Overture Downs Let's raise some hell, shall we?

447 words

The smell of fresh blood would've drawn the cat out of hiding, if he hadn't been so inundated with the scent already. His body had been through the ringer by this point - battle after battle with wolves had done some damage to him, and he wanted to lay low for a while and recover before continuing his crusade against the lesser species; however, he was now in possession of a bushy black wolf tail (which he carried gleefully) and he felt much more invigorated compared to the battle-weariness he had begun to succumb to days ago. He could continue, if only to gather more pieces of these creatures, trophies which he could show off to women-folk when the time came to continue his bloodline. He was here in the Wilds for breeding opportunities, after all. Perhaps his rage was also couched in the inability to find that precise release — he had found this place inundated with wolves and not a single cat, and it infuriated him.

But, yes, he should have smelled the fresh rabbit blood, and he could not, because his nose was filled with the musk of the fresh tail he had torn from a young black wolf. He did hear some sort of commotion nearby, and that made him pause, survey the shadows and the snow, but he couldn't see any shapes worth investigating; so Zugzwang continued, and when he was much closer he could spy the spry shape of a young wolf in the snow. The red of the fresh blood bloomed around their figure, like the rabbit had fallen from quite a height and popped on impact. He grinned around the tail clutched in his teeth, and began to devise a new strategy - a game, something to lure the child closer.

He set himself up nearby but made sure to keep the wind's position in mind. Zugzwang dropped the tail on one side of a cluster of bushes, mostly shrouded in darkness, and placed himself within the darkness just beyond it. From here, he could spy the small thing between the gaps in the bush; he thought that he smelled distinctly canine at the moment since he had encountered so many, and because the tail was so fresh, so the plan appeared to be simple - and as wolves were not bright things, not as bright as cats typically, Zugzwang was certain this would work.

He called out with a piteous note to his voice, Hello? Hello? I hear you out there — please, help me, his voice carried across the snow and to the waiting child, and while he waited for a reaction he tested his claws against the dirt with anticipatory flexing.