The air was crisp, and a light dusting of snow laid on the ground. It wasn’t exactly Sundust’s favorite weather (in fact, he disliked almost everything associated with leafbare), but nonetheless, he was out hunting. As much as he had grown to love the medicine den and performing tasks around camp, the medicine cat had found his exercise to be lacking recently, and he certainly didn’t want his hunting skills going rusty.
The snow crunched under his paws as he pressed on, eyes and ears alert for any prey that may be scurrying about. Hopefully he’d have something to bring back to camp come sundown.
[ open ]
Firepetal
a Thunderclan warrior
•°. *࿐ Firepetal relaxed in the clearing, closing her eyes. She yawned, glancing across the clearing. Oh, there was Sundust. Wait- sundust! She scrambled to her paws and trotted over to him, tail flicking. “Hi Sundust, I figured that we haven’t hunted in ages! Would you like to hunt?” she mewed, twitching her ear. She smiled cheerfully. It was cold. A hunt with a friend would certainly make her warmer!
Eggsoot wasn't having a fantastic day. During his daily early morning escape of camp before cats woke up, things had quickly gone wrong. He had tripped over one of his denmates and landed on the sleeping Cloudyflight's hind legs. or.... hind leg. He knew she was missing one, but in his early morning haze, he hadn't connected the dots and started to hyperventilate, howling about knocking her leg off or something.... he couldn't remember, which was a blessing. Of course, when he had come to his senses, he had done the appropriate thing- ran away and went to his favorite tree to die of embarrassment for a few hours.
But it was now around Sunhigh, and he was preparing to find some bugs to observe when he heard the light crunching of pawsteps. The short, stocky boy almost started panicking, before he recognized the approaching cat as Sundust. Okay. Not a furious, malnourished Cloudyflight coming to rip his eyes out. Phew. Knowing that he couldn't run away now that he was clearly in the medicine cat's line of sight, Eggsoot waved his tail shakily in greeting to the medicine cat, not smiling but not showing his anxiety. Or so the emo thought.
"Hi.... um, Sundust." Then, for some reason, the words tumbled out. "Do you need a hunting buddy?" He felt his heart lurch, feeling like it had lodged itself in his windpipe. Did he just volunteer himself for.... a social outing?? Oh no.
Sundust noticed Eggsoot first, the young tom coming into his field of vision. He couldn’t recall interacting with him before, but from what he had seen around camp, the warrior was a little on the shier side. As such, the medicine cat was surprised by the tom’s offer to accompany him hunting. “Hello, Eggsoot. That wou-“ But his words were cut off as he heard a second cat calling out his name.
The ginger feline turned to look over his shoulder, identifying Firepetal to be the one who had called out. “Good afternoon, Firepetal.” He stepped back, allowing the molly to join in his conversation with Eggsoot should she so wish. “If both of you’d like, we three can form a makeshift hunting patrol. We may have more luck spotting prey if there’s three of us keeping an eye out.” He certainly hadn’t expected to run into one, let alone two, of his clanmates, but it was a pleasant surprise. Working with clanmates always made tedious tasks more tolerable.
Firepetal nodded at Eggsoot, greeting him warmly before agreeing with Sundust. The prey pile was small at the moment, so maybe there could be prey for them to hunt! “Three cats are better than just one cat!” Firepetal mewed, tail flicking. “It will certainly warm us up from this cold weather!” she could imagine them, leaping across a fallen branch, or something. Prey would be easier to find, after all, squirrels were easier to spot in pure white snow! But maybe they were hibernating. She flattened her ears in worry.
Eggsoot's face seemed both relieved and terrified as the medicine cat accepted his offer. Crap. but also not crap. Because he hadn't been shamefully rejected, he'd been... welcomed on this hunting trip. Wait until Sundust found out that Eggsnot very typically faceplanted in his hunting crouch. Just an added bonus to being Eggsnot.
Then, YAY, someone else came. The emo looked like he was about to have an allergic reaction to all the socializing by the time Firepetal got around to greeting him. he greeted her with a nervous, incoherent murmur, instead waving his tail after realizing that forming actual words was a complete lost cause. "Sounds good." He squeaked, a scarlet flush rising to his cheeks at the absolute childish response he had formulated. Luckily, the other two were already moving on.
He decided to just nod, instead of risking another humiliating reply. His short little legs shook (definitely because of the snow and not his crippling social anxiety) as he followed Sundust and Firepetal, raising his chin to taste the air and try and locate any prey, with a glance at his companions every so often to make sure that they were nearby.
Sundust’s gaze flicked between the two cats as he awaited their response. It seemed he had managed into two polar opposites: while Firepetal seemed positively overjoyed at the prospect of forming a hunting group, where as Eggsoot on the other paw seemed a bit.. uncomfortable with the idea. The medicine cat considered asking if he really was alright with accompanying them, but decided against it. After all, Sundust was a socially awkward warrior himself once, and he recalled all too well the horror of having your insecurities called out, even if it was with the best of intentions.
The medicine padded on, now with his new group, keeping his eyes and ears open for any signs of prey. Most would be hibernating or tucked somewhere warm for leafbare, but if something did decide to venture out into the cold, it would be easy to spot against the snow.
Aha, lo and behold! There, creeping out from its burrow appeared to be a vole. It certainly wasn’t the plumpest critter - in fact, it’s thinness was probably the reason it decided to leave the comfort of its den. The large tom raised his curly-furred tail, attempting to alert his companions to go still for a second as he angled his ears towards the vole.
༊*·˚ Firepetal nodded. She could help feeling that Eggsoot was.. uncomfortable with her being around. I mean, Firepetal bounced everywhere, talking to everyone. but when she first saw Eggsoot, she thought to herself: that is one socially awkward cat. anyways, back to hunting. She flicked her tail and breathed in the scent of the forest. Above the scent of ice and snow, she could smell a mouse. Her ears swirled around and saw that Sundust also picked up the scent and sound. Firepetal nodded at Sundust and crouched down, stalking the mouse which was in a bush of juniper berries, scrambling to eat a nut. She stopped, then pounced, her face crushing into the leaves, claws outstretched. She killed the mouse in one clean swipe of her paws and picked it up, padding back to Sundust and Eggsoot.
The young cat lay on her side, bleeding heavily. Everything hurt. She knew she was in Clan territory, but she couldn't move.
(open)
Eggsoot was on a walk, when he smelled blood. Oh no. The short cream and brown boy knew that something was up, and she prayed it wasn't bad. Sprinting through the trees, he came upon a bleeding young molly. Oh gosh. The short cat hurriedly place his paws on the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. It was times like this that he was glad that he had weirdly large paws. "Are you okay?" Stupid question, Eggsnot. She obviously wasn't. For now, he was just trying to stop her from bleeding out. After she was out of danger, he could panic.
Eggsoot was on a walk, when he smelled blood. Oh no. The short cream and brown boy knew that something was up, and she prayed it wasn't bad. Sprinting through the trees, he came upon a bleeding young molly. Oh gosh. The short cat hurriedly place his paws on the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. It was times like this that he was glad that he had weirdly large paws. "Are you okay?" Stupid question, Eggsnot. She obviously wasn't. For now, he was just trying to stop her from bleeding out. After she was out of danger, he could panic.
(Gotta love the awkward tom. <3)
"There was a fox.." she groans. And surely enough, there was another smell under the blood. Fox blood? Surely this tiny thing couldn't take down a fox.
Re: ThunderClan Territory
