Redhawk Caldera Don't tell me I'm fine

The hair on the nape of his neck lifted involuntarily as Nightjar began to follow the scent of coyote on the breeze. There was no solid evidence on the ground that a coyote had been here, no scat, no footprints and no footpad scent, but the wind didn't lie. There was one nearby. Maybe it would cross the borders and maybe it wouldn't, but it was Nightjar's duty as a training warden to hunt it down and keep an eye on it, whatever it chose to do.

He stepped heavily along the trail, announcing his presence with sound alone in hopes it would deter the coyote from coming any nearer. He knew those beasts had sharp ears. Their eyes were not so good as a wolf's, though. How he knew that he didn't know, but he did. Perhaps it was ancestral, ingrained knowledge of how to deal with a competitor, or perhaps he'd just been born with an uncanny ability to know another creature's strengths and weaknesses. Nightjar wouldn't know the difference.

He had yet to find the coyote when a thwump on his right side drew his attention. Wringing back both ears, Nightjar turned with a growl to see what was going on, and caught first the flash of brilliant red as he focused on Wildfire, who was the cause of the sound judging by the fact she was face-down in the dirt. He almost chortled, but that's when he spotted Raven charging toward him.

Nightjar held no ill will toward his sisters except a sort of jealousy, but now he slicked back his ears and snarled a warning at her. There was a coyote here and he wasn't about to let his sisters get hurt... or take this opportunity from him, he thought briefly, but he pushed that jealousy aside and focused on the fact he would be saving them from harm. He would warn them back so he could deal with it himself. It was safest for them that way, he reasoned, and a lash of his tail would probably be enough to tell them he was being temperamental for a good reason: danger.

It was just a coyote, barely a threat to an adult wolf, but they were just pups with limited experience and he was the biggest and strongest of them, the most fit to take it on. That was what his stance and his behaviour said.