A dazed walk through the woods

The woods seemed oddly quiet today.There was the occasional singing of birds overhead, but it wasn't as loud or frequesnt as it usually is. A black shadow moved away from the trees, revealing it's presence. The black male was a large contrast against the golden background, but he didn't mind. He had already eaten well, so there was no need of him sneaking around to find food like he normally would. Soldier trotted through a small clearing that was full of deer. A few of them panicked immediately at the sight of the black wolf, though those were the younger, less experienced ones. The older deer meerely raised their heads to watch the wolf crossing carefully. His steath was gone; he couldn't do anything to them now even if he wanted to, and they all knew that. So instead, the hunter and the prey had an odd peaceful moment. Soldier's tail held itself outward as he trotted, making it sway from side to side slightly. He didn't really have anywhere to go, but it was always fun to prance about in front of the herd. Finally leaving the clearing, things seemed to come back to life. Birds suddenly started chirping again and the scuttle of prey underpaw could be heard. He grinned to himself. This place was nice.

----

A small shape weaved between the trees and undergrowth of the forest floor. Stepping out into the sunlight, and Ocelot raised her head to scent the air for anything edible, but instead scented something strange... Foreign. It smeeled sort of like a wolf, but it was mixed with many other scents, too. Zura was just about to look over her shoulder to give a report to Whisker, when a massive black shape appeared before her. Her brown eyes grew wide with surprise and she instinctively broke into a furious hiss and backed up, putting distance between the two. It was a wolf alright. So this is what I've been smelling, she thought, her ears flattening as her lips pulled back. She had nothing against him; in face this male seemed happy as could be, but she was startled that he strode out right in front of her, almost close enough that she nearly ran into his leg. "Who are you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm, though her features were uncontrollable.

----

As Soldier continued on his way, he began loosing himself in the trees. His golden eyes looked up to study the way that the leaves swayed lazily in the wind, and the birds atop the branches darted everywhere. A furious hiss made him stop in his tracks, and his attention snapped back to where he was going. There he saw two cats; one was bigger than the other. And ocelot, he thought he remembered. At the furious cat's question, he tilted his head to the side. "I'm Soldier, cat. Did I almost step on you?" he chuckled. "I'm sorry. I dazed off for a moment. Who may you two be?" he asked, his gaze making it's way to the black cat who was following the first.

Whisker followed close behind Zura, the two didn't move to far from the den they left Kazuro and Crescent. His body still ached her injuires being brought upon him but he didn't want to show how hurt he was. it would only worry Kazuro and Zura more then they needed to be. if he could at least appear strong to them they wouldn't worry so much. He was lost in his own thoughts of how Crescent would recover from the attack her side and wing both looked terrible she may no longer have the ability to fly now. A sigh escaped his maw only time would tell, he sudden heard Zura hissing. he looked up and saw a wolf in their path his body morphed into a White fox and he growled at the wolf.

With the deer behind them stirring restlessly, the herd finally decided that the wolf wasn't leaving. With a few of the bigger and older deer staying behind to keep an eye on the black wolf, the majority moved onward with the fawns in tow. Soldier peered down at the two felines. Seemed he wouldn't get a responce from the black cat, er... White fox. The first one seemed to be the speaker for both of them. With the sunlight rippling on his pelt, beating down on the black male, he found his tongue beginning to snake out of his mouth and eventually hung beside his maw, moving in time with each time he took a breath.

----

Zura continued her glare up at the wolf, and felt comforted when sheheard Whisker's growl behind her. It wasn't their territory, so she had no real reason to be aggressive, besides the fact that this wolf would have no trouble finishing them off. "I'm Zura. This is Whisker." She motioned with her tail back at her companion, then sighed, hating to do this, but maybe this male could help. "Listen; there are two wolves nearby that are badly hurt. They sent us to hunt for them, but we're a little too small to take down big prey."

----

Soldier preked his ears at the mention of the two wolves, and cocked his head. His eyes became guarded, but it was in his nature to care for others. "So you want me to help, then," he finished for the cat. He sat and his golden gaze swept the treetops for a moment, thinking. He couldn't leave injured wolves to fend for themselves... That would be totally unlike him. If they needed his help, he would aid them. Returning his gaze to the two, he nodded. "I can catch up to the deer herd that I passed not too long ago. I can't say that I can take down a doe or a buck, but I can definately catch a fawn if I'm lucky. Come on, but we have to be quiet." He got to his paws and turned around swiftly to bound away, making a semi-circle around where he'd last seen the deer.

Whisker held his stance against the much larger wolf. he was much too close to Crescent for him to feel comfortable, Crescent and Kazuro were both injured. Kazuro couldn't beat another wolf not so soon after the bear. He crept up towards the wolf with his fangs bared, but once he heard the wolf speak he stopped his snarling. when Zura told them about Crescent and Kazuro, "Z-Zura we can't trust this wolf, there is no telling how he would act once he saw them. Is there anything else we can do other then ask for help?"

Zura sighed and looked back at Whisker's white fox form sadly, her ers falling to her head. "I don't think there's anything we can do now," she murmured quietly. "You don't think I didn't think about that before asking him? Face it; we can't catch anything besides small things. He's our only hope if we want to live though this. Kazu can still fight if this ends badly; he wouldn't let anything hurt us. And I'll be right there beside him. All we can do is hope." She lowered her body to the ground slightly, then turned and swiftly took after the retreating shadow.

----

Soldier's ears and body was low, though he kept his head raised to peer though the brush at the herd before him; the same one that he'd just passed moments before. He was looking for one that he could take down. A buck was out of the question, and as if to taunt him it strutted about before him with it's head raised high, sharp antlers extending toward the sky. No, he couldn't catch a buck. A full grown and healthy doe was not an opportunity either; they were just as strong. A fawn, however, would work well for him. Thankfully, there were three of them bunched together; two standing nearby grazing on the soft grass, while another was lying on the earth. Perfect. This would almost be too easy. A fawn's instinct was to lie low in the grass in the face of danger, staying completely still on the hope that the predator would not see them. He smirked, his white teeth gleaming in the dull light. It almost wasn't fair. Exploding out of the cover of the foliage, he darted everywhich way, creating confusion and panic among the herd. The does scattered, including the two fawns that had been grazing. Just as he'd expected, the one that was lying in the grass remained where it was, it's head low and it's eyes wide. He slowly made his advance on the helpless young deer, when suddenly there was no earth beneath his paws. He was up in the air, his paws flailing for something solid. The buck had run up behind him and scooped him up with it's horns, sending the wolf airborn. Soldier nearly ate the landing, but he managed it and his golden eyes darted for another glimpse of the buck. Suddenly the same sensation came over him; he was lifted and thrown into the air by the strong buck. He didn't know what he was going to do now.

"B-but Zura" Whisker tried to think of someway to not let this wolf get involved. His form melted back into its normal cat form, his ears were flat on his head and his tail was limp. She was right, there was no way around it. They need help and he was the only wolf around. His claws scratched the earth under them and he looked up at Zura with a defeted look in his eyes, "Ok your right we can't do it alone, i'm just worried i never expected anything like this to happen, i never thought Crescent would get hurt." He lowered his body as Zura did and followed close behind her.

Whisker stayed in hiding while the wolf went after his kill, he would come in and help after the take down, or at least that is what he planned to do. if everything went as planned, it seemed as if he was heading towards one of the fawns. Whisker's tail swiped back and froth over the ground waiting him to take it down. But then he noticed a buck was heading right towards the wolf. Whisker was about to warn the wolf but it was too late, the back tossed him in the air like a rag doll. and before he had time to recover the buck did it again, "we have to help him" Whisker said to Zura with out looking at her. Whisker dashed out of his hiding place and jumped into the air changing into a hawk. He flew over the bucks head pecking at it.

Zura watched from the bushes, crouched beside Whisker as they both watched the black male approach a young fawn. Seemed too easy, really. As if in responce to her thoughts, the buck wasn't going to have a wolf here. It charged the brute and sent him in the air with it's immense neck muscles, and Zura found herself staring wide-eyed at the scene that was playing out before her eyes. The fawn remained motionless, even though it had the perfect chance to flee right then. She was frozen in place, horror playing across her features as the male was tossed yet again in the air mercilessly by the buck. The sudden flurry of motion beside her made her jump slightly as Whisker jumped into action to help the male. She quickly regained herself and, despite her instincts, followed quickly after Whisker, her figure melting into the form of a brown and black fox. She jumped straight for the buck which was already flailing about since Whisker was attacking from above. At least the male was okay.

-----

Soldier braced himself for the next impact, and yet... It never came. He opened his eyes wearily to flick his golden gaze away from the fawn laying inches from him to see the two from before had come to his aid. He got to his paws and lunged for the fawn before it could escape; his teeth finding it's jugular easily. It didn't take long for the small creature to loose it's breath and lay motionless in the soft green grass. Soldier then turned to face the buck who was being attacked from above and below by the two, and he went into a sprint to catch up. If he could trip this thing, he might be able to suffocate it too. He jumped onto it's side, and it stammered backward slightly, but was too focused fending off the air attacks to do anything. Soldier knew that wasn't going to work, so he released his hold to try again. He slammed into it's side and this time the buck lost it's balance and came hurdling to the ground. Soldier made quick work of pinning down it's neck with his teeth... But the muscle was too thick. It managed to get up and flail it's hooves, clearly telling the male that it wasn't about to give up, and it fled, seeing that there was nothing left for it to protect anymore.

Whisker attacks were carefully placed, combined with his speed to avoid the bucks antlers. Made for quite the distracting annoyance his goal was not really to hurt the buck, just to get it away from the wolf. He flapped his powerful wings to lift himself up into the air to avoid the bucks antlers once more. then dived back down to peck at it even more, he glanced over to see if Solider had gotten away. From what he could she the wolf did much more then get away he took down the fawn that had been sitting there and was running back to help them. he flew out of range as he crashed into the buck almost knocking down. Whisker flew back in continuing his attacks onto the buck, he hadn't even noticed Solider let go of the buck and charge it once more. this time the blow made it fall and Whisker landed transforming into a White fox, he was going to rush into help but the buck quickly got back up and took off running. Whisker was breathing heavily he had forgotten that his body wasn't in top condition

Zura landed heavily, uttering a short huff as the buck fell. She ducked her head as the buck flailed with its hooves and got up to flee. Apparantly it wasn't going to go down without a fight. But it didn't turn around to fight again, this time it kept going and eventually dissapeared into the woods. Zura panted, still feeling the throbbing pain in her thigh from Kazuro, even though he was a long way off. She turned her brown eyes on the fawn across the small clearing and sighed with releif when she saw it lying motionless. They finally had something to eat. "Good job," she said to both Whisker and the black male as she limped up to the small carcass. This wouldn't last long, but it was as good as they could do for now. They'd need to go hunting again tomorrow, and try to catch something bigger if that was possible. She doubted the male could take down a doe by himself, and the fawn was lucky. They could always eat fish, but those were hard to catch and too small. She sighed; she didn't know what to do.

----

Soldier stood his ground for a moment over his kill, eyeing the two wearily. His instincts for living alone were still deep inside him, yelling at him to protect his catch. But the desperation in Zura's voice before when she'd asked for his help replayed in his mind and he shook his head to get a hold of himself. These two needed his help, and the instinct to protect was larger than the instinct to fight. "I'll carry this to wherever you want me to go if you lead the way," he offered.

Once it seemed like the ordeal was over he melted into his normal cat form. he was still breathing heavily. he just wanted flop onto his side and just lay still for a few moments and catch his breath. But he knew he didn't really have that time besides he would be able to rest once he got to Crescent. He really hoped she would be ok, He head turned to look at Zura when she spoke to him. He nodded his head, "yeah you too." He said in between pants. he turned his full body around when Soilder said he would take the fawn where ever they needed him to, "Thank you, you really don't know just how much this is helping us."

Zura sighed happily once the male offered to carry it. She and Whisker were definately not able to carry it because of their injuries. "They aren't far away; just follow us. I'm warning you, though; Kazu is not in the mood for new wolves right now and he's going to be grumpy and moody. Don't let it get to you; he's a good wolf. He's just hurt and protecting someone," she said. She agreed with Whisker; this helped them so much. This one meal will go far with them. With that, she wasted no time in limping away in the direction of where they left Crescent and Kazu in the den together.

----

Soldier nodded at the black cat, acknowledging his praise. He was about to speak when the ocelot interrupted him, saying he should follow her to the wolves who had been hurt. "Kazu?" he repeated to himself. Without waiting for an answer, he shrugged and lowered his head to pick up the limp body of the fawn that had previously caused him so much trouble and hurried away to catch the retreating brown form.

Whisker was starting to believe that asking this wolf for help was a good idea after all. so far he seemed kind and quite willing to help. Hopeful Kazuro would be able to see that, he wouldn't Kazuro to get hurt any farther then he aleady was. Crescent needed him, maybe even more then she needed him. It made him some what jealous of the bond those two had, he wondered what it felt like. He followed along side Zura leading the Solider towards Kazuro and Crescent, "hang on Crescent were on our way. just hang on a little longer." he said out loud without really meaning to.