[taillow]

 

Originally Posted by SpiritedWarrior

Crowpaw
Purrks: Heightened Perception and Agatha Kitty
@talle

Really anything took practice. It was instinctual, like Redhawk had said, but an apprentice learning how to hunt, like himself, would find it difficult to discern between their whisker and a mouse's tail. The thought of mice though, prompted him to answer his mentor's question. "I don't know, um... mice?" His words echoed his thoughts, he chirped in response, "Squirrels, maybe even a few birds?"

He had heard of the hunter's crouch, but he had never personally tried it out. Thankfully today was his chance to prove himself worthy of a good hunter. All he had to do was crouch, stalk, and pounce, right? That seemed fairly simple and would perhaps be even easier than it sounded. The young tom quite honestly didn't know whether he'd be a decent hunter, but he just had to keep thinking of Redhawk's miniature speech.

Redhawk - ThunderClan Hornet
She/they | 32 moons | The Ultimate Predator, The Collector, Kitty Softpaws

That named a few of the scents around them. "Good," Redhawk purred as a light sparkled in her gaze. "With most land prey - squirrels and mice, in t-this example, you'll focus on your sss-stalking." Slipping into a hunter's crouch, she turned her head so that she was still looking at Crowpaw. "Make sure your belly isn't too far off the ground, but not t-touching either. Keep your tail sss-straight out behind you, and keep your weight mostly in your hind legs." To demonstrate Red pointed her tail out behind her in a straight, slightly lowered line, and slid forward slowly on silent paws.

"You'll want t-to keep your steps as quiet as possible - and t-try to avoid sss-steping on any leaves or branches." Her gaze darted to the ground quickly to make sure, correcting a step to avoid crunching a fallen leaf, before they peered forward again. Red took a few more steps forward before returning to her full height. Her jaws parted to draw in the scents around her, but it was a nearby noise that alerted her first. Peering over some foliage, she spotted a squirrel nibbling at something near the base of a tree. "There," she whispered lowly, indicating with her tail for Crow to try if he wanted.