Whitefish River and come undone

For @Atticus. Set along the river between Silvertip and the Plateau, just for reference. I realize the overall location of this post is kinda misleading. Don't worry about matching the length either, I told you I had this thread in mind for a while! :P Maybe Atticus can break up his herding party, lmao!

It had happened purely by accident, his stumbling upon the herd of dimwitted white-tail deer. Mordecai had been taking advantage of a good morning in the open plains when the first few heads of the ungulate had poked up in the verdant, reed-like waves on the horizon. With a dense fog narrowing the distance that he could initially see, he had startled them some good few dozen yards off. What had been a quiet, uninterrupted walk with his thoughts had turned into a standoff instantly; for several minutes, neither wolf nor deer moved. And when they did move, their moves may as well have synchronized. It never mattered what Mordecai ultimately did, for as soon as they were ready after being put on the alert, the deer made a hasty retreat to somewhere else in the most nonchalant way.

At first, the newly accepted Silvertip wolf feigned interest in them, and trailed them from a distance at which they became faint silhouettes. He was north and east of Silvertip then and ascertained quickly that they were turning south. Good for him, as he now wanted to willingly drive them towards the open. Not to hunt, no, Mordecai wasn't that headstrong in his abilities. He wanted to nudge them in the right direction, to take stock of them and count. To learn and watch them in the ways that had been imparted to him through time and practice. Though no master hunter by any means, he knew it would be in his favor to gather information to share with the one wolf who had extended her home to him. And not just to her, but the others beneath her and above him as well.

But as luck would have it, the deer became impervious to his gentle guidance from afar. The younger ungulates were cocky enough to steer the bulk of the herd towards the river, where they would have the advantage of crossing versus just one wolf following them through the grasslands. It was perhaps well too late for him to realize what they were doing until the sound of the rushing waters came to his ears, and triggered a response he would more than likely deem ill on his part at a later date.

Mordecai gave them chase.