[PATROL] (Brackencloud, Spiderbite, Maplepaw, Stumptail)

[belloblossom]

A patrol that is made of Brackencloud, Spiderbite, Maplepaw and Stumptail. If your cat isn't listed here, you may not post here.

Rolled: Hunting Encounter (roll 1d20 - on a 10 or higher you successfully catch your prey!)
Each cat in the patrol is able to make this roll!

 

[belloblossom]

Stumptail had been pleased to be assigned to lead the hunting patrol. He had his apprentice, Maplepaw with him, Spiderbite and Brackencloud the kittypet swho had joined, much like Stumptail's own mother, Elmripple had. However, unlike his mother, Brackencloud didn't actually seem keen on being here. Yet, the older tomcat had been there even before Pinedapple, Stumptail's father, had been born. Stumptail suspected that even if Brackencloud didn't seem entirely well adjusted to TreeClan, he couldn't very well return to his Twolegs now.

With his apprentice, Maplepaw, who was newer to the Clan, he was hunting close alongside her.
"Take heed to distribute your weight evenly into your paws." He told her and glanced at Brackencloud, who was close to Maplepaw's build. "Brackencloud, any pointers you want to supply to a new treewalker?" He asked the tomcat, before his head swiveled at the sound of fluttering wings nearby. "Wait here, Maplepaw." He mewed hurriedly to his apprentice, before moving quickly to the trunk of ta tree and climbing up to higher branches, where he'd heard the fluttering wings. Sure enough - he found a red-breasted robin settling on its nest.

He pounced from the trunk to the branch and made quick work of the startled bird. There were bright blue eggs - four of them, how perfect! - remaining in the nest below. Hunting patrol is may be, but there was no way that he was going to get the eggs back in tact for the fresh kill pile, so he found it more fitting to offer this boon to his fellow hunters.

"Maplepaw, Brackencloud, Spiderbite: come up here! I've got a treat for you!" He called to the patrol below him. @kovak

(Stumptail successfully catches his robin!)

 

[belloblossom]

Spiderbite was going along, keeping pace with the rest of the patrol. Since the birth of his kits and the death of one of them, he'd been going on more and more patrols. Even now, with his kits out of the Nursery and apprenticed and Firedust back in the Warriors den, he was doing his job with an intensity that hadn't been seen within him when he'd first joined the Clan.

He tried not to think about the kit they'd lost. He tried to do right by his living children. He tried not to ponder if this litter would be the only litter he and Firedust would have, because of the one that hadn't made it. So many kits hadn't made it lately - Sprucetail, the leader's own daughter, had lost a kit too. Was this some warning from SunClan? Was there anyway to talk to SunClan personally or was that someone only leaders got to do?

He wasn't sure if this was something he was allowed to ask or if he was meant to keep his thoughts to himself. Either way, on this hunting patrol, he tried not to think about anything, or anyone, at all. He barely heard Stumptail calling him back when he went on ahead, but a vibrant orange caught his attention a few tail lengths ahead of him. On another branch parallel to his, but on another tree over. It had seen him and gone still, as had Spiderbite. With the patrol behind him, but moving forward, he didn't doubt that the squirrel would be shocked into movement sooner than later. It was time to act - to get his kill and bring it home to Firedust and his children. It was now or never.

Bunching his muscles for a moment, he ran forward across the branches, his paws light. Shoving off his weight from his hind legs, he managed to leap to the other tree, but the squirrel was already darting down the trunk, spiraling down it. Had its fur not been bright orange, Spiderbite would never have been able to catch it.

He leaped at the trunk, releasing is claws and regripping the oak's hard bark exterior. Periodically he looked down at the squirrel - was it still on the tree? Yes? Wait, no, it was just reaching the forest floor - and he made the decision to drop down the rest of the way. Spiderbite landed flat on top of the squirrel, claws splayed out. When he stood, the prey beast was stunned and when Spiderbite's fangs pierced into its neck, the prey was dead.

Panting, he picked the squirrel back up into his mouth and looked up at what now seemed to be a very tall tree from the ground view. He sighed. Time to rejoin the patrol and find out what Stumptail, his patrol leader, had been calling them for. He just hoped he wouldn't get into trouble for prioritizing prey over his patrol lead's instructions. @kovak


(Spiderbite catches his squirrel!)