry Grove and for a while he had just been doing extra patrols around the border along the edge of the grove, but his own uneasiness about it finally pushed him to go further into the tree line and do a more through sweep of the forest just in case. He thought that with each report he got of another saber cat being found and killed that they might finally find the last of them and every time they surprised him with another tale of the vicious cats. He began carefully combing his way through the trees and clusters of berry bushes that filled the area, searching for any trace of their scent. If there were any left he'd have to pull in some of their fighters to finally clear them out for good.

He wore his armor for the first time in a long time, the fitted leather feeling strange and almost unwelcome on his form. He had avoided wearing it unless it was really needed because it was too much of a reminder of Azariah. He remembered watching her place each stitch and carefully dying the leather after he asked that it be made red to match her eyes. It was functional and it fit him which was difficult to do with his massive frame so he kept it, but unless he knew he was going into a notable fight or something dangerous then he left it tucked away in the supply shed by the training area in the courtyard. He had thought about replacing it several times over at this point, but it was difficult to convince himself to do so when it was still perfectly fine armor that hardly even had a handful of scratches to mar the surface of the leather.

Ulric paused as he caught a small whiff of a saber cat's musky scent and began to follow the trail, his silver gaze flicking through the trees on high alert. It seemed to be a single saber cat since he didn't pick up on multiple scents, but he wasn't about to take any chances. The second he picked up on more than one he'd run back to The Hallows for back up, but if it was just one he could take care of it on his own. He paced forward carefully and quietly, or at least as quietly as his bulky form would allow. He slowed and stopped as the scent got stronger, peering carefully through the trees until he finally spotted the large, tan hued feline. It happened to be facing away from him so Ulric crept forward, watching the cat closely as it continued to eat the remains of some fallen prey animal, praying that it remained distracted long enough for him to get close to it.

As soon as he was close enough to do so, he leapt forward with a snarl to leap on the saber cat, sinking his teeth deep into its scruff while his forelegs hooked around its neck and he dug the bone spurs along the backs of them into the lower part of its throat. The big feline yowled and roared in pain, immediately beginning to struggle and flail against his hold on it, but he pressed his weight into its back and clung on tight, continuing to try and fight it to the ground. He tried to dig and pull the bone spurs on his bracers along its neck to rip more into its skin and cause more damage, but that might have given it just enough leeway in his grip to finally break free enough to buck him off, knocking him to the ground with a heavy thud. A snarl pulled at his lips and he hurried to get back to his paws, looking up to see the saber cat running off through the trees. There was a pretty heavy trail of blood following it though and for a moment he wondered if he should let it go. He felt pretty certain that it would die on its own without help, but he also wasn't that confident in that possibility.

He followed the trail it left, running off into the trees after his feline opponent. It wasn't hard to catch up to. It was clearly already beginning to struggle with its rush to get away from him not giving its wounds any time to stop bleeding and making the issue worse. He slammed his chest into his shoulder, toppling the cat to the ground so that be could pin it down. He latched his jaws onto its throat, but before he could finally end the fight the cat twisted in his grip and reached its lethal fangs toward the lower portion of his neck near his shoulder. He quickly twisted his body so that the teeth hit the back portion of his shoulder and dug into his ribs instead, the reinforced leather of his armor taking the worst of the impact. With a deep growl he ripped his head back and tore away a large portion of the saber cat's throat, spilling blood freely onto the ground. The feline gargled and struggled for a minute longer before finally falling still and Ulric was able to pull free of where it's long fangs had gotten hung in his armor and stagger back.

Ulric pulled the armor off over his head, the motion making him wince as it pulled against the wound that he did manage to accumulate. The teeth had dug a shallow wound into his shoulder that barely cut through the skin, but there was a deeper puncture wound around the front of his ribs where one of the teeth had cut through the stitching between panels of leather. It stung and radiated pain every time he moved or breathed, but it was still shallow enough that he didn't think it had reached anything important. He glanced down at the armor in front of him and looked at the hole that the cat had left in the side and scoffed. Well, it seemed like it was time for some new armor after all. He picked it up and started slowly making his way home, wincing a bit with each step.

Ulric Adravendi