Broken Antler Fen not the needle, nor the thread, the lost decree

iliksis looked to her features, the wide hollow of her eyes, the tenseness across her brow. the girl crouched in the frozen snow, figure hunched. her hackles jutting out like the spiny process of some mangled fish, quill-like and held upright.

the world around them narrowed; he no longer felt the chill of the wind, nor the bracing bite of the air in his lungs. he felt his heart against his ribcage. a pounding in his skull. he leered at her reply, and smiled smugly as her gaze trailed unmistakably along his midline.

she bristled and lunged; he could not say he was not expecting it, but he was hardly quick enough to escape the snap of her fangs. pain ran like a current up his leg. her jaws closed around his front pastern and he swung his muzzle down like a hammer across her spine, jaws parted and teeth seeking the meat of her neck. should his target be true he would fling her forcibly into the snow and fall upon her, distributing his weight across her back like some feral junglecat pinning its quarry. a deep snarl bubbled in his throat, rifling through her winter fur in low rumbles.