Snowgust padded out of camp and decided to hunt because she saw that the fresh-kill pile was low. She padded around, trying to catch a scent. She smelled a squirrel. She followed the smell until she saw the squirrel on a tree branch. She narrowed her eyes. The squirrel would see her if she tried to climb the tree. She tried to sneak to the other side of the tree where the squirrel wasn't facing. She silently leapt branch upon branch until she was on the branch below the squirrel. The squirrel looked down at Snowgust when the branch cracked. "Mouse dung!" She whispered. She jumped at the squirrel, a heartbeat later the branch she was previously on cracking off and falling. "Whoa," She gasped. The squirrel escaped, crawling up into the leaves. Snowgust looked up at the squirrel. it was on the top branch, a couple more branches above her. She jumped onto the next branch quietly. The squirrel didn't see nor hear her. It kept still. Snowgust got in a hunting crouch and leapt at the squirrel, taking it in her jaws. It was squeaking and moving so the deputy bit down and killed it. She thanked StarClan for the prey. She looked down. She was on the top of a tall tree. If she fell, she'd die, even if she landed on her feet. She took the squirrel in her jaws and steadily jumped down onto the next branch down. She kept going down until she met a weak branch. She didn't want to jump down on it because it would crack. The wind began to pick up when she was thinking of what to do. The weak branch broke off and fell to the ground. Snowgust leapt down to the next one, which broke. She fell to the ground, which wasn't a too long drop. She got up, shaking the leaves out of her fur. She knew that none of her bones were broken and there were probably no major injuries that she could see, but she of course wasn't the medicine cat so she didn't know for sure. She took the squirrel from the ground and picked the wood and leaves out of it's fur. She picked it up and padded back to camp. The third step she took, pain suddenly stabbed her left front paw. She held it up and started licking it. She tasted blood. She looked at her pad and saw that it was torn from the fall. There seemed to be a piece of wood stuck deep inside of it. Snowgust narrowed her eyes angrily. "Sliver?" She guessed. "A bad one. And the pad is also really worn out from all of that climbing..." She sighed, took the squirrel and went into the camp. She went over to the fresh-kill pile and set the squirrel down. She suddenly realized... "I was out so long and only caught a squirrel? I have to do more than that!" She set off back into the territory. Instead of the forest she went searching for a plump marmot in the mountains. She knew it wouldn't help her pad at all, but she needed to help her clan eat! She soon picked up a marmot scent and could tell it was a good one. She kept following the scent until she found a den of a mother marmot and four marmot babies. Snowgust kept still. Should she kill them? There'd be no point in killing small babies that would barely feed the clan, right? "Should I kill the only plump one, the mother? But then the babies will have no food- what am I doing? I'm a cat! This is for my clan, right? I have to try to kill them all!" She stopped when she heard a noise. She looked behind her. "Mouse dung! The dad!" The father marmot was growling. Snowgust unsheathed her claws and clawed it, killing the dad marmot immediately. The mother looked troubled, not knowing what to do. "Is one enough? No, I'm going crazy! These things are prey!" She blocked the exit to the marmot den. The mother got up and covered her babies. She growled. (or did a mad marmot noise. I don't know if they growl). It tried to attack, So Snowgust leapt at the mother and killed it. She felt bad. There'd be no point in killing the babies, she thought. She looked into the sad, hungry baby marmot's eyes. She turned around and took the mother and father marmot and walked back to camp. She set them in the fresh-kill pile. She looked around. She took a walk back by the mountains. She saw a patch of flowers and picked one. She knew that marmots ate flowers. She padded to the den of marmots and saw the four babies asleep, shivering. She set a flower down. One of them immediately started eating and soon the others woke up and did the same. Snowgust smiled. "Why am I doing this?" She asked herself. "...They're babies! I have to!... Right?" She licked them to keep them warm and put leaves down to keep them warm. "This is good. They'll grow up to be even bigger and better prey that we can hunt later on." She grinned. Snowgust stood up again. To make up for her work that some cats may have disliked, she caught a finch and took it back to camp. She was out of breath when she came back. She walked into her den and sat down on her bed. She kept her eyes open, wanting to do more. She walked over to Swiftpaw, who was in the apprentices den. "Good morning," She told him. "Do you want to battle train of something? You're probably going to become a warrior soon, so we have to train so you can be the best one ever, right?" @
cobrapaw