The girl and the black wolf moved quickly among the branches of trees. White crescent moon shaped marks on his cheeks and a white tipped tail let her know where he was in the darkness. Their territory was two miles behind them and she sent the white wolf in a separate direction so they could corner the enemy. She would have come this way by herself, but she knew her brothers felt uneasy at the thought of leaving her alone. So she relented to their wishes for now.
Originally the plan was to let the hunter come across the border of their territory and put an end to them there, but that quickly changed with the girl's misgivings. If another human came by and saw carnage on their side of the border it would give birth to more hunters coming to take revenge. Peace for the wolves would be unattainable then. But if they ended this now and covered their tracks…..Perfect.
Shouts cut through air, quickly followed by the roaring of predators. It sounded like a fight. Did something else find the hunter before she did? The girl had to see and confirm for herself. She would feel more at ease if this was the case. Then she and the remaining wolves would have no chance of being blamed.
Her brother chuffed, telling the girl that it was only a little farther to the area. She signaled him to fall back a pace. He looked at her and reluctantly agreed as she continued ahead.
What she saw when she came to the clearing didn't surprise her. A small group of mountain lions were attacking a pair of humans, who was doing a sloppy job of fighting back. Mountain cats were notorious for attacking anything in their path if it smelled like food, and one of them ripped and tore at a bag near the edge of the clearing. Stupid hunter, the girl scoffed. Everyone with common sense knew enough to keep things like that either locked up or well hidden to keep predators from finding it, and in turn finding them.
The girl could smell it too and was reminded her of her own empty stomach, having not eaten in days. Because there were no hunting parties for the pack anymore, due to being wiped out by hunters, she and her brothers had to fend for themselves. The problem, however, was prey had begun to move on for the coming winter and quickly became scarce while she and the wolves were stuck on the mountain. The pass to the other side was far too treacherous for them this time of year without a trail to follow, and snow hiding the drop-offs and cliffs made matters all the worse. It was safer to starve.
Motion out of the corner of her eye interrupted her thoughts. Another figure; a man with black hair and wearing a black cloak with red clouds.
Strange. The girl only remembered the aura of one person, but the dim firelight revealed two people here. And now that she got a somewhat closer look….they didn't seem to be hunters. Especially the giant one. He was human, no doubt, but a bizarre one. No hunter she knew of looked like a human shark.
No matter. The girl sat on a branch low enough to watch the show below her but high enough she wouldn't likely be seen. She could call her brothers if she needed to because they were always close by.
Soon the cougar that went after the bag lost interest and joined the others by going after the shorter man. He already seemed to be struggling with it, using a fire jutsu that was pitiful at best. After sixteen seconds he switched to using kunai. It was always when hunters lost, but somehow this man kept going. Barely. He was able to avoid the cougar's teeth and claws, but the cloak got torn at the arm.
The shark man was having similar troubles and the girl could see he was wearing down quickly. Though she did find it interesting he was holding his own against three of the predators despite the fact they were half his size at the height of their backs.
He retaliated against one lion by using a water jutsu that put it to the ground. One down, two to go.
Another leapt at him. Catching it by its foreleg, he threw it to the ground and pinned it. He was about to finish it off, but the second lashed out and the giant was forced to release his grip on the pinned cougar and jump away to avoid the blow.
He's doing considerably well in comparison to the other one…. the girl thought. Even she was only able to fight one mountain lion at a time unless her brothers were with her. Then she would have the ability to fight two at once. But this man was a stranger to the forest. ….for an outsider anyway. She snorted in self-irritation. Why should she care? He was just a human after all.
The shark man tried to avoid the two cougars lunging at him simultaneously and he unknowingly landed right between the paws of an unexpected fourth lion. Horrible mistake. The matriarch was almost three times the size of the others and had waited in the shadows for the right moment.
From her position the girl had seen the female ahead of time, but the shark man didn't and hardly had time to blink before the lioness used a full forced swat of its paw to send him flying into one of the boulders, causing the whole clearing to quake with the impact.
Shards of rock and blood sprayed through the air in the form of dust. When it settled and cleared the girl saw the giant's shirt was torn. She could see a long gash above his belly and another that stretched from chest to shoulder, all from where the lioness's claws gouged him, and blood trailed from his mouth as he coughed in agony.
The sight made the girl flinch and dig her nails into the scars on her arm to keep anxiety and nausea at bay. Her eyes were widened in shock. In a way she could feel what the shark man was going through. It was like a curse she could so easily imagine herself in that position and feel the pain as well. She hated it.
A thought crossed her mind. These aren't hunters at all. If they wanted to so much as touch the wolves they would not be in such a sorry condition to begin with.
Suddenly the lions' attention diverted. The shorter human had turned to run and the lions now tailed him out of instinct to kill whatever moved, leaving the shark man to bleed out where he lay.