Silvertip Mountain This fox is ours.

Sorry about the delay! And no worries about having skipped me in the last round - we had a crazy week at camp, so waiting up on me probably would have stagnated the thread (:

The world blurred; her feet carried her two steps ahead of her mind. The shrieks of Adeline shook her to the core - they were what drove Nanook, opened her jaws wider, clamped them shut when she wrapped them around the fox's neck and felt it's musty fur brush against her tongue.

In one swift motion, she sunk her teeth deep, and the seconds seemed forever before she felt them pierce flesh. Blood erupted in her mouth, and Nanook gagged, but still she held the fox tight. Another tension pulled at the brute - someone had come to help - but her attention remained wrapped in the fox, and in its screams that painted the world in existential colour.

Then, something snapped between her teeth, and the fox's shrieks gurgled to silence. The tension of the other released; the fox fell limp, but still Nanook held and squeezed. A clamminess tightened her jaws; the earth seemed to spin. Blood stained her mouth, her chest. Her tongue stung with a metallic bite.

She let go. The corpse hit the ground with a dull thud. Nanook staggered back. Others had come - the clearing swarmed. Voices rose, emotions cascaded, and hot bodies pressed tight. Her breathing quickened.

It was too much.

How had she let this happen? Adeline had been her charge - now the smell of her blood overwhelmed her. A quiet fear hissed in her thoughts, a memory she'd tried to push far away. This was her fault. Steady would know. There was no running now. He would punish her. She didn't know how, and a lump caught in her throat. Yet she remained with them, though huddled away from the rest. There was nothing she could do, no knowledge to impart. But one thing she would make sure of was this: that she would beg and plead to bear her punishment alone.