Acharya and Mary would wait fifteen minutes for the other two groups to get into position before they began their attack. Once they attacked from head on, the herd could bolt to the west, the east, or the south. The two flanking groups would need to be ready for any of those eventualities.
The two flanking groups took off, running silently and low to the ground. Asclepius led Tara to the east. Hunting with the pack was a comfort for him. He had never quite accepted the quick ambush style of hunting that his human packmates insisted on. He did admit that in his more powerful werewolf body it was ideal to not drag out the hunt longer than it needed to be. And the less time they spent chasing prey down the more time they could spend getting closer to their destination. But he always had to think about where his claws would strike. He grew up attacking the flanks and sides of his prey. As a werewolf he had to mentally think about striking at the neck with his claws. It seemed a bit unfair, like half of the sport of the hunt was being denied to him.
He led Tara around and to the south east of the herd. This was going to be tricky; he had moved into a downwind position from the herd. If the winds changed the herd would pick up their scent and scatter. He nodded back to where they had come. Tara nodded and crouched down low with Asclepius. They had made good time and now all there was to do was wait till Acharya and Mary decided to make their attack.
Tara motioned to the west, but Asclepius shook his head. He knew that there was a risk. If the herd bolted directly south, there was a chance they wouldn’t be able to overtake them. But they were far enough south to mitigate that possibility.
Tara’s ears pricked up as she heard the howl. She shook her head and braced herself for the reaction of the herd. The antelopes were not used to predators announcing their presence. They stood still for just a moment, their bodies outlined against the swiftly darkening night sky, then they bolted in every direction they could, away from the howl.
Tara took off in a dead sprint, Asclepius was only a half-step ahead of her. The male wolf born was much faster and more agile than she was, but she wasn’t completely outclassed. The two rushed forward on all fours and split, each going after a different antelope as they tried to dart past them to the west. Tara was able to swipe the legs out from underneath her target. The antelope fell face first into the dirt. Tara pounced on the animal landing on and gripping the animals back with her hind claws as she slashed the creatures throat cleanly, giving it a quick death.
Asclepius chased after his prey and was able to take hold of its horns and twist the creature’s neck back and around snapping in cleanly. He stood up and listened to the sounds of the herd bounding away and the soft cries of the injured. Soon it was all over.
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Asclepius hoisted his kill, a juvenile male, over his shoulder and carried it back towards the small watering hole. Tara joined him and they walked back together after giving each other a fist bump in victory. It was a gesture that Asclepius didn’t understand, and probably would never understand. But his human born pack mates enjoyed the gesture so he accepted it for what it was and when offered he returned it.
He and Tara laid down their kills twenty meters away from the water hole. They were soon joined by Mary and Acharya who had brought down one between the two of them, Aiman and Malikah also brought back one. They tore into their meal. Asclepius resisted the urge to bury his snout into the dead flesh and eat the way he had been so accustomed to when he was a young wolf. He had realized that his human born packmates, even though they were part beast and werewolves as well, they had very definite ideas about what they called, ‘table manners.’ It had taken him a long time to be comfortable eating with his humanoid claws instead of his jaws. It would probably never be as second nature to him as it was to his human born packmates but it wasn’t something that he found uncomfortable or distasteful either. It was just something else that he would have to deal with. He raised the animals torn off leg to his snout and ripped the flesh off the bone with his jaws.
The pack ate ravenously, they hadn’t eaten this well in a long time and none of them had any idea when they would eat this well again. Hunting had been scarce and this herd being here at this time was nothing short of a miracle. After they had eaten the four carcasses, they made their way over to the watering hole and drank what they could.
Then they moved east once again. The explosions from the battle earlier had been quieted and the night sky was left alone to its silence. Acharya almost wished that the fight was still going on. At least then they had a location of where the fighting was, and most of the smaller units might be pulled in that direction, too preoccupied with the battle to go around hunting or harassing them.
They remained in werewolf form as they moved. After the large meal their bodies strength had been recovered. The mental fatigue however was something that none of them could shake off, not completely. The few hours of sleep they had just enjoyed helped but none of them felt a hundred percent, especially Acharya.
Acharya dove into a collection of brush, almost before his tired brain had processed that the sound he heard was that of a diesel engine. The rest of the pack followed and laid down on the cool ground. Acharya scanned the horizon where the noise was coming from. His instincts had been correct, it was a diesel engine and it was coming closer to their position.
Mary’s golden eyes pierced the night and saw the jeep before the rest of her pack. Her keen Scout eyes saw only one jeep and two occupants. She held up a claw indicating what she was seeing to the rest of the pack.
