[Deleted]

Hunger was nothing she wasn't used to at this point. Since the day her parents slipped away, she had experienced it on multiple occasions. In fact, there were many things the dark-furred she-cat had experienced in the fourty moons she had existed, a lot of which she didn't want to go through again. So when she spotted a squirrel scurrying about on the forest floor, she was all too happy to bolt after it. Anything to quell the rumbling of her stomach.

Occult dashed after the bushy-tailed creature, eyes trained on it as it too took off running.  Ducking and weaving through branches and bushes in hot pursuit of her prey, the scent of the Treeclan border only barely registered in her mind as she freely stepped over the boundary. It was something of a surprise that the furry animal hadn't tried climbing up a tree to elude her, though she certainly wasn't complaining.

Finally, after a long chase, the shadowy feline had managed to get close enough to her prey, tackling it to the ground and delivering a swift bite to the throat. For a moment, she stood there, licking the blood off her maw and savoring the warmth of the fallen creature's life-force while allowing her body a moment's rest. Then, when the adrenaline had begun to fade and the faint scent of cats met her nose, realization struck. She had just chased a squirrel into the territory of one of the clans.

A vision of blood and a white furred tom entered her mind for a brief moment, before an onslaught of fear shook her body like a tree in a hurricane. She should have been paying attention to what she was doing. She needed to get out, now! Gripping her squirrel tightly between her jaws, she turned and started trekking north, doing her best to remain as silent as possible so as to not alert any cats that might be nearby.


Fawn   Hellion

[Fawn]

LIONSTAR

leader of treeclan

Blinded by the light of a new sun

It was Duskpaw’s hunting assessment. Though Lionstar had warned neither the she-cat he was following or Skyfall, her mentor, he was confident that she would perform well even without the foreknowledge of how important today was. Lionstar moved swift and surefooted through TreeClan’s forests, the sunlight spilling through the trees dappling his pelt, making it gleam like goldenrod. With a squirrel and a mouse already buried in his own hunting cache, Lionstar gave Duskpaw his full attention, watching as the ginger feline settled into a tidy hunter’s crouch, in pursuit of what smelled like a blackbird.

A woodpecker lived up to it’s namesake in the oak tree directly overhead, and Lionstar’s ears rotated back in brief dislike of the harsh sound. Though something could be said of Duskpaw’s movements--she was obviously keeping quiet enough that even the woodpecker had failed to notice.

Keeping his senses fine-tuned both on the apprentice and his surroundings, Lionstar let the forest scents bathe his tongue, the air crisp and carrying with it the taste of mushrooms, leaves, wet branches and cool earth on top of the usual forest aromas. It also carried the taste of blood. Lionstar straightened, briefly veering away from Duskpaw to see what the source of the blood was; it did not smell like a feline. So what had killed it? He did not recognize any scents of his Clanmates; the fur along his shoulders bristled, and the lion of the forest crept onward, identifying a black-furred she-cat that had made the mistake of crossing into TreeClan territory.

And killing prey on land that did not belong to her. Lionstar’s claws unsheathed, and he thrust his way through the bracken, gaze level with the she-cat’s.
”Get out. You are on TreeClan territory.” The message was clear; leave now or you will regret your mistake.

Take it to the world, gonna sing it like an anthem

310 words | tagged Hellion @marshymutt | notes

background image | So Alive | table by phoenix

[Deleted]

She had caught the scent of the large tom  not long before he approached her, trying to speed up her pace in an effort to get away before he caught her, but her efforts were futile as mere moments later she came face to face with a rather displeased tom.

Startled by Lionstar's sudden appearance, Occult stumbled backwards, falling and landing on her back with a small whimper. Her grip on the squirrel loosened and as she slowly rose to her paws once more, she decided to drop her kill entirely. It wasn't worth the trouble, no piece of prey would ever be worth it. The male before her wanted her out of his territory, it would be incredibly stupid to think she had any right to try to take a piece of that territory with her.

Dipping her head apologetically towards the lion-like tom, she opened her mouth in the hopes her words would quell his anger. "I-I'm sorry, I'll l-leave now." She muttered, her tone once again hardly much louder than a whisper but she hoped he could hear her despite that. Turning in the direction of the mountains, she started hurriedly padding back towards the land that she called 'home'.

Hellion Fawn

[Hellion]

The ginger she-cat picked her way carefully through the undergrowth. In her moons since becoming an apprentice, Duskpaw had become a brilliant huntress. Her pawsteps were always carefully placed as well as her attention to detail of where the wind was. There was very little that went on while hunting that Duskpaw didn't know about. Her ears had grown acutely sensitive to the sounds of the forest and was able to pin point with a mouse-length of error where it was coming from. Her mother was proud.

Her expertise had honed in on hunting birds. Duskpaw wasn't sure what made hunting birds fun for her but she enjoyed it more then tracking down a mouse or vole. She attributed the rush of hunting a bird like catching flight herself. You had to be fast and quicker than them, resulting in the sensation that you too were taking flight in pursuit of them.

Tucking her tail carefully away, Duskpaw honed in on a small blackbird that was pecking away at the ground, likely trying to find something to line it's nest. Her pawsteps were silent as she eased forward, crouching low and without pause she lept for her prey.

The bird went up but Duskpaw was already coming down on it, landing with the bird firmly in her claws and ending it's life with a sharp bite. The scent of blackbird was strong but something else danced on the faint breeze.

Tucking the bird away into an exposed root system, Duskpaw followed the scent in time to see a she-cat walking away. The scent wasn't anything she recongized and quickly Duskpaw followed after her.

Unknown to her, Lionstar had already confronted the she-cat she was now tracking.

She didn't wait long before she ran forward and positioned herself right in the path of the other she-cat, blocking her escape with her teeth bared.

"What are you doing here!?" She asked her tail flicking back and forth harshly.

_{327 | @marshymutt Fawn}

[Fawn]

LIONSTAR

leader of treeclan

Blinded by the light of a new sun

Lionstar watched as the black she-cat made an undignified retreat, leaving the squirrel behind. It didn't sit well with him to bring back a piece of fresh kill that a loner had caught, but he would be a fool to leave it here, with leafbare right around the corner. If the Clan was to survive, they had to accept everything that came their way--'stolen' or not.

Waiting until the black loner had fully retreated out of sight, Lionstar turned, letting his senses catch hold of Duskpaw's trail again. Not wanting to interrupt her assessment, he crept through the forest quickly but quietly, arriving too late to see her catch the blackbird, but just in time to see her encounter the loner again, who was still trying to beat a hasty retreat back the way she had come in.

"It's alright, Duskpaw." He mewed, stepping out of the dense ferns. "They were just leaving. We'll escort them to the border. Lead the way." The black loner looked terrified, but Lionstar merely watched them, golden eyes calm but unfriendly as he fell in step behind her. Duskpaw would lead the way to their border with the mountains, where the she-cat would be encouraged to stay out of Clan territory where she did not belong.

"Do not come back here," Lionstar warned as they walked. "This Clan territory, but we are also close to Demon's den. You've heard of the lynx that lives near here?" He may not have wanted to invite another loner into TreeClan's territory without very good reason, but he didn't want to see her dead either. A word of caution about Demon was the very least he could do. His respect for life and the nature of survival wouldn't let him see her off without that.

Take it to the world, gonna sing it like an anthem

304 words | tagged @marshymutt Hellion | notes

background image | So Alive | table by phoenix