A lone figure warily scampered through thick foliage deep in the center of a large forest. Great trees towered over its head and occasionally dropped withered leaves from their slender branches; a variety of plants bearing blood-red flowers surrounded its trembling feet. Giant antlers forced its head to droop, as it no longer held the strength to proudly carry them as it used to.
Spike and Dash watched from behind cover as their meal painfully limped through the vegetation and tensed their muscles in preparation. Suddenly, the speed of their bodies changed them to nothing but two rapidly approaching blurs to the eyes of their prey. The deer’s eyes widened as Dash swiftly tore out its throat, which discharged a fine red mist. The animal fell with a thud and released from beneath its blood-matted fur a cloud of dust.

Spike grasped the scruff of its neck in his powerful jaws and with the help of his sibling heaved it to their cave. Their father, who had no name, tore the limbs from the corpse and eviscerated it. The innards were then distributed amongst the family; their mother no longer shared meals with them due to her strange disappearance multiple suns ago.

As the siblings fell asleep, three pairs of goggle-covered eyes appeared from the darkness behind them. From their vantage point in the distance, three men
watched the family. A large red truck sat behind them, which was loaded with various weapons and the body of a female wolf whose once beautiful appearance had been marred by a gash where her chest used to be. One man, whose bulky stomach lay on the ground, commented, “ We’ve been hunting this pack for a while and we’ve already killed one; let’s get outta here Dan”. The largest turned his head and after stroking his beard replied, “ Give me a chance Ralph. We’ll try once, then leave”.
He slowly lifted the stock of his black rifle to his shoulder and placed the fluorescent crosshairs upon the head of the largest creature; he deeply breathed once and gradually began to place pressure on the trigger. A flash of light and blast sound issued from the gun’s barrel; the bullet zipped through the air and exploded above Dash’s head. As quickly as they had appeared, the eyes vanished like extinguished fires. The family immediately rose and began to flee, but as soon as he stood Dash fell to the ground. In his leg a piece of rock had lodged itself after tearing through multiple layers of muscle. Spike ran to his brother, but was forced to abandon him, as the possibility of being shot still existed.
As Spike ran away, he glanced back at his sibling, whose painful moans bought remorse to his mind. Unable to cope with the guilt any longer, Spike went
into frenzy and dashed away. As strength left his body, Spike’s vision began to blur and he lost consciousness. He woke to find his father by his side, patiently waiting. Suddenly, he remembered his brother and ran to find him, but he had no luck.
A few miles away, two of the three men had begun plans to find the pack and eradicate it finally; they threw two gun cases and ammunition into the bed of their truck. It noisily started and released a cloud of gas, which rattled from the exhaust pipe as the truck sped away.
Nightfall came and the family settled under a tree, which provided little shelter from the powerful winds that whistled past its many branches. Spike wearily viewed his surroundings: to the family’s left stood large snow-capped mountains and to the right was vast grassland where wind flowed over grass like water over an ocean floor. Even if an animal had been there Spike couldn’t have seen it through the thick grass, but he stayed alert while his father peacefully slept.
The truck slowly came to a stop in front of their last kill, Dart, whose putrid remains was covered with flies and maggots. From the corpse led a trail of paw prints, which continued into the distance.
The vehicle gradually inched forwards until it came to a stop near an area where the ground was concealed by a dense layer of grass. The truck’s lights pierced
the grass and illuminated the surroundings. Both the men left the car and surveyed the area; nearby a single tree stood in the distance. It had begun to rain, and the men flinched as lightning issued from the sky.
They started to leave but the bolt of lightning momentarily illuminated the form of a solitary wolf that lay asleep. Immediately they began to set up their equipment as the rain drenched their bodies and threw droplets which splattered against the windshield of their truck. Two guns were loaded and placed on the ground. The men lay down behind their weapons and waited. Ralph then asked, “Where’s the big one?” Dan replied, “ Who cares, let’s just kill the one and take it home”. As he had done so many times before Dan placed the crosshairs on the animal’s head and started to pull the trigger; however, before he could let off a shot, his friend’s screams bought him out of his trance. He turned to find his companion’s gun left on its side. As he stood, his eyes widened, and without his gun, he became the prey of what had once been hunted by him.
Later that night, as the rain finally receded, Spike and his father enjoyed their new meal. Spike voraciously tore chunks of flesh from the bulky body until he could eat no more. Later, he allowed his head to rest on the moist dirt and fell into a deep sleep, contented to be the predator once again.