It worked, better than she had expected. The bear fixed its attention on her, as of yet oblivious to the other wolves just behind it. Her eyes flicked past the bear sow, allowing herself a small sigh of relief as she saw Lila retreating of the bushes. The bear started to grow restless, swaying from paw to paw, clearly aware that something was up. Spieden barked again, taking a few short paces out of reach as she kept one eye on the bear, the other on the grassy patch where she had seen Lila disappear into.
She noticed rustling, soft voices, and unfortunately she was not the only one to notice. The great beast started to turn away from her, the sounds of the mother and daughter pair retreating catching it's attention. Spieden's amber eyes bulged, her lips curling in a snarl. Though she knew Aponi to be fleet on her paws, the child would no doubt slow her mother down and the bear would have no trouble catching them, and even less trouble turning them into ribbons.
Spieden lunged forward with a third bark, more savage this time, as she sank her teeth into the bear's thigh. The roar that followed could have shaken the leaves from the trees, and as soon as Spieden sprang away the grizzly was upon her like a tidal wave. Spieden staggered, the air knocked from her ribcage in one swift sideswipe. She knew how to take a thrashing and crumpled down to the ground, barely missing the second paw that flew over her back.
Spieden's neck arched, her pearly teeth snapping at the shaggy hide that loomed over her, managing to push the bear back just enough to get to her paws.She didn't have time to look, but if she did she might have seen the blood trickling down from the scratches across her ribs and dribbling down her foreleg. She landed a few blows, and took a few in turn, earning bruises and a bloodied shoulder in the process as she tried to put distance between her and the bear. The sow was a stubborn thing, a mountain of fur and flesh that refused to back off. Spieden was a hefty wolf herself, but at less than half the size of the grizzly she was merely just an annoyance.
Heavily panting, Spieden was growing fatigued. She couldn't keep this up, and sensed with growing dread that she might become bear food if this went on much longer. Spieden didn't hear Aponi snarl over the sound of her heart thumping in her ears, and at first couldn't guess why the bear turned away from her. But then she saw the silvery coat.
"Aponi!" Spieden barked, grateful the woman had returned.
"Gotta... chase this... fucker off..." She said panting, as she backed away on shaky limbs and blinked away the blood that trailed down her forehead and into her eye... When had that happened? Adrenaline had pulled her through thus far, but now she felt like she'd been run over by a truck and keeping on all four limbs was an ordeal.
(This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2016, 11:49 PM by Spieden.)