meant to bend [solo?]

No amount of mud plastered across his pelt could overpower the sour stench of Carrionplace. Beneath a finely-pointed muzzle, Emberleap wrinkled his nose and hitched the fox’s skin higher on his back. It didn’t fit as well as his first. Though he’d put the finishing touches on it a couple moons ago, he hadn’t broken it in; whenever he’d so much as glanced toward the auburn coat under his nest, the twin specters of Burningwing and exile forced him away. Now Burningwing’s ghost (and Amberdawn’s, though hers brought more guilt than fear) hung over ShadowClan in a very literal sense, and wearing an animal’s skin felt more tactless than before. But it had to be done. An extra layer meant he could hunt longer. He’d done all right patrolling with Murkystar, Mistyfalcon, and the others, but when cats were starving, “all right” wasn’t good enough.

That was why he’d come here. Carrionplace held nothing but rats—and those rats were better-fed than anything else on ShadowClan’s territory.

A minute’s searching revealed a gap in the silvery mesh surrounding his destination. Emberleap slipped through with another grimace as the mesh pulled his second pelt, staying low even after his dangling tail passed through the hole. The moon, well on its way to being full, was on the rats’ side. He needed to be undetectable. His gaze swept across the piles of refuse, ultimately landing on a gray-and-white rat nibbling at something nearby. He crept closer, holding his tail up exactly how he’d practiced, and pounced. His teeth cut its squeak of alarm short. Once it stopped twitching, Emberleap carried it to the mesh and heaped snow over it until it was hidden from sight and scent. Not as safe as burying it, but it’d have to do.

Emberleap attempted to catch Rodent, using 7 stamina. Success!

Emberleap
55/55 HP
103/110 SP (-7)

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 2

Emberleap shivered and shook a clump of snow off of his forepaw. Worst case scenario, that half-squeak had scared every rat in Carrionplace into hiding; best case, it’d only reached the rats in the immediate area. When he set off, he did so at a different angle. Though it made for a decent start, his work was nowhere near done. One scrawny rat wouldn’t fill half the bellies in the nursery, let alone feed all the other cats who needed it. He skirted a mound of colorful, jagged-edged things, coming close enough to peer, wide-eyed, through their muddy surfaces. Even Asylum’s predator-infested territory had felt less treacherous than this. Then again, he hadn’t spent much of his time there alone.

A rustling sound came from one of the nearby piles. Emberleap froze midstep, ears standing as tall as the fox permitted, and turned toward his newest target. This rat’s dark fur made it harder to spot—but not impossible. Emberleap’s steps were swift and quiet. He closed in, paused, and crawled closer still. The rat continued to root contentedly through the pile until Emberleap’s claws met its throat. A clean catch. He couldn’t help a flicker of pride and a smile as he retrieved his prey and returned to the mesh wall, though the sight of the snow-blanketed territory beyond wiped it off his face. One rat meant nothing; two would make only a shadow of a difference.

Emberleap attempted to catch Rodent, using 7 stamina. Success!

Emberleap
55/55 HP
96/110 SP (-7)

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

He had to do more, be more. He’d wasted, what, nearly a moon in the medicine den? A moon of taking and taking and giving nothing back, save for the promise that he’d be on his paws again as soon as he was able, if not sooner. Emberleap laid the second rat beside the first and swept a new coating of snow over them. Every trace of pride had retreated to the shadows where it belonged. He hadn’t earned it, really. Not yet. Stepping back, he shouldered his fox pelt back into place—the slush he’d been forced to use didn’t hold its weight as well as proper mud would have—and turned away to forge a third path through the dust and debris. The rats would eventually realize someone was lurking in their hunting grounds; the longer it took for them to connect the dots, the better.

Emberleap rounded a particularly rancid-smelling heap (it had to be rot through and through) and was greeted by a steady rattling. Sinking against the icy ground on instinct, he tilted his head. Another rat in search of a meal. The sound didn’t match what he’d already heard, but what else could it be? Rats, not unlike Clan cats, didn’t let other creatures take food from their territory and leave unscathed.

He turned a corner, and the rattling stopped.

Instinct jerked him back. Stabbing pain sent him hobbling the rest of the way, spitting consonants. Through the blur his field of vision had become, Emberleap saw a cluster of fine white quills standing proud along his foreleg; when he looked up, blinking furiously, he found wall of those same quills bristling at him.

Emberleap attempted to catch Rodent, using 7 stamina. The attempt was interrupted!
Porcupine used Tail Smack, dealing 15 damage and using 15 stamina.

Emberleap
40/55 HP (-15)
89/110 SP (-7)

Porcupine
60/60 HP
150/165 SP (-15)

The member 'rhindon' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 8

I should run. When his paws failed to respond, Emberleap said it aloud, as if hearing it would make his body understand it as the order it was meant to be: “I should run.” He’d tangled with a porcupine exactly once, with Murkystar’s help, and the two of them had very nearly lost that fight until the porcupine fled. Unlike predators, they weren’t bloodthirsty. If he retreated, it wouldn’t follow, especially if it mistook him as the beast whose pelt he wore. He blinked at the porcupine’s back. The porcupine clattered in response, quills fanned out to their full, imposing length.

He thought back to the pair of rats tucked under the snow. To every bit of prey he’d taken from ShadowClan’s pile over the past moon. Porcupine meat was edible, if tricky to gain access to…and he was better at mending and splitting pelts than anything else he’d ever tried.

Emberleap dug his paws deep into the snow, sucking in a sharp breath as the cold seeped through his thin fur, and sprang. The porcupine’s tail flipped outward again—too late. He was already at, then past, the creature’s side. If he kept moving, he'd avoid the worst of it. Twisting on his paws, he threw himself bodily against the porcupine's less-protected head. Quills jabbed the fox skin and his own pelt beneath it. Still, it was worth it to see his prey stagger.

Emberleap used Sanctum Strike, dealing 8 damage and using 10 stamina. Took 5 damage from Quill Armor!
Porcupine is stunned for 1 turn.

Emberleap
35/55 HP (-5)
79/110 SP (-10)

Porcupine [stunned]
52/60 HP (-8)
150/165 SP

Heartened, Emberleap dove in and raked his claws across the porcupine’s broad muzzle. It stumbled, beady eyes unfocused. Catching up to it again, he dug into the side of its face. Anything he could do to prevent it getting another clear shot at him. Even blinding it in one eye would give him a weakness to draw out—his only chance at coming out of this with minimal injury and enough prey for the pile.

His next approach met a wall of spines. Emberleap went rigid, icy air trapped in his chest. He’d made a misstep—the porcupine was already swinging its tail outward, and it was all he could do to direct the blow away from his face. The impact sent him tumbling with a yowl that rang out over Carrionplace. A small mound of garbage toppled beside him in a chorus of clinks and snow-muted thuds. Emberleap’s stomach rolled with it. His eyes burned as he clambered upright, bracing himself on a softer-looking pile while he found his balance; he squinted fiercely at the porcupine until the feeling receded, though realization echoed in his ears all the same. There go the rats.

Emberleap used Front Paw Strike, dealing 10 damage and using 7 stamina. Took 3 damage from Quill Armor!
Porcupine used Tail Smack, dealing 15 damage and using 15 stamina.

Emberleap
17/55 HP (-18)
72/110 SP (-7)

Porcupine
42/60 HP (-10)
135/160 SP (-15)