Animal Kingdom - War of The Woods

Chapter 6: The Way We Hunt

The wolves dispatched. Lyracus lead a small squad of wolves to the left while Zegra (who was being assessed for the position as lead beta) lead a trio of wolves to the right. Delreaga and Virious were going straight ahead. Azur's nerves were replaced with excitement as he watched the hunt. The wolves presence became clear to the deer almost immediately. The largest buck jerked his head up towards the wolves and a wave of heads followed. Now the wolves had to take this into account. The wolves stopped when they reached either side of the large crowd of deer, making the deer even more nervous. The problem here was the many years that have past have taught these deer protective patterns that they can perform to protect themselves, they now know that having the buck at the front will scare away predators. The antlers of the buck put the wolves at an unease. Lyracus started signalling something with his tail to the other groups of wolves.

"Interesting, using their tail to get a message across." Said a pup sitting next to Azur. He also made note of this, he had never heard of such a tactic. Something occurred to Azur as he watched the wolves pace towards and backwards from the heard. If the deer have their antlers on the top half of their body, than that must leave enough space for us to sneak underneath. Azur took a look at the pup next to him and decided that it must be socially accepted to relay your thoughts out loud, so he did just that.

"That's pretty clever actually"marveled the pup next to Azur "What's your name?"

Azur felt like he was making another friend, which comforted him "I'm Azur, what's your name?"

The pup looked ecstatic "The names Vyrch, but my friend calls me V" Azur could tell by the sound of her voice that Vyrch was a girl.

"Could you to shut it?" Said another pup who was sitting a few meters away. Azur and Vyrch both looked at the pup and then looked at the hunt once more. Azur noticed that the wolves where a lot closer now and the deer were edging their way backwards. Azur could also tell that the wolves had found their target, many of them were eyeing a large but bony doe. Azur also got a hunch that it was an elder of the heard. This doe was conveniently standing near the outer rim of the heard making it easier for them to hunt it. Azur remembered a time when Subor told him You shouldn't mess with them deer Azur, they've evolved as much as we've. They used to just run without order, now they no what their doin'! This made Azur watch even more intently, hoping to pick up on the wolves strategy. 

The first wolf made their move. It was Virious, he forced the front of the deer backwards and spread huge alarm through the heard. Delreaga followed and the deer's edging turned into medium paced walking. Lyracus' squad and Zegra's trio snarled aggressively to speed up the pace. The deer were now moving at a jog but didn't take their eyes off the wolves. One wolf Azur didn't recognize snapped dangerously close at one of the bucks legs and the chase began. The deer kept formation but took their eyes of of the wolves to run properly. Their target lingered near the back. The wolves on the sides slowed to join the two at the back. they ran at full speed. two bucks stopped to defend, but the wolves maneuvered through their legs. One wolf was hit by the antlers as the buck lowered them down. The wolf was greatly injured. Zegra's trio stopped to take on the two bucks. The rest had to move on. Lyracus and the rest caught up to their target, none of the deer daring to look back. Their target tripped, giving Zegra his chance to lock onto her leg. Delreaga followed by clasping the other leg. Lyracus and three others where forcing the rest of the deer forward. Then they turned to take down their prey. One of the bucks that had challenged Zegra was now being swarmed by the wolves that had taken down their initial prey, the other buck had decided to run for it. Vyrch was cheering and Azur soon followed. Lyracus signaled for Azur to come to him, so did the rest of the pups and their mentors.

"What did you gather from that?" queried Lyracus breathlessly.

"A lot..." Azur listed everything for the next few minutes, relaying the scene and piecing together what they did as well as why they did it.

"Good, very good. you may now help to carry our kill back to the pack. Tomorrow you shall study a different technique of hunting and possibly scavenging." Lyracus stopped and turned to the pack "Are we all ready to go?". There was a wave of yeses from the group and they began the journey back. Two hours into their trip and it was finally time for Azur's break from carrying the kill (Delreaga took his place). His mind wondered off as it often did and he began thinking about what wolves where like in the beginning, all the way back when humans only just wiped themselves from the planet. What where they like? Did they have strategies like we have now? Did they even eat the same things? Did they look different?. The list of questions goes on for a very long time, but one question he conjured up struck him harder than any of the others.

"Lyracus, can I ask you something?" Said Azur

"Permission granted, speak freely" Replied Lyracus

"Well, I was thinking about what we would have been like in the past and I came to realize that we didn't used to carry our meals across valleys and such, why do we do that now?" Azur was waiting eagerly for an answer.

"Your a clever pup Azur, It is true that we didn't haul such things such long distances. You see it's all within evolution, our evolution is especially unique from other animals because we developed and excelled in almost every way possible. We take meat this far because we hunt away from the rest of the pack, can you think of why?"

Azur thought as hard as he could "No, not real- WAIT! it's for the packs protection isn't it!"

"Right again Azur, well done. If we hunt near the pack we give away the packs location. herbivores may not be the best in fights but they are the best at making deals with higher level predators, we don't need any trouble at the moment." Said Lyracus. Azur was exceptionally happy that he now new of this, evolution fascinated him. The next 2 hours where relatively quite, Azur had made his way over to Vyrch and the two where now talking to each other about what they had learnt. Vyrch had clearly learnt far more than Azur, but she wasn't the sort of wolf to point that out.

"HALT" yelled Lyracus. The whole pack stopped in their tracks.

Lyracus turned on the spot to look at the group "The sun has fully revealed itself. We will rest here till the sun bids farewell."