Rich had been in the forest for only fifty-one seconds before the unmistakable retort of a pistol echoed throughout the pine trees.  As soon as he heard the gunshot, he knew two things: the lycan was being attacked by a hunter, and said hunter was just over four hundred feet away.<br/><br/>He ran under a partially felled tree, boots kicking up puffs of loam and topsoil.  In the distance, Rich's keen ears picked up Talton's enraged howl.  Even though he'd heard it dozens of times before, the chilling noise combined with his adrenaline caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.  He resisted the urge to let loose a howl of his own, instead focusing on how to approach the situation.<br/><br/><div align="center">*   *   *</div><br/>Lazarus scrambled to his feet, one hand rubbing his numb thigh where the lycan had kicked him.  When he saw that the thing had transformed, he put on a nervous leer.  "Aww...  What a pretty doggie! If you had shifted earlier, then it would have been easier to find you.  After all, you do rather stand out."<br/><br/>A sharp howl echoed in the distance, obviously the cry of another abomination.  Lazarus looked behind him, his pistol hand pointed in the general direction of his prey.  "How many of you are there?!" he demanded angrily, just as another, closer howl sounded in the forest; whether it was from the same lycan or a different one, he could not tell.<br/><br/><div align="center">*   *   *</div><br/>Ever since he had caught up to Ian, Rich had been aware of something in the scent they were tracking.  It was definitely lycan blood, but there was also something fundamentally different about the way it smelled; the way it<em>felt</em>.<br/><br/>And then he knew: they were coming to the aid of a<em>female</em>lycan.  Even though his body was sprinting at a good twenty miles per hour, Rich's mind felt like it had been stonewalled.  He hadn't seen a female of his species in decades; a combination of infertility and disease had all but stamped them out in most of the world.  And now someone was trying to<em>kill</em>one?  The senselessness and barbarism of the act enraged Rich, and he felt a sudden, base urge to come to her defense.<br/><br/>A cave mouth appeared in the hillside in front of him, an armed figure standing in the opening.  Fueled by a primal anger, the Alpha let loose a chilling howl and leapt.<br/><br/><div align="center">*   *   *</div><br/>Lazarus had moved to the mouth of the cave.  Leaning his back against the stone, the hunter pivoted his focus and gun between the wounded female and the forest outside.  Despite it being midday with plenty of visibility, he could not spot any of the abominations.  Lazarus was about to conclude that the ghostly cries had actually been real wolves when a third - and definitely lycan - howl came from just beyond the cave's entrance.  The hunter swung his pistol away from the female to face the new threat, but by then it was already too late.<br/><br/>Something slammed into him at high speed, making the wounded lycan's kick seem like a love tap.  Lazarus was flung from the wall by the impact, landing on the floor with his attacker in a tangled mess of limbs.  His pistol went off twice - one bullet ricocheted inside the cave and the other zoomed into the forest - and then was knocked out of his grip by his assailant.  The blow also crushed twenty two of the twenty seven bones in his hand and wrist.<br/><br/>((OOC: Don't want to have all the fun :P, so I left his exact fate up to Alice, Ian, or Talton.  Have at it! ))