River Moon's flight

Chapter Three The Chase

Daitia had honestly begun to hate Savage, as his mustang raced along the woodland path.
Behind him, Lee kept up on his own, yet the ride was beginning to take it's toll on him and Daitia knew it. He whipped his mustang around the bend in the road, as Lee kept on his heels, his head sagging as he rode. Lee's muscle's ached and his strength was beginning to ebb away from him, as he came around the bend in the road behind Daitia.
Daitia, leaned backwards, pulling a sack from his saddle bag. It was small and pungeant in odor, as he heard the baying of Savage and the other dogs behind them. He pulled his mustang up short, letting Lee gallop past him on the road. Daitia grinned mildly, inwardly wondering just how good Savage was at the hunting game. He pulled out a handful of pepper and dropped it onto the road, urging the mustang into the trees as he did so. Daitia climbed up the tree, as the little mustang continued to walk for a few more feet and then went back to grazing again.
Daitia pulled his swords out of his belt, crossing them in front of him as he retreated into the shadows of the branches. Dogs or not, he was going to have to get rid of some of them.
It would be the only thing to even the odds and if at all possible, he planned to kill some of the men too. Yet they had guns and that presented a big problem for him, for he had no idea how he would make it back to Lee so that he could help him.
He could only hope that Lee could make it to safety and soon. Before they caught up with him and caused him harm. In the mean time, Daitia would do whatever he could, to even the odds and allow Lee to rest at least for a little while. He watched as the dogs got closer, their baying was unbearable now, and every instinct screamed at him to run. He focused, causing his fear to melt away like snow in a spring thaw. It was then that he saw Savage come running around the bend in the road, and he tensed for the spring.
Savage and the other dogs ran past him, kicking up the pepper in the road. They began to sneeze and Savage barked shrilly, alerting the hunters to his frustration. Daitia knew they would be coming soon, for their horses were well rested and their pace had been extremely slow.
Daitia sprung, landing in the middle of them. He began swinging his blades around him, shearing flesh from bone and ignoring the yelps of pain from the dogs he killed. His vision had already exploded into hunter vision, as instinct and battle honed skill took over his senses.
When it was over, Daitia breathed heavily. All the dogs had died against his assault with his blades. All but one, for in the midst of the battle, Savage had run off into the woods for safety.
Daitia breathed heavily, as he suddenly heard the thunder of running horses coming faintly from the way behind him. He sprinted into the bushes and leapt up on the back of his mustang, which bolted at the scent of blood and gore on him.
Daitia could only hope that he had enough time to catch up with Lee, and that Savage would not follow him to Lee. Leading the hunters to himself, his son, and whatever wolves remained alive in the area. It was a race against time, one he had no choice, but to win.


* * * * * * * *


Lee stopped his mustang as he got up to the path that led off to the wolf den.
He shuddered, trembling as instinct tried to over ride his human intellect. He shook his head as Savage came up out of the trees snarling at him. Lee felt his gut grow taut with fear as he reared the mustang beneath him, her forelegs striking the air in front of her.
Savage grinned mercilessly, as the mare came down. He leapt at the werewolf on her back, and Lee let out a scream as Savage tore into his shoulder, bringing him off the mustang's back. He fought with him madly, but Savage was too strong for him to fight him off.
He pulled up all the anger he had left in him, as he tore Savage from his shoulder and threw him away from him. Savage landed on his feet and stalked slowly toward him, as Lee backed away from him weakly. His breath coming sharply, as his strength ebbed away even more.
Suddenly, he heard a wolf howl from a distance. For a moment, Savage froze, then listened to it. He grinned viciously at him and began to stalk forward again, as he sensed the weakness of his prey in front of him.


* * * * * * * *


Silver Lake looked up from the deer trail that she had been following. Her father and mother were both weak and someone had needed to hunt. She snuffled the air tentatively, as a familiar scent wafted into her nose from the wind. It was Lee, her beloved mate.
She howled to get an answer, and when she heard nothing, she nearly abandoned the scent. Yet her instincts were sure that her mate was nearby and she followed them. As she ran along and drew closer, she could smell the scent of the insidious butcher of a cousin, called Savage. Silver Lake bolted towards the scent, enough was enough and it was time for the beast to die. He had decimated her entire pack and the revenge in her heart swelled to life, as she ran faster towards them. It was only then that she smelled the scent of blood coming from her mate, and she let out a snarl that could chill the bones of the hardiest soul.


* * * * * * * *


Savage spun to face the she-wolf, as she came out of the trees and bushes snarling eerily.
Lee watched as she attacked Savage with deadly accuracy, biting and snarling as she smacked him in the head and danced to the right. Savage shook his head and snapped wildly, as she went for his muzzle, which resulted in a glancing blow from her razor sharp fangs.
Savage yelped in spite of himself, as he pulled his head away from the she-wolf. His muzzle spurting blood as he retreated from her deadly assault. Yet she kept coming at him, snapping and snarling at his neck and head, which he barely kept protected.
He heard the sound of the cat man, and bolted into the woods, towards the hunters.
He would deal with these pups later, once he had the guns of the hunters to back him up.
Until then, he would wait for the right time to assault the wolves again.


* * * * * * * *


Silver Lake snorted as Savage ran off, slowly returning her attention to Lee. He bled badly as he lay on the ground in agony, unable to move or even scream in pain. Instead, he cried very softly, holding his shoulder with his hand.
Silver Lake lay beside him and murred softly and soothingly, to let him know she was still there. She would not leave him unprotected, and she would not lose her mate because she had run off to be safe with her family. She looked up as the cat man came around the bend in the road at a gallop, pulling the grass eater up short by the leather straps in her mouth. Silver Lake frowned a moment, she never had understood why grass eaters let the two legs do that to them.
She growled lowly at Daitia as he came off the mustang's back, grabbing another roll of white cloth from his saddle bags. He didn't have time for this she-wolf to get petty on him about the differences between their races. He snorted, as Lee put his head on her back and sobbed softly into her fur. Daitia moved forward to help his son, and Silver Lake cocked her head to one side to listen to her mate.
Lee had stopped crying as Daitia crouched beside him, and pulled the shirt back to look at the wound. Daitia went into his satchel and pulled out some dried herbs, applying it to the wound before he bound it silently. He stroked his son's hair gingerly, wondering whether or not he should move him, as instinct told him to escape and flee.
"I am so sorry papa," Lee whispered as he passed out against his mate.
Silver Lake looked at Daitia silently, her tail wagging slowly. It was then that Daitia picked his son up slowly and made the mustang kneel. He got onto her back and nudged her to get up, as he whistled to the other mare to follow them. He looked at Silver Lake as she began to walk slowly back towards the wolf den in silence.
"It's not your fault she-wolf," Daitia told her softly, attempting to soothe her.
"Many have died, I just don't," her voice caught in her throat as she tried not to cry.
"I understand she-wolf, nor do I," Daitia soothed warmly, as they continued onward.


* * * * * * * *


"Stupid mutts," Brett swore savagely under his breath as Savage came out of the brush.
"We call it a day for now," the older man told him, as he noticed the bleeding muzzle of his dog, "Wolf got you good, didn't it Savage?" Elias Mc Connol told his dog.
Savage growled lowly in anger and Elias rasped out a laugh, as Brett and the other farm hands began to pull the carcass's of the dogs off the road. Savage flopped down on the grass and watched them, as Tyler rode up beside them.
"You scout ahead and find me every wolf in this dad burned wood that you can, this ain't over by a long shot!" Brett bellowed at him and the other farm hands.
"Why don't you go ahead and beller louder Brett?" Elias Mc Connol told him, "That way all of them damn wolves can 'ear you?"
Savage snickered and Tyler looked at him apprehensively. As he suddenly realized that he was not in the presence of a mere animal. Instead, he was in the presence of an animal that thought and had the emotions of a man.
It chilled him to the bone, and he gulped in spite of himself. He looked up and noticed that Savage was looking deep into his eyes. He pulled his horse back and turned his head away from him uncomfortably. As Savage snickered again at him and Elias Mc Connol scratched his head.
"I think we need to pay ourselves a visit to that there circus in town. Seems to me like that circus animal trainer may be a tracker that we may be able to use to hunt ourselves down a wolf, " Elias spoke, as he put his hat back on his head nonchalantly.


* * * * * * * *


"Merle!" Merle heard his name being yelled as he awoke with the pup beside him.
The pup mewled in protest as he sat up and went over to the door and opened it.
Blinking sleep away from his eyes, he saw the circus owner standing at the foot of the steps of the wagon. The fat man reeked of booze and cheap perfume, as he looked at Merle through narrow slitted black eyes. Merle yawned a him as he stretched, cracking his back.
"Where's that tiger?" he bellowed at him, as the wolf pup growled at him angrily.
" In his cage I would assume," Merle answered nonchalantly.
"Well he's not!" the circus owner bellowed again at him.
"Jonathan, you're not helping anything here, just calm down please. I'll find the tiger and put him back again. Jesus man, that's what you hired me to do. Keep the animals in line, teach them tricks, you know, stuff like that?" Merle told him calmly.
The circus owner took a step up the steps of the wagon, as Merle wrinkled his nose in disgust. The fat man was sweating profusely and pushed a lock of oily black hair from his eyes.
Angrily, he shook a pudgy finger at him, turning beet red as he did so.
"If I don't the get that tiger back, I'm fired, yeah, yeah," Merle told him.
"You show more respect for me boy!" the circus owner bellowed as he turned and walked wobbily down the step again.
Merle shook his head, as he put his boots back on again. Tracking down Daitia was normally a pretty easy affair. The tiger never wandered very far, and normally came along without so much as a rope when he did have to look for him.
The pup looked at him, eagerly wagging his tail as he did so. Merle smiled at him and patted his leg, as he walked over to the steps and started down them. The pup followed him eagerly, as he locked the wagon up again behind him. He watched as the pup playfully batted at Nell's legs and nipped at her legs. The mare whickered playfully, causing Merle to smile at him. He hadn't seen her that happy in a long time, not since he had taken her from her herd.
"Come on Nell, let's go find Daitia again," Merle coaxed, walking over to her and sliding on to her back and gripping her mane.
Nell whickered acknowledgement as she began to trot off in the direction that Merle directed her too. With any luck, he had headed to a lake nearby, where there was fresh trout and other fish that he loved to eat. At any rate, there were plenty of trees to climb on, and that alone would be enough to entice Daitia. Mainly due to the fact that Daitia liked to climb around on things so much.
At least he would be away from Jonathan, and that alne was a bonus in it's own right.
He really hated the man, for he had always pushed man and beast to their limits. A fact that often ticked Merle off a great deal.
The pup suddenly took off and Merle chased him as he did. It suddenly occurred to him that they were heading back to the pup's cave. He let Nell have her head as he always did.
Until they broke into the clearing, and he pulled her gently to a stop.
Two men, one badly wounded, and another man, had just entered the clearing that held three wolves in it. They were all wounded, except the silver one, who waited patiently as the man on horseback gently lowered the wounded one onto his feet. Whilst the other mustang grazed near the one that was bearing the two riders. The wounded one moaned as his feet touched the ground. It was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain, as the other man slowly slid off the mustang and helped him over to the other wolves, who greeted him eagerly and happily.
The pup ran over to them, fretting over the wounded and eagerly nuzzling the cream colored female, who fawned over him, as the black wolf nuzzled and licked him paternally. Suddenly, the oriental man looked up and saw him, looking shocked for a moment.
"Merle? Oh shit, I forgot all about the circus, damn it," he swore aloud at himself.
"What?" Merle asked him in surprise, looking shocked.


* * * * * * * *

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