blue skies [c]

He was just so happy to be out of camp again, finally exploring the vast territory he had always dreamed and theorized about. Everyone said it was big, flat, and very grassy. That was true, but they failed to mention how freeing it all felt. The young tom couldn’t help but grin when faced with the endless horizons surrounding him. Now that he was older he could actually reach those huge forests and mountains if he just ran long enough. Maybe today he would do so. Either way, it was safe to say he’d been rather distracted since receiving his new rank, so much so that he forgot about his friends! Marigoldpaw had eagerly joined Hickorypaw’s hunt, ready to correct his neglectfulness.

The tom looked up from the dandelion he’d been toying with when Hickorypaw spoke. Her nose was twitching and her eyes were focused far away on the fields around them. “Already?” he meowed back quietly, “Sweet!” Marigoldpaw crouched as she did and tried not to respond to the grass tickling his flanks. Though he wanted to help, he hadn’t quite learned how to hunt with a partner yet, so it made more sense to wait for his own turn. “You’ve got this!” he whispered as Hickorypaw silently crept away. He adjusted his position on the moor so that he could see better. No way he was going to miss it! For a moment he lost track of her in the swaying grass, but was soon able to spot bits of her red fur shimmering against the sun. He noticed the tall fronds rustling ahead of Hickorypaw, but alerting her wouldn’t help at all, so he bit his tongue. Luckily she was already sprinting after the rabbit and ended the chase in mere seconds.

“That’s huge!” he blurted, eyes wide as he dashed up to the proud hunter. He gawked at her catch, which looked massive next to both of their thinner frames. She must be really strong, he noted. “We could probably go back home right now! I don’t know if I’ll catch anything nearly as good as that,” he laughed. The tom ducked his head under the rabbit, then raised it up to help support the weight. “Where are we going to put this?” he mewed with rabbit legs flopping over his face, “Surely we can’t carry this big guy everywhere.”