Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2013 10:17:16 GMT -5
It was never so much his turn to hunt at Feather Stones so much as it was his pleasure. He enjoyed the challenge of the risky steps and the protective and rather angry birds. Unlike other clan members, it was rare to find him stepping along the Feather Stones paths outside of the dusk hour. While many went in midday, or even in morning, his time to go was when the sun dipped below the ocean horizon, when the rocks held a reddish glow from the reddened sun. This was when he blended in and when he was most successful, that or in the dark of night- but even he wasn’t that rat brained. At night there was faint moonlight, but too much could go wrong. Not even Squirrelstep would risk it at night.
On that particularly dusk, he was alone- or so he thought- and moved without the careful and focused look he held when others were watching. Tonight, he moved with unprecedented graze and ease, his momentum was steady. Even when he slipped up, his pace hardly slowed and within three steps he was back on stride. The pale orange tom scaled the cliffs, muscles flexing and tail twitching, flicking out to give him balance as he hugged the stonewall to his left. As he reached the nesting area his pace finally slowed and his body slunk low, hugging the stone under his paws as well as the wall. The tom had slipped into hunting mode, letting his tail lay behind him as his ears swiveled forward to listen to the chatter of birds, laying on their nests.
He waited for a rather long and drawn out minute before he launched himself forward, paws leaving the ground as a loud yowl shattered the air. It was followed by the panicked squawking of birds as they took flight. Landing with a thud, hind paw missing the stone and slipping over the edge causing his body to lean back. What would appear to be a dangerous mistake was too the toms advantage, he grabbed an egg and spun, lifting his mistaken limb to propel him off back the way he had came. Just in time too, as the birds had realized they had been fooled and had circled back to their nests, not missing the feline that had begun to run across the path. Out on the cliffs, running the way Squirrelstep did, there was no time to look behind him to see how close the diving birds were, had he been moving slower there would have been time.
Still, he made the last bound to stable ground and dropped the egg when he landed. He ran several more steps before ducking by a stone and turning. Panting, his tail twitched behind him, excited by the run and adrenaline. The birds were circling above, unaware that the egg was lying unprotected they were looking for him and when he wanted them to, they would find him.