Whiskers

It Bites, Too

(Sorry this took forever. Have not been feeling great and still don't. Hoping for some changes this week.) 

Not fast enough. 

The young man who had delivered the letter was a shifter, and a quick one at that, but Palace wasn't deterred. Even after running into the thick woods, he refused to slow and barreled through the underbrush with no qualms about destroying bushes or knocking over small trees. 

Whatever animal he was following was clearly more careful, or at least couldn't afford to run into everything with their size, because there was no path but a scent trail to follow. His nostrils flared before he jerked hard to the right, leaving a giant divot in the damp earth as his ears perked up. 

He was getting closer. 

With an excited roar, he snapped his teeth together and sped up, tucking his wings tighter against his body. It only took a few more minutes before he finally began closing the last few yards of distance between him and his prey.  

A deer... delicious. 

It's patch of white fur stood tall on its rump, making Palace swipe his tongue over his lips as he pushed himself to move faster. The deer tried to dodge by zigzagging between the thicker trees, but Palace knew that it had to go a certain way. It wasn't very good at pretending. 

He allowed it to tire itself out and just kept moving in a straight line. As planned, the deer realigned with his path, but was clearly worse for wear. There was a clearing up ahead that he could just barely see through some thickets which would give him the perfect chance to finally catch his dinner. 

He had no qualms about eating a shifter if they refused to change back. He wanted information from him, but if he couldn't get it... he'd at least get something to eat. He could track the other scent well enough already, he didn't technically need the young buck alive. 

The moment he broke through the underbrush he let a growl rumble from his chest and dug  his claws into the damp ground, putting all of his strength into his next few strides. 

Mine! 

He was just lunging for the animal, his front paws mere inches from its flank, when something hard slammed into his right side. His body went flying, the damp grass barely cushioning his heavy body. 

What was that? 

He wasn't used to being moved easily and the abrupt hit had definitely surprised him enough to take some of the air from his lungs. 

His vision swam for a few moments as he pushed himself to his feet, then shook out his coat with an annoyed snort. When he looked up, he caught a flash of the deer a second before it disappeared across the clearing back into the forest. 

What the hell had hit me? 

His eyes roamed the area for any movement, but even the wind seemed to have stopped completely, scared away by their sudden appearance. 

He was about to relent and return to his previous hunt when a strong scent caught his attention. 

The other scent on the letter... 

His wolf began sniffing the air repeatedly, catching a scent on the faint breeze struggling through the cool air. He lifted his nose higher and higher until his eyes caught movement up in a large oak tree near the edge of the clearing. 

A wolf... with black wings. 

He was moving before he completed the thought, his heavy paws quickly carrying him near the base of the tree. It would be easy to scale it with his strong claws, even though he couldn't fly well enough to get up that way, but instead of doing so right away, he circled its base several times, rustling his wings as he moved.