Phantom Hollow Indomitable

It hadn’t taken them long to break out of the surrounding fields of open terrain where they found themselves on the approach to Phantom Hollow. Leila, Cry and Redmoon - they loped with swift passionate strides to carry them as far away from the river as they could and as fast as they could. Cry was still shaken somewhat and for that, Redmoon had taken the lead on this one. While he didn’t lead the group as fast as Cry had, he did so efficiently and without running them into any unwanted trouble. 

Redmoon led the trio through the terrain until up ahead they could see the looming trees. Fortunately the winds hadn’t yet changed and he still smelled the bear. It was unbelievable how fast such an animal could traverse the lands and with such stealth as Redmoon hadn’t spotted it yet. But without much doubt, it was coming and it had been hunting them since the Taiga. 

Ahead of them sat a brace of rocks, the elevation was good from up there and so the red pelt rushed forward and climbed the rough patch with ease. Several low lying curved stones were easily navigable until he reached a higher perch with jagged edges though a smooth surface. Panting, he made it up top. His muscles ached from the long several days of travel from so far away, his ability to range far and wide was increasing. But now he was ready to stop this running and face whatever peril that was coming their way. 

He reached the plinth of the highest rock setting and perched himself on the ledge, looking out and scanning the horizon for something - anything. Yet he found nothing. 

The scent of his fellows comforted him and eased the tension considerably. He knew he had to keep a clear head if they were going to make it out of this one alive. Leila and Cry were close, Redmoon could sense them well enough and their days together had begun to form that sense of a bond to where just by their scents, he could indicate their moods. Obviously the current mood was not one of welcome and so he remained vigilant upon his high rock, looking out into the distance. 

It had come, the time for making flight was over. Whatever kind of monster was chasing them was catching up and they could no longer outrun it.

It hadn't occured to the ursine that a single wolf would keep watch, but there was a fatal flaw.The darkest wolf of the trio lagged behind the pale girl, his gait shambled and not as efficient as it had been prior. His mind was in disarray, conflicted with whether he should bolt from this group as he had so many years ago in the same occurance, or whether he should face his fears and fight back. Bears were a trauma to this boy, and the ursine reveled in it. He rejoiced in the wonderful takedown of this wolf, the Dark One's cub, the wolf he had never gotten the chance to ruin as his wretched father had saved him so many years ago.
He would have his revenge, today.

The ursine lurked closer to the wolf, heavy paws falling in tempo with those of the wolf before him. There would be only a matter of time before he struck.

Too long had he searched for this specific wolf, his smashed pride fueling him to be the vindictive bear he was to that day. He needed to kill this wolf. It would do more than help him sleep at night. To know he had finally crushed the aspirations of the wolf known as Slade, the even more fearsome wolf that had stopped his plans of a feast on supple wolf carcass those years ago. Little did the schemng ursine know that history would be repeating itself, all over again.

The tall waving grass stole Redmoon’s sight well and the breeze captured movement all across the plain. He spotted the pristine white beauty easily enough as she forged her way towards the rocky setting but Cry was far more difficult to see, the grass swayed away from his direction as he meandered closer and closer to the goal of safety. All seemed as well as it could be, save for Redmoon’s instincts screaming at him to run! Run for your life! It was an internal battle to deny this sensation and he fought every inch of his being. 

The brief time he’d spent with these two wolves the more of a feeling of kinship he held with them. His mind didn’t like it, not one bit, but the course of his life held a bitter taste and he endured it all the same. It kept his feet glued to the rock and it kept him from running away from the imminent danger that his wolfish instincts were declaring to him. 

Unable to see properly with his eyes, he closed them and let his ears and nose to the work. Even his tongue was set to the task as he panted and brought in the tastes in the air. Wheat grass and tired wolves filled his senses but there was something else. A thundering step, and another. His ears swiveled to pinpoint what the wind was telling him and yet he found nothing. His hackles began to rise and he wanted more than ever to flee this place and never look back. Another, this time a series of steps. As if something was running. Anger began to rise, he couldn’t pinpoint what he was hearing - his elevation giving him a higher breeze to work with and it was throwing him off but on the ground he’d not find anything and he knew it. No, he had to work this out. 

Leila was coming closer, her scent awash with her gentle demeanor and he shook himself to focus harder. Cry was now coming and the faint stepping feeling became more and more harsh. What was it! 

Opening his eyes he looked straight to Cry - and there he saw it. A wave of brown spearing through the grasslands. Its speed was horrible to behold and the size… Redmoon had never seen anything like it. The scent wafted into his nose and he linked it with the pursuer of Broken Boulder in the Taiga and the fish killer along the river. This was he, the bear. There had been so much movement in the tall grasses that Redmoon hadn’t caught the blending camouflage of the mighty omnivore. 

Instantly and without thinking, Redmoon was off the rock and sprinting away, that thing was going to kill them all and he wasn’t about to have it. The better he survive another day than to be bear scat the next morning! He shot passed Leila like a blur - wait, this wasn’t away from the bear! Cry was nothing but a dream of color too and suddenly Redmoon was in the air, a snarl on his face and a ravenous attacking bark to frame his wild assault. He’d attacked on instinct, a move he didn’t care to admit. 

But that damn bear was fast as lightning was bright and Redmoon’s maw only came away with wiry fur that tasted harsh and bland. He hit the ground and spun around, he instantly regretted everything as the monster of the wilds stood up to greet him…

So close he could just reach out and touch-
A force slammed into his side and sent the rearing bear's aim aside, long claws missing their mark and gouging into the bark of a splindly tree. Fury immediately burned in the dark brown hazels of the ursine as he roared his wrath at the assailant; some wolf he had no care to learn the name of. This degenerate would pay for ruining his meal!

The bear could feel fangs cut into fur, tantilizingly close to the flest that held it, but a swift leap backwards from the lupine kept such a purchase from deepening. A beastly head shook, beady eyes locking onto the red wolf with an unbridled hate almost unnatural.
Rearing again, the ursine commenced announcing its murderous desires in the form or vocal intimidation.

However, through the bear landing back on it's own fours, it surged forth, a terrifying speed in which to pummel the intercepting wolf to a pulp, another emmerged from the illusive tails of curtainous fog. From the mists rose another beast, so close in nature, but just as far from it. A wolf, massive and towering, a growl unfurling from the deep trenches of what could even be called a chest. Eyes of molten orange simmered between the folds of fog, a Nightmare indeed.

It moved, swift and with intent, passing through wisps with a speed the bear was unprepared for. Once it closed it, a jump was done as the wolf, Slade, the King of these hollows, went airborne, confronting the familiar enemy once again. The bulky of him landed on the back of the bear, and immediately Slade glamped on with jaws that were rumored to be toxified just as komodo dragons were. Fangs drove deep in the nape of the bear, and once assured, Slade propped his body up, balancing on the spine as he would a tree in his youth.

Today, he would end this damn bear.
He was sick of the thing, already.

A blur of motion caught Redmoon’s sharp eye, but he refused the distraction and concentrated on that claw! It came at him with a mighty swipe capable of taking his head clean off - Redmoon flexed his knees and bounded to the side as the sharp edges brushed his coat, he recoiled and snapped, catching only a twinge of the bear’s flesh. There was no damage but a line of blood strung out onto the red pelt’s face. Then the bear roared in anger while that blur returned and pounced on its back, tearing and clawing, it was a wolf! His eyes scanned over the thing and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

It was his chance to beat feet and get lost! He turned and vanished into the grasses but he only made it ten or so strides before stopping. If not for that wolf, he’d be bear chow. Could he really just leave him there? Yes! He set off again and stopped immediately, ‘Turn around.’ He commanded himself. ‘Don’t you dare leave,’ his eyes glanced to the sky, ‘the Scorekeeper is watching.’ 

Before he knew it he was racing full blast back towards the bear. So hard was his run that his body was streamlined and his ears were flat back on his scalp. His teeth were barred yet he made no sound of the charge. He shot through the grasses and into the clearing where the bear had stomped the vegetation down in its attempt to dislodge the brutish monster atop its shoulders. Redmoon never slowed down and he speared in straight - this time his aim was true and he used his broad chest as a ram, slamming into the bear’s rear right leg. All of eighty-five pounds, Redmoon wasn’t exactly a defining force and he wasn’t going to knock over a bear. 

But the impact didn’t go without result as the bear stumbled. The red pelt then proceeded to clamp down. Wrapping his forelegs around the leg and moving his mouth around to the side, he struck hard at the ankle tendons on the rear leg and his jaws clamped down like a vice. He’d learned with his hunt alongside Anubis that if the prey was immobile, the fight was over. But what he failed to take into account was that this prey had teeth, claws and was hundreds of pounds his superior, and it knew how to fight back. 

Suddenly Redmoon was airborne, flipping end over end until he hit the ground on his side. Pain surged along his left hip as his yipped aloud from both the strike and the falling impact. Looking up he was shocked to see how far the bear had batted him but his eye also caught the blood flowing from its right ankle and the coppery taste of victory in his own mouth. 

Standing up, his numb left leg made him fall. Growling in determination, he walked in three or four circles to walk out the numbness and as soon as he found feeling he angled back towards his foe and raced back in.

This fight wasn’t over until Redmoon said it was!

While Slade wasn't fond of fighting bears, often settling squabbles through vocals rather than violence, it was made clear this bear was nowhere near such civil means. By far, actually. This was in fact the same bear that tried the very same thing on his ward years before, and for Slade to have managed nothing but a broken rib that long history ago was miraculous. But the bear-resembling hung on, digging down with now red tinged claws into a deep hided spine. He shook his head in spasms, hoping he could manage to to the same thing he had done for Cry; providing a distraction.

The red wolf hadn't gone unnoticed by the Shadow Sire, but it seemed the bear had taken notice first, deep gouges blossoming on the hind of the angered ursine. With the fury of a thousand suns, the brown beast lowered a massive head and snatched the light wolf up by the scruff, ripping him free of his leg, a folly on his end, but sending the threat hurtling away with a barbaric toss of his head. A thump, skid and yelp came swift after the attack, and Slade cursed as he lost his own grip.

This wouldn't be as asy as last time. He was an older wolf, and though he had experience in this, he knew this bear knew him just as much as the other way around. He didn't want to call @Makaro in, as the yearling wasn't necessarily trained in bearhunting, though the King knew the youth had better be around, watching, and learning from this. Or atleast on standby to drag his corpse away if he fell in battle.

Before the bear Slade stood braced, just as posed as the red wolf was, a duo of brutes against a single beast. The Alpha knew well enough two wolves couldn't murder a bear, but it could definitely scare one off. But at what cost?

"You!" he called to the red that charged back into the fray.

"Run. Save what's left of you, and flee."

Slade knew well enough how risky it was for the younger male to just fly into the battle, and though he knew nothing about him, he knew if he was banded with Cry and Leila, they were a team. Without teamork, each and every single member would die a lonesome and painful death. Not every fight needed to be fought...
Sometimes, you had to run.

‘…Flee…’

The entire meaning of the word was poison to Redmoon’s ears. He was no coward. But he also was no tactician or strategist. He saw things in a black and white frame. Either you fought and won or you fought and lost. The Scorekeeper held no room for anything less and even in a loss, the Scorekeeper would be mindful of the valorous charge and the mindset of the heart. In truth, Redmoon had been scruffed up before and whipped but never truly beaten. He knew what it meant to lose and be hurt but this time things were different. Cry - Leila - they were counting on him to put this threat down. He had no idea though how impossible of a task that was and how stupid he was being - yet, lessons learned by Redmoon were oft done the hard way. 

First lesson of the day - never attack an angry bear head on. Especially one that you’ve stopped from eating prey that it had been hunting for almost five years… 
Redmoon was a blast of speed and his choler reached the fore. Bursting out from the tallest grass he shot inward and the bear reacted by swiping low, the red wolf leapt overtop the strike but a following swipe took him in the front shoulder and scattered him to the wind. In the air he held no means of maintaining posture and so he was cast around in a one eighty to crash on the ground. Seemingly as fast as he was, the bear romped forward despite having a massive wolf tearing at its back and here it came to devour the red pelt. 

Undeterred by the scratches and bruises, Redmoon looked to his foe and savagely met the charge, leaping into the bear’s face. His jaws went to work, his front and rear claws churning endlessly like pistons. He felt fur and meat grinding, the wash of warm blood, but he felt pain too. All along his left shoulder sat a score of fiery pain wreathing agony through his bones. Then he felt a crushing pain in his right side as the bear batted him away like a discarded bone. 

The sheer power of the bear was daunting as Redmoon was once more cast aside. Hitting the ground and rolling end over end twice, he came to a rest with blurred vision and fire in his body. This wasn’t how this would end! He spoke several oaths silently to himself and the Scorekeeper and so he fought to get back on his feet. He could feel the wetness of his own blood covering his shoulder where five or six deep punctures sat as a reward for his indomitable spirit. The bear’s jaws hadn’t been kind and he learned then that a frontal would be his doom - likely it should have been yet he managed still. 

His side held a sharp pain as he breathed but it was nothing to deter him just yet - at least until his adrenaline died down. His nose caught the wind and he smelled the blood of his worthy foe on it and the smell excited him to his core. This battle was like nothing he’d ever experienced and it still had more to offer if he’d just watch himself and not commit to suicidal attacks again. 

The bear eyed him as it tried to savagely dislodge the black wolf, Redmoon knew that look - it wasn’t finished. It still wanted a piece of him. He grinned, because he still wanted a piece of it. With his knowledge of the battle thus far gained, he began to formulate a new strategy. One that didn’t involve dying - first of all. But also one that would take advantage of the bear’s blindspots. 

Redmoon studied the bear for a short time until he heard the unknown wolf’s word echo in his mind. His thoughts swayed back to involve Leila and Cry, he didn’t know where they were but he believed it in his heart that if he fled, this bear would seek them out. No, this had to end here and now. 

Either that bear was going to turn tail and run, or Redmoon would finish the fight. Blinded by the beast inside his soul, he knew no other way.