Iktome Plains midnight coup

backdated to 10/21 - directly after this thread

little dog, where did you go?

the leviathan's breath forged from his nostrils like a flare of dragon-fire; huge grunts sounding from his snuffling snout as he moseyed along the damp loam. little dog, dog, dog -- a heavily-clawed hand pressed to the loam where a fleeting pawprint was indented.

he'd tracked the cub to a collapsed tree. he could sense the thing huddling under the fallen pine, feel the terror tremoring off of him like little waves. with a heave he flung the rotted tree aside with a powerful slap of his forepaw. there was a satisfying scream of terror followed by the dart of pattering paws -- like an oilspill, the little cub was off.

shardik followed the small creature languidly. he could run but whatever he hid under would be splintered immediately.

on and on shardik went, trailing until he came to a small river. here the scent lingered, intersected itself, and then turned back. clever as the great bear was, he could not fight the tide of the river. his great nose twitched as he drank in the last of valravn's scent.

he would not forget the little thing. shardik shuffled north with his piggish eyes trained upriver.