Dead Empress Backwater i want to tell the truth

Random Event: Eros, you are charged by an angry moose! All welcome!
Backdated to October 10th to give some space between this & the pack's RE.

Eros tried very hard to be a good boy, and luckily for both himself and the pack his girth aided in keeping him relatively close to home base. Today, however, he had an extra pep in his step and the fall air was crisp and enticing. Before he knew it, he'd wandered quite a ways away from where he normally played. So far in fact, that his pack's scent wasn't all-enveloping as it normally was. It existed in pockets that were growing sparser and sparser...

He was near the outside.

Eros froze, his father's voice playing back in his head. Not without an adult. Not without an adult. His tail curled downward. He didn't want to turn back around. Maybe he could go in an adjacent direction for a ways, and then stuff would still be new coming back? It was a trick he'd used further in, until all that had become as familiar as the back of his paw, anyways.

Yeah. That was the best compromise. He didn't want to make any of his grownups upset.

Eros turned, took a step, and a burst of noise immediately followed that scared him nearly out of his skin. He whipped toward the crackle of breaking brush and the drumbeat of hooves with barely enough time to register what was happening and get out of the way. He felt the wind from swinging antlers barely missing his legs as they were in the air.

The heck was that?! It had been like a deer but huge and- Eros wasn't given more time to think. It was after him again, he could hear and feel it and he didn't even know how to fight it. So instead, he just ran, as fast as he possibly could.

(This post was last modified: Nov 07, 2021, 03:55 AM by Eros.)

It was not Viorel’s usual time to patrol, but he had been unable to sleep this afternoon and had figured a lap or two wouldn’t hurt. Thank the seas gods he had. It had been a boring, typical border watch and the father had been seriously considering abandoning it in search of something more exciting when he froze. The sound of crashing foliage and thumping hooves was so out of place that he was not even sure where it was coming from. Then he was off as fast as his sturdy frame could carry him.

His eyes met the sight ahead of him in panic. A juvenile male moose was swinging his rack of daggers towards Eros. A snarl ripped through his throat, that bastard beast. Falling in chase after the moose, forming a sick kind of chain, Eros in front, beast behind, and then finally Viorel becoming the caboose. Launching himself forward, he snapped desperately at the creature’s hind legs, trying to do anything he could to distract it from his son.

Eros pumped his legs as quickly as he could, but it was no match for the long and powerful stilts the ungulate thundered after him on. He could feel the ground being eaten up behind him by those heavy hooves, more than he could his own wildly thrashing heart. Closing in on him, certain of his victory, the beast trumpeted, it's blaring bugling shaking the air all around him and reverberating within his own chest.

Then it wasn't getting louder anymore. All at once, it wasn't behind him at all, and while he could still hear it tearing up the forest's growth with blind fury, he couldn't see it by the time he dared to slow and look behind him. Eros came to a complete stop, gasping for breath and trying to listen because he could have swore he heard --

"Dad!"

The monster had turned on his father. Those were his snarls, they had to be! The boy bolted again, this time toward the danger. There was no way he was leaving his dad to be torn apart by some wild beast.

"Dad! Dad!"

The father had been so desperate to get the moose bull away from his son that he had not fully thought through his plan. There was no way he could take down the beast by himself. That didn’t leave him a lot of options if no other adults showed up, except to try to frighten it out of the territory and hope nobody ended up injured.

He had managed to get a hind leg in his jaws for a moment, and tore as hard as he could. The bull stumbled for a moment, but his distraction had worked and it wheeled around to face him now, huffing for a moment in panic. Viorel snarled and snapped his jaws again in warning. Get out. Then it was charging at him. The father dove to the side in an attempt to stay safe, but felt a horn graze his side, ripping some of his fur with it. The man was lucky it didn’t break the skin, but the now exposed flesh was already starting to blossom with colour.

Fully focused on his foe, Viorel did not even notice that Eros was trying to run back into the battle. Stamping a paw in defiance, Viorel displayed his teeth in threat, taking a slow stalking step forward, hoping to intimidate the moose.

Even when they came into sight, it was difficult to tell what was happening. He saw the beast's antlers - so much thicker and larger than a deer, even if blunter - swipe at his father and his heart skipped a beat. He couldn't be sure, had it hit him, was his dad hurt?! Eros' elder was standing his ground, but so was the monstrous ungulate. Why wasn't he running from it?!

"Dad!" he shouted again, voice breaking with effort and emotion. Yards away now, but unable to do anything except plead, "Dad, run!!"

Viorel stood his ground, stamping his paws and gnashing his teeth, but despite this the beast still did not back down. Adrenaline flowed through his veins, and the roar of his heartbeat in his ears drowned the world out. It was the last word from his son that pierced his trance, just as the moose charged again, the father tossed himself out of the way.

What were his options? If they ran it may target someone else in the pack who was unexpecting. If they didn’t run there was a serious chance that one of them did not make it out alive. Gritting his teeth as he pulled himself back to his paws, finally registering the bruising to his side. Viorel kept his eyes on the moose who was staring him down intently, he backed towards Eros was standing. Without blinking he spoke slowly, ”Eros. Behind me. Now.” He couldn’t risk his son getting hurt.

Why wasn't he running?! Eros couldn't come up with any reason; surely they weren't hurting for meat this badly, were they? Was he really eating that much!? His mind was spinning, desperate and scared that something very bad was about to happen to his father. He reached Viorel's flank and stuck tight to it, cheek pressed into the older Valle's shoulder. Panting, rosé eyes wide as full moons, one final idea on how to end this at last entered his mind as their prey glared back.

Eros pulled back and threw up his muzzle, howling with all his breath. He called for the pack to rescue them from the nightmare, repeatedly and with everything he had. Eyes shut tight, he didn't see that finally the moose appeared phased. It began to waver, glancing around in anticipation of reinforcements, even taking a step back.

The feeling of his son’s cheek pressed against his shoulder brought a feeling of relief to the dark wolf. Things were definitely looking messy right now, but at least Eros was here next to him now, and not somewhere he could get hurt. Taking a deep breath as they shuffled backwards again, his eyes widened when his son howled, finally getting the moose to falter.

Lifting his own muzzle to the sky he let out a call, louder, and more demanding than his son’s had been. This chorus was enough for the moose to really doubt his options, it tossed its rack again, but it’s eyes were wide and it was beginning to back away. Snapping his own teeth again, Viorel took a step forward, seeing his chance. Coupling that the bulky wolf was not backing down, and the threat of having a pack descend upon him, the moose gave up.

Turning, and galloping away with a panicked bugle, Viorel let out a sigh. His side smarted sharply now that the adrenaline was fading, but at least his son and the pack were safe. Being a father was exhausting.

His father joined him in song, which bolstered his spirits and encouraged a few more rounds before he finally stopped to take more than one breath in a row and see if the monster had finally decided to leave them alone. He opened his eyes just as Viorel lunged and snapped, at last sending the other animal bounding away.

Eros' rump fell to the ground and he panted for air. That had definitely just been the scariest moment of his life.

"Wh-... what the... fish was that thing?!"

He asked between breaths.

Viorel felt his body tremble as the adrenaline began to subside and the exhaustion finally began to sink in. Dropping down into a sphynx position as he took a few deep breaths, he winced as he realized just how badly he had bruised his side. Glancing at his son he gave him a lopsided grin and thumped his tail a few times against the ground in pride.

The father burst out laughing at Eros’ use of fish. Finally when he quieted down he said, ”That was a moose, a very angry one at that.” But, despite how angry it had been, Eros had stood up to it, and called for help that was the final straw to chase the thing away. Finally getting the energy to get up, he nudged his son’s haunches, ”Come on, we had better go warn the others to keep their eyes out, and tell them how brave you were.” What kind of dad would he be if he didn’t brag every once and a while?

FADE