CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

The Hunt Part 1#

= VICTOR AND LOGAN =

It had been long…..too long since he had hunted with his brother, and the thrill of it raced through his system like a drug; the scent of pine and fresh earth, the sound of birds trilling in the trees and insects going about their business, the sight of trees and earth, every blade of grass blown up in sharp detail. It was an adrenaline high, a rush, the same kind as when he was about to hit a mark, only this time, his brother knelt only a few yards away from him, as still as he was…..just like old times.

-flashback-

"Okay, listen Jimmy. We gotta stay down wind—"

"Why, Victor?" the eager voice interrupted and Victor rolled his eyes in brotherly annoyance.

"Because if we're upwind, the prey will know we're gonna attack'em."

"What's up-wind?"

The sixteen year old took a deep breath, willing himself to be patient. Jimmy was still a cub, and he had to learn these things. "Upwind is when you're standing in the wind and the wind blows your scent to the prey, letting'em know you're there and ruining the element of surprise."

"And what's down-wind?"

"The exact opposite, when you're standing somewhere and the wind hits the prey FIRST before it gets to you, so they can't smell you but you can smell'em."

The little Jimmy nodded, huge brown eyes wide, soaking in the information and looking up at his older brother with something akin to hero worship.

Victor couldn't hide a small smile as he leaned forward and rubbed a cheek against his brothers, letting out a soft, soothing purr. "We'll do fine, Jimmy. Just do as I say, alright?"

Jimmy nodded, eager to please.

"Do you remember those hand signals I taught you?" Victor asked and his younger brother nodded emphatically.

"Okay then, let's get going."

-end flashback-

It had been a doe they were hunting at that time, one with a wounded leg. Victor had wanted something easy for his little brothers first hunt, something that couldn't turn around and become the hunter.

Everything had seemed like it was going well, at first, till the runt tripped and fell VERY loudly over a log, scaring off all of the game.

But Victor hadn't let his little brother stop there. He had turned the mishap into an exercise in tracking, showing him how to find the prints the deer left and follow them, how to tell whether they had turned right or left even without prints to look at, and how fast they had been moving. When they had found the herd they had tried again.

Victor chuckled very lowly to himself. It had taken the runt quite a while to figure things out; even with his big brother as a mentor; how to walk without making noise or leaving tracks, how to track, how to bring down an animal using tooth and claw. Eventually, the pair had become an amazing tag team, bringing down even grizzly bears together, and never going hungry.

Even when the runt could hunt for himself (and often did) they still went hunting together, relishing in that time when they could almost read each others minds, hunting down prey, and finally—FINALLY—they were doing it again.

They'd need something big this time, though. A lot of somethings.

Victor couldn't help but wince when he thought of the sheer number of cubs he had to feed back at the school.

"Fish." Logan grunted, jerking Victor out of his worries.

Victor growled a question at him.

Logan snarled right back. "We need to get some fish, too. Clarisse, her mutation, her body digests fish better than anything else."

Victor gave a grunt of agreement, pleased that his brother knew this information about one of the cubs. It meant he was paying attention, like a good beta. He grunted to make sure that the runts attention was on him then asked; "Any of the other cubs have special diets?"

Logan shrugged. "Not that I know of specifically. There's this one kid, Roddy…..eats flies." He made a face.

Victor snorted, finding this amusing. "Reptillian mutation?"

"Yeah."

Victor nodded briefly. They could work something out with that. Then he took a deep breath, catching the scent….. He grinned like a cat that had gotten successfully into the cream and looked over at his little brother. "You smell that, Jimmy-boy?"

The Runt sniffed the air, eyes closed, then his eyes opened and his smile mirrored his brothers. "Yeah, deer. A whole herd'of'em."

"One of the reasons why I picked these woods was because of the amount of prey." Victor answered back quietly. "Come'on, runt, let's go take down some game."

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= CASSIE =

Cassie sighed as she settled down into the little pine-bed her former captor and his amnesiac brother had made for her. It was actually very nice, scented and squishy (she bounced up and down a few times to test the give.)

As always, when she was in the woods, she couldn't help but relax, even though the last time had not ended well with her kidnapping, but the semi quiet (of course you could hear the birds and the wind and the insects) and being alone just seeped her in peace.

Then she groaned and threw one arm over her eyes, being careful not to hurt her glasses. "Ugh! I CAN'T believe this is HAPPENING to me! I mean, this is absolutely RIDICULOUS!" she rolled over onto her side and addressed the pine-needles. "My crazy feral captor has a soft spot for "cubs" as he calls'em, and he's super protective, which is actually kinda nice. His brother has amnesia and doesn't remember him, and then there's this paraplegic telepath who can read minds from really REALLY far away….AND he's super-rich somehow, I suspect drug-running."

*I assure you, Miss. Andrews, I am not running drugs nor do I have anything to do with them.*

When the Professor spoke in her head she somehow managed to jump three feet in the air even while she was lying down. "Geez louise!"

*I apologize for startling you, Miss. Andrews.*

"Isn't there some kind of mental nudge you can give a girl before you speak to her in her brain?" she groused.

*I will be sure to attempt it next time.* the Professor conceded. *I wanted to tell you that I have contacted Steve Aswell and he will be here within the afternoon.*

Relief broke like a dam and flowed through her.

"You're sure?"

*Yes, Miss. Andrews. He seems quite protective of you. May I ask your relationship with him?*

She wrinkled her nose. "Well, he's kind of like an Uncle or a big brother, I suppose." she answered back. "Though we're not related biologically."

*I see. Do you know where he works?*

"Not really, but I know he travels a lot and he's not exactly poor….okay, he's filthy rich." Suddenly, her suspicions about the Professor made her jerk up in her seat. "Holy poop, Uncle Steves a drug-runner!"

She actually felt the warm laughter in her head. *Do not worry, Miss. Andrews, he is not a drug-runner. I would never let someone like that into my school.*

She wasn't all too sure her captor hadn't had anything to do with drugs. The thought bothered her and she began chewing on her lip.

*Miss. Andrews,* the Professors said, not unkindly. *If you accidently bite yourself and bring blood you know Victor will be there immediately.*

THAT stopped her lip biting. Too bad. She could've used the pain to help her focus.

"Professor…..tell me about Sabretooth."

There was no missing the hesitant tone in the Professors mental voice. * I believe you need to ask Victor about that, Miss. Andrews. And you don't have to speak out loud; simply think back to me and I will 'hear' it.*

…..Well, that was absolutely NO help.

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= VICTOR AND LOGAN=

And there they were…..the herd of deer grazing quietly.

Victor didn't see his brother, couldn't hear him, could barely smell him, but he sensed him, knew that he was on his flank, ready to follow his lead. The Sabretooth smirked when a thought occurred to him. Holding up his hands, he began to use some of the hunting signals they had used when they were brothers, wondering if some part of Jimmy's brain would register and remember the motions.

When his brother moved directly where he had motioned, Victor couldn't stop a huge grin from growing over his face. If anyone had seen this grin, he knew he would've had to gut them, because this was surely a huge, totally non-threatening grin not his; "I'm-gonna-gut-you-and-enjoy-it" grin.

Somewhere, someplace in Jimmy's mind, fractured though it may be, he remembered…..

Victor selected three (3) deer from the herd, two healthy and one with a gimp leg, slowing the herd down. The two brothers moved in unison, waiting…..ready…..

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VOCABULARY:

GROUSE: 1. n. a wild bird, like a plump chicken that is hunted as game

2.v. to complain or grumble -this is the definition I meant