CHAPTER THREE – FIRST HUNT
The sun was setting by now as me and my brother stayed hours unmoving under the tree shadows, looking below us at the meadow filled with three-horned cows that mother used to hunt, however if we had the size of a horse they had double that.
Even more, they had numbers.
I was cracking my brain with plans on how to kill one of them, the hunger clouding my thoughts and weakling my limbs.
One chance. Any wound, any mistake, and we would continue to hunger to death.
I licked my upper lip, anticipating the taste of warm flesh blood, the sweet fat red meat.
~Growls
My brother looks my way, a knowing smirk on his lips.
Shut up.
When some of them stopped eating and dozed off to sleep, I knew our chance arrived. As I saw once on TV, we should hunt the weaker one, the wounded or the child.
Wait… saw where? The thought escaped me as I find a calf beside its mother, sleeping holding his limbs. How cute. ~Growls.
Now that it was dark me and my brother became one with the foliage, our dark fur covering our muscled bodies as we went downhill, slowly approaching.
They were in a clearing surrounded by trees, but at least the grass was high enough for us to crouch down. The problem was… afterward. How could we outrun then with a body?
I decided middle way through, looking at my brother and whispering: “You go for the throat, quietly.”
He nods. Good boy. We approach the herd, circling the other sleeping bulls, our belly touching the ground slightly as mud dirty our fur.
Good, that should lessen our smell. Stopping and looking over the grass we spotted our prey. With my eyes I commanded my brother to attack from behind, as I keep approaching from the front.
My heart was beating so fast that I was scared they could hear it. The blood was pulsating strongly in my ears as I controlled my breath and kept my focus.
Then I jumped.
The only sound was the rustling of the grass with the bending of branches and the howling wind that spread all over the field.
The calf didn’t even have time to welp as we attacked almost at the same time; my brother held it down by biting its neck from behind, and I hold him from the front, having my mouth over its snout preventing it from shouting and helping asphyxiate it.
It struggle, but his fetal position from before ended up making his whole body been under our paws. In a few minutes it finally lay down, and I could feel my stomach arching backward, demanding food.
Looking up I watch my brother go for the meat, but with a paw on the snout I make him look my way, nodding a no, eyeing the other cows. The smell of blood would be a beacon in this quiet night.
I point my snout to the back of the calf, and we hold our prey off the ground by the paws, biting strongly at its legs.
Returning was as “easy” as coming; a very slow advance, with adrenaline surging in our systems and the hunger compelling to go quicker.
My brother was drooling so much that almost let the legs fall, right beside a huge bull. My heart wanted to jump out my throat, and I rolled my eyes as I look at him only to encounter his dumb apologetic expression, the tongue dripping sideways. His little stump tail was moving sideways, making me roll my eyes again and start walking.
Only him to find something to be happy about in this situation.
A sigh of relief escaped my lips as we got far away from the group. My brother walked beside me and gave a nibble at my ear, only to low his snout and start chewing the skin of the calf off.
I wanted to have a better look at our meal, but I didn’t. For some reason, having to look at the little face of the calf brought sadness to me, which was odd for a hunter, a predator to feel.
I wonder if mother often felt sad for her kills too.
Once my brother broke the skin and the sweet smell of blood hit my wet nose I stooped overthinking and went to fill my belly. We eat as much as we could, swallowing big pieces of meat whole.
The combination of a hard long day and with a full belly made me sleepy, very sleepy, but we couldn’t stop here, the humans tracking us would easily spot our path and our kill. We weren’t safe.
“Brother, we need to keep going, those two legs creatures are hunting us down.”
My brother, who was already dozing off, almost asleep, whimpered at the information, looking at the meat and slowly yawning.
“I know. I’m tired too. But we got to keep moving. We cannot be captured.”
He nodded, flexing his talons to wake up his body, shaking like a wet dog. The image brought a smile to my snout, flashing my white sharp teeth.