Redtail Rise High Risk, High Reward

She eyed her mate's movements, as he set a bit of distance between the youths and the animal, protectively. They would need to stay back, Lilia felt, until the animal was more under control. Driven mad by hormones and made reckless by injury, the bull elk would not go down easily, not now that it had lost one battle and be left facing the battle for its life. 

The newcomer, Riley, did well as well to motion one of the children to stay back. From where she was, she couldn't tell which one it was. She spotted Mulherin and Redsky, lurking in wait- Moon Runner as well. Carrion shielded by a tree, safe from notice and harm. Lilia noticed how even Masquerade drew with herself and Augur, and wondered what the ulfr was planning to do; typically, they held back and waited, attacking later once the beast had been subdued, but was Masque planning to do something different this time? Masque was a skilled hunter- but emboldened, perhaps, after having sounded the bugle. 

Augur struck first- and drew forth blood, avoiding a swoop of the elk's tines. Normally, this was the moment Lilia rushed forward to seize the open opportunity at the elk's other shoulder, exposed now in the wake of its swing. But before Lilia could make contact, she found herself matched in pace by the the Ulfr as they burst forward, summoning not their strongest, but their weakest units to make a charge that would put them directly beneath the elk's hind end before the animal was subdued. 

She growled, but it was too late now. "Anthuh!" She called out, though she wasn't sure what she should ask him to do- to ward the children off, or to help her at the beast's head. She lunged, but the window for her opportunity was no longer ripe, given the distraction of the secondary charge. She leapt and bit deep into the thick fur and skin of the elk's neck, having aimed for the flap of skin previously opened by another bull. She clenched her jaws so that as she felt the sleek hook of a tine slip along her underside, she would pull free another rope of flesh and sinew as the bull swept her away. 

It was the length of hide that slowed her fall, stretching out and snapping from the creature's skin just before she hit the ground. She grunted, having been able to twist herself right-side up in the air, but the force of landing hurt her ankles. Stiffly, she moved back to Augur's side, sore but ready to do whatever it took to keep the creature from whirling and turning for those who swarmed its hind end.