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Post by Ẅ ĭ ļ ð ŷ on Jul 30, 2009 20:15:31 GMT -5
Even though it had stormed the previous night, the rainwater was already mostly evaporated by the morning sun; unusually strong for StormClan territory. Under the cover of the Ferns, however, the ground was still cool and moist as always. A small form was poking around by the base of a fern stem; a water vole, plump from the fruits of greenleaf. The small creature was unaware that it's imminent death was approaching.
Suddenly, a pale mottled form streaked from the cover of a clump of thick ferns, leaping towards the vole. The poor creature didn't stand a chance. The she-cat pinned the vole under her claws and killed it quickly before it could sound the alarm. Scooping moss over the small vole to save it for later, Aero turned back to her hunting partner, Oceanheart. "It's a bit strange." She observed, green eyes thoughtful. "The Ferns are rather quiet today. I wonder why?" It was true; normally the Ferns were alive with creatures, but today there were hardly any to be scented or seen.
((Lol, I was thinking maybe they could find traces of the Caracals. x3))
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Kiako
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Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
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Post by Kiako on Jul 31, 2009 16:59:28 GMT -5
ooc- sounds good to me, but do you think that we should ask Tilly first?
Oceanheart was rather dissapinted. They had been hunting for a little whle now, and he still hadn't caught anything. But Aerospark had. For some inexplicable reason, he felt that he had to prove himself to Aerospark, and not even getting the first kill didn't seem to be a very good way to do it. "Yeah, they are. That's weird, they usually come out alot in the mornings, before it gets to hot." He commented. Then, the sign that he had been waiting for. A scent on the breeze, an animal up ahead. Oceanheart stopped talking, and slid into his hunter's crouch. He crept forward slowly, one paw at a time, making no noise at all. The ferns brushed by him as he passed, inching forward. When he was about a foot and a half away from the still-oblivious animal, he leaped, killing the ferret swiftly. He barely even had time to be scared. Pleased, Oceanheart burried his prey, turning back towards Aerospark.
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Post by Ẅ ĭ ļ ð ŷ on Aug 9, 2009 15:04:21 GMT -5
((OoC;; Sure. I'll PM her....))
Aerospark's whiskers twitched with amusement as she watched Oceanheart stalk forward towards the scent of ferret. She could tell that he felt the need to prove himself to her, but she didn't really care. Let toms be toms. She watched him with appraising eyes as he stalked towards the ferret. He was a fine hunter, that was for sure. He sprang fluidly, killing the ferret with hardly any effort. He buried it and turned back to her, and she purred. "Well done. That was a nice catch." Having almost forgot about the strange absence of prey, Aero slunk off in a perpendicular direction, scanning for prey. She spotted a small thrush not far away, the animal looking uncomfortable under the cover of ferns. Freezing, she inched forward a single pawstep at a time, until she was a few tail lengths away. Her green eyes burned into the thrush intently, and in a moment of carelessness, she stepped on a brittle twig. The thrush panicked and took flight. Hissing angrily at herself, she launched high into the air, lashing out at the bird as it sounded the alarm call. She landed heavily on the ground with only a pawful of feathers to show for her efforts. "Shoot." She muttered grumpily, shaking the feathers out of her claws.
((P.S; Sorry I was gone for forever. D: Nonstop company...))
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Kiako
New Member
Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
Posts: 42
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Post by Kiako on Aug 9, 2009 18:29:38 GMT -5
ooc- 'tis ok, I know the feeling.
"Thanks." Oceanheart said, purring a little. Now they were even. He turned, indending to look for prey in the other direction of Aerospark. He had just decerned that there was nothing in this direction when he heard the snap and the hiss, and turned back to see the she-cat twisting through the air. Once again, he felt surpassed. He could never have jumped that high. "You ok?" he asked, apraising her and seeing nothing wrong, but asking just in case. He walked back toward her, stepping silently through the grass as if to show that he could be quieter then Aerpspark.
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Post by owl on Aug 10, 2009 2:39:51 GMT -5
Featherstep heard the rustle of leaves and then the successful meow of a hunting warrior further ahead. She padded through the undergrowth, her pawsteps barely making a sound. The she-cat paused for a second and noticed that apart from the two warriors ahead, there was no other signs of life in the forest, it was almost like everything was either gone or extremely afraid. Strange for clan territory, she thought, but buried her suspicions as she approached the two warriors, who she could now discern from their voices, Oceanheart and Aerospark. Featherstep burst out of the undergrowth as she entered the clearing, her enthusiasm overwhelming. "Ashblaze said you two needed another cat to assist in the hunting patrol, Prey is pretty scarce at the moment and the freshkill pile is getting low," the she-cat paused, then remembered her earlier thoughts, "Isn't it quiet today? It's almost as if all the prey is gone..."
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Post by Ẅ ĭ ļ ð ŷ on Aug 10, 2009 16:20:03 GMT -5
OoC;; Tilly says it's fine. ^_^ Just so long as we don't SEE the Caracals.
Aero glanced at Oceanheart, an annoyed expression on her face. She pulled a stubborn feather out from between her paws, and then spat it out. "Yes, I'm fine. Just irritated." She shot a glare up at the sky where the thrush disappeared, then she sighed. "Dang. That probably scared off the remainder of the prey." She lapsed into regretful silence, ears twitching to see if she could catch sounds of any other prey. But instead of prey, she caught the strong scent of cat, and half a second later Featherstep pushed through the ferns to join them. Aero meowed a quiet greeting, and then said. "Your right. It is strangely quiet... but we did manage to catch a vole and a ferret." She added, flicking her tail towards where the fresh kill was buried. "I wonder why it's so quiet, though?" She murmured, almost to herself. "It's so unusual." The fur on the back of her neck prickled uneasily.
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Kiako
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Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
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Post by Kiako on Aug 10, 2009 18:28:37 GMT -5
Oceanheart had to smile at Aerospark's response. "Yeah, we'll probably have to go somewhere else now. Then Featherstep emerged from the brush. Oceanheart nodded in greeting, but had to resist the temptation to roll his eyes. Yes, the prey was low. They had just been discussing that. Way to state the obvious, Featherstep. "There's probably something weird with the weather. Oceanheart said, looking up at the cloudless sky. "Maybe they're freaked out about the lack of rain too." He said, answering Aerospark's rhetorical question. Then he turned and addressed Featherstep. "We're probably going to move to another place soon, because the prey is so low here. Do you want to come with us?"
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Post by owl on Aug 11, 2009 9:57:30 GMT -5
Featherstep nodded, realizing that the two warriors had already noticed the lack of prey. The she-cat thought that it was more than weather keeping the prey away, but resisted the urge to correct the other warrior. "Sure, hopefully whatever is frightening the prey won't have gotten into some parts of the forest just yet" Featherstep paused and smelt the breeze, there was a strange scent lingering in the air. She dismissed it and started to move over to where Oceanheart had been motioning. The scent got stronger as Featherstep moved near the bush, it was stale, but something had been through here. "Smell this bush. I don't recognize the scent, it's probably a loner or a rogue, but it's still an..." Featherstep paused as she thought for a proper way to describe the scent. "Interesting scent" she added, as she couldn't thinknof any else to describe it. She hoped it wasn't something dangerous, whatever it was.
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Kiako
New Member
Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
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Post by Kiako on Aug 12, 2009 14:30:13 GMT -5
Oceanheart ambled over to where Featherstep was, still wondering about the lack of prey. It wasn't a particularly hot greenleaf, there had been plenty of water, so it wasn't like there was a drought. On the other side, he could see no freak storm coming that could wipe out some of the smaller prey, so they probably weren't hiding due to the weather. Still, Oceanheart didn't want to consider other possibilities. He sniffed at the bush, flooding his senses with the scent. It was unlike anything he had ever scented before. It was almost, almost, like a cat scent, but there was something different about it that indicated something else. Oceanheart buried his head in the bushes, trying to find the strongest scented area so that he could try and figure out what had left it. Another scent wafted over his nose. Oceanheart thrust his head deeper, his nose hit the ground, and knocked something to the side, It rolled and hit something else with a clinking sound. A leaf blocked Oceanhearts view, so he couldn't see what he was hitting. He found the object again, and pulled it out of the bush with his teeth. It was a bone. He dropped it on the ground, and started at it for a moment before looking at Featherstep and Aerospark. "Well, that explains the lack of prey." he said matter-of-factly, but with a clear undertone filled with tension.
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Post by Ẅ ĭ ļ ð ŷ on Aug 14, 2009 14:08:21 GMT -5
Aerospark flicked her tail warily, creeping over to where Oceanheart and Featherstep where standing. The stale smell of some animal assaulted her senses, making her fur stand on end. Her ears flattened against her skull. The smell was almost like cat, but much more wild... feral. "Whatever it is," She said gravely "it smells dangerous." She watched warily as Oceanheart buried his face in the bushes, trying to find the strongest source of the smell. Her ears flicked forward when she heard the dull clinking sound of bone on bone. She stared at the bone that had been dragged out of the bush. It was silent for a few heartbeates, and then Aerospark's head lifted. "Something's been hunting on our territory." She concluded.
Sniffing the air again, she padded deeper into the bushes, following another scent. There she found the remains of a bird. Her tail bushed out and her neck fur stood up. "Here's another one." She called back to the others, prodding the feathers gingerly with her front paw.
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Kiako
New Member
Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
Posts: 42
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Post by Kiako on Aug 18, 2009 15:34:39 GMT -5
"We should report this." Oceanheart said, after Aerospark identefied another pile of bones. "I think that it's more serious then a couple of stolen prey. All greenleaf there's been a serious lack, which makes me think that this has been going on since late newleaf." Oceanheart turned towards his Clanmates, anger at the cat stealing the prey coursing through him. Who would do this? Wide-scale prey stealing usually came from another Clan. But that scent was nothing like another Clan's, so Oceanheart dismissed that thought. Something else was stealing the prey, but what was it?
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Post by owl on Aug 22, 2009 13:30:59 GMT -5
Featherstep sniffed the bones warily, almost expecting an enemy warrior to leap out and attempt to stop them getting back to camp. But that was all in her imagination. She prodded the bones, noting the animals they seemingly had come from. She seriously hoped for something like an enemy clan raiding their territory. "Maybe it's just another clan masking their scents with dung or herbs?" The she-cat took a step back to survey the crime scene. It didn't look like the prey had been killed here, it looked to her like I had been dragged here and then consumed. The marks on the bones were quite big but Featherstep's father, Eagle, had been an especially large cat and there had been others that had stalked the trees of the old forest like Foxshadow and Darkheart, the monster and the traitor. She remembered both black cats vivdly. They had appeared in direct confrontation to the clans fleeing their doom at the hands of the flood. "I hope this is clan scent here, otherwise it's something far more dangerous" she mewed to the other two warriors.
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Kiako
New Member
Mistclan Deputy[/color][/size]
Nothing happens "all of a sudden."
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Post by Kiako on Aug 24, 2009 9:18:56 GMT -5
Oceanheart looked questioningly at Featherstep, not entirely following her logic. "Even if it is another Clan, that's still really bad. That's breaking the Warrior Code, and that's enough to start a war, which is the last thing anyone wants." Oceanheart pawed the ground nervously, sheathing and unsheathing his claws so that scratch marks appeared in the dirt. "It doesn't make any sence. If it was another Clan cat, wouldn't they have taken the prey back to their Clan to dispose of it? A loner or a rouge is more likely, but this isn't the work of one cat." Oceanheart was thinking out loud, stating ideas as they came to him and reasoning through them vocally. "Maybe Ashstar will know." He said after a long pause, in which all three cats sat looking at the bones.
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Post by owl on Aug 24, 2009 10:20:18 GMT -5
Featherstep shook her head quickly. "I don't think what we're dealing with is a cat" she mewed, "that's why it would be better if it was another clan, code or no code whatever this thing is it's definitely not a cat" she shuddered. What could the mysterious smell be? Eagle had once told her that larger cats lived up in the mountains, he said he didn't know what they were calked, but they were dangerous. Featherstep didn't think that it was one of those, that was probably just a tall tale told by her father. "Maybe it's just a fox or a badger?" she mused, "if it is we need to take care of it quickly before it finds the camp". Featherstep's mind raced. Nothing could help her solve this puzzle. If it wasn't a cat... What was it?
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Post by Ẅ ĭ ļ ð ŷ on Aug 24, 2009 14:01:39 GMT -5
Aerospark stayed silent for a minute, musing over the evidence. There was definitely something that was stealing prey, that much was obvious. But what was is? She sniffed at the bones and feathers again. The scent definitely had a feline tinge to it, but it was more woodsy and wild than anything she had ever smelled. She looked around at her Clanmates. "Whatever it is," She said, "I doubt it's another Clan. We know the other Clan scents, and this is nothing like it. Also, if it was other Clans, they would take the prey back to their Clans, right?" She switched her tail in frustration. "My guess would be some sort of Loner or Rogue." She said quietly. She swung her head around to look at Featherstep, her expression calculating. "It doesn't really smell like a fox or badger either." She thought aloud. "I really have no idea what it could be." She started pacing, her tail tip twitching. They couldn't let this go on. If something kept stealing their prey, they wouldn't have enough to feed their own clan. She gazed solemnly at Oceanheart and Featherstep. "We should tell Ashstar." She said quietly. "We have to figure out who... or what... is stealing our prey."
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