Wishing to avoid further confrontation with his fellow pack mates, Dune had retreated to the outer edges of Moonspear. He did not know if it was jealousy that had driven Dirge to act the way he had, but Dune considered it a test from whatever (or whoever) had blessed him with the collar. It hung around his neck, and though he still scratched at it occasionally, he felt it was more a blessing than a curse, even if it turned the entire pack against him. Little did he know there was a whole subset of wolves that were about to overshadow his divine accessory.

The yearling (now only a few weeks away from being more than that) set thoughts of his new role in life aside and picked up the trail of a fox. Intent on getting a meal for himself, and perhaps bringing it to Dirge as a peace offering, Dune began to follow the scent, ears pricked forward in case it made an obvious move.

For a very outgoing person, who was very interested in goings-on at the pack and beyond, Wraen was surprisingly clueless about events that were brewing in the Moonspear. She had no idea that Rannoch and Liffey were planning to leave. Though she was not entirely at ease with the ruling family, she did not suspect them plotting loyalty tests behind their subordinate's backs. She saw nothing fishy about the way Gannet was included in the group (he had spent a month or so here anyway) and she did not know that Dune had got a new accessory. 

What she did know was a fresh fox trail, when she sensed one, and feeling quite hungry and therefore pretty determined to have a lunch today, she followed the scent, until she caught sight of the northerner she had met a week earlier. Recalling their quite harmonious team, when they had encountered a deer, she joined him, making her presence known with a quick pointed look and a wag of tail. Then she set to run in paralell with him, letting him take charge of the hunt again.

Wraen, the same wolf he had met and played with before he had even joined Moonspear, came up alongside him. He tensed for a split second, worried that she might have a similar reaction to Dirge, but she seemed interested only in the hunt. Dune grinned at her, brushing shoulders for a moment before returning to the task at hand. She fell in line with him, again letting him be at the head of the chase.

Again, Dune felt a sense of purpose now that he had the collar. It had to mean something, right? Perhaps it marked him for some future task. Perhaps it was a test from some higher being, and he was meant to deal with the trials and tribulations. He did not know what would happen if he passed their test (nor what would happen if he failed). For now, though, his thoughts went back to hunting fox.

The trail was getting stronger, and he was pretty sure the fox wouldn't be too far off now.

The fact that there was something off with Dune's appearance was registered few minutes later, when they had followed the trail and judging by the intensity of the smell, the animal they were hunting, was near. Her gaze focused on the odd thing around her packmate's neck and she tilted her head, expressing her wonder and curiousity about, what it was.

But flash of dark orange against the white background, turned her attention to more important things. She cast a questioning glance in Dune's direction, being ready to spring in action at any moment.

Dune saw the fox, and a quick sideways glance at Wraen let him know that she had seen it as well. He slowed his pace, coming to a stealthy creeping walk instead of the brisk trot he'd been doing before. The quick crunch-crunch-crunch of snow became a much slower and softer crunch... crunch... crunch...

Up ahead, Dune spotted the fox tilting its head back and forth, looking into the snow. Like the two wolves, it was also hoping to catch its next meal. Unlike the two wolves, it was both the hunter and the hunted. When Dune saw an opportunity to strike, he sprang forward, eye on the prize and jaws ready to clamp down on the first bit of flesh he could sink his teeth into.

No fox would have survived way into the adulhood, unless it had learned some life lessons and had some tricks up it's sleeve. Dune went for a frontal attack, Wraen chose to target from a different angle, but two wolves cannot cover all of the possible escape routes. 

The small and dainty canid caught sight of them and bolted. Without a second glance of, what Dune was about to do now, Wraen went after her.

It bolted away, even though Dune had thought their tactics were sound. Wraen went after it, and Dune saw this as his chance to really shine. He picked up the pace, making a wide arc around the fox and Wraen, sprinting as quickly as he could. His ears slicked back and his body made an almost perfectly flat line from nose to tail as his heart raced in his chest. He pushed himself harder and harder, until finally, he was neck-and-neck with the fox, though about five yards to the right of it.

Wraen was still chasing behind, and when he saw his chance, Dune changed his course and dove to the left, hoping to cut off the fox's path so it would have to slow down. If all went according to plan, Wraen would have no problem going in for the kill.

Dune was faster than Wraen and, though aside from thrill of the hunt there was less place for anything else in her mind, it stung her pride a little. No one had beaten her in sprinting and agility in quite some time. Her companion was step in step with the fox and assuming that he would be the one to take the final move, she lagged slightly behind, therefore, when he cut the path of the prey suddenly and it dove in the opposite direction, the aspiring hunter missed the opportunity that had been thrown her way.

However, this did not deter Wraen from getting back in the swing of things right away. With an excited look, she sped up and soon was running in paralell to the fox, cutting at least one way to flee off. The rest was up to Dune.

Wraen came up on the other side of the fox, and Dune dove into the fox's path, narrowly missing it. His inner monologue fired off a dozen insults at the red creature, but it was no use. He was losing steam, and he wouldn't be able to catch up to it. Dune began to slow his pace, watching as the fox pulled ahead of them. It was possible Wraen would be able to catch it, but Dune did not think he had any more chances left for this one.

Wraen cast a questioning glance to the side, when she saw that Dune was getting tired and giving up on the agile canid. The girl - on the other hand - kept the chase going for a little while longer until the distance between her and the prey got too big. She was about to stop and turn around, when she noticed the fox disappear underground. Encouraged by this change of plans, she dashed to the den it had hidden itself in and with her head and muzzle half-hidden in the entrance she plopped down on her belly and tried to figure out, how to get the fox out and resume the chase.

Dune had slowed, but he had not stopped completely, and when he saw the fox disappear into the ground, he felt he had gotten a second wind. Encouraged by Wraen's curiosity and determination, he trotted over to where the hole was. First, he stuck his nose in (either with or without Wraen's nose still in there), ears splayed back behind him as he tried to figure out just how far back the fox had gotten. The den couldn't be that deep, could it? He pulled his head out of the dirt, although plenty of it stuck to his face, and looked at Wraen.

"Dig?" he suggested, already feeling like they would be able to get to the fox if only the put a little bit of elbow grease behind their cause. Perhaps their luck would turn around after all.

The cause was not entirely lost, because Dune showed interest in proceeding. Though they were roughly the same age Wraen viewed him as the more experienced in their two-person team, therefore his approval or dismissal of her suggestion would determine, what she would or would not do. 

She looked at her companion, thought his idea over and it hit her that this would not be so simple. Because fox mounds... fox mounds did not have just one entrance and exit. There had to be another one in the vicinity. "Have to check for other dens," she told him, beckoning to the surrounding area. "Might escape through those."

Wraen, perhaps the smarter of the two when it came to foxes, suggested they should look for other openings. Dune had not even considered the possibility. He was hell-bent on getting this fox, but his approach was brute force. Wraen seemed to take into account the bigger picture. She seemed to have a better handle on things, so he nodded in agreement. But they couldn't just leave this entrance be.

"I stay here. Keep watch," he said, laying down so his nose was right at the foxhole. That sneaky lil' bastard was going to have one hell of a time getting away from them. The two Moonspear wolves were not going to make the escape easy, even if it turned out to be possible.

"Sure!" Wraen sprang to her feet readily, happy to have another task (because one doorway to the fox's humble abode was too small for two wolf heads) and did it eagerly, walking first in smaller circles in the area surrounding the den and then proceeding to larger and larger ones. 

After a while she found one hole in the ground, which could be a spare exit, but a closer examination revealed that there was no tunnel connected to it. Wraen found another one by accident - when her foot broke through the snow and she found herself chest deep in snow. Some shuffling and scurrying later she broke free and with all four feet on solid ground, lied down and leaned closer to have a better look. 

"This one!" she called to Dune, then she got up to her feet and proceeded to check a suspicious spot by a tall tree.

Dune kept his attention on the entrance to the foxhole, listening for noises, sniffing for smells, and looking for any movements from within. He heard nothing, but that was to be expected. The fox had gone in this way, and it was unlikely to come out this way until it knew the coast was clear. With Dune's head sticking in, it certainly was not safe for the fox to come out, lest it was caught by Dune.

Wraen's struggle in the snow was making noise too, but Dune kept his focus on the foxhole. He did not want the rascal to get away from them. When she yelled, though, Dune pulled his head out of the dirt, looking over her way. The fox, sneaky as always, saw the opportunity. Luckily, Dune was quick enough to return his attention to it when he heard the noise. As soon as the critter's red skull exited the den, the white wolf snapped his jaws around its neck. The fox struggled, but the fight was won.

Proud of his catch, he pranced over to Wraen and dropped the kill at her feet, panting and wagging his tail with a big ol' smile on his face.

In the end the fox had turned out to be not as smart as Wraen had expected, because around the time she spotted another exit, the red-pelted canid had stuck his head in Dune's jaws and met a sad, but a reasonable end. 

Had it been any of the puppies or Gannet, for example, she would have congratulated them for their catch. However, she rarely praised those, who were very good at the skill and boasted about it as well. Therefore, when Dune threw the still warm, but very dead fox body by her feet, she regarded it briefly and then looked up at the proud hunter, saying (but not without a good-natured smile): "Show-off."

She regarded the fox, then him, then proceeded to call him names! How offensive! Dune, being the wolf that he was, kicked back a, "You jealous?" He grinned from ear-to-white-ear, vivid blue eyes sparkling with amusement. Granted, Dune was a show-off but only because he was trying to prove that he was going to make an excellent pack mate. He was an ambitious creature, even if he did not always show it. That was not to say he would go stepping on others to get to the top.

"Not kill without you," he said, his tone more genuine this time around. He nudged the fox toward her, giving her all of it if she wished.

"You wish," Wraen returned with an amused grin of her own. "I could take it down with my eyes closed," she added and gave him a look, which told - can you do that too? Of course, she was bluffing. The furthest she had gone with eyes closed had been hitting a tree head-first as a kid and spending the rest of that afternoon feeling dizzy and throwing up. 

"I am not hungry and if you don't want it - we can hide it," she offered.

Dune managed to pick up on the humor just enough to let out a hearty chuckle. He may not have been great at speaking and understanding speech, but her expression gave it all away. Wraen did not seem to want the fox for herself, and since Dune was no longer feeling especially hungry, he remembered the other idea he'd had for it. "I take to @Dirge," he decided. "Dirge no like gift. Maybe this help." The "gift" being the collar he had received some days earlier.

The white wolf was not sure if it would help, but gifting a meal certainly couldn't hurt, right? Besides, anything to impress his fellow packmates! "See soon!" he said, giving Wraen a wag of his tail and a lingering goodbye look before scooping up the fox and making his way toward the rendezvous site where Dirge might be found.