Blacktail Deer Plateau tick tock tick tock

it has been a hell of a winter.

Zelda feels it in her gut, the yawning void where a satiated tummy should be. she feels it in the absence of flesh on her bones and in the irritation constantly simmering under the surface. hungry, hangry, haggard. she must feast and she must do it soon, lest—

wolves! their caches are always full of meat; her much larger, distant relatives eat quite more than she does. what qualms could they have with her sneaking a piece or two?

just a morsel, just a morsel. . . she shimmies along the border and then across it, their scent heavy in her nostrils. she tries to keep it at bay as she searches for the sharp tang of fresh-kill instead. wolves mean little to her, beyond their role as the keepers of food.

let them come. she is too quick for them.

conflict interaction dice rolls with Zelda can be found in her profile!

Reeeally don't have time for another thread but oh well. Replies to this might be a bit slow til I get caught up elsewhere. Nieve's rolls, wrote as if she made contact based on this, lemme know if that's not okay.

Nieve came, but perhaps not in the manner Zelda imagined she would.

The gilded she-wolf didn't think foxes were overly harmful, and unless she found one neck-deep in a cache, she was wont to leave them alone. Zelda drifting through the woods by itself wasn't enough to compel her to action. No. Nieve followed Zelda from afar because although the fox was scrawny, she had a heart beat and hot blood in her veins, and the pack could do with another kill added to the cache. It would be remiss of Nieve to let this opportunity pass her by, even if she was an average hunter at best.

Her long legs moved her from a slow prowl to a quiet gallop in the blink of an eye. She cleared the underbrush with the ease of home turf advantage and swept after the fox, lowering her body to speed across the last couple feet so she could snap her jaws shut on its tail.

Nieve hit and Zelda lost 7 HP. Zelda rolled a failed hit here.

the scent of wolf hot on her trail is not a surprise. the sudden shock to her tail is.

Zelda bites back a shriek; a strangled cry is caught in her throat. the grip is painful, but she knows if she tears away she will lose the tail. and she so loves her beautiful tail.

instead, she spins with the she-wolf still grasping on and is heartened by the look of the bigger canine. bigger, but not as big as she could be. lanky and young. it will be a losing fight, but it will not be a bloodbath—perhaps.

the fox snaps at her rival's muzzle, looking more to stun than to gain any sort of purchase. once the grip is loosened, she will flee.

Nieve had little experience with foxes, but even with limited experience, she was shocked when the small vixen turned and snapped at her muzzle. She'd always thought they were fearful little buggers, skittering about the place but staying out of the way of wolves. This one was bold, it seemed. She released the tail in order to draw back her muzzle and avoid Zelda's fangs, and that was enough time for the fox to wheel and run.

Wait! Nieve snarled, leaping into a gallop after the wily little creature. Nieve's legs were long, lending her a relatively speedy pace, but she was no match for the way a fox could dart and weave through the brush. Even if she could keep up, she couldn't maneuver like that. It was only a matter of time before Zelda got away from her, though she did her best to stay on the fox's trail, snapping and barking as she went.

Zelda rolled a failed escape here. Do with this what you will. She also lost 20 HP so she now stands at 73/100 health.

luckily for Zelda, the diversion worked. she felt the pressure on her tail disappear and immediately bolted, panting with exertion, adrenaline and fear. she heard the snarl and the thunder of paws hot on her trail and kept up the pace. she turned, skidding, heading full-tilt toward the borders again.

it was the earth that would be her undoing. she felt a forepaw sink suddenly down, into the hazard of a gopher hole. with a gasp, she fell flat on her pointed face, her foreleg wrenching painfully with the tumble.

damn! Zelda thought in a panic, and began to wriggle her way out of the trap. still, she had lost critical momentum and ground, and as she struggled to her paws, a hot, sharp bolt of pain rippled up that front leg. she must carry on but—god! that hurt!

Rolled for Nieve to keep up the chase / attack, but then rolled a failure for success, so Zelda can escape if you'd like!

No, no, no! Nieve thought, each one sounding at the same time that her forepaws drummed against the ground. Zelda was faster than her and probably more nimble as well, and it seemed like she was going to get away. Except, at the very last minute, the fox screeched to a half by flipping face-first into the ground.

Nieve almost slammed on the brakes herself, flabbergasted. LOL WTF?! aptly described the expression that flashed across her face for a hot second before her brain caught up with her and she realized her good fortune. She surged forward, jaws gaping, prepared to seize the fox by the spine and give it a hard shake—

—when she snagged her paw in the exact same gopher hole and it was Nieve's turn to go down, slamming her muzzle painfully into the ground while simultaneously biting her tongue and twisting her ankle.

Suddenly hearing Yakety Sax in the background of this thread

this was it. she is a goner. a goner in a gopher hole. well, she manages to struggle away, preparing herself for the feeling of teeth in her skin. it is coming, coming —

and then she hears a thud that sounds all too familiar and wheels around, sucking in a breath at the pain of every movement. another hiss, and then: a-ha! ha ha hahhaaha ha! the fox laughs, completely unhinged. the big bad wolf, brought to her knees!

Zelda smirks widely, but knows she only has so much time. she turns again, looking toward the borders. they are so close and yet so far and every single bloody step is agony.

keep going keep going keep going keep

adrenaline fills her veins, her mouth open wide and gasping for air. so close—

Although moments ago she'd yelled after the fox, in truth, Nieve couldn't understand the speech of non-wolves. However, laughter was universal. The fox's chortles were impossible to miss. Her lips writhed into an offended snarl, but when she tried to rise to her paws, the sprained one buckled instantly. Faced for the first time with significant pain, Nieve lost all her will to chase after the injured Zelda and crumpled into a weak sit instead.

Her blue eyes glared after the fox, whom she hoped was smart enough to just get the hell out of their territory. Nieve wanted nothing more than to limp away, lie down and rest her injured paw. She needed it looked at to make sure it wasn't broken, but she wasn't willing to move until the fox made herself scarce. As if to amplify the threat behind her furrowed brows, she tilted her muzzle into the air and loosed a shrill howl to call any nearby pack members to her location.

If Zelda thought she could sneak around Nieve just because the golden she-wolf gave up the chase, maybe she would think twice with potential reinforcements on the way.

Zelda can escape! Not actually inviting anyone to the thread, Nieve's howl is mainly just a threat.

the alarm is sent up. an injured Zelda is no match against one wolf, let alone a group of them. the vixen scurries as quickly as she can to the border, hobbling across it and not looking back.

the golden girl can have her victory for the day. the fox will take the chance to live on.

you can fade or post again! i just wanted to get you to 10 replies for trade purposes