Redhawk Caldera fire in the hole

*sliiiides on in here*

At Eljay's command, Lucca peeled away from the group, sparing his sister only a brief glance as he and Tegan (but mostly the former) began to work on separating the calf from the rest. The herd had quickly begun to move off, releasing nervous bellows that were quickly drowned out by the thundering of their hooves. Despite his bulk, Lucca was steady on his feet, keeping his hungry gaze upon the limping young deer and its mother. Just like this siblings, the boy was filled with confidence — they had this in the bag. There were four of them and only one and a half deer, what could go wrong?

Everything, apparently.

Lucca winced and let out a strangled warning shout that came too late as Fiadh was suddenly clocked in the side of the head. The young deer went down with her but it was obvious the Blackthorn litter were more concerned for their sibling. Or, rather, their revenge. At Clover's war cry, and after giving his brother a determined nod of agreement, the three remaining would-be hunters took off. At his cry of "stop!", Lucca quickly threw a fiery glance over to Eljay that said, don't worry, we got this!

As they gained on the fleeing doe, Lucca was completely oblivious to the adult's sudden intervention. He faintly heard Towhee's cacophonous demands but was too focused on taking down their newest target to pay her any heed. Overtaking Tegan, who menacingly snapped at the creature's heels, Lucca pushed ahead of him and got as close as he could to the doe before releasing a dramatic holler and launched his heavy self into her side to take her down — only to completely rebound off her surprisingly sturdy ribcage with an, "oof", crashing into the grass while narrowly avoiding the deadly hooves, his tumbling form becoming a sudden hazard to his siblings and the pack mates who had joined them.