Six of Clubs

Keywords - Upright: hunted, distance the only friend  ·  Inverted: single-mindedness steered, the chase into the trap

Upright

You are the prey. The pursuit is relentless and it made everything worse. Distance is your only friend right now.

You are the prey; the noise behind you is not confusion but intent. Predators of this class do not tire on your schedule, do not spook on cue, and are not interested in clever alternatives. The pursuit is a fact of the landscape now. What you control is smaller than you would like: pace, direction, and what you are willing to drop to keep both.

Inverted

Perfect focus is perfectly steerable. A pursuer that will not break off can be aimed: over the deadfall, across a rival's territory, through ground that punishes weight. Its commitment - the very thing that made it terrifying - is the handle. You cannot outrun it, and you may not need to. Choose its path for it, at speed, with no margin for a stumble.

In Play

Upright. The sow has Edda's scent off the carcass and will not be argued with - the dogs buy her a hundred paces, twice, at a price she hears behind her.

Inverted. Edda runs the last stretch along the trappers' line - and the sow, committed and heedless, finds the leg snare set for winter wolves.