Sleepy Fox Hollow splitting threads of thunder over me

he wound through several bands of tall bramble before he heard it.

little footsteps, lithe and cunning.

his ear turned back, but he pressed on despite the ugly flare of anger that rose to his throat.

around another tussock, around another column of coarsely deposited stone from some ancient glacier on a highway of ledge --

suddenly, he wheeled about on his pursuer with teeth bared and hackles upright. abrupt as the motion was, he made no motion to connect -- instead, his heated and tear-blurred gaze fixed on the slim creature which followed him now like a displaced ghost.