Silent Invasion

Chapter 4 - The Hunt

He laid in waiting as his eyes tracked the deer back and forth in the darkening clearing. His pupils constricting and dilating with every movement the animal made. Frozen of any movement of his own high in the tree above the animal, the only sounds in his ears were those of the prey and his own slow heart beat and breathing.

His left leg screamed in agony from the damage it had taken in the heat of battle with a Gatherer and still he made not a movement or noise. Ignoring the raging pain in his leg, only gritting his teeth silently as a cramp came and passed in his left thigh. The deer below him jutted its head upward with flaring nostrils, sniffing the air occasionally for any tell tale signs of a predator then went back to grazing on the tender shoots of grass at its feet, unaware of the cat like eyes in a humanoid body staring hungrily at it.

Now Chokan shifted slightly into a crouch in the tree, getting ready for the death blow he meant to administer to this strange and foreign prey. He paused only briefly to sniff at the air himself, wanting to make sure no other predator would foil his own hunting excursion. Least of all another Gatherer that might be nearby and making its own plans for the meal on hooves he himself was eying.

His muscles clenched into coils of pent up energy, he could feel the tension in them gaining steam. He waited patiently all the while staring down at his unaware prey with the thrill of the hunt balled up in his throat. This was a third attempt at capturing one of these skittish animals, they were quicker than he had anticipated and much more agile than they let on to be. It was proving challenging more so than he could have imagined. He even envied their cunning considering they had no defensive weapons of their own.
Chokan sniffed the air a final time, leaving go of the branch with his left hand as quietly as possible only tensing briefly when the deer snorted but continued to chomp and chew at the grass shoots before it. Then all at once, as if primal instinct were driving him, he launched from his perch in the tree and on top of the back of the deer, grinding his primary claws into its thick neck while wrapping his legs around its torso and yanking hard to the left.

He drove the deer to its side in the clearing, both of them landing with a thud as the deer toppled over with him on its back. Growling low and quiet Chokan ripped at its throat, opening up the arteries present there and spilling the deers lifeline into the grass. Spraying the green of the grass a sickly red, the deer heaved and bucked in its dance of death, mouth gaping open and closed and eyes bulging with fear stricken surprise.

Chokan didn't miss a beat when the deer tried to buck him off and kick at him, he held fast, grinning like a fool and growling with triumph. Finally, he had made his mark. He sniffed enthusiastically at the smell of the preys blood while it flowed freely from its confinement within the deers body. Chokan grunted and rolled to his left as the deer made a final attempt to kick at him and then lay still as it gasped frantically through the gapping wounds in its throat.

It gurgled desperately in an attempt to breath through its drowning lungs. Closing its eyes it gasped futilely for the last time then lay still at Chokan's feet. He crouched, sniffing at his prey, purring with the triumph of a hunt finally gone to his favor. This beast would feed them for at least two to three days, just enough time to heal and continue on their mission.

He gathered the deer by it's legs and threw it over his shoulders intending to make his way back to the cavern where he had left the human female Layla. Smiling, he trotted with the deer strung across his shoulders back the way he had come. Sniffing the air, he traced his way back to the edge of the bush near the clearing of the cavern and beach. The hunt had been challenging and so it had been vigorously good. He felt strong and virile as he trotted past the bush line into the sandy cover of the beach then towards the cavern. He stiffened then growled as an unfamiliar smell hit his flared nostrils. It smelled the same as that yellow creature that had tried to attack the Gatherer in the bush near Layla's home, the creature she had called Belle.

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