Dragoncrest Cliffs For the walking man

@Valravn

In the Eastern regions of the pack's territory, where the forests crept into the seawind-stripped lands, was a stand of tall, lodgepole pines. Through the winter Chacal had noticed and had begun to track spruce grouse that feasted upon the pine needles, both in the tree and where the needles fell to the ground. Now, in the first few days of Spring, they nestled beneath a thicket, uttering soft sounds to each other while the dark hunter began to stalk forward at a creeping pace, narrowing the gap between them step by step.

val noticed no such grouse, nor the pine that delineated their presence -- but he did notice chacal. like any 'big' brother, he saw his chance to spoil her plans -- whatever they were. all in good humor, of course.

so, he stalked after his prowling sister -- waiting for that perfect moment to emerge from the brush and pounce.

any second now --

three, two, one . . .

POUNCE!

Something caused the fur along the back of Chacal's neck to bristle and lift, though she figured it was just her own anticipation of the hunt to come. How many grouse were hiding in the thicket? It was still hard to tell with the colour of their plumage, obscured by the dried brown branches. She thought she could just see a bit of the white feathers that-

A sudden crackling of leaves and twigs spooked both the dark wolf and the grouse, which all leapt up a good couple feet straight into the air. The grouse, however, had wings- and Chacal had a brother who pounced her, slamming her body back to the ground. 

The grouse scattered up into the branches of the trees above them, leaving behind a few feathers that drifted to the ground lazily as Chacal coughed and attempted to catch her breath after the sudden shock and surprise of being trounced by her brother, who had proven himself to be an expert at nestly scaring the spirit right out of his sister.

"GOTCHA!" val roared delightedly, his ears pinning briefly as he heard the fluttering report of wings taking off. oh, oops, had he totally ruined chacal's hunt? MY BAD!

he grinned cheekily, not in the least contrite. she could always get another grouse - but could she ever get another annoying brother? NO! val was one of a KIND.

he roughly kissed the tips of chacal's ears and pushed off, grinning with his tail swaying wildly as he waited for the inevitable revenge. come and get it, his eyes almost seemed to twinkle as he waited.