Chapter 10 Ylvana: How (not) to catch a rbbit

At the first light of dawn, I was on my feet. Thankfully the storm had stopped, leaving only the lingering smell of rain. The air was crisp, but bearable in my fur coat. While keeping an eye on the trees for any sign of Fenrir’s warriors, I journeyed outside the cave to get a better look of where exactly I was.

From the top of a precipice still caked in a patch of wet snow, I saw beyond the conifer branches into a grand valley, blanketed by green foliage. Crystal streams cut through the mountains, which rose above everything else to stab the orange sky with their icy peaks. The beauty of the land was enough to take my breath away, and it’s mightiness sent a tingle down my spine.

Movement pulled my eyes to a nearby tree, where a large black bird clung to a naked branch. My hackles prickled as a low growl rumbled in my throat.

“Relax,” Jay said, trotting up next to me. “It’s a raven, not a crow.”

To prove his point, the bird tilted its head at us and then flew off.

“How could you tell?” I asked, steadying my breathing.

“Ravens are bigger with more feathers on their beaks. They have a different sounding call, too. If you look closer, they actually have a different number of pinion feathers on their wings. So I guess you could say the difference between a crow and a raven is a matter of a pinion.”

I didn’t catch it at first, but his stare and little smile made me realize he had told a joke, so I gave the closest thing I could to a laugh.

“Even then, I think I’ll prefer to avoid big, black, birds.”

“Can’t blame you there.” He looked out at the mountains. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

The sun rose higher over in the east, a beacon for my way back home. From here, simply looked like a straight walk forwards, but I didn’t allow that thought to take refuge in my head. This land was unforgivingly wild, and I was extremely unprepared.

By midday, I felt as if I’ve been walking for years, and we hadn’t even gotten down into the valley yet. When it felt like my claws were about to fall out of my paws, I shifted into human form, and when the leather of my boots had rubbed my skin raw, I shifted back. My stomach then decided to add to my uncomfortableness by aching and rumbling.

I walked with my head down and almost crushed Pine, who had stopped in front of me.

“You’re hungry,” he said.

“Am not.” My stomach groaned. Jaevla.

“We can stop and do some hunting,” Jay said. “Not like we’re racing.”

But we kind of were. Fenrir wasn’t going to let me stroll back to the castle, he had to be sending someone out to get me. I had to stay as far ahead of them as I could. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get far on an empty stomach.

Jay led us into a small meadow sheltered in the trees. Fresh blades of grass were peeking through the thin layer of snow.

“This place is a rabbit breeding ground,” Jay said, wagging his tail. “We’ll have something to eat in no time.”

“Mo, do you think you could grab a rabbit for me?” I asked.

She was about to fly off, then paused. “Don’t you wanna try to get one yourself?”

“I don’t think now’s a good time to practice.”

“I can teach you to hunt,” Jay chimed in. “And if you can’t get one, one of us can share.”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s easy once you get it.”

“I thought you said this was supposed to be easy!” I groaned, pushing myself out of the snow.

Rabbits had a nasty habit of zig-zagging as they ran, making me trip over my own legs and do a face-plant.

“I meant it’s easy after you understand what to do,” Jay said, trotting up to me. “It takes practice.”

I shook myself to fling the wet snow off my fur. Now I was wet and twice as hungry. “I’ll practice more wolf things once I’m somewhere safer.”

Jay walked next to me. “What happens if you’re in trouble and Pine and Mo aren’t around to help you?”

“Then I’m dead.”

Jay huffed. “You have to have a better fighting spirit than that.”

Månen landed in front of us, a freshly caught rabbit beneath her talon. “Any luck?”

“I think she has room for improvement if you start pestering her to practice,” Jay said, nudging my shoulder.

“I’ll be sure to do that,” she chuckled. “In the meantime this is yours.”

She stepped away from the nice, fat rabbit. Its tawny coat was smudged with dirt and brambles, and it eyes almond eyes were frozen in a permanent look of fear.

“I never thought a dead thing could look so appetizing,” I said.

Before I could reach for the rabbit and start gathering sticks for a fire, a squeaky voice screamed my name.

It was Pine, but at first, I couldn’t tell what was wrong with him. It looked like he was being attacked by snow. When the patch of snow opened its black eyes, I realized that was, an ermine. The critter was smaller than Pine, but it certainly had an attitude. As the two wrestled, the little thing was going in for the kill bite on Pine’s throat.

Jay ran in for the rescue, snapping at the ermine to get it away from Pine. It arched its little back and bared its teeth boldly at the wolf.

“You alright, Pine?” I asked.

He nodded, sniffling. “The weasel took my rabbit.”

“We’ll get you another one.”

“Ha!” the weasel hissed. “Good luck! You mutts scared off the rest of the rabbits.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “There’s plenty of rabbits around her, weasel. Why can’t you get your own?”

“There were until the humans came,” the weasel argued. “The scents you smell are days old.”

“What humans?” I asked. “People don’t hunt in the mountains.”

“They didn’t hunt,” the ermine sneered. “They killed everything they could find: rabbit, weasel, deer, and bear. Some they left to rot, others, they stole its fur.”

It was prohibited for villagers to hunt in the mountains: it was too dangerous for most to even dare. If it wasn’t them, the only other humans it could be were Fenrir Warriors. They had a history of poaching, which is partly why most of the native animals in the Sutherlands are gone.

I had the sudden urge to bury my teeth into something and shake it vigorously. It’s bad enough the Crow’s destroyed their own home, but now they were coming here and harvesting our wildlife.

“Why don’t we settle this the easy way?” the weasel sneered. “I go one on one with the fox. The winner gets the rabbit, plus the looser’s carcass.”

I stepped protectively over Pine. “That’s not an option. Keep the stupid rabbit. He’ll share mine.”

Pine shook his head. “But Ylvana, you need to eat the whole thing.”

“I think there’s another way we can settle this that doesn’t involve fighting.” Jay looked down at the weasel. “A battle of wits.”

The weasel’s beady eyes lit up, “You’re a fool, wolf! No animal can best me in trickery!”

“Any ideas for what they can do, Ylvana?” Jay asked.

My jowls lifted in a sly smile. “We’ll give you sixty seconds to hide under the snow. If Pine catches you before time’s up, he gets the rabbit. If not, you get it.”

The weasel laughed and burrowed under the snow. He was too blinded by his pride to know the trick of foxes.

I told Pine to go and started counting in my head. Pine’s triangular ears scooped up light scratching sounds under the snow. He made a semi-circle, launched himself straight into the air, and dove in head first. His rump wiggled as he pulled himself back. “Almost had him,” he said, continuing the game.

Pine chased the weasel across the meadow, always able to find him, but never able to actually catch him. I didn’t care if I ended up having to share my rabbit, but I wanted to give Pine the chance to prove himself. Plus, this weasel was annoying, and I wanted someone to put him in his place.

It was coming down to the final ten seconds. Pine tilted his head back and forth to home in one the weasel’s location. This time when he sprang, he flew, landing deep in the snow. The white powder erupted as the weasel tried to twist his tail out of Pine’s mouth.

“Yes!” I barked.

“Alright,” Jay said to the weasel. “That’s that. Get out of here.”

It released a sharp hiss as Pine set it free. “Mutts!”

“Rat!” I growled as it scurried away.

Pine bounced on his paws and picked up his prize. “That was fun!”

“Fun to watch, too,” Mo said, landing on my back. “But now I think it’s time to go.”

I frowned. “Go where?”

“You guys should continue until you reach the prairie while I fly back to the forest and see if I can find help to send.”

“Månen,” Jay said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to split up. We could use your eyes in case we got lost, and how would we find each other again?”

“Oh, don’t worry too much over me, dear. You have all it takes to look after these two. I know where you guys are heading, and if you need me, just howl.”

“She’ll be fine,” I reassured Jay.

His mouth was slightly ajar as if he was holding back on saying more.

“But Mo! I’ll miss you,” Pine whined.

“The last time I was left alone with you, you called me ‘mean’,” she huffed, flying away. “Be careful, Ylvana!”

“You too, my friend,” I said quietly, watching her leave.