The forest was still and all around were the scents of the others, the others who dwelt here deep in the forest with him.
The forest was bathed in bright moonlight, so bright, that to his eyes it was almost like sunlight.
All around he heard the movements of the smaller dwellers there.
Those to whom he showed not the slightest regard.
The mice and voles and squirrels.
There would come a time when they would serve as sustenance in the cold of Winter, but now, now in the middle of Springtime, his needs were for larger game, perhaps a young deer or newly-born lamb.
He could easily slip from the forest onto the low farmlands that were adjacent to the forest.
He loped at an easy pace, feeling the warm breeze created by his own movements through the still night air.
His senses were alert to the slightest movement or sound from the bushes as he moved silently along the well-worn man-made track.
The farm was not too far from his home here deep in the forest.
He’d seen it many times on his nightly haunts, and he’d seen also the enemy there.
Man, the enemy of all of his brethren and he’d stayed well clear of Man until tonight. Tonight he would venture onto new territory and take whatever he wanted.
He felt powerful and supreme.
He stopped and stretched his haunches and surveyed the field before him.
There in the grass lay many sheep and new-born lambs.
He moved below the wire that served as a fence to contain the restless sheep.
He lay low and looked at them sleeping there.
However, the sheep had detected his scent and one or two were bleating in alarm.
The young lambs also sensed the unease in their parents and when their mothers moved then they did too.
The flock now were fully aroused and started to move around in panic.
The light in the farmhouse came on and he knew he had to act now or retreat without his prize.
He darted forward and the sheep took flight.
In the panic the newly-born lambs were left behind to fend for themselves.
They were running in all directions and he was unable to concentrate for a moment, until an opportunity presented itself, and he sprang onto a very weak lamb and sank his teeth deep into its neck.
Using his powerful neck muscles he was able to slowly run back up the field toward the forest, carrying the now dead lamb.
When he reached the wire once more he had to drag the carcase under the wire which caused him a problem.
Eventually he succeeded but not without a great strain on his reserves of energy.
He knew the Men were coming, but he knew that once he was in the forest that they would never be able to find him.
Hoisting the young lamb once more he loped toward his home.
His home, deep in the sheltering forest.
The blow, when it came, surprised him so greatly that he dropped his victim to the ground.
He felt the fire deep within his chest as he slowly fell into the deep damp grass.
He turned his head toward the moon-bathed forest as the last of his breath left his dying body…The forest… The forest…The forest.
Kitos.