Redhawk Caldera a fatal failure

Jaws feebly reached for his jay, intent to shoo him off knowing that within minutes his feathered companion would be on his own, but he hadn't the strength to make the flicking gesture needed to send the bird off. As he tried to speak his voice cracked and became a cough. The bird peeped and hopped lightly about him, standing on his muzzle once, but even though it was concerned for him its wary attention never missed the sound of an approaching packmate, who no doubt had heard his pain-wracked howls. It was only then did the bird fly to the trees, and there it remained in silence as Tiger approached.

In his flickering conscious, the coywolf barely registered the words that were spoke to him, and was only dimly aware which packmate had arrived at his side. Again he tried to speak, but instead a spluttering cough that spat blood onto the ground shook his once powerful, now broken body. Elwood soon joined Tiger, and with the last of his conscious Jaws' bi-colored gaze looked to each of them. He had a moment of clarity, recognizing them both as he would have on any other day, and he swallowed. "Sorry guys," he managed to say in a hoarse and hushed voice and the slightest roguish grin formed for a second on his lips, his humor with him even in the last moments, "can't stay."

Another cough overtook him and his eyes closed for the final time as he drifted into unconsciousness. In the following minutes, his beleaguered breaths would come at longer and longer intervals, until not another one was drawn and the coywolf lay still. The gray jay would sit vigil for several hours hidden among the branches of the trees, and then it would be gone back into the pack territory, to what end no one knew.