Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.
Hunted
They were being hunted.
That feeling had grown over the last few days. The hint of youki, never close enough to identify, kept plaguing them. They had shifted their patrol pattern twice, yet the searcher was kept almost finding them. They could not simply move out of the area, because sooner or later, Koga would be checking that they were fulfilling their duty.
Gnawing on a leftover bone from the morning's hunt, Hakkaku glanced up at the thin slice of sky that could be seen from the break in the tree canopy. "What do you think is hunting us?"
Ginta looked up from the bone he had cracked open for the marrow. "Something that flies. What do you think?"
"Something that flies, yeah." Hakkaku examined his bone, scowled, and tossed it aside. "Bird of Paradise?"
Licking the scraped marrow off his claw, Ginta considered, then shook his head. "Don't think so. Doesn't feel like it."
"Didn't think so." Running his fingers through his mohawk, the slightly older wolf sighed. "Need to find what it is, before Koga sends someone."
"Yeah. We'll never pup-sit, if he doesn't think we can do our job."
They gave each other doleful looks at the prospect.
"So, which way do we patrol tonight?" Hakkaku posed the question, then closed his eyes to consider their meanderings over the past days. Opening his eyes, he examined the direction Ginta was pointing, which was not the same direction he was pointing.
Arms both shifted. "That way."
Author's Note: This piece was written for the prompt "Slice", for the LiveJournal community Issekiwa. It was originally published on October 24, 2011.
This may be the last piece for the year, for this serial. My attention in November has been focused almost entirely on the "Blood Unbound" serial, using the "National Novel Writing Month" challenge to shove the plot forward at least a major distance towards the conclusion. (It's at 40,000 of the 50,000 word goal.) December will see me concentrating on cleaning up the November writing and publishing the chapters. With that out of the way, I then hope to sit down and plot several story arcs for this and other serials. Meanwhile, I can't predict what the December prompts will inspire, so you all will have to wait and see. (11/25/2011)