Snow Hunting (Open)

[Eaglefeather]

(This roleplay is open to all ThunderClan cats. No rogues or tresspassing cats, please)

White flakes of snow fell lightly from the pale gray clouds above. Falconstar padded through the thick blanketing of snow, sinking up to his knees in the deep snow. Flecks of white dotted his dark calico pelt, and he blinked his amber eyes continuously to clear away the water that had formed there from the constantly blowing wind. The tom stopped and pricked his ears, amber orbs scanning across the thick covering of snow for any bit of prey. His stomach growled at the very thought of prey, but there was none to be seen, not even a whisker. When Falconstar lifted his muzzle to taste the air the only scents that reached him were the scents of snow and ice.

Falconstar frowned inwardly and looked at the sky. He could see the sun faintly behind the pale gray clouds, and could see it was already nearing its height. He had been out in the forest hunting since dawn, and did not have much to show for it except a frozen pelt and an unappealing crust around the rim of his nose.

Then, faintly in his ears, Falconstar heard a small snap of a twig. His senses fired up to full alert, and he instantly crouched close to the ground so that his belly fur pressed against the thin layer of ice that covered the snow. A very faint but irresistably warm scent reached his scent glands, telling the ThunderClan leader that there was a bird somewhere nearby. Falconstar lifted his fore-legs slowly, then skimmed across the surface of the snow, his paws barely making a sound in the quiet forest. He paused when the scent steadily grew stronger and he could see pale brown feathers against the white of the snow lining the trees.

Falconstar pressed himself lower to the ground. He lay motionless, not daring to move even the slightest. The bird was thin and scrawny, and probably as hungry as his Clan was, but it was food, food Falconstar could not afford to miss. His attack had to be precise and accurate, or he would be watching the bird fly up and away out of reach of his hungry jaws.

One more moment passed, and the bird did not move very far. It remained hopping across the thin ice layer, foraging for any seeds that might have survived the snow storm. Falconstar lunged forward, tail streaming out behind him and claws outstretched before him. The bird swiveled its head towards his direction at the sound of Falconstar's approach, then turned to take off through the air. But the calico tom, with the desperation of his hunger, was on the bird before it could even outstretch its wings. Falconstar's teeth pressed hard into the birds neck until he felt it go limp in his grasp. Then, he opened his mouth and the bird fell from his jaws onto the snow in front of his paws.

His stomach gave another desperate rumble. Falconstar stared at the bird longingly. He wanted nothing more than to sink his teeth into the scrawny flesh of the bird and devour it all. But he knew that he couldn't eat, not until the Clan had been fed. He sighed inwardly, then snatched the bird again in his mouth. Falconstar hadn't eaten since two sunsets ago, but the scarce amounts of prey made Falconstar unwilling to take any prey for himself.

Falconstar looked up from the speckles of crimson blood on the ground as the sound of paw steps reached his ears. He stood motionless, hoping for another chance at catching a piece of prey, until he realized the sound belonged to that of a cat, not of prey. Falconstar sat down with a crunch in the snow, facing the sound of the paw steps, waiting for the cat to emerge from the trees so that he could greet them.

[☼Lichen☼]

Soft white flakes littered down upon the most arrogant of apprentices. Moonpaw, gray fur and all, stalked with great agility through the snow covered ground, trying his best to stay on top of the cold wet stuff. Once in a while he would fall through, then looking around to see that nobody had seen him, try again. They would all think that he was so great and how agile he was! Moonpaw was the very definition of annoying. He was playing by himself because he had recently been in a fight with another apprentice. Cracking his neck, he had forgotten completely to scent around.

He put his head down and began to sink, then padded through the snow, not so daintily. With his eyes full of white and his whiskers twitching, he ran full, head long into Falconstar. Startled, he jumped back and hissed, trying to swipe an unsheathed claw at Falconstar. Just at the last moment, he stopped himself and dipped his head respectfully.

His pink nose twitched as he noticed the red specks of blood lining the ground and the bleeding dead bird. Licking his lips hungrily, Moonpaw used alot of self control. If this was any other cat, he would have dived on the bird and eaten it, laughing with scorn happily. He pawed at the ground half nervously. He was going to become a warrior, but it would take awhile. He had just learned the territory, and now was exploring a little more. Having no clue where he was going, he had stepped right into the place where Falconstar was hunting.

His sharp, forest green eyes sliced through the area, scanning it. He allowed himself to purr a little bit before coughing and speaking, words ribboning out at their own pace. He couldn't help but to add a little of his own arrogant flair.

"Bird huh? Nice. I caught a bird once. It took me two tries. Maybe someday I'll be deputy or something."

He smiled and flicked his tail. He was now determined to impress his leader. Parting his jaws, he breathed in deeply. Hmm...nothing but...squirel. Perfect. My climbing ability is perfect. Falling into a hunter's crouch, he quickly pinpointed the squirrel, scrabbing near a tree. It was obviously trying to find a buried nut. Wanting to whisper "they're dumb creatures the lot!", Moonpaw bit his tongue and stalked through the snow towards the scarce prey. Right when he was about to pounce, he stepped on a twig. The squirrel shot out the tree but he would not be defeated. His strong muscles tensed as he sprung up onto a branch and began scrambling up the tree. He didn't notice how high he was going until he was at the top.

The squirrel was on the highest branch. He widened his eyes, adreneline pumping through the veins in his ears and body. Jumping, he pawed at the squirrel and it lost balance. It plummeted towards the earth and fell against the snow with a crack. Moonpaw then looked down. It was horrendesly high the tree. His ears drew back and he arched his back, clinging to the branch he was on for dear life. He snarled and tried to edge his way back, but ended up falling a few feet before landing with a thump on a branch below him. Shivering, he called down.

"Um...I'm kinda...err...stuckish. Do you think you could...ummm...assist me in getting down."

Asking for help was humiliating for Moonpaw and he was trying hard not to use the word "help". Assist seemed better and he smiled despite his peril.

[Eaglefeather]

Falconstar narrowed his amber eyes, watching Moonpaw carefully as he raced off towards the base of a nearby tree. Slowly, Falconstar lowered his bird onto the ground, pawed a thin layering of snow over it to hide it, then padded through the deep layering of snow. His short legs made the snow brush against the fur on his belly, and he shivered slightly.

Clumps of snow dislodged from the branch as the squirrel plummeted to the ground, then even more as Moonpaw's paws slipped from beneath him and he collapsed onto one of the branches high above Falconstar's head. Falconstar let out a sigh and craned his neck to make sure the apprentice was alright.

Serves him right for almost clawing my ears off, Falconstar thought, narrowing his eyes again.

"Would you like some help?" Falconstar asked with a sarcastic edge to his voice. He pulled himself up into the tree with his forepaws, then slowly began to climb, pulling himself up onto a branch a few branches beneath the one Moonpaw was seated on. "Trees are meant for climbing," Falconstar went on with a purr. "Not for getting stuck in."

He pulled himself up higher and higher until he was on the same level as Moonpaw. Falconstar paused at the base of the branch, silently panting for air. The climb had taken a lot of energy from him, energy he did not have from lack of prey. Falconstar's stomach growled as the fresh scent of the freshly caught squirrel wafted up towards him. Perhaps he would hunt for himself once he was finished fishing apprentices out of trees.

Carefully, for the branch was rather icy, Falconstar clawed his way across the branch until he was next to Moonpaw. "Now, what you need to do is climb back down the trunk," Falconstar explained, his amber eyes growing hard with seriousness. He wasn't going to just carry the apprentice down to the ground. Moonpaw had to learn for himself. "Go down head first, and keep your claws firmly into the bark. Don't rush yourself- take your time, and don't jump unless you're close enough to the ground."

[☼Lichen☼]

Moonpaw stifled a snarl at Falconstar, even though that was what he really wanted to do. Teetering dangerously on the ice covered branch, he let out a hiss of annoyance. A sudden gust of wind almost blew the small apprentice off the branch and onto the ground. The little gray furball was relieved when Falconstar scaled up the trunk to be with him.

He told Moonpaw to crawl down the trunk headfirst and the small apprentice nodded and eagerly tried to dig his claws into the trunk and crawled down slowly. A slight mistake sent shivers through his spine and he closed his eyes, still crawling down the trunk. After another minute of danger, Moonpaw jumped and landed expertly on the snow below. He coughed and plopped onto his back legs, waiting for Falconstar.

[Eaglefeather]

Falconstar watched the small gray apprentice scale down the trunk of the tree, then looked at Moonpaw in approval once the apprentice had reached the snowy ground below. The calico tom leapt up off the branch and scaled down the trunk smoothly and easily after many moons of practice. Once at the bottom he leapt off and ran through the snow for a few paw-steps, then came to a stop beside Moonpaw.

The warm scent of the squirrel reminded Falconstar of the apprentice's catch, which the leader had forgotten about for a while. "You'll want to be hiding that," Falconstar nodded to Moonpaw, then towards the squirrel that lay in a shallow scoop in the snow. "It's a fine piece of prey, and you don't want something else coming along and taking it. Especially after the trouble you went through to get to it." Falconstar added with a friendly twitch of his whiskers.

[Sageheart]

Light paws slowly crunched through the freezing snow in an attempt to make the least amount of sound possible. Olive green eyes fixed on the bush up ahead, Sageheart's whiskers twitched in anticipation. Already she could taste the mouse in hiding, just begging to be caught. Cautiously, she began to close the space between the two before she was a meer tail length away.
Three. . . two. . . one. . . go! the countdown rang in her head before she launched herself forward, tan and white pelt flashing past in the blink of an eye.

The feel of a small, but still warm, body clasped in her jaws caused a soft purr of pleasure to rise up from her chest. The mouse might of been scrawny, but it would feed at least one hungry mouth. One less cat for her to worry about constantly.

The soft she-cat always had a hard time with accepting that leaf-bare always brought famine. The thought of one of her clanmates being hungry pained her, and urged her to try and help out in any way possible. Which was why she was out hunting at the moment, assisting in the only way she could.

Even the tempting scent of prey was filling her lungs, she could still pick up the faint scent of ThunderClan cats near by. In hopes of finding a bit of company in the cold, frozen forest, she picked herself up and began to head in the general direction of the other cats.

Several minutes passed before she stumbeled upon Falconstar and Moonpaw. She couldn't help but notice the bird and squirrel not too far off as well, reminding her how hungry she was. But no, eating on a hunting trip was against the warrior code. She couldn't eat until the Clan had.

Pushing back the urge to gulp down her own catch, the slim she-cat padded into the small clearing, tail held high in greeting. Placing her catch on the crisp snow, she quickly licked away the sweet taste off of her maw, before speaking.

"I see you two have been busy." she mewed softly, a warm smile appearing on her famished features. She hadn't eaten a decent meal in days, explaining why her ribs here showing, but not once had she complained. She didn't want to be a bother. That was Sageheart for you, too nice for her own good.

[☼Lichen☼]

Moonpaw's gray fur fluffed up as Falconstar reminded him to bury his catch. How could I have been so stupid?? Shaking his head sadly, the apprentice's blue eyes pinpointed the dead squirrel and he picked it up in his jaws, the strong scent of blood pouring into his nostrils. It was still bleeding and the tangy, salty, metallic tasting blood trickled into his mouth. He yearned to spit it out, for blood didn't taste so good without the meat to go with it, but he didn't.

His paws crunched into the still falling snow and he finally found the ground. His claws helped him did an even deeper hole in the now crisp and hard ground. It was weak and squishy though when you dug your claws into it. Plopping the squirrel into the hole, he covered it up in a mixture of dirt and snow. The apprentice smiled at Falconstar.

Turning, he shivered as he sensed another cat's presence. He parted his jaws and scented the light scent of Sageheart. Bounding nearer to Falconstar, he waited for the she-cat to come into sight. Soon after that, there she was, telling them that they must have been busy. He nodded his head vigorously, eyes gleaming with pride and the secret that he had just been stuck in a very tall and icy tree. Spitting out some fur, he spoke.

"Yeah....hunting!"

Exhilerated, the tom breathed in the cold air. It burned his chest inside but he didn't seem to care. A rush of excitement ran through him and he rushed off at an incredible speed. Racing around the area five times, he did a slight somersalt and jumped. As soon as he hit a tree trunk he would jump the other direction onto another tree trunk or back onto the ground. He couldn't get the itchiness of camp off his legs and he continued doing this until he lay panting on the ground, smiling feebly.

[Eaglefeather]

Falconstar narrowed his eyes as he watched the apprentice run around the small clearing a few times. His tail tip twitched slightly, and he turned his attention over to the warrior that had joined them. "Yes...hunting," Falconstar meowed to Sageheart, twitching his whiskers in amusement as he remembered Moonpaw's adventure in the tree. He decided not to mention this to Sageheart to save the gray apprentice from embaressment. "Would you care to join us?"

The calico tom turned away from the clearing, then slowly walked through the trees. Falconstar wasn't going to wait for a response. If she wanted to come, she would. He was too impatient of a cat to wait and find out. There was prey to be caught, and it wouldn't be long before all of the prey would be hiding deep in their dens.