Hunting

[xDemonicsx]

Lowering until his bellyhairs touched the ground, a black animal made its way towards a small mouse. At first glance, the animal may have appeared to be like a large skunk, since there was a white stripe running down it's back. Though, looking closer, anyone could see that it was actually a cat, it's fluffy tail seeming to refuse to drag on the ground. [A little closer] the cat thought, his eyes narrowing, as he could already taste the small creature.

At that second, the mouse heard him step on a twig, that had snapped under his foot, and he pounced. Too late. The mouse had already darted away from his reach, and he stumbled to the ground, rising to look for it, but it must have gone to it's burrow. "At least it didn't squeak, or I wouldn't find anymore prey," the cat spat.

[aciddwolf]

"Well, I'm pretty sure if you step on many more sticks, you'll see the same result, mouse-brain!" a she-cat teased lightly, as she crawled out from under a bush. She had followed the warrior, when she had gotten bored, and curious on where he was going. "Hunting? Why didn't you invite me, Skunkpelt?" the cat's eyes seemed to glitter with amusement, "didn't you think your leader might like some time to hunt with one of her clan members? Or were you afraid I'd see you fail, like you just did?"

Dawnstar was fully aware of the tom being easily agitated. Perhaps she was playing a game, to see how long it would take for him to snap at his leader. "Do you need to be an apprentice, instead of mentor them?" she shook her head a little, "that mouse wasn't even paying attention to it's surroundings, yet you managed to step on a twig, and alert it of your presence... how sad the clan will be that you've lost dinner," her whiskers twitched. "I'm not being serious, of course, you know that, don't you?"

[xDemonicsx]

"Mousebrain? You're talking!" Skunkpelt hadn't caught himself in time to stop the sentence from coming out. It wasn't the best to tell a leader that. Too late to take it back now, the words had already slipped from his mouth. Figuring with Dawnstar, she wouldn't be too mad at him. Then again, he had never heard anyone call her mouse-brained before.

"If you think you could do better, prove it," he muttered lowly, shifting his face a little, towards a vole that was several fox-lengths away from them. Enough so, that their talking had yet to scare it away. After hearing her mention about him re-becoming an apprentice, his eyes widened a little. There was no way he could become an apprentice again, was there? That would be horrible! But, he relaxed after hearing her say that she had been kidding.

"I doubted you'd want to come here with me," his eyes narrowed "I'm not the only other cat in camp. You could have stalked someone else."

[aciddwolf]

There was a long silence after she had basically been called mouse-brained. A serious look clouded her eyes, and Dawnstar stared at Skunkpelt as if she were an adder. Suddenly, she mrrowed with laughter, "you're right, partially. I've made some pretty mouse-brained mistakes in the past," she shook her head a little.

"Stalking is such a serious word... let's use 'following without your knowledge'," the leader purred softly, "and to see your reaction when I come out of brush is always fun to watch," the she cat just seemed to smile. She was definitely odd. In truth, the clan never fully seemed to trust Skunkpelt, so she had followed him, to garantee that he was loyal. She always had faith in him, however, it was best to make sure.

With that, her eyes shifted to the vole, and she crouched low to the ground. It was almost like she wanted to be able to sink into the dirt, and hide herself. Sneaking up on the vole wouldn't be too easy. Surely it had been able to hear the cat's conversation, even a little, and would be alert. A little over a fox length away from the small creature, it became aware of her presence, and began to run. It only took a second, and Dawnstar leapt onto it, finishing it off as fast as she could. Luckily, before it could alert the entire forest of the hunters.

With that, she lifted up her small prize, and padded over to the skunk-looking warrior, dropping it on the ground in front of herself. "See? Simple."

[xDemonicsx]

Eyes narrowing, the tom looked at his leader rather seriously. She had scared Skunkpelt for a minute, when she had stared at him with eyes like an adder. "I wish you wouldn't kid like that. You know, leader's are supposed to be... what's the word? Oh yeah, serious!" he shook his head for a second.

"I know how to hunt. I'm a warrior, not a kit," he grumbled, and glanced at the sky, "what do you want?"

[aciddwolf]

"There's no rule against how serious I have to be!" Dawnstar mrrowed again, her tail twitching, and an amused glint was held in her eyes. Her body shifted a little, "you told me to," she mewed quickly in responce. "If you didn't want me to show you how to hunt, why did you tell me to, then?"

Her ears twitched, as a thoughtful look appeared on the feline's face, "it's about time to eat, isn't it? How about you go try to catch one last thing, and I'll take this vole back to camp for one of the elders. We can eat together, wouldn't that be fun?" the she-cat mused, picking up the vole without a chance for the tom to respond, before scurrying away from him, not giving him an answer for her stalking him.

[xDemonicsx]

"I didn't mean you had to show me how to hunt, though," Skunkpelt let out a protesting meow. His tail lashed to the sides, proving that he was irritated with his leader's personality.

His ears flicked back, pressing against his skull, as he watched the she-cat hurry off with the vole clamped in her jaws. It made the black-pelted tom's mouth water, wishin that he had caught the small animal rather than his leader, who made him unintentionally feel like a fool. "Fine..." he meowed under his breath, not having gotten a chance to argue with her about eating fresh-kill alongside the strange she-cat.

"Sometimes I wonder if she's got a mouse running around in replacement of her brain..." he huffed, hunching his shoulders a little, as he sneaked through the leaves and dying grass, before hearing scuffling. Parting his jaws, he could taste a mouse-scent in the air. Surely enough, the leaves ahead of him twitched, proving a small gray coloured mouse was digging around for it's next meal.

Without hesitation, the skunk-like feline crept towards the mouse, avoiding any leaf that would crunch under his paws, and leaped at the unsuspecting creature, biting into it before it could alert any other prey of it's attacker. Feeling satisfied, Skunkpelt lifted the creature into his mouth, and crawled off towards camp to bring the fresh-kill.

The camp was closer than expected, he soon realized, as he met the tunnel that lead into the camp, and crawled through it quickly, making his way to the fresh-kill pile to drop his prey onto.