Mice Isn't Enough

Gentlenose stood by the makeshift fresh kill pile, her stomach overturning at the thought of eating another mouse. That's all there was, however. There were so many mice in the barn, cats hardly ever caught anything else. The she cat turned towards the cats lounging around in the barn, looking for her apprentice. "Scorchpaw!" Gentlenose called when she finally found the young tom. "Come on, we're going on a mini-patrol," she said, padding towards the barn door. It would be nice to keep up regular hunting patrols, and besides, it was about time she took Scorchpaw for some training.

Scorchpaw glanced up at Gentlenose. "Coming," he rasped as he woke up from his nap. He shook out his wayward fur as he tucked his token pendant sneakily in a cranny in the barn's siding. He smiled at it, remembering Pepper gladly. He turned and trotted up to his mentor, his expression that of reluctance. "There's plenty of mice, why would we need to hunt?" 

"You don't want to eat mice forever, do you?" Gentlenose prompted, wondering how anyone could eat just one thing for so long. "We won't be living in the barn for forever, so we need to keep up regular patrols. What would we do if all our apprentices suddenly only know how to hunt mice?" she tried to explain the best she could.

Scorchpaw nodded slowly. "Alright, then. Where to first?"

Gentlenose was silent for a moment, considering their options. She didn't yet know the territory around the barn well, so where could they hunt? "Let's try hunting in that patch of trees over there," Gentlenose indicated a small grove of five or six trees. "There might be some squirrels and a bird or two in there," she said, heading towards the area she had pointed out.

Scorchpaw nodded, padding softly into the grove, mouth open and testing the area for the scent of fresh-kill. He heard a chirping noise higher up, and a creature scuttling across the branches. He nodded in their directions, glancing at his mentor silently.

Gentlenose nodded, hearing the noise as well. "You go up that tree, I'll go up this one," she indicated two trees with intertwining branches. "We'll corner it," she whispered, looking up through the branches.

Scorchpaw grunted in understanding. He took a breath. He didn't want to mess this up. The smokey tom scaled the tree in almost complete silence, pulling himself to a branch secluded by leaves. He waited for Gentlenose to appear on the other side, his cold amber eyes locked on the prey.

Gentlenose clawed her way up into her tree, crawling along its branches until Scorchpaw as well as the prey was in view. She nodded swiftly to her apprentice, the signal to close in on it.

Scorchpaw crept closer, bunching up his haunches to pounce. As he leaped with outstretched claws, the bird suddenly realized its dangerous situation and tried to flee. The tom grabbed the bird as it flapped its wings in an escape effort. He sank his teeth into its spine and suddenly remembered sinking his fangs into Maplepaw's fur as he killed her...

He gasped loudly and dropped the bird on the branch. His next few breaths were labored as he tried to steady his heart. "Sorry... I heard a strange sound."

Gentlenose watched with pride as her apprentice flawlessly caught the bird. She was about to praise him when he suddenly began acting weird. "Are you alright?" she asked in worry.

"I just thought I heard... I thought I heard someone yelling for help," he lied effortlessly, "Just my imagination."

Gentlenose nodded, obviously trusting his little lie. She had always trusted too easily. "Alright, but if you hear it again, tell me, alright?" she advised him with a soft smile. "Anyways, that was a really good catch you made. You're making a fine hunter!" she praised, changing the subject.

Scorchpaw smiled awkwardly. Or am I juts a fine killer? "Thank you Gentlenose," he said, accepting the praise a bit reluctantly.

Gentlenose nodded. "Let's go back. Some cats might enjoy something other than mice!" she laughed, ready to head back to the barn.