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***Alchemist Kitsune*** · #**377** May 19th, 2025, 10:41 PM

An earnest laugh escapes Lightningstorm at the she-cat's response concerning StarClan's silence. It should probably not have been funny. In fact, as a medicine cat, she should no doubt be downright offended. She can almost see Cowtuft's soft, reprimanding head shake at her laugh. Can almost feel his paw bopping her nose in gentle disapproval. A sad thought, when one considered how StarClan failed their most loyal little WindClan follower to the very end. It's almost enough to make her good mood die off, and the light flickers from her eyes momentarily, the sorrow that has been trying to cling to her pelt for a few moons now making another desperate attempt to engulf her in its paralyzing trap. Gratefully, she had always been stubborn to a fault, and she shook herself, refusing to give in while there was work to be done.

As she waves a silent goodbye to Whiterabbit, she grins, knowing full well they would be lucky to find any voles at all. Still, she hadn't had a silly, playful challenge like this in a long time, and the herbalist desperately craved the distraction. To do anything that wasn't tending to the injured or dealing with herbs all day. It wasn't that she hated her job, but unlike warriors, there was never a break to her routine. It made life dreadfully boring. Even emergencies were sometimes met with little more than apathy as she realized it wasn't really an emergency and everything would turn out fine... or it was an emergency, but there was little she could do to help because there was only so much a cat could do against the twoleg traps.

Her thoughts consuming her momentarily, she found eyes staring big and devoid of emotion up at her as she blinked away the fog in her mind, realizing the fish from before had come back. Whiskers pursed with interest, Lightningstorm wondered just how tasty fish was. RiverClan made a point of feasting almost exclusively on them, didn't they? Of course, WindClan had an unhealthy obsession with rabbits and hares, and those were overrated. Still, who was she to say no to prey that was so clearly begging to be eaten?

The wiry she-cat did not know the first thing about fishing. Swimming was no problem, but hunting underwater seemed like a whole other skillset that was out of her reach. For now. Surely Crowtooth would commend her when she brought back a juicy fish for him to eat. Okay, that was a lie. He would scream bloody murder and potentially shove the damned thing down her throat. And yet being able to toss a fish at the tom seemed like such a delightful way to end the day. He'd told her to get some exercise. He hadn't specified how.

A mrowr of amusement escaping her, Lightningstorm crouched, ready to pounce in the water the moment the fish stopped staring at her. A long lasting endeavor, as evidently the creature was wary after its entanglement with Fish Dropper the Falcon Wonder. Muscles tense, she thought about giving up on her quest for fish or to simply toss herself into the pool and hope for the best when it finally happened. The fish turned. Far quicker than she expected. She took a leap of faith, hoping to have her claws meet scales once she splashed in only to hear a confused bird of prey's cry as she felt a smack on her stomach, feathers getting tangled in her claws instead.

It took the herbalist a second to realize what had happened. Her mind had always been quick in moments of action, thank the stars, but even she had not expected Fish Dropper to have come swooping down on the fish at the same instance she had pounced on it. For stars' sake, this bird was a right bloody moron! Even she could tell as the two of them thrashed in the water, the falcon's dive so thoroughly interrupted it had begun drowning while flapping its wings uselessly, looking more like a wet rat with wings than a magnificent predator of the sky. That hit should have killed her. The medicine cat was sure of it. Yet somehow it seemed this bird had either been very confident in his ability to catch this fish with a half arsed dive or... very incompetent. Considering how they got to this position, she was going with the latter option.

Eyes focused on their target, her swimming far more agile than his, she spotted her chance and took it. The falcon's flailing exposing its neck, she bit down hard, fangs sinking into the life pumping artery in an instant. That was the bright side of being a healer when it came to hunting, she supposed. She could always tell were the most lethal damage could be dealt. A case further proved by how still the falcon had grown as she pulled it out of the water, its weight much heavier than it should be no doubt because of waterlogged feathers. Or so she had thought.

One look at her prey as she got fully outside of the water made her realize her mistake. The falcon's feathers seemed to be water proofed in some way, the water sliding off it with ease. Unlike the now dead fish it held to dearly even in death, its talons locked with a grip far stronger than she would have expected such a clumsy bird to have been capable of. Well... it wasn't a vole... but a falcon and a fish alongside a much needed bath didn't seem like a bad hunt at all. Now all she needed to do was meet up with Whiterabbit and they could head back. Because there was no way Lightningstorm would be ale to carry more than these two pieces of prey back to camp. She was petite, not a mountain of a cat like some overgrown dust mites she could name right about now.

[ +1 Fish | +1 Falcon ]
@nyme [Whiterabbit]