Days passed in a blur of thrill and excitement as she led him, the mighty Death, on a merry goose chase. Lachesis felt powerful, and fully in control. She only stopped when he all but collapsed, using the time of his recovery to keep her own strength up by hunting what she could. Her stamina proved to be greater, but she still needed to fill her belly. It gave her a measure of satisfaction that all her hunter had had to eat was fetid, rotting carcass meat from bodies abandoned to the weather by other predators.

Licking her chops, belly pleasantly stuffed with a fat grouse, she circled Thanatos, laying in the weeds and ferns to watch him. Even running as much as they had, he was gaining strength. The gods help her if he managed to make a fresh kill and dine on pure meat.

She knew he sensed her, because he had quickly figured out her game of staying upwind, but he had long since given up trying to benefit from this knowledge by going after her. Lachesis proved to be too fast, and she reveled in the ire he felt at that.

"Death is said to come swiftly to those who play with it, but you are not so swift, are you, dear Thanatos," she taunted, her voice coy and teasing, knowing her attitude infuriated him.

"Your jabs will not bruise my ego today, Lachesis," he hissed, licking his sore paws as his ears listened for the sound he sought. A river rushed by to his left, it's endless surge wearing the land away much as his patience was ebbing.

Swift and furiously.

He didn't say anything to her after that, instead rising to his feet and pacing towards the swiftly flowing water, his reflection sneering back at him. His form was no longer skeletal, and the wounds he'd received at the gray femme's fangs were long healed, crusted over with scabs. Death was filthy, but washing could wait.

Bi-colored eyes moving, scanning, he caught sight of his prey and dove with teeth bared into the water, intent on fish.

Lachesis' eyes widened, wondering at his foolishness. The river was swift, and deadly, a sure end to any life caught in it's strong currant. She rose to her feet and padded swiftly to the water's edge.

It was a foolish move.

b***h, you are mine! Death thought to himself as he leaped from the raging water. Thanatos attacked with a savage snarl as water cascaded from him. He slammed into Lachesis, his pent up frustration unleashing as he tore into her. But the femme was fast and slippery as a snake.

She was bleeding, but Lachesis felt only exhilaration as she escaped him, knowing what was to come. The back and forth game of chase had built a wall of tension and frustration around the two wolves; a game of deadly intent.

Her family would disapprove . . . possibly disown her, but she felt the need in her bones. Death intrigued her too much, but she knew he would kill her some day.

And that was why her plan lay clearly mapped out in her head, and she looked in the distance at the snow capped mountain laying dormant far to the North.

What Thanatos didn't know is that they were on the other side of the river that acted as the eastern border of Acropolis' lands.

She had led him on a merry goose chase indeed.

Dropping her forequarters, blood dripping from the gashes his fangs had made, she faced him like a playful pup, her green gaze fiery. No words needed, they both knew what would happen next. Once again, Lachesis started running, but at a pace meant to be caught. And Thanatos wasted no time, descending on her like a raging storm....

~~~

She was gone, and Death raged, finally realizing where the b***h had led him. The gray femme had led him so far east, that the plateau had gradually fallen to nothing and he hadn't had a clue that the steady incline they had been running up for weeks would find him back atop these cursed lands in the sky, where he'd nearly lost his life.

Staring at the river in a savage fury, he debated following her. Debated claiming her and forcing her to follow him. But he dared not step foot on Acropolis lands. He had cheated his own death once, and god or no, he might not be able to do it a second time.

Seething, he stared up at the black sky. The night was too old and the morning too young for even the moon, it's light snuffed by the earth it circled.

Twas the witching hour, and he had been played again. Thanatos didn't take kindly to realizing he had been her pawn the entire time, even when he thought he'd been firmly in control.

But that was the power of a female, and he his savage snarl curled into a slow, wicked, and satisfied grin.

"Until we meet again, my pretty stalker . . . "

Turning, the sabre cat skull hiding his face in pure darkness except for one glowing red eye, Death disappeared into the night.

~~~

The water soaking her fur dried before she reached the dens, her pace slow and gentle as she thought about what the future might bring.

Lachesis knew that drama would ensue upon her return, assumed Clotho and Atropos had ratted her out. But she held her head high, shame an unknown thing to her.

Let them yell.

She was her own wolf.

Paws soft on the fair grasses, she stopped between the den Zeus and Dione had dug so many years ago as their pup den, -now a huge, roomy den for the pack-, and the drop off that heralded the end of the land.

The forest below the plateau stretched for what seemed like forever, and even in the darkness of the witching hour, the world still shown with the light of life.

"So beautiful," she murmured, then smiled.

FIN