Shaky Legs (Open)

["Quick" Taylor]

”So, you’re the Beta. Do your demanding duties allow you to spend some time with me…” Ronnie said, looking over to him. He felt his pose quicken some as she asked the question, his eyes meeting hers. Then she added ,”…to teach me some basic hunting skills?”

It wasn’t what he might have hoped for, but it was something. Besides, she did need to learn how to take care of herself better. Learning to hunt would go a long way getting her started on that.

“Yeah, I can find the time for that,” he said with a smile, nodding, “I can teach you to use a bow. You’ll need it for anything deer sized or larger. You’ll have a hard time bringing down things like deer with your shift.”

Quick found himself unable to take his attention off of Ronnie. It wasn’t just one thing about her that held his attention either. He very rarely felt this engaged in a conversation with someone inside the dome since he’d been thrown in here. The only other person who’d ever had this effect on him was Adri, but he decided to keep his mind on Ronnie, rather than let it wander to the past.

That, however, was why he didn’t hear the wolf approaching from behind until the last second. At the final moment, he heard the heavy breathing of the canine, and pulled one of his tomahawk as he turned around, bringing his left arm up to protect his throat. The wolf leapt for him, jaws closing over his arm, her momentum bringing him to the ground. He tried to use the back spike on his tomahawk to stab the attacker, but she leg go of his arm and leapt away at the last moment.

The wolf faced him and Ronnie and shifted to a human form. That was when Quick realized she must have been with the tiger shifter he’d just killed. He felt a pit settle in his stomach from the thought.

“You killed him!” the woman screamed as she charged at him, knife drawn and tears streaming down her face. Quick shifted his tomahawk to his left hand and, as the woman stabbed toward him, he grabbed the wrist of her arm and ducked under it. As he moved behind her, he hooked the back spike of his tomahawk around her ankle and rough her legs out from under her. As she hit the ground, and brought his fist down now her stomach hard, knocking the wind from her.

“I had no f***ing choice,” he spat at the woman, his breathing labored and his head swimming from the exertion. His side hurt again, and he instinctively reached his right hand over to hold the wounds, “I just wanted our food back. But he attacked me. So I killed him. Now get the hell out of here before I kill you too.”

“Y-...You’re a monster,” the woman gasped back at him as she started regaining her breath.

“Yeah I f***ing am,” Quick spat back at her, “And so is everyone else now. Get get lost before I have you tossed the cesspool.”

Without waiting for another word, he turned and continued the slow walk back to Fallen territory. Before he’d taken two steps, though, the woman leapt back to her feet and lunged at him again, screaming. He whipped around again, slamming the flat side of his tomahawk against her hand, sending her knife flying. Then, he spun the axe in his hand and in one quick movement slashed the blade of the head across the woman’s throat.

As she fell to the ground, he turned and replaced his tomahawk in his belt and turned back to Ronnie, breathing hard and still gripping his side.

“I f***ing hate this place,” he told her without looking at her, and continued walking towards the Fallenring camp….