Hunting and Trapping [Closed]

It was still early, soft light puddled around the rough landscape surrounding the Highstones. Shadepaw sat up and tipped her face towards the sun as a blustering leaf-bare wind ruffled her downy fur. Despite the circumstances, she had the best sleep since kithood. No gloomy shadows settling under the boroughs of Fourtrees, no unsettling creaking when the wind rattled the branches. It was a quiet morning, and the lanky apprentice could almost purr at how lovely the sky was stretched over her, pale and peach with the fading dawn. No branches to box her in, just the rocky hills and short stubby grass that prickled against her pads. She didn't know the moor, but something in her knew this wasn't quite right. But it was close, and it was better than fourtrees.

The freshkill pile where WindClan had set up their second make-shift camp was scarce at best. She glanced around at her sleeping clanmates, perfectly at ease under the open sky, and landed on the hulking blob of Fuzzpaw. She had a feeling he was going to be useless at hunting considering it involved moving quietly and moving quickly, all things the older apprentice seemed to be horrible at. But he was the single biggest drain on the resources, and the easiest to blame if they ended up empty-pawed. It only made sense he should contribute.

The dark tabby padded forward and swatted him on the ear. “Sun’s up butts up, let’s go.” She growled and flicked her tail towards the freshkill pile, which had a few frozen remains of yesterday’s catch, all lean and unappetizing. “We gotta fix that, it’s not every day you get hit in the nose with a vole.” She mewed with an unimpressed tilt of her head. Without waiting for as much as a 'good morning', Shadepaw stalked towards the rugged hills beyond, listening for heavy paw steps behind her. She made sure to head in the opposite direction from where the ShadowClan cats had settled.“If you don’t lug your sorry butt out of that nest I’ll make sure the only thing in your belly is my claws when I turn you inside out.”

"Words, words, words."

Not having been fully awake, whatever Shadepaw had started saying to him completely went over his head in a jumble of words. Sleepily swatting her away after she had hit him on the ear, he let out a tired groan and rolled over. Bright sunlight shone overhead and he couldn't believe it was morning already. Maybe he needed to start getting to his nest earlier, seeing as though he never felt truly well rested, especially with all this moving around and not having a normal, comfortable nest to sleep in...

Letting out a yawn, the largely built tom pushed himself out of his makeshift nest. Part of him wanted to fuss about having to get up and do anything, but he did manage to catch the other apprentice's threat. Ears laying flat, he cast a longing glance to the freshkill pile, which was looking pretty bare. He didn't enjoy working for his food and would make sure Shadepaw understood that, but if going out with her meant he got a meal and not getting shredded by her claws... then oh well.

Getting up and taking a moment to stretch his legs, Fuzzpaw meandered his way to where Shadepaw was headed. Great StarClan, why did all of his clanmates seem to have that itch to get an early start to the day?

"You're annoying," he huffed in a blunt sort of manner as he padded behind the dark-pelted she-cat.

Shadepaw bounded down the slope, careful to get her paws under her so she wouldn’t slip. It was refreshing to be out in the open air after living in the forest. The weak leaf-bare sun warmed her back and the apprentice felt more centered than she had in awhile. It was good to be moving, with the scent of grass in her nose and the wind in her fur. Of course, there was Fuzzpaw, but his pouting seemed far removed. “Most cats would call it an asset to the clan.” She said with a flick of her tail. Even he couldn’t sour her mood.

One dark ear twitched, and the tabby paused, scenting rabbit on the wind. There was something else too… She didn’t recognize it, it was very strong. She wrinkled her nose, tail tip twitching, but then the grass rustled and Shadepaw dropped into a hunting crouch, hyperfocused on the warm scent of prey washing over her. She paced forward, one careful paw-step at a time. The grass didn’t offer much cover, it would be a chase for sure. Her heart kicked into gear, a sharp prickle of thrill shot down her spine. A chase in the openness! Her heart sang to the endless sky, her paws ached to cover ground. She prowled forward, one painfully careful paw at a time. She was still as a statue cut from black stone, waiting, one too-loud heartbeat, another, the rabbit shot it’s head up. Shadepaw flung herself at the rabbit, a growl rumbling from her chest.

She felt nothing but a gush of satisfaction when her claws came up short. She pelted after the rabbit, the wind pressed her ears back, flowed through her whiskers. She was built for this. Her blood rushed so fast it stung, singing down her hungry veins. Her lungs dragged in the sharp air, greedy, and her legs swallowed ground as if insatiable. Each stride lengthed, she pushed harder, pressed closer to the warm flighty creature in front of her. The thrill of the hunt burned like satisfaction in her stomach. Her flangs flashed, white and cruel, and with a powerful push of her hindquarters, she closed the distance.

The apprentice skidded to a clumsy stop, the rabbit shooting away into a hidden warren, and yelped when her paw glanced off something hidden in the grass. She had nearly collided with it, a strange glinting briar that smelled like frost and that strange almost-prey scent again. She lifted her pad to give it a lick, but the weird not-bramble had only been bitingly cold, not sharp. The sort-of-prey-but-wrong scent was nearly overwhelming this close. The she-cat backed away, snarling at it for good measure. Her hackles rose, the fur over her shoulders spiking up. "What is that?" Shadepaw growled and glanced over her shoulder for Fuzzpaw. Her ears pressed to her head when she eyed the contraption suspiciously. Had she seen one of these before?

The member 'TheaOfSunflowers' has done the following action : Dice roll

---

'Hunting Dice' : 9

Rolling his eyes at her snarky reply, Fuzzpaw continued onwards, watching as Shadepaw bounded off to go chase something. Fine, drag him along for a hunt and then just leave him alone, what a great clanmate. Well, as long as she was doing the work, he supposed he didn't have a whole lot to complain about.

After a few moments of her off somewhere probably chasing a rabbit or something, the sound of her squeak in the distance made his small ears perk up. Picking up his pace to a trot he made his way to where he'd heard her, and on the way there an unfamiliar scent pierced his nose. It was sweet... something he hadn't quite smelt before with a hint of something else that he couldn't quite pin down. Whatever it was, it smelt amazing and was coming from the same direct as Shadepaw.

Reaching where she was, he glanced to his fellow apprentice. She didn't seem hurt which he supposed was good, not like he particularly cared, and what was even better was the prey that sat in front of them. Inside the odd, most-likely Twoleg contraption sat a shiny, curved, stone-like item. Inside of that was what had caught the young tom's attention; some sort of prey. It didn't look like any prey he'd ever had and resembled more of a 'mash' looking thing, like what adult birds fed their chicks, but he didn't care what form the prey was in, for it smelt like nothing he'd ever experienced before.

"Whatever it is, I'm gonna be the first one to try it," he replied, licking his chops.

With a few clumsy bounds towards the shiny object, he took a second to asses it. The Twolegs really didn't want him getting to their prey, that was for sure. There were two entrances, he assumed one was to go into and the other was to exit out of, sort of like a weird, see-through tunnel. Picking one of the entrances, Fuzzpaw shoved his way into it, his mouth beginning to water at the overwhelming scent. Great StarClan, he couldn't wait to share what he'd found with the rest of the clan, they'd be so jealous!

It was a tight squeeze for the hefty tom, but crawling his way into the contraption, he was ever so close to his snack... just a little more...

"SNAP!"

One of his paws pressed down on a hard, shiny leaf-like thing and the opening in which he'd hoped to leave from shut with a bang as well as the entrance in which he'd just entered through. Abruptly, that door hit against his rump and he jumped forwards in a panic, unsure of what had just struck him. Smacking his head into the now closed exit, he let out a groan, not quite sure what had just happened. What in the... wait, what about the-

"No!" he cried, looking down. In the frenzy of whatever had just gone down, he'd managed to flip the prey and got it all under his paws and all over his underside. Just his luck, why did the Twolegs have to make everything so complicated all the time? Well as unfortunate as it was, he supposed he'd better get out of here so he could clean himself up and try to salvage what bit of weird prey was left clinging to his pelt.

Still being forced to crouch due to the size of this see-through tunnel, he shimmied forwards and pushed a paw against the entrance, which to his surprise, didn't budge... at all. Trying again, this time with his head, he stepped back with his ears flat against his head. "Uh..." he breathed, turning his gaze towards Shadepaw.

“What??” Shadepaw growled. Okay, Fuzzpaw was food-oriented and lazy, and insufferable but surely he wasn’t hare-brained enough to actually- “Great StarClan help me.” She snarled, staring, baffled, as the lump actually, willingly, entered the strange briar. “It’s not even real prey! Can’t you tell it smells..off?” She was never taking him hunting again, how on earth was this tom, with thistle fuzz between his ears going to be a warrior? WindClan was doomed. WindClan was utterly, tragically doomed.

“You need to get out of there before you get stuck like-” And with a snap like breaking twigs the briar closed around Fuzzpaw. Shadepaw lunged forward, snapping at the cold metal, her tail bushed up to twice its normal size. The briar didn’t give. She hissed viscously, teeth ringing against the cold unyielding surface. She sat back, tongue aching. “Are you really worried about the not-food right now?”

She met his gaze with a golden glare and flashed her fangs, all white and cruel, but she pulled herself to her paws nonetheless. She stalked around the cage, tail lashing, looking for weak points. “I swear your head is full of rabbit fur.” She growled, weary of the device. It looked like the briar didn’t fully seal at the bottom. She hooked a claw under it and yanked. The front section rattled. She jumped back, hissing. This sucked. She was going to flay him when he got out of there. Or maybe if she prayed hard enough he would run away and be a kittypet.

Ignoring the rumbling terror in her chest she leaped onto the top of the briar. The cold stung her pads but she just growled and nosed around. “I think I can move this part, but you need to wedge your head under there to move it the rest of the way.” Her tail lashed as she crouched on top of the briar. If he wasn’t her clanmate she would leave him here to rot. But he was her clanmate and she couldn’t leave him. With a sigh, she hooked her teeth between the gaps in the briar and yanked upwards with all her strength. As she expected, the front panel protested, but came away a little further, widening the gap at the bottom.

"Hey, that prey was special! Couldn't you smell it?" he whined. Ignoring her other needless comments, he let out a long sigh. No cat would ever understand him, but whatever, he'd cry over spoiled prey later. Currently, there were unfortunately more pressing matters.

Turning his gaze to the she-cat that began to try and pry part of his current entanglement, Fuzzpaw couldn't help but find himself surprised that she had actually found it somewhere in her heart to help him in this unfortunate predicament. Shadepaw... she really did have a soul after all!

Listening attentively for probably the first time in his life, he nodded along as she instructed him on what to do. Push his head under that part... simple, right? Looking at the part of the trap that she spoke of, he pushed his head under it, but there was no avail. Nothing moved, even with her doing her best to open the gap. Clearly he needed more strength to do this, something he couldn't get by just standing there. Scooching himself as far back against the opposite side as he could, he bunched up his haunches.

"Don't worry, I'll use my head this time!" he mewed confidently. Waiting a moment and praying she was still holding onto the part that seemed to budge, he leapt towards the entrance with his ears flat and head stretched out in front. With a 'bang!' he burst through the entrance and went tumbling out of the container, free once again.

Laying sprawled out on the ground, Fuzzpaw's head spun and for a moment his hearing went fuzzy. Had his plan worked? Or had they been struck by a Monster, he wasn't sure.