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I know this probably isn't what our lovey Aussie host had in mind this month, but this was the mood I was in! Hope you all enjoy it. 620 word count. Make sure click on the link below the photo to visit the other blogs for more great stories...
Coyote slunk down to watch the three deer cross the high
trail. Alone, as usual, he surveyed carefully and kept his ears alert to any
sound, his nose to any scent. He didn’t need any bears or wolves to surprise
him while he hunted this mother and her two offspring. He only needed one baby.
Experience had taught him that the weaker prey yielded easier, tastier dinners,
if one could avoid the mother. Coyote knew himself to be smart, more apt than
the others in his pack and so he hunted alone and never shared with anyone.
Idiots all of them, he often thought to himself.
Coyote crouched, still, like a desert pine, waiting for the
right moment. The three deer moved past the high trail and, not catching his
scent, fairly moseyed toward the barren expanse just past the growth of stunted
pines in which he hid. Muzzles to the ground, they rooted for anything worth
nibbling on, ambling close to each other, yet not too close for him to take a
chance. He had to watch for the mother’s hooves, which were sharp and could cut
and bruise him.
There, now, the smaller of the two young ones had moved
almost within range. Coyote tensed, focused his senses. He ignored the rest of
the world, fading it out until all that remained was the small spotted piece of
meat now approaching on brittle spindly legs, which held juicy marrow in their
slender bones. Coyote trembled with anticipation. He inched his paws forward
just a tad, his haunches wound tight, ready to spring. Just a little closer. He
spared a glance at the mother. She raised her head, quick, like a darting
rabbit, and stared right at him. Frozen, as he was, her shiny doe-eyes pierced
his concentration as if to say, ‘I see you. Don’t even think about it.’ Yet he
knew he was invisible to her. He had to be. He was downwind from her. He lay so
low his belly scrubbed the clutter dropped by scrappy pines and other debris.
When she continued to stare, when she didn’t move even one
eyelash, Coyote tore his gaze from the mother and concentrated again on the young
one now even closer to him. It was now or never. One second he scrunched his
muscles into full spring mode, the next a heavy weight landed on his back
pinning him to the ground. A great roar shook the world, made the short trees
tremble, the clouds in the blue sky shudder. Animal dander, the heavy scent of
thick fur and pungent odor of bear invaded his senses. How had he not noticed
it before? That could have been his last thought, but the weight lifted
slightly and Coyote rolled to one side before the great rough paw could pin him
again.
Deer forgotten, Coyote scampered away, and then plowed into
a full run, getting as far from the horrible bear as possible. Later, when he
slowed at what he hoped was a safe distance from the mistake that had almost
cost him his scrabby life, Coyote turned to look behind him. No bear lumbering
after him. But no deer either. The tantalizing image of the young deer, so very
close to him only moments ago, made his stomach growl. He took one tentative
step back the way he had come, and trod on a scorpion that promptly stung his
ankle. Backing away and shaking his leg
at the same time, he put his back to the scrubby pines along the high trail and
the dinner that might have been. Oh well, he thought, that’s the way it goes
sometimes. Some chances just weren’t worth taking.
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