Spindly legs churned in a graceful rhythm as the big wolf loped behind his newfound friend. Slowly the thoughts all fluttering like sparrows in his mind died out, perched at the sidelines and let instinct overtake the rapid turning of a hungry mind. He moved like a ghost across the fallen leaves, beneath the shadowed branches of great trees. Vafri watched the female up ahead of him but his attention flowed out toward the forest as a whole, too – the deep earthy scent of mulch, the green smell of the living trees, and the ever-stronger blood and flesh taste of the deer track they chased after. The white wolf’s mouth watered, and he licked his lips. Soon.


Eventually he glimpsed the flash of brown hide up between the trees, the thin legs and the wide eyes dappled by sparse sunlight. Vafri lowered down his crouch, and at the she-wolf’s signal swung wide to the right. She gained immediate respect for sending him out as a distraction; good hunters knew things like that, he supposed. Things like what to do with the huge white thing that only ever served as a distraction. He chuckled to himself but softly as he skirted wide, darting from tree to tree and gazing back between the trunks with keen eyes. Soon, he told himself again. His nose twitched with the deer’s smell, and stomach growling Vafri inched forward. He was like a specter on the forest floor, big and hungry and too visible.


He leapt.


Teeth snapped in vain for the deer’s black nose. They close on air though as she spun, and darted off in the direction he expected Kama to be in. ”There!” cried the big wolf, and he yelped as hind hooves whistled past over his head. With a growl Vafri gave chase, doing his job as distraction and false lead, but the doe outpaced him and darted away into the trees. He waited for the other wolf to take her down, but as the seconds passed this Kama never stepped out from behind the trees. Vafri slowed to a trot, cocked his head, blinked at the fleeing doe and at the empty shadows. Lips wrinkling up in distaste, he let out a hard sigh.


”So that’s how it is,” he grunted, shook his head. Stupid to trust someone unstable, he supposed. Stupid to hope for things he learned so long ago not to expect. Disgruntled, Vafri turned and padded softly through the trees, his belly empty as it ever was.