Top row: Goose, Skunk, Cindermouth and Stalk Bottom row: Giggle, Valiant, Wander, Formidable and Tumbleweed all belong to @louaseau, except for the two pastel babes cuddling.
Terrible format for tumblr, but we make do with what we have. These are some of the Bois-de-Pierre refugees who escaped the massacre as teens, plus the younger generations that were born at the Hautes-Rives. They are sharing their last meal before most of them would depart to try to reclaim their ancestral territory - and tragically fail. Only Valiant, the new leader, was resolved to stay, to move forward... and protect her sister Cindermouth and the pups from the scorn of the pack.
Short story under the cut!
The early days of spring warmth has belatedly reached the plains, messing for another year the migration patterns and birth season of the great herds. For one, the Haute-Rives pack hadn't complained about the delayed thawing, making good use of the snow mounds and mud puddles to slow their preys down. As spring had progressed, the movement of the herds were instead hindered by birthing, thus offering easy targets to a pack equally expanding through pup-rearing. On that day, Valiant had called upon her childhood friends to join her on what perhaps might be the last easy hunt they would know for a while, probably until the elk population moved back south during winter.
Following Giggle's intel, gained from crows, the small group had left the heart of their territory to join the herd on the great plains. Such intel lessened the need of being silently absorbed in tracking, allowing Valiant to set aside the weights of being a leader, the worries of being a sister, to simply enjoy the playfulness of boasting around. She moved alongside Formidable, the golden boy, while Giggle lead the way, snout in the air and strands of hair in the wind. Behind them, despite Skunk's plea for peace, Goose was mercilessly teasing Tumbleweed, a yearling still quite inexperienced in the art of hunting, but convinced he'd manage to take down an elk by himself.
And for once, life proved him right.
Their lucky star must have been shining upon them, for the crows didn't lead them directly to the herd, but to a grove sidelines where a doe had recently gave birth. Thanks to the birds, they positioned themselves into a crescent-shape on one side of the thicket, except for Giggle trotting to the other side and Formidable going even further. On the leader's signal, the first formation lunged onto their preys, who bolted upon hearing the first snapping of a twig. With the support of Goose, Tumbleweed charged the calf and managed to quickly subdue it, while Valiant and Skunk chased the mother. The bicolor male successfully snapped her shank once before the doe leaped over a boulder and outran them.
Not for long, though.
Giggle took over the chase, her slim body perfectly able to closely pursue the elk and pressure her into a grueling zigzag towards Formidable's position. Sporadically, Valiant and Skunk erupted to deliver swift bites to her limbs, until Goose caught up with them and bit the hindquarters strongly enough to get dragged along. The weight combined to the exhaustion of the run eventually forced the doe to slow down, thereby allowing Formidable to cut her off and jump at her throat. Suffocated by his powerful jaw, the doe expired a few minutes later. With her last exhalation, the hunters collapsed to the ground, remaining there however long it took to catch their breath, and then started gorging themselves on the fresh meat.
In the distance, the crows were encircling the area where the calf had been killed earlier, their chatter audible even from the pack's position. It took them a moment to identify yipping amongst the cawing, and another to realize what it meant. Following birds had the advantage of finding prey easily, but that necessarily meant any other predator in the region could do the same. In this specific case, coyotes. Having retained most of his energy thanks to the shortness of his pursuit, Formidable dashed towards the grove where the hunt had started. Not long after, Giggle sprung to her paws and did her best to follow him despite her exhaustion (and knowing she had about zero intimidation skills).
Meanwhile, Valiant, Skunk and Goose lagged behind, dragging the corpse in the direction of the rendezvous site to ensure the protection of their main course. They had almost arrived when the rest of the group caught up with them, returning empty handed. As proven by the fresh wounds and missing patches of fur, Tumbleweed had given his best to watch over his prized possession, to no avail. Even with reinforcement, the three wolves had been vastly outnumbered. The lean calf hadn't been worth the trouble, not with the adult they had slain. It still took some convincing to drag Tumbleweed out of that losing battle with the coyote pack. The yearling was still sulking when they arrived to the rendezvous site, but Goose managed to put a smile on his face by relating his "epic take down" of the juvenile.
With the carcass secured in an area a little less exposed than vast plains, and no coyote in sight, Valiant howled twice to invite her sister to join them. By the time Cindermouth appeared with her two pups struggling to keep up the pace, the hunting party was already far along the disembowelment process. The abundance of preys and their close bond meant quarrels rarely broke out during feeding time, although Tumbleweed was robbed once or twice of a juicy bit. In a similar unspoken hierarchy, Cindermouth inherited the leftovers more often than not, for her recent fiery incident had stripped her from any hunting abilities... and sociability. The rift between her and the rest of the pack, including their childhood friends, was widening despite Valiant's best efforts, and she wasn't sure weither the pups, in all their peculiarities, were helping her social pariah status or not. But Cinder was her sister, her only link to their deceased parents, and she'd do anything to give her and the pups a prosperous pack to thrive in, even if that meant adapting to life on the plains rather than repossessing their native forest.
Her ideals were, however, not shared by everyone of their clique. This moment was one of the very last times the group hunted together; a few months later, half of them were gone.
