Blackfoot Forest Shallow shadowed nights

The sun had begun to set as the dark figure bounded down from the mountainside, towards the creek. He watched as slivers of moonlight danced across the water edge and he jumped towards them, for a small moment, allowing his age to show through. With ear's back upon his head, and large forelegs splayed wide he stood and watched his reflection in the dark, half of it was light and half dark, thanks to the playful shadows.

Dark rivulets of blood rolled down the side of his face, to fall and mix and mingle in with the crystal clear water, making it cloud and red. He was covered in small cuts, and bites and claw marks, foxes were the very devils. He gave a wry chuckle as he thought of the moonless night underneath shadow filled skys. It was dark and dreary, and he had met a little imp. If he didn't have the soon to be scars to prove it, he would have thought it merely a dream.

Shifting his weight he watched the water ripple and drift, just as his mind did, drifting off into nothing. Lifting blue gaze to study the shadow steeped tree's of the blackfoot forest, and he wondered if the foxes were looking out at him.

Omg, wtf this is long. You don't have to match it. XD

The forest down the mountain was dark, and she liked it. It was harder to see in the dark and it would hide her white pelt well. And she was hungry. Her stomach growled to remind her to hunt and the voices in her head seconded it. More red, more red. We want more red. Red meat. Meat. Get meat. They told her. And for once she agreed with them.

She did not smell fresh trails of prey animals near, only little predators: foxes. Lots of foxes, a clan of them? Those were rare, but they were the only prey around, plus they were red inside and out. A group of them lurked in the forest, watching something beyond her view. She decided she wouldn't care about it now, if she had to kill it she would, but she wanted a fox or two first. Hiding in the shadows, the White Ghost stalked forward, her tail twitching gently above ground. Laksha stilfed a purr when she saw that all of them were injured in some sort of way. It would slow them down. The insane panther felt her muscles ripple and she got into a pouncing stance, waiting a moment and then exploding into action.

The foxes didn't see what was coming. She landed on one and it let out a small yelp as Laksha's jaws clamped onto its neck and tore out its throat. The foxes scattered a few heading towards a river nearby. She purred and chased after them, locking on one whose leg was dragging behind it. Her jaws clamped onto the injured leg and she shook the limb, purring louder as she heard the fox's squeals. She dropped the vulpine creature onto the floor and took a bite out of its stomach, then another, and it was silent.

Her head lifted as she scanned the area, hoping for an all clear. But her blood-red eyes locked on a black wolf. She growled softly and glared at the wolf. "Myy preyyy..." she hissed. "I will not hurt you...But thiss iss myyy preyyyy...."

Jace froze when foxes burst from the tree line. Of all the gods he was certain they were coming after him again. But they were running from something else. He watched as a white cougar burst from the tree line, chasing after them. He felt bad as the one screamed over and over again, but he did nothing he just watched the blood bath. He thought he'd be sick as she started to eat the animal, as it was still alive. Even he was not that blood thirsty.

He listened to the large cat's purring voice and shrugged. I don't want your wee foxes, I had enough of them last night thank you very much. If you want more theres a pile of dead ones back in the forest. He nodded he had left them there as the little imp had grasped him and forced him to flee for his life and her's he supposed.

He studied the cat in front of him and spoke quietly letting his voice carry into the still night air. I'm jace then he fell silent, but kept vigilant. He did not know if this cat creature would really keep her word and not attack him, he may die, but by the gods he would take some of her with him.

She watched the black wolf with glowing red eyes, still eating at the same time. The insane white cougar relaxed when he said he had no reason to take her kill. After speaking the black wolf lapsed into silence and the only noise around was the sound of her jaws cracking the bones of the little canine.

Then the wolf spoke up and introduced himself as Jace. He watched her warily, obviously not trusting her at all. She paused in her feeding, swiping a piece of fox off of her muzzle. "Jacee...." she repeated. "Laksha. Some called me the White Ghost." Called because the human who called her that had long passed.

"Packss....that's what you wolves call your groupss, packss? How many are there herrre?" Part of her reasoning for asking was insane and the other was logical. The insane part was asking so she could reek havoc upon as many as she could before she was driven out or killed. The logical part was inquiring so she could know where the best hunting spots were, hunting for both wolves and other little tidbits.

Jace studied her good god, she was frightening, he was exactly scared, but he wouldn’t want to meet her on a moonless night, when she was hungry and he had no back up. And those eyes were oddly disconcerting. They were creep as all get out. Uh hello Laksha…I think I prefer Laksha to white ghost thanks.

He looked at her and spoke I honestly don’t know how many there are around the whole land. There’s one over that way. he motioned towards the creek, because that was in the surrounding area, but he was far from the ridge and the sunspire, so there was no reason to talk about them was there.

The White Ghost ripped the leg off of the fox and removed the fur from the limb. If she was long without food she might've tore into the flesh regardless, but fur created nasty hairballs. The wolf Jace described the possibly many wolf packs in the area. He didn't know how many, but Laksha guessed there were no more than eight or so, maybe more. Hopefully there was a small pack she could wipe out; it would lessen the competition, no?

She swallowed the thigh meat and stared at Jace for a moment. Then she stood and moved closer to the wolf, smelling him. "Do you belong to a pack, Jacee...?"

Jace watched as she removed all the hair from the fox's limb and he shook his head to get rid of the grizzle image. Goodness this cougar was wreaking havoc on his guts. He was a predator, but he was not as strange as this one.

He studied her for a moment and said quietly Yes I do of course. Why do you ask Laskha? Gods forgive him, but he didn't trust her, Cougars could be enemies of wolves, he had never known one to be a friend. So he was a bit wary of course. What did she want from him, and why on earth did she want to know if he had a pack?

Laksha tilted her head at Jace's question. Why did she need to know? "Because I want to know....." she growled gently, tail twitching. She circled the wolf and headed off into the trees to get the other fox she killed. The white puma returned, sitting in the same place where she ate the other fox and tore open this one's stomach. "There was another wolff...male...he did not belong to a packk....." Wolves seemed to do whatever they wanted to. Some stayed in groups while others lived alone. Why couldn't they just choose?

Jace watches as she left for a moment hoping she would leave for good at least away from him anyway. But it was not to happen and he stared as she came back, feasting on yet another fox. Jace tilted his head and listened to her and dipped his head. He spoke quietly Sometimes there are wolves that don’t belong to a pack. They are called lone wolves. Some are looking for a home, others don’t want a home and prefer their own company. I was a lone wolf for awhile myself? A pack is like a family if it’s a good pack. How about you do you have family Laksha?

Ha. Family. She never truly had one. Her mother hated her for her white pelt, her siblings who didn't know any better tagged along in the hatred. She never knew her father, as was the case for most cougars. Though she had a birth family, she never had a family of the heart. "No... I killed my motherr and younger siblings from a different litterr... I don't know what happened to my littermatess..."

She didn't just kill her (half-?) siblings, she ate them too. She was hungry at the time and skinny from her time at the human's circus. They were easy prey. And she didn't care if Jace was disgusted, it was his way of thinking. She needed to survive and her mother was too weak to defend her kittens.

Jace looked at her and spoke softly Well I guess some families aren’t the best. he didn’t want to anger the angry crazy white animal before him, he could fight for sure, but ultimately she was larger than him so he would either be very injured or dead one of the two, and he didn’t like either choice.

If she had told him she ate them he probably would have thrown up. That was a disgusting thing, granted he ate other animals, but never other wolves and definitely not babies.

"Indeedd....." She murmured before tearing further into this new fox's stomach. Her mother and siblngs were the main reason she was insane. True, her time with the humans drove her into madness, but her mother was the one who drove her away in the first place. If she had just abandoned her when she was born instead of keeping her and torturing Laksha her whole life....well someone would have lived longer wouldn't they?

Jace stared at the cougar as she ate her fill of the foxes and shifting his feet he spoke . Laksha it was nice to meet you but I need to get back to my pack. You have a good day enjoying your foxes. And with that he turned and loped off, already reaffirming in his mind that once he got out of sight, he'd be putting extra quick in his step to get away from the crazy cougar, but for now no one would be able to tell he was nervous.

She growled a good bye as the wolf fled. The cougar didn't mind the absence of his company: she wasn't much for conversation anyway. She was content to sit there and eat her foxes. Let him run in fear. She had no desire to chase him anyway. But if she ever saw him again on different circumstances, that might change.