Jade Fern Grove departure to the west

He spoke, his question making her go still with uncertainty for a beat before she replied, "No." How did he know about that? Why wasn't he punishing her for leaving the bypass? Quickly deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, she rumbled, "It's this way," and sprang back into the brush, away from the stream.

She found the trail easily, glad her father wasn't dragging her back home by the scruff and instead allowing her to pursue her prey. Haunt glanced at him, the tip of her white tail giving a grateful twitch, before she honed all her attention on the hunt. She lowered her head again and crept along the forest floor, taking extra care now that she knew she was being observed.

But only a small fraction of her attention was paid to her sire's presence. As she moved painstakingly through the lushly vegetated grove, the rabbit's scent grew stronger in her nose. Haunt knew she was getting closer. Her movements slowed down to a crawl as she closed in on her quarry, eyes and ears now peeled for any sign of the lapin itself.

The pup twitched to a sudden stop, belly slung to the leaf-littered ground, ears cupping forward on her crown. She listened for a long moment, then took one slow step, then another, pausing in between each to listen. There was too much growth to see, though between her powerful sense of smell and her swiveling ears, Haunt could visualize her target's approximate location.

She halted one last time, body quivering as the tension built in her muscles before the strike. Although Haunt herself moved noiselessly as a phantom, the brush rustled noisily as she leaped. Her yellow eyes glimpsed a flash of brown fur among the green and her lips curled back from her teeth as she lunged after it, only for the rabbit to easily vanish into the greenery unscathed.