The Hunter

Dinner is Served!

The scent of a male deer trickled into Mira’s nose and she crouched low to the ground. She slunk towards a small clearing and spotted a beautiful buck grazing on a patch of green grass. As she moved forward, the buck jerked his head up to search the nearby bushes. She dropped to the ground and stayed still until the deer went back to eating.

After a few more steps, she was finally in striking distance. With a push from her back legs, she launched herself through the air and landed right next to the startled buck. Hooves flew near her face, but she dodged to the left. Slamming her body into the side of the deer, she managed to avoid the sharp part of the antlers. As the buck stumbled from the hit, she reached down and grabbed one of his front legs. She yanked it up and bit down hard until it snapped in half. The deer fell to the ground thrashing. As quickly as possible, she latched her teeth around his neck to stop his suffering.

In her world, she had to kill animals like him for food, but it didn’t mean she enjoyed the deer’s pain. Blood flooded her mouth and a little flowed into her stomach when she swallowed. The blood summoned her hunger pains back in full force, and it took all of her willpower to not eat some of her kill right away.

She reluctantly removed her jaws from the deer and circled his body. Dragging back the carcass would leave a blood trail, which could lead rogues, hunters or wild animals right to the camp. The other option was to try and hoist him onto her back, but that would make her more vulnerable for an attack. She was under no illusion that the hunter wouldn’t try to attack her when she got back.

After pacing back and forth for a couple of minutes, the waning light from the sun alerted her to exactly how long she’d been gone. She went up to the deer and shimmied under his broken leg on her side. Taking the leg in her mouth, she rolled onto her stomach and pulled the body onto her back. She rearranged her grip on the leg before pushing herself up to her feet. It would work at least, and hopefully she could throw the body off quickly enough to defend herself at the camp. Fighting off one hunter was easier than fighting off a group of hunters or starving rogues.

When she neared the camp, barely any light was left in the sky, but she could see the faint glow of the fire. She sniffed to try and get his bearings, but unfortunately, she was upwind from the camp. Thick foliage to either side of the trail prevented her from taking an easy path to the other side of the camp. She dropped the dead deer and once again found herself stalking something, but this time her target was far more dangerous.

Slowly, she neared the camp. When she entered the small clearing, all she could see was the fire and the hunter’s backpack leaning against a tree. Her eyes darted to the tops of the trees expecting him to drop down on her at any moment. She turned in circles while searching for any sign of him. Her heart rate picked up and her lips pulled back instinctively. At the sound of a twig snapping behind her, she jumped and spun mid air before landing on her paws and growling.

“You’re jumpy, aren’t you?” The hunter’s voice drifted from the direction of the broken twig.

Without the ability to answer, she simply lowered her head further to the ground and held her stance. The hunter walked into the camp carrying a large Ziploc bag lined with a cloth. Upon seeing her posture, he froze and cocked an eyebrow at her.

Why wasn’t he trying to attack her? Was this some kind of trick? She’d have to play along with whatever he was doing, but that didn’t mean she’d let down her guard. With that in mind, she sat on her haunches and stared at the bag in his hand before glancing up at his face. Confusion flitted across his features before a small grin graced his lips.

“Berries and edible roots.” He shrugged. “Figured you were gonna catch a rabbit or something, which doesn’t really give much energy, and if you keep running me like you did today, I’m definitely going to need all the energy I can get. Speaking of rabbits, did you get one?” His eyes darted behind her before fixing back on her, but this time he frowned at her. “Were you really gone that long without catching anything at all?”