Redhawk Caldera a fatal failure

For whoever wants to see Jaws die :P

Jaws had been keeping to himself, patrolling the borders and stocking the cache with rabbits, mice, squirrels, and other small game, but his eyes now were set on a small cluster of elk just within the boundaries of the pack near the lake. With the pups growing the pack needed more food, and although he knew his offerings of small game were appreciated and no one seemed to have any problem with them, he also knew such fare was more befitting a coyote than a wolf. If he were to be a pack wolf he would have to learn to take larger game, and although he was not so foolish to think he could take a healthy adult elk, his bi-colored eyes fixated on one of their calves. If he could take the calf, it would be a significant contribution toward keeping the pack fed.

The coywolf studied his prey, counting just three adult cows and two calves in the group. One of the cows, head down and feeding, started to wander from the other cows, her calf following along. A smarter wolf might have called for the aid of his pack, to take advantage of strength in numbers as was the key to a wolf pack's success; but Jaws was inexperienced and wholly accustomed to doing things on his own, and his confidence in skillfully taking other game had lead him to believe he could find a way to take the calf on his own. The coywolf saw his chance when the calf walked away from his mother, putting just enough distance between itself and its mother that Jaws figured he could make a kill or maim it enough to take it later, before the cow had a chance to react.

With the wind in his favor he stole down through the brush, and when he neared enough, he sprung forward in an all-out dash, closing in on the calf quickly. But Jaws had not counted on what he could not see: the herd's guardian bull, just out of sight from where he had been, and just a few paces from the calf. The patriarch met him with full force before he reached the calf, its long tines piercing his side and crushing his ribs with the blow. Jaws was sent sprawling, somersaulting, his painful howl echoed through the trees. As the coywolf tried to gather his legs beneath him when his tumbling body stopped, the bull put him down again with a savage stomp.

And there he stayed, struggling to breathe and maintain consciousness as the herd moved away. He was bleeding internally, with a shattered back and broken ribs. There would be no getting up from this. His life was ebbing away, though he stubbornly hung on for now. His gray jay had been watching from the trees, and descended next to him, chirping frantically.