Otatso Wetlands night shadow

their peace disturbed, the caribou ran before sun eater as he charged them outside the forest.

belly filled, he did not hunt; he ran at the herds for the sake of it, testing them. among their number were old bulls who would see their end this winter, younger males already injured from the rut. here and there an antler had been shattered, and it was these weaker caribou whom sun eater meant to remember at a later time.

as the moon rose, he was a darkness upon the land, snaking up on white-tufted tails which bounded away in panic.

his teeth clicked loudly among them.

Movement made the man switch into hunting mode. 

He did not need to eat- but he did need to chase. A fleeing animal triggered the instinct to pursue, and when he saw Sun Eater move, he hastily picked himself up without bothering to shake free the dried grass, and bolt after the man. 

He wasn't sure if they were hunting- he remained an accomplice, watching for the shadow's cues. His gaze scanned the herd as they moved, a silvered sea of bounding caribou moving like waves in the moonlight. He noted those who bolted the fastest- who shouldered others aside, who blasted a warning with their nostrils. They were healthy, watchful, and unsympathetic to their herdmates. Ridgeback wanted to wrestle one to the ground simply because it shoved its way past the slower, weaker caribou-

but it was not the fleet that were their target.

ridgeback.

the name suited this man more than sheep killer. sun eater had almost called him lambkill. but the new title was fitting, and ran alongside the one his wife had taken.

it was good to have the hunter beside him, testing, watching.

"niłdzitaataande!" the caribou man shouted, motioning to the faintest path along which the herd was divvying itself in two.

between panicked bodies, he glimpsed a bull with a dire cut to his shoulder, veering hard to the right as clods of dirt flew into the air.