Broken Antler Fen the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

Sugar couldn't fight the rising panic any longer. She slowed her step and stopped, gulping in deep breaths, her little chest heaving. She was utterly lost for the second time in her life and it was just as scary as the first time. To add insult to injury, she was painfully aware of the fact that she'd bailed on Frosthawks and Raven after only two days, no matter how accidentally. A low moan peeled out of her throat as she slumped to the ground, weary after days of scrambling around the wilderness. Exploring had seemed so wonderful at first and now Sugar regretted ever setting foot outside the copse at all.

Title from "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll.

Let's be real: coyotes get a bad rap. A few bad seeds, and then an entire (not entirely different) species hates all of them. Draper was nothing of the sort. He was polite, tolerant, and generally welcoming toward wolves. The problem was that they were rarely welcoming toward him. Nor did they tend to take a coyote's claim seriously. The latter bugged him to no end, especially when they seemed perfectly capable of both sniffing out and avoiding each other's boundaries.

He wasn't even trying to claim the whole fen as his own. He just wanted a little slice of life where he could gather a few coyotes and live out their days. Why was that so much to ask?

Draper had spotted a striped wolf laying down on his ground, and he wasn't about to let that slide, no matter how polite he usually was. The politeness was reserved for neutral ground, which he did not consider this to be. Scram! he shouted, This is my home! You can't just lay down here! It was more of a "get off my lawn!" than a truly hostile attack.

The shouting voice made Sugar startle badly. With a hiccup, she lurched to her feet, her head whipping around so rapidly the bones in her neck creaked in protest. Her wide black eyes clapped on the figure of a coyote coming closer at a steady clip, looking and sounding quite put out with her. Judging by his words, she could hardly blame him. In her blind panic, she must've missed the scent markers entirely.

"I'm sorry!" she said, every muscle in her small body tensing as she prepared to scurry off his lands. Sugar bit back a moan when she realized she didn't know which direction to go. She could theoretically run in any direction and eventually find her way out but Sugar wanted to make the quickest possible exit. "Which way should I go?" she blurted stupidly.

Which way should you go? he asked, mildly amused and a little bit flabbergasted at the question. I don't care, as long as it's away. And that was the truth of it. Beat it, kid! Now, his hackles were raised. Draper had asked nicely, and now he asked a lot less nicely. His lip curled, he growled, and his muscles tightened. He knew that if he wanted to actually make this place his own, he was going to have to toughen up. Mr. Nice Guy could only be around for so long before Mr. Ugly Guy had to make an appearance.

He didn't want to fight this pink-nosed wolf, but he knew he would if he had to.

He parroted the question back at her, clearly mocking, and Sugar blurted another, "Sorry!" He didn't care which way she went, so long as she left promptly. She gulped almost comically as she took in his angry expression and raised hackles. He looked like he was two seconds away from springing at her.

She wouldn't realize it until later but it was at that moment that Sugar blacked out. Her body went strangely still, her face falling slack, black eyes blank. A heartbeat later, she threw herself at the coyote with an earsplitting shriek, her tiny body a whirlwind of motion as she made to bite, scratch and kick any part of him she could reach, all at once.

I rolled a 4/10 for damage to Draper, and 6/10 for damage to Sugar, woo! Let me know if I need to edit anything. <3

In a strange moment, the small wolf went from being apologetic to... well, whatever the fuck she was doing, hurtling herself toward him. Draper, who had already been amped up for a potential fight, managed to hold his own reasonably well. Remedy is pretty over explaining exactly what happens in scraps like this, so let's just say he wasn't coming out of this unharmed. Somewhere during their scuffle, she split his right ear and the pink-nosed monster got a good chomp on his left rear leg, leaving him with some nice puncture wounds.

That wasn't to say that Sugar went unharmed. Draper managed to rip off one of her toenails (Kat's choice) and he got a good decent chunk of fur from her left shoulder, taking a bit of skin with it. The coyote had seen his fair share of fights, especially with wolves. This one was surprisingly evenly matched, but Draper wasn't going to give up just because of a few flesh wounds.

She didn't seem to notice his counterattacks any more than she acknowledged the wounds he inflicted on her. In a word, Sugar had gone berserk. Her scream continued to rise in volume until it hit the eardrums like a low-flying airplane. Oblivious to the various parts of her body that bled, she continued her own onslaught, coming at the coyote unflinchingly and seemingly without any concern whatsoever for her own mortality.

She didn't stop. But neither did Draper. He wanted this place, his home, to be safe. Safe from fucking psychos like this one. She shredded at him, he shredded at her. He took another few bite marks, a couple of lacerations on his ribs. The top of his muzzle now had a rather nasty gash on it as well. As for his opponent, she was looking worse for the wear. At some point, Draper had gained the upper hand, and he managed to pin her to the ground, pressing his weight on her as he snapped at that precious pink nose of hers.

It was more of a red nose now. At least, what was left of it. Pinned beneath him, he paused for her to either a) give up or b) continue to give him a whole lot of trouble.

Although Sugar didn't appear to be operating logically by any means, some part of her must've known she was no longer in a position to fight. Still mindless to how badly he'd mutilated her, Sugar went absolutely limp underneath the coyote. Her head dropped sideways as she stared blankly off to the side. While she was still there physically—flesh, bone and plenty of blood—it was clear by the vacant look in her black eyes that not a single light was on upstairs at present.

Like any animal that knew she'd been beaten, the wolf went limp. But instead of bolting like any normal animal when he released her, she just sort of... stayed there. Draper, being a reasonable coyote of sound mind, decided this was just too fuckin' much for one day. Confident that she was no longer a Problem, Draper gave her a long, wary stare-down before eventually backing away very, very slowly.

From there, he found a perch on a log a few strides away and just... watched her. He certainly wasn't going to just leave her there. She was still a threat. Who knew what she would do next? Draper didn't have the strength to drag her out of here on his own. Perhaps the scavengers would come and peck at her. In the meantime, he began to clean the wounds he could reach, never taking his eyes off those very creepy ones staring out into the void.

Fortunately for her, he didn't take advantage of her absolute vulnerability and open her throat right then and there. Instead, he slowly backed away and took up a watchful position nearby. Sugar wasn't aware of any of this. She didn't react in any way when he removed himself, continuing to simply sprawl there lifelessly, blood oozing from her various wounds.

Some indeterminate amount of time later, she finally roused. She jerked slightly and blinked more than a dozen times, then gradually righted herself. There was still a dullness to her gaze. Sugar didn't even notice the coyote still perched nearby, his own gaze boring into her. She turned her striped back to him and began to limp away, headed south, then east, then south again... zig-zagging like a mindless drunk until she disappeared into the distance.

When she finally jostled herself to her feet, Draper remained on his log, hackles raised as a low growl gurgled in the back of his throat. Whether or not she heard it, he couldn't tell, but at least she left. As far as he was concerned, she was no longer his problem. Hopefully she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. Preferably, she would never come back. That bitch was crazy.