[Tiabirb]

Swiftfire-Warrior-She/Her
Purrk(s): Ultimate Predator

She could practically feel his eagerness. deep inside, she felt a spark of pure warmth, a memory resurging. Her first hunt. She had been told she would succeed with no shortage of the same confidence she had said the same to Hickorypaw. Only that her mentor had been distracted at the last moment, failed to give her the signal, and the next thing she had known, she had been in the rabbit rodeo, clinging for life to the back of a buck hare. After some panicked scrambling and bucking, both she and the rabbit had fallen into a sinkhole. It had broken its neck on landing, and she had a torn claw and a twisted paw from the ordeal.
Swiftfire felt that her own apprentice wouldn't have nearly as complicated a first hunt. He was a smart one, and she appreciated that deeply.


She quickly ensured he was in a proper ambushing crouch, gently adjusting his paws and stance, "Keep your strength in your back legs." She murmured quietly, "It's going to be more worried about me chasing it before it is going to realize you're waiting for it. You may get only one good opening.." With the last bit of advice, Swiftfire turned around and slipped seamlessly beneath a low-branching elderberry bush, her black and orange pelt acting almost as a useful invisibility coat beneath the bushes.

It would feel like an eternity had passed by, even for Swiftfire. Time always seemed to slow down around her when she was hunting. Through the branches and leaves, she watched for the rabbit, any signs of exit or entry. She would need to corral the rabbit after all, herd it right to Hickorypaw. She paused as the rabbit finally came into view. A plump doe, young too. Swiftfire froze in place, eyeing the way the rabbit had come from.
Moments later, she would be positioned under the roots of an oak, behind the rabbit's left flank. The rabbit was oblivious, which was perfect.

Swiftfire sprang from the roots, and the rabbit jumped, flipped and stumbled upon landing, allowing Swiftfire just a moment to slash her claws over the rabbit's right leg, wounding it and then she was sprinting back and forth, blocking the rabbit's zig-zagging efforts to escape.
If Hickorypaw could see, it was like a weird game of tag, as his mentor was a black and orange streak from one side of the grove to the other, corraling the rabbit exactly where she wanted and needed it to go. Realizing it was weakening and its burrow was unavailable due to Swiftfire's herding, the rabbit made a mad dash for its life.

Right where Hickorypaw would be waiting. Swiftfire loped behind on her long legs, darting sharply to cut the rabbit off if it tried to divert from its fateful choice. There wasn't going to be a chance for it now...

@Doom