Stone Circle primal instinct

This is bleh but I tried! For @Shardul !

The meadow may have been a hotspot for grazing deer in the warm days, but it had grown colder. The cold lingered between the trees, and would reach out from beneath them as winter overwhelmed; soon enough the deer would be scarce. They would migrate to somewhere else for ease of living, and Micco, hungry as he was, would need to take whatever chance he could find before then. 

It just so happened that the puma was in luck - he had found a young mother, perhaps an entirely new mother, and a young thing that must have been born in the previous spring. Micco lurked along the stony edge of the meadow, keeping his body tight and compact against the loam, and ever so slowly crept closer. The younger deer was grazing on bits and pieces, scrounging for whatever could fit in their mouth, and they deviated from their mother - closer and closer to Micco with every heartbeat.

unbeknownst to the younger cougar, shardul watched the same herd with calculating yellow eyes. regipre he had secreted behind a clump of nearby bushes -- he would catch her if she ran, and dispatch her in less time than it would take the pup to hobble away -- and slunk down to the edge of the meadow to scan the herd for injured outliers. his gaze alit upon a half-grown fawn, grazing desperately upon the sparse grasses, and with belly to the ground, shardul crept closer, the great muscles of his haunches buoying him noiselessly in the hapless animal's direction.

in a moment he would lunge -- the movement was swift and merciless. shardul darted in a gunmetal blur toward the young deer, claws gripping the earth, but at the last and most crucial moment, the scent of another cat slashed him heavily across the senses, and he dropped to the earth with a loud and warning shriek.

The closer the creature got, the wider Micco's eyes became; but he saw less and less, overcome by a great anticipation. When he could not take the waiting any longer, he pulled his body tight and taut against the earth, and readied to spring. It seemed as if something - a creature like himself - had similar thoughts; before Micco could react, a shadow lurched from the underbrush and thrust itself in to Micco's path. It sprang at the deer and spooked the herd - as well as the younger cougar - and it was enough to make him hiss and yowl with shock and annoyance. His body no longer hid. His eyes were narrow, watching the stranger as intently as he had watched the prey, and he paced in the manner of affronted cats everywhere.

stiff-legged, the cat lashed his tail and stared at the other. it was a young creature, full in the bloom of strength and vigor, but shardul was larger, heavier. it was possible that the tawny cat had a fastness to him that shardul did not share, but whatever their weaknesses, the silver brute was less than appreciative of the other's presence in what he considered an extension of his territory. "these lands belong to me," he snarled, pacing forward. "the flesh of these deer is mine! mine, to me," shardul growled. 

"thou hast been a fool but i shall spare thee if thou leavest now and dost not dare to return," he told the younger creature, though he readied his body for the slash of teeth or flash of talons in retaliation.

He listened as the calls of the prey vanished, along with the sound of dancing hooves; the chance to eat had slipped through his proverbial fingers, and the younger cat was not too happy about it. But neither was the other.

Micco wasn't going to run off and hide from this guy, as much as he wanted to. It was the bizarre manner in which the other puma spoke that made everything seem.. Comical. Like his rival was trying too hard to be intimidating. The end of Micco's tail twitched, but that was his only physical response. He did not attack or run - simply idled.

 "These lands are no one's, fool," His lips peeled back and a hiss came from his chest, spraying the air with a fine mist of saliva as he finally took a step back, but did not leave. He was brazen to remain here. "Get out of my face, or I'll eat you instead." A laughable threat indeed.

the young cat yowled, but shardul did not heed the threats he spat. no better than a jackal was the youthful usurper, and the experienced silverpelt matched the step with one of his own, refusing to be intimidated by the whelp. he did not kill his own kind, as a rule, but the attitude of the upstart forced the idea into consideration. showing his own yellowed fangs unto the cat, shardul's hackles bristled and he began to circle 'round, fluffed pelt padding out the already prodigious heft of his body.

in a blur he struck, lashing with long claws toward the right side of the tawny feline's long body. shardul intended to blind, to maim, to rip and tear until he had cast the would-be prince from his land and screamed victorious after his retreating tail.

His response was met with a flash of movement, and Micco reacted by pulling himself away. He wasn't quite quick enough to avoid the slice of claws against his flesh, and the warmth of blood - the electric pain in his shoulder - and that wound would fester for a few days. The younger cat thought about retaliating a bit too late, so when he turned and faced-off against his gray rival, the older cat was out of reach. The hit was enough to dissuade further conversation, but Micco did not leave yet. He was hungry - and he would hunt wherever he damn well pleased. He cast a look towards the distant herd and began to pace around Shardul in pursuit.

his attack met with brief resistance, then tore through yielding flesh. shardul hissed as the hot scent of blood filled the air. but the boy did not leave -- no, he paced toward shardul again. the silver feline was surprised, but the expression did not find its mark upon his cold features; he gave a rasped growl and moved toward the upstart again, the end of his tail twitching with his forcibly concealed ire.

he did not speak -- the younger cat had proven his mind was too foolish for reasoning -- and shardul was silent, awaiting the other's strike, his body hard with tensed muscles.

I stuck Micco in #brutalmode and I'd say this counts as a fight. So I'll roll to see if he should be killed: 15 
UM, bye Micco.

At this point, even the tremble of a nearby leaf would have spurred Micco to depart. When the silver cat lunged again, Micco did just that - side stepping (more like falling) away from his nearest limb, but gripping at the soil with his extended claws all the same. His ears went back and he let out a hiss, while his tail writhed back and forth; then, he only stared at his rival with his saucer-sized irises, clearly defeated but not willing to give up.

poor micco! last post for me; one more from you should end it 

the child leapt aside and shardul chose the moment of fear to lay waste -- his claws tore forcibly into the thick muscles of the other's chest, and though the tawny cat shrieked in warning, shardul bit. his fangs flashed once before they buried themselves in the side of the upstart's neck, at the juncture of crown and shoulder, where the spine parades proudly, and in a moment he had snapped through the jointed bones there and dropped his foe dead to the ground.

he himself had suffered minute scoring of flailed claws upon his shoulders, but shardul merely rolled the muscled limbs and licked the blood from his jaws. a low chuff was given the coyote pup -- they would not consume the flesh of this animal -- and away they trekked, shardul vibrant with the energy of killing.

Micco's body buckled almost instantaneously when his rival closed that gap; he felt the white hot pain of claws scoring his flesh, then saw the bright eyes of his assailant. There was a moment of painful clarity then: Micco knew, somehow, that these were his final moments. Shardul sank his teeth in to the poor puma's collar, and after a pinch, there was nothing left of the boy to drown in his own blood. From there on, Shardul was in posession of an empty vessel, life melting away.