Pests

The two bounded across the white powder, throwing sparkling clouds into the air. They paused and touched noses, their steamy breath intertwining. The larger one stiffen, as the smaller sank onto his hunches.

The female coyote stood motionless as the bitter wind rustled her chestnut fur. Her eardrums vibrated, tracking the movements of the fur-wrapped meat under the drift. Muscles coiled, she sprang upward, then down, her paws and snout piercing the flakes. Her paws pinned the meadow mole, its back snapped. She raised her head as her teeth pieced its flesh.

Her pup cocked his head as she trotted over. She dropped the cooling meat in front of him. He yipped, then tore at the meat, gulping it down.

His mother licked his lips when he was done then sniffed the air.

A musty odor crawled into her nostrils and fear curled around her gut.

The last time she smelled this scent was moons ago, when the ground was moist and covered with soft moss. She remembered her mate yelping after a loud snap ruptured the silence. When she turned, he squealed, iron teeth clutching his left rear leg. He pulled and yanked, spraying the dirt with blood. She licked him, growling and yipping, while their pup cowered.

Time crawled forward. Her mate whined then gnawed at his leg muscle. All three coyotes froze as leaves crunched. A heavy, foreign smell slithered through the trees. A shadowy two legs appeared. Then cracks and spraying dirt.

One pierced her mate and he crumpled into heap. The female bolted, nipping their pup, causing him to run in front of her. Their slender legs pounded the ground, claws digging into the earth, faster, farther away from the figure, from the dead body of her life-long mate. Then stopping, gasping, trembling, pressing into each other.

And now she inhaled that odor once more. She growled to her pup, his pupils widening, and together they slipped across the field and vanished.

The coyote’s amber eyes opened, her nose buried in her brushy tail. She rose and stretched, shaking the snow off her coat. Her pup popped out of the powder next to her.

She heard his stomach rumble, his ribs outlining his sides. She scanned the horizon, littered with pine trees buckling under snow. Prey was buried deep and they had not been successful in many nights.

She trotted with her pup by her side. She needed to expand her hunting area, into the forbidden region where she once hunted before. There used to be endless fields with waving grass, stocked with life sustaining meat. Now there was nothing but empty, rigid hulls, filled with two legs that ended her mate. But a fierce hunger clouded her mind and she continued forward.

She crested a hill, then pressed her body low, her pup mimicking her movements. Fear dug its claws into her as she surveyed a building, lit by a needle of dawn.

Trapped behind low wire was meat wrapped in fluffy substance. It ran back and forth along the fence, barking.

The coyote’s mouth salivated. She growled at her pup, who lay into the snow.

Her body crawled forward, then hurled over the wire. Her mouth wrapped around the prey, which shrieked and twisted. As she sprang back over the fence, the hull opened, and a two leg followed by another exploded from its depths. They screamed.

The female ran, her pup following. They disappeared over the hill and into the woods. They would not be hungry tonight.

The coyote’s eyes followed her pup, a small branch dangling from his lips. He flung the twig into the air, then pounced on it as it stuck in snow. He repeated his dance.

The dark bird above her cackled. Her ears pricked.

From the snow draped brush, a dog skittered, his dirty, scruffy body staining the white. The coyote and her pup turned toward it, their gazes tracking its movements. The female’s lips lifted into a snarl.

The dog’s ears flattened and the tip of its tail quivered.

The female growled and darted at the canine. It spun its skinny body and ran. She slammed into it and its body rolled. The pup nipped its back as it shrieked.

The dog jumped up and bolted, the coyotes keeping pace. When it reached the edge of the woods, the female skidded to a halt. Her pup followed. They ate well last night. She would not waste energy on something worthless.

The pup spied another branch. He grasped it in his teeth, poked his dam, then zoomed across the snow. She leapt toward him, trying to catch him.

The female’s legs punched the heavy layer of ice crystals followed by her pup. Snow wafted down, melting in their steamy breath. Crimson from their last kill dotted their frosty fur.

The coyote spotted the tree line in the distance. They would go deep into the forest until the storm subsided, hidden and out of the slicing wind.

The female paused, a low hum rumbling over the field. She barked and shoved her pup. They ran across the snow. The humming rattled louder followed by screams.

The female glanced over her shoulder. Two legs perched on oily metal, their heads encased in dark orbs. The machines whined and turned toward them.

The female breathed terror oozing from her pup’s pores. When he slowed, she bit his haunches. A cloud of sharp fumes engulfed them. The coyotes pivoted away from the machines, their lungs burning. The two legs shouted and turned.

The female’s shoulder clipped her pup and threw him as one machine ground her body into the snow. The metal arced away as she struggled to her feet, blood spilling across her tongue. She spotted her pup and snarled at him as he paused. He darted toward the tree line.

Whimpers bled from her lips as pain searing up her back leg. She stumbled, dragging it behind her.

Shadows clouded her vision and the two legs rose above her. They made strange sounds and one slapped the other on its back.

The musty odor of them trickled in her nostrils as she floundered in a drift, terror pulsing in her arteries. They strode next to her, their feet kicking her sides.

Pain overwhelmed her and her body crumbled. One of the two legs yanked a piece of metal from the depths of his body. He lifted it and smacked her.

The coyote gasped, her head lolled to the side. She saw her pup trembling in the distance. She barked and he disappeared. Falling snow wetted her eyelids. She looked up and saw the two legs raise the metal again, then felt it crash into her head. Then nothing.