| The trees flowed pass me easily as I ran through the forest. 'I'm not running,' I told myself. 'I'm not running from him.' The wolf in me picked up the scent of some herd animals and I followed her nose, trusting her to lead me to them. 'I won't kill them,' I considered, following the trail. 'I'll just stalk them. It'll be nice to just sink away for awhile...' My ears quipped to the sound of a pair of paws on the forest floor, hot on my trail. 'I could run now but he's faster than I am...damnit. I guess I just have to sit here and wait...' Will exploded from behind a tree, landing in a crouch, long pink tongue hanging as he panted. <Tasha...> <What?> I asked stoicly and Will must have heard something else in my voice because he tucked his tail closr to his rump and he lowered his ears; a sign of submission. <I...came to,> he started to say before looking at the ground. <I came to say I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I just--> Words seem to fail him and I walked over to him, nuzzling the side of his face before I realized it. 'What the hell am I doing?! Ok, blame it on the wolf...' <I understand,> I thought back and stood nose to nose with him. <Do you smell what I smell?> Will nodded, black nose quivering. <Prey.> <It's time to hunt.> A pause and then I added, <Not to kill, just for the sake of the hunt.> <Let's go.> The two of us took off, the forest flowing around us like a river as the scent grew stronger. 'Not far now. They're not far now...' There! A flash and a golden antelope darted through the trees, calling out a musical bleeting warning. More of them began to run, flicks of metallic against the darkeness of the tree trunks. Cutting left, Will cut right, flanking the herd and funneling them. There had to be over one hundred of them, all of them bleeting, all of them producing the scent of fear that the wolf wallowed and drowned in. The kill...it is near, the predator chanted and a howl of excitement exploded from my throat to be echoed by Will as we thundered into a meadow. Suddenly, the lead bull turned, racing through his herd to come back at us. Sharp horns were lowered as he charged and Will danced out of the way, snarling. 'He's sacrificing himself for the herd...' I thought and realized that Will had the Bloodlust; the wolf's nearly unbeatable intent to kill. 'Oh God...he's going to kill him for real.' <WILL!> I cried out. Will didn't hear me and jumped, white coat flashing, teeth grazing the flank of the antelope, drawing blood in thin red lines. The creature bellowed, a more menacing sound than before and swung his head, smacking Will with the blunt side of his horn, throwing him to the ground. I took off running as Will tried to stand but I realized that the bull antelope was running at him too and was closer. The rest of the herd was long gone and all I heard was the blood pounding in my ears and the sound of my feet on the grass. 'I won't make it in time...' A roar blasted across the glave from the sky and all three of us paused in mid run, surprised. Looking up, I saw Der diving from the pale blue sky, his shadow crossing the ground in a streak. "Natasha, Will!" he called out but I took the chance to finally close the distance between myself and the antelope. With a cry, I collided with him, hooves and paws failling in the air as I caught him by surprise. The same musical call of distress greeted my ears and I felt the urge to kill rising in my body. This is prey...prey is to be eaten... I saw the pulse in his neck under that coat of gold beating like a candy, a candy that would explode in my mouth and run down my muzzle, making it slick-- 'NO!' I screamed at myself and slowly backed off, allowing both of us to stand shaking. "Will, Natasha," Der rumbled, hovering in mid air, raising small dust clouds. "We must go, it is urgent." <Give me a second, please,> I thought back and Will came to stand next to me. The golden antelope looked at us warily and I bowed my head. <I apologize for frightening your herd. It was wrong of us,> I thought humbily, sending the bull pictures and feelings in case he didn't understand the words. A gentle head butt touched my forehead and I looked into the eyes of a creature I had just hunted and saw forgiveness. He did the same to Will before taking off, running towards where his herd had disappeard, giving his high musical call along the way. As we changed into our WolfAngel forms and took to the air, Der gave me a quizzle look. "What were you doing?" he asked. "Righting a wrong," Will and I answered in unison and we looked at each other briefly. Der laughed, heading back towards the house. "And you say that you are not connected," he gloated and I followed him, changing the subject. "We got problems?" "We got big problems." |