The Hunt
~ Eywa
The forest feels alive tonight.
Not in the quiet, familiar way it sometimes does, when the wind moves gently through the trees and everything settles into a steady, predictable rhythm. Tonight there is a restlessness beneath it, as though something has been disturbed and hasn’t settled back into place.
Branches snap beneath heavy paws ahead of me, followed by the ragged pull of breath and the unmistakable scent of blood.
He’s running.
I let him.
Fear makes them careless. It strips away instinct and replaces it with panic, and panic is easy to track. Easy to control. I learned that early, long before I was trusted to hunt alone.
The moon hangs high above us, casting silver light through the canopy and catching on broken branches and torn ground, marking his path as clearly as if he wanted me to follow.
He crashes through another thicket, thorns catching in his fur as a snarl rips from his throat. The silver working through his system is burning deeper now.
Good. The blade found its mark earlier, and this is almost over.
I move faster, closing the distance without rushing. A fallen log rises in my path and I vault it easily, landing without sound as I calculate the angle between us.
“Run faster,” I murmur, my voice carrying just enough to reach him.
He stumbles.
That's all I need.
I surge forward and drive the blade into the side of his neck. Silver bites deep as I twist, and his body jerks violently, a broken sound tearing free somewhere between a snarl and a gasp.
For a moment, his eyes flare bright and furious before yellow dulls into amber and the color drains away entirely.
I hold him upright as the life leaves him, feeling the shift falter beneath my hand. The wolf retreats from a body that can no longer hold it, the transformation flickering once, weak and incomplete, before settling into stillness.
Dead weight.
I let him fall.
The forest quiets around me. For a few seconds, I simply stand there and listen.
It should feel like something. It always did before. A clean kill meant a successful hunt, another step toward proving myself and earning a place that was never given freely.
It should still be enough, but I've set my sights higher now, and lately every other kill feels smaller because of it.
I know this one was good. Clean. Efficient.
It just isn't the one I want.
I crouch and wipe the blade clean on the grass before straightening.
My gaze drifts beyond the body, into the deeper dark between the trees.
Something is watching me.
The awareness settles low between my shoulders, sharp and immediate. I stay still, letting my gaze move through the shadows without giving away what I'm searching for.
Eyes appear between the trees.
Grey and yellow appear first, then green.
And finally, gold.
I go still.
“The great Alpha,” I say softly. “I know you’re there.”
Silence answers me.
Nothing moves.
Then a branch gives slightly to my left beneath something far heavier than the wind.
Good.
Let him watch.
Let him see exactly what I am capable of.
My attention fixes on the place where I saw those gold eyes. Something pulls tight in my chest, sharpening my focus until the dead wolf at my feet barely matters anymore.
With the Alpha's head mounted as a trophy, the world will finally know my name.
My mother would've been proud.
A sharp whistle cuts through the silence.
“Move!” Maris calls. “Troops are inbound!”
Movement breaks through the trees deeper in the forest.
More wolves.
Of course.
I search the shadows once more for those gold eyes, but they're already gone, swallowed by the pack.
Coward.
He watches when he's alone, then moves the moment his pack arrives.
Typical.
I turn and run as distant howls begin to rise behind me. They aren't close enough to catch me yet, but staying would give them the opportunity.
I don’t make mistakes that cost me control.
Branches whip past as I put distance between myself and the clearing. Behind me, the howls grow louder, spreading through the forest as the pack reaches the place I left behind.
But my attention stays with those gold eyes.
He was there. I know it.
And next time, I won’t leave without him.
