Something was near their haunt. A strange, smallish shape lay there, its darker colouring contrasting with its lighter shades in the moonlight. In all his life, he had never seen anything take up residence there. It was his. He had marked it as such and returned often enough to ensure that no amount of wind-blown desert sand could erase his claim. Yet there was an interloper, heedless of his mark, though whether through ignorance or dominance was to be determined.

He led the way forward, his followers trotting dutifully behind. At his signal, they let out a warning cry: the creature must flee or fight. If the former, they would give chase. If the latter, they outnumbered it twelve to one. The outcome either way was inevitable, so they might as well announce their presence.

The thing didn't appear to stir. Insulting. This was to be a hunt or a challenge, and yet the creature did not so much as lift its head. He cried louder this time, as did his followers. The strange shape on the desert changed. There! Whether stupid or cocky, it at least wasn't deaf. The creature moved again, this time to stand erect on two legs: a man, or the whelp of one. It stood there just before the ruins, whether in dumb fright or in stoic defiance he could not be sure at this distance. Either way, their call had been answered and they would acknowledge it with another and another – a series of them. He pumped his legs faster and heard his followers do the same.

Then seemingly out of nowhere another creature – not a man, not a sort of large game, but a great predator of some kind, he had no doubt. Of its sort he had never seen before: it stood on four powerful legs and even in the moonlight it seemed a sunny yellow. The maw in the midst of its shaggy head produced a cry of its own, one much deeper and louder than any he could produce or any he had heard from the creatures with which he was familiar. He knew, somehow, that alien though this beast was, that call was not a challenge. This frightened him greatly, and he immediately fell silent and beat a sudden retreat.

The beast did not pursue, but he readily put himself and his followers at a distance from it and their haunt before he would stop and survey what he could see of the scene behind him. The beast did not seem so large now, though surely large enough to the man-whelp. Had it interloped on the beast's claimed territory as well? But the beast grew smaller still, smaller than the man-whelp, and sat at its feet. Then it seemed that the man-whelp lay down again, against the beast who sat with its face toward the desert, alert and ready to protect its domain.

It was weeks before the jackals dared return to their haunt.


Prompt: Use four of the six random words in your fic: twelve, red, sand, ruin, volunteer, protect.

Please review!