The silvery coyote was an efficient hunter of small game, and she excelled at preying on things smaller than the average beaver. Rodents were a favorite meal for when she hunted by herself; they were small but ridiculously easy to catch for the coyote woman, and satisfying enough if eaten in pairs. It would have been far easier to sate herself and eat more than once by bringing down a deer, but the hybrid woman had less luck with those than she did the smaller variety of prey animals. Of course, her forte was fishing—the hybrid coyote could fish up anything out of the sea, and the inlet of Inferni, with its rocks and shallow tidepools, was perfect for her particular style, which had been perfected in the years scratching a living on the old beach. There, the fish had been their most staple food supply—if the coyotes of the old beach had wanted anything larger than the occasional rabbit that wandered to their sparse strip of forest, they had to travel to the mountains. Perhaps that was why hunts had been so far and few between.



    Trotting through the underbrush, the hybrid kept her senses attuned to the greenery around her, her ears at alert for the slightest sounds of movement in the hundred or so feet of forest between herself and Sofi. Truthfully, this was one of the few hunting patterns viable with two canines, though it certainly had the possibility of failing if the prey animal veered to the left or right. However, Kaena had left more than enough distance, and she ceased moving after a while, having located Sofi's position, keeping herself just to the right of the woman, hoping the creature would flee away from the house and to the deeper part of the forest. Distinct noises told Kaena Sofi had succeeded in the first part of their mission, and now it was up to her to bring it down. Freezing where she was, the hybrid took just an instant to ascertain the prey animal's path, still uncertain as to what it was, and moved quickly in that direction, still attempting to conceal herself while the prey itself charged toward her, unknowing of the canine lying in wait.



    A sharp series of growls and grunts echoed through the garden, followed by a distinctive gurgling noise. Kaena lay half on top of a small goat, her jaws sunk into its throat, choking the life from it. Some of the domesticated ones that had lived in the sprawling farmlands had moved to Halcyon Mountain, finding its rocky, rough terrain perfect to their liking. This one was hardly old enough to be so distant from his mother, and Kaena assumed they had been separated, and this small thing had wandered down the mountains into coyote territory. She had never seen one here before, anyway—but she knew what a goat was and also that it was quite edible. Picking the thing up, the hybrid headed back toward Sofi, moving quickly toward the silver hybrid, the pale-furred thing clutched tightly in her jaws, red staining its throat. "Shall we?" she mumbled through the creature's flesh, jerking her head toward the mansion, figuring they could head inside to eat.