Redhawk Caldera The Dance at the Gym

She hit the ground with a whuff of air, wheezing at the suddenness of it all. One second she'd been locking her jaws on its back leg, the next she was in the snow. With a groan, Alyx lifted her head to survey what was happening, and was shocked by the sheer blinding speed of the animal. It looked too big to be able to move like that, but with feline grace it twisted and turned, slashing at Fennec and then Bronco. When her brother hit the ground, Alyx bared her teeth and cried, no!

She scrambled to her paws again and charged the cougar, barely hearing Bronco's call that they stand together. She was too fired up after watching the great bloody cat harming her siblings. She'd got off lucky with just a few superficial scratches where its paw had met her flesh, and thought she was in better shape than either of them for another go. What Alyx didn't realize was that cougars were as clever as wolves, and it had seen her, and it knew she hadn't grown into her body yet, and it knew how to best her.

The cougar did a crazy wrestling jump off the nearest tree and knocked her head clean off with one swipe.

Before Alyx realized what was happening and before she could do anything about it, the cougar pounced at her. Next thing she knew, she was on her back and pinned against the base of a tree with the cat's jaws around her throat, crushing, while she tried desperately to suck in a breath and kicked her hind legs at it helplessly.