[Abyss]

BRINDLEMASK

TELL ME BABY, WHAT'S YOUR STORY? Things seemed peaceful. The Pineneedle Clearing was quiet, minus the light crunching sounds that could be heard from the center of the clearing. Right in the center sat a relatively large squirrel, tail fluffed out behind it and some sort of nut in its small claws. As it chewed on the nut with its teeth, it seemed unaware that it was being watched. With narrowed eyes, a dark feline remained crouched in the shadows of the surrounding bushes. Thankfully, the sun was already starting to set behind the mountains, so the trees cast a darker shadow that was much easier to hide within. With her body lowered to the ground, Brindlemask had to urge to hunt the little creature herself. But she was not alone on this trip. Her gaze shifted to her side, catching sight of Hawkpaw. She needed to see how much he had improved with hunting. Luckily, this squirrel had been in the area when they arrived. Though, the Pineneedle Clearing was a bit more of a difficult area to hunt in since it was harder to get closer and also stay hidden. But this was the point. If Hawkpaw was able to get close enough to the squirrel to catch it, he would already be quite skilled. Even she would have trouble in this situation. She had instructed Hawkpaw before they turned to hiding for him to try catching the squirrel. She gave no specific technique to use. She didn’t specify what he should do. She intended to let him figure out his own way to catch it. She would learn more about his prefered method of hunting this way, which would help her in the long run. It could also help him determine the easiest way for him to hunt when on his own. WHERE YOU COME FROM AND WHERE YOU WANNA GO THIS TIME? WARRIORESS OF NIGHTCLAN

299 | Aqua

[Aqua]

Hawkpaw had been stirred from his sleep a little earlier than normal. His mentor was ready to start training before the sun was even cresting over the horizon. It was a little unusual to be up before dark but he didn't question it because he was sure there was a purpose to it. Even so he was dragging and still sleepy as his mentor led them towards the Pineneedle Clearing. His tail and head drooping as he followed behind her.

As the tom let out a quiet yawn, Brindlemask suddenly stopped and crouched down. He blinked and peeked around her at the clearing ahead. Sitting in the middle was a rather large squirrel foraging on some nuts. It was almost as though the tom went from night to day immediately. His ears perked on his head as he crouched and eyed the prey ahead. While he might still be tired, there was no time to let that get in his way. If he could catch this thing, surely his mentor would be impressed with his skills. He had something to prove here so he woke up the best he could to step up to the challenge.

Now he knew how to do the typical crouch and sneak technique but he wasn't so sure this would be that simple. His amber eyes looked around at the area surrounding the squirrel. There really wasn't anything to hide beside or in. The clearing was pretty wide open aside from the trees, which at this point were casting shadows across the ground. This was going to be a tough one to land with so little to help him out here. The thought of inching along in the shadows of the trees was the first thing that came to mind, however. With his coat being sort of darker in color, he would be able to blend with the shadows. Well hopefully blend with the shadow.

Without any instruction from the she-cat, the tom went straight to work. He inched into the open, keeping to the shadows. Each time the squirrel happened to look up from his nut, Hawkpaw would freeze in place to keep from giving himself away. Quietly, he inched closer and closer to the large rodent. When he was only a little more than a cat's-length away from his prey, he stopped in place. He puts his weight back onto his hind legs, preparing to leap at the squirrel. Unfortunately, this simple movement caught the eye of the rodent. The squirrel let out a loud squeak before darting towards a tree. Hawkpaw didn't miss a beat, chasing right after it. The tom mannaged to stay right on the squirrels heels as it tried to go for a large pine tree. He lunged forward to try and snatch the squirrel up by it's tail to surprise it. But sadly he got nothing but a mouth full of tail fur as the squirrel manages to get up the tree and away from his reach.

He makes a disgusted look, spitting and sputtering to try and get the fur out of his mouth. "Yuck....darn squirrel." He says struggling to get all of the fur out.

Made by Aqua || Tagged: Abyss || Words: #529

[Abyss]

BRINDLEMASK

TELL ME BABY, WHAT'S YOUR STORY? Narrowed amber-brown eyes watched as the brown tabby slinked away into the darkness. When the tom reappeared near the edge of the clearing not too far away, curiosity piqued her interest further at how he intended to get close enough. It wasn’t hard to tell his technique once he began to move, though. He was using the shadows cast from the trees to get closer to the squirrel, which was smart. She could only hope that it would work. One thing that the torbie she-cat took note of was a specific technique he was using. Each time the squirrel would look up, he would freeze. This was a basic trick to hunting that nearly all cats knew, but Brindlemask made it a point to teach this to her Apprentice with the intention of teaching him to do what she did. He had the first bit down, but he still had some more to learn. Though, it wasn’t this that caused the problem with the hunt. He had gotten close enough, he was ready to pounce. But him shifting his weight so that he could pounce was too much movement, despite it being so little. A panicked squeak came from the squirrel as it shot towards a tree, Hawkpaw chasing behind it. Seeing where this was going, the Warrioress also darted towards the tree, catching which tree the squirrel was going into just as she neared the two. She watched briefly as Hawkpaw’s jaws closed down on the squirrel’s tail, though all that came from it was a mouth full of fur. At this, Brindlemask hooked herself on the tree, making her way up it with her claws latched on to the bark. Even though she wasn’t a Treeclan cat, she had been sure to teach herself to climb during her Apprenticeship since there were quite a few trees in the territory. She wasn’t the best at it, but she made due with what she knew. As she reached a stable branch, she saw the squirrel above her, looking down at Hawkpaw below. Her pupils thinned as she leaped forward, jaws closing down on the squirrel’s tail and a panicked and pained squeal shrieked in her ears. She reached one claw upwards, snagging it on the back leg of the rodent as both of them began to stumble down the tree. Once the squirrel was clearly not holding on to the tree anymore, the torbie let go, quickly wrapping her front legs around the nearest passing branch. She held on as much as she could as the squirrel fell to the ground. There was no way that the squirrel would die just from falling from the tree, but she gave Hawkpaw another chance. “Take it quickly!” WHERE YOU COME FROM AND WHERE YOU WANNA GO THIS TIME? WARRIORESS OF NIGHTCLAN

455 | Aqua

[Aqua]

Hawkpaw jumped in surprise as his mentor zoomed past him and went right up the tree after the squirrel. Amber eyes stared in wonder as she got just below the squirrel. She had his full attention as he watched her technique here. She went for it's already sore tail and snagged a leg before they both came stumbling down through the branches. His heart stopped for a moment at the thought of his mentor falling and potentially hurting herself or worse from the height they were at. But luckily Brindlemask managed to hook onto and wrap herself around a branch. The squirrel was not so lucky.

The rodent continued to fall until it landed on the ground with a loud thud. The squirrel sat dazed for a moment before it went to get up. But before it could run off, Hawkpaw was immediately on top of it. His teeth digging into the rodent's chest with a crunch. The squirrel went totally limp in his jaws, marking this hunt as a successful one. Somehow. He let the squirrel fall back to the ground as he looked up at his mentor. "You alright up there?" He called, checking on her. While it didn't seem like she injured herself, looks could always be deceiving.

Made by Aqua || Tagged: Abyss || Words: #211
Another shorty.....T_T

[Abyss]

BRINDLEMASK

TELL ME BABY, WHAT'S YOUR STORY? The Warrioress only watched for a moment as the squirrel fell towards the ground. But once she heard the thud, her focus was no longer on the squirrel, on Hawkpaw, or on the hunt. Her gaze returned to the tree branch she clung to, her back legs dangling beneath her. There wasn’t any other branches nearby for her back legs to get a grip on, so she would have to climb. She didn’t really have a problem with that, or at least she wouldn’t normally. But she already felt soreness in her left shoulder from smacking against one of the other branches as she fell, plus a few other smaller spots where she had collided against the wood. None of it was too horrible. No big gashes or cuts or anything. She just had a feeling she may feel the fall for a day or two once this one was over. Clenching her teeth, she tried inching her claws forward on the branch, very slowly pulling herself upwards. This didn’t help the pain she felt, but it didn’t matter. It felt like it had taken forever, but she finally got a good enough leverage with her front paws that she could reach up with her back legs and claw her way fully onto the branch. By the time she was stable and looked down to the ground, she found Hawkpaw’s eyes directed up at her, the squirrel’s tiny body laying motionless at his feet. Her fluffy ears picked up on his question and twitched. “Just a bit sore.” She raised her voice only enough for the tom to hear, hooking her claws onto the base of the tree and slowly making her way down towards the ground. She pushed aside the pain she felt in her shoulders and sides as she reached the bottom, body posture showing that she wasn’t exactly comfortable, but face not seeming to care. Amber-brown eyes peered down at the dead squirrel, noting the torn chest and the tail that at this point had lost quite a bit of fur. Both herself and Hawkpaw would likely be spitting out random stray squirrel hairs for the rest of the day, but at least they had caught something to take back to camp. “Well done.” She recalled how the hunt had began and the movements that the tom had made before the chase ensued, considering what she could tell him that could help him in the future. She remained in thought for a few moments before her eyes finally came back to him. “Catching smaller prey is difficult. When you try to grab on to any part of them, always go for a large target.” Her eyes went back to the squirrel, paw nudging at the half-furred tail. “Tails are mostly fur. Aim for the back or the legs.” Her tone was as it normally was: calm and collected. Her lessons were brief and to the point, but she didn’t snap them at him or treat him as though he should know these things already. He was an Apprentice, after all. She had to assume that the lessons she taught him were ones he didn’t know previously if she wanted him to learn. WHERE YOU COME FROM AND WHERE YOU WANNA GO THIS TIME? WARRIORESS OF NIGHTCLAN

535 | Aqua