Sleepy Fox Hollow i wanna see the way you look up under all those stars

A clatter of feet behind him. Wylla, bringing up the rear. She would soon surpass him - his legs were long, but he was uncoordinated. Stag growled, his breath in misty plumes as he jumped after Zarya.

Not for the second time he was chasing her from Diaspora. This time he was intent on getting her. This time, he would sink teeth into her hip, give her something permanent to remember her by. He recalled how Mahler had praised him and that caused his stride to lengthen, his heart to soar, and his eyes to narrow in determination.

Zarya's bobbing haunches fled ahead. She zigged and zagged. Stag was dogged after her. I'm gonna get you, you -- you... He didn't really have the heart to say bitch, so he thought booger instead.

But then Zarya did something that had Stag gasping; she was running right into a tree! STOP!! He wanted to yell after her, his stride slowing as he awaited impact.. But instead of impact she nimbly slid under the overhang, and was out the other side and already gaining distance..

He pushed into overdrive, his head low. If she had ducked under it, he could probably jump over it.. He was too big to slide, and he wasn't athletically gifted. He'd have to jump it.

Stag's strides lengthened the closer he drew to the tree. His head raised, his haunches lowered, as he prepared for that last stride.. Three... two... one... LIFTOFF.

His haunches coiled as his hind limbs hit the ground, pushing off. His forepaws folded as his head and shoulders raised, his eye trained on where the apex of his jump would be...

Only, there was a slick patch of ice where his hind feet had fell -- just as he was about to truly coil up like a spring, his left hind slipped -- but his momentum was too strong to alter course.

His eyes widened as he realized his fate -- the tree's rough edges looming close. His mouth contorted in a gasp of shock as he realized too late his doom -- and collided with a sickening THUD into the bough.

Zarya was far from his mind as pain exploded across his senses. There was a heavy hit of blackness, then a sickening flash of white -- and then, nothing.