20251019 peril

He smells the blood first, pain and fear following after in the wind.   The flock bleats away, grazing on the grass in the sunny field, avoiding the woods like they know something. Kidd can't help but drift to the trees shadows, nose flared at the cloying stench on the breeze. The shepherd calls to him but Kidd waves him off, slipping into the forest.   The woods are silent, no birds, no bugs. Still other than a slight breeze in the tree canopy above. Enough to follow the smell.   Finally, Kidd cna hear it, rustling of leaves and the clinking of chains. Then a low warning snarl - he's been spotted.   There is a wolf pup off the trail, snarling with foam and blood in his teeth, hunched up on himself under branches of a rather olf twisted tree. He tries to skulk under the brush when Kidd spots him, and the clink of metal can be heard again, the pup remaining out in the open.   The man with his sheep would have fired on the pup by now; wolves aren't worth the risk to the flock. But the pup doesn't flee, and as Kidd picks his way closer, he sees the front left leg of the creature soaked in its own blood, fur ripped away, muscles exposed and shredded, mauled by by its own teeth. Then he sees the shine of metal, the clang of chain chiming again.  The pup's paw is caught in a foothold trap, and the poor things been trying to gnaw its way free.   Kidd should put it out of its misery. It's done enough damage to his leg he probably wont survive long enough for it to heal anyway. Kidd pulls the knife from his sporran; he's never taken a life himself, but he's seen it done. He knows the idea. A strong cut to the neck and the poor thing will bleed out quickly and it probably will be no more painful than the damage already done to its leg.   Its eyes are blue, and he looks at the knife like it knows what Kidd plans. Kidd falters, he hadn't expected to see any intelligence there. The pup whines and tries to curl away, fear on its face.   Kidd looks to its trapped foot instead. The trap's is just a bar, no teeth, but it's snapped down hard enough the beast can't pull free. kidd keeps the knife out, if the wolf knows what it is, maybe it wont try to bite when kidds apporaches. He keeps it pointed at the beasts face and teeth, as his free hand toys with the trap itself.   tis small, lieklt ment for a fox at best, the pup is just unlucky enough to wander into it.   he's not goint o be able to open it one handed, and absently mindedely lowers the knife to fiddle with it with two hands. it takes almost all his body weight to counter the coils holding the bars shut.   it trap opens, and the wolf jolts away, fleeing intot he brush.   kidd should walk away and be done with it. he's lucky the wolf fleed instead of attacking. but the blood is thcik where he was trapped,a nd its spilt heavy where the pup as fled.   it wont make the night if it keeps bleeding.   Kidd puts his knife away... and follows the blood deeper into the woods.   The pup hasn't gone far, crawled into a shallow under a bush, and kidd kneels down to peer into the dark. "if you come back out, Kidd tries to coax, "I can try to wrap your leg? you can't let it keep bleeding like it is..."   The pup the crawls out, ears back, tail tucked between its legs... its not a wolf pup at all. at least not jsut a wolf pup. one of the volkolak - cursed by the sins of their parents - too furry to be human, to bipedabl to be wolf. He stays coilded tight, waiting for Kidd to attack, to lash out. to scream and hit him like the humans have before.   Good think Kidd's not human either.