Title: The Hunte(r/d)
Author: dartingspree
Fandom: Forgotten Realms
Rating: PG – mild violence
Character(s)/Pairing: Guenhwyvar/Drizzt

Prompt: reversed roles
Summary: Guenhwyvar the hunter finds herself in a completely different situation… not unlike her prey.
Disclaimer: I do not own Forgotten Realms or its characters. Surely you knew that?

Notes: A tad bit cliché, folks. And my title is the epitome of suck.

Guenhwyvar comfortably stalked her prey. She was doing what she did best, and that was being the hunter. She had her prey firmly within paw's reach; now all she had to do was to be patient. Drizzt was off fighting the rest of the bandits. He had specifically instructed Guenhwyvar to go for the mage, and that was what she was doing. The mage was very scared, running and tripping, constantly shooting glances over his back. Guenhwyvar purred. She knew he was scared, she knew her next kill would come soon.

The mage stumbled and picked himself up. He continued running, running in the forest that he and the rest of the bandits called home, the forest that Guenhwyvar called home. For home was where she hunted. And she could hunt anywhere. Her muscles tensed up as she bounded from tree to tree, all two hundred pounds of panther leaping above the mage, casting her shadow over him from time to time. Guenhwyvar knew how to hunt. This was one of her tactics. Tactics to drive her prey beyond fear. Tactics to kill.

The clanging of blades in the distance stopped. Guenhwyvar quickened her jumps, knowing that Drizzt had dispatched the bandits, and that it was now her turn to get rid of the mage. Upon seeing a panther's huge bulk, the mage had immediately cast a spell that granted him fleet of foot, and with that he tried to escape into the forest. Guenhwyvar was equally fast, and she had sprinted after him, keeping to the treetops to find an angle she could pounce onto him for the kill.

The mage suddenly whirled around. Guenhwyvar was ever alert and ready, she pounced. She bared her fangs as her claws extended straight for his chest, preparing for them to plunge into human flesh. They never did. Instead, her claws banged against the mage's chest, his stone skin protection preventing her from slashing into his chest. The force of the blow was enough to send him sprawling backwards, but the mage easily picked himself back up, clearly unharmed.

He was now smiling. It had all been a ruse. A ruse to draw Guenhwyvar away from Drizzt, where he could finally defeat her unchallenged. The mage waggled his fingers, casting a spell. A small sphere of energy formed between his hands, and the sphere suddenly translated its energy into a bolt of lightning, streaking forth towards Guenhwyvar. She was fast and quickly tried to jump away, but the lightning bolt struck her rump, causing her fur to sizzle as she snarled.

"That's for starters," the mage hissed. "Now, for a taste of what it's like to be hunted."

He thrust his arms into the air, exposing an obsidian ring he wore on his middle finger. He chanted a few words, and the ring flashed once, before Guenhwyvar was plunged into darkness. She was unfazed, for her other senses were equally acute. If she could not see him, she would smell him out, or track his movements by her hearing.

But Guenhwyvar could no longer use them. The mage's spell had sealed her within a globe of nothingness, void of any sensation. She was no longer able to use her senses. She was blind, deaf, useless. She snarled in frustration, and found out she could not even hear herself. She could no longer kill the mage. She was as good as dead.

She waited for the killing spell to be cast. It never came, for the mage had something prepared for Guenhwyvar. Using a mental psychic link, he started to talk to the panther, taunting her as he did so.

Not the hunter anymore, are you? he jeered in her mind. She could do nothing to stop him from talking to her. More like… the hunted.

Laughing maniacally, he fired magic missiles at her. They were weak, and had little magic power in them, for that was what the mage had planned. The missiles struck her back, stinging her as missile after missile landed on their mark. She took to running, trying to escape from the mage and break out of her prison.

Now, he interrupted her thoughts. We have reversed roles. I shall stalk you, hunt you, and finally, kill you.

Guenhwyvar knew she could not die, for she would simply return to the astral plane that she existed in. But now she knew, she knew what it was like to be her prey. For this time, she was no longer the hunter.

She was the hunted.