The Hunting Grounds III - Second Most Dangerous Game

[Fenric]

[Cave]

Oh, yes! Whoever left the meat lying around had come from a nice den. After a good sleep (and breakfast), the dire fox explores the cave, following the scent back toward the opening.

[Recaiden]

[Cave]

Well, it certainly will find whatever Slim left there, but once it's done with that, it could pick up the trail of Leah and the reflective chaither that were hunting it not so long ago.

[Fenric]

[Cave]

Slim's cave gets a thorough examining but there's not much of interest, so the creature moves on. At the entrance to the cave it sniffs curiously at the reflective creature's scent and then trots off in the direction it went most recently.

[Recaiden]

[Cave Exit]

The reflective creature smells somewhat like a cat, and somewhat like an eel, and had recently eaten some small river fish. Its path circles around, back up the mountain, to the east of the camp.

[Fenric]

[Mountain]

The dire fox licks its lips at the thought of fish and snuffles along the riverbank until an angry snort from a buffalodile makes it scamper away and continue on up the hillside, curiously following the scent wherever it is strongest.

[Recaiden]

[Mountain]

The scent leads to a hillock, and into a perfect circle of blue-spotted toadsatools, where it's quite strong, but...stops. It does mingle with many other animals here. Cats, horses, foxes(!), fish. But there's nothing here save clover and the mushrooms.

[Fenric]

[Mushroomz!]

The dire fox pads around the circle a few times, sniffing the fascinating array of scents. It tentatively digs at the dirt and probably knocks a mushroom over.

[Recaiden]

[Mushroomz! Ring]

Sparks burst out from the base of the mushroom as it's knocked over. The clover starts bobbing in a much stronger wind than is actually there.
Then a shape appears, blurry at first, but sharpening, and with it the smell of the reflective beast, just in the center of the mushroom ring.

[Fenric]

[Ring around the Mushroomz!]

The dire fox jumps back with a yarly snarly growly yip, baring it's three rows of needle-sharp teeth.

What? I said it was bizzare...

[Recaiden]

[Ring around the Mushroomz!]

The chaither comes into shiny focus, glittering in the sunlight, and steps forward.

It hisses and growls at the intruder, baring three rows of needle-sharp teeth, one row per mouth..

[Fenric]

[Ring around the Mushroomz!]

The dire fox slowly sidles around the ring, still more curious than aggressive - but its three fluffy tails wave in agitation, and the creature's ears are pinned back all the while growling with a constant squeaky fox-snarl.

[Recaiden]

[Ring around the Dire Fox]

The chaither starts sidling in the other direction, staying facing the fox-beast, and creeping a little closer with each step. All three throats have settles into growling now. It's sizing up the fox. This smells like the thing it had been hunting.

[Fenric]

[RUN!!]

The chaither takes one step too close, and the dire fox blasts off to the right fast as lightning. It curves around and heads down the hill as fast as it can go - which is really, really fast.

[Recaiden]

[The Hunt is on!]

The chaither roars, and sets off pacing after the fox. It can't go really really fast. It can go kinda fast. But it's very persistent.

Another shape, more humanoid, starts to blur into view in the circle a moment later.

[Fenric]

[A Game of Chase]

The dire fox pauses, panting, and waits for the chaither to catch up a bit - slowpoke. It then sets up a pace to stay ahead of the shiny beast, leading it in roundabout fashion toward the river

[Recaiden]

[Definitely not a trap]

It takes a few minutes for the chaither to catch up, but it seems perfectly willing to pace and bound after the fox, following it to the river.

[Fenric]

[No, no! Just introducing the new friend to old ones!]

The dire fox splashes and cavorts in bizzare fashion right at the edge of the water: jumping and yipping and carrying on while the chaither gets ever closer. Then it abruptly crouches down, fluffing out it's waving tails with eyes bright, ears perked up straight and a saucy foxy grin: completely obscuring the triangular ripples heading toward shore from the deeper part of the river.

[Recaiden]

[Of course. What a friendly fox]

The chaither gets close, and then pauses a little ways on the shore. It doesn't like bodies of water so much. But the fox is really here. It roars again, hoping to frighten the fox back onto land.

[Fenric]

[Buffalodile]

The fox responds by jumping nearly eight feet... straight up. From behind charges the buffalodile in a blind fury, jaws open wide, right past where the fox used to be and directly toward the chaither bellowing in rage and bloodlust.

And then the dire fox lands on it's back - just in case it wasn't quite angry enough yet - and yips something that would properly be translated "you'll never catch me!". It's open to question who the fox is speaking to, though.

[Recaiden]

[IT'S A TRAP]

The fox jumps away with its amazing height, and the chaither attempts to follow, leaping up to bounce onto the buffalodile's back, and away. Odds that it can manages that, are not so great.

[Fenric]

[Woo Hoo - riding a Buffalodile!]

The vicious but moronic creature charges randomly around the meadow alongside the river.

The dire fox blinks as the chaither jumps up

That was a good jump!

[Recaiden]

[Buffalodile Rodeo]

The chaither after that spalshes into the river and paddles towards the other side, though I imagine the dire fox cleanly landed on the far side from the buffalodile.

[Fenric]

Over the river and through the... Really tall grass

The dire fox charges out into an expansive grassland where the prairie plants easily reach five feet tall. It's bigger that any normal fox, but not that big and vanishes from sight. It leads the chaither on a merry chase, winding and weaving and doubling over.

[Recaiden]

[It's dangerous in the tall grass]

The chaither is itself much less than five feet tall, ad vanishes into the plants, becoming a rustle in the grass. It follows for a while, but after a few weaves, tries to get ahead of the fox and lie in wait for where it's suspected to be.

[Fenric]

[A trap for a trap!]

And so eventually it comes to pass that the dire fox runs square into the right flank of the chaither with a startled yip.

It jumps back and snarls, crouching down with ears folded flat

[Recaiden]

[A tooth for a tooth]

The chaither's right head lashes out, snapping at the fox, the other two hiss, and then it turns and slinks the opposite direction into the grass.

[Fenric]

[Grass!]

The dire fox jumps, losing only a clump of fur to the snapping teeth, and snaps its jaws on the air three times behind the chaither before bolting off like an arrow straight east-northeast.

[Recaiden]

[Grass exit]

The chaither is disappointed. Apparently the fox is only willing to lead, not follow.

After a while, it doubles back to where it got the fox's fur, and oh, that's enough, isn't it? It scampers back to the river, where it's hunter is waiting to reward it with a pat and a few little fish.
It's not at all a bat, but this should be useful.

---

By the time the chaither is back on the trail of the fox, the path has grown cold, but it still scents the monster clear.

[Fenric]

[Sleepy Fox]

The dire fox is taking a nap curled up in a fuzzy ball near the top of a small rocky promontory jutting up out of the tall grass, sheltered by a small overhang.

[Recaiden]

[Sleepy Fox]

The chaither stiffens up and circles around to the side of the promontory, while the Hunter patiently follows. No guns in her hands this time. Just weights and ropes, in the shape of a net.

If the fox is sleepy enough, she might just creep close enough to throw it.