He stared at it, transfixed, while delightful thoughts started to brew inside his mind. Food. All he could imagine was what a delicacy it would be once he got his paws on it. Birds were a rare sight to be had in a forsaken place such as this. The tiny songbird was flitting around a single spot on the rooftop, pecking at a crevice in the metal. Probably an insect nest of some sort. It was so engrossed with the crooked gap that it never bothered to glance up. That was especially important.
He slowly inhaled in excitement before placing a tentative paw forward, turning still as a statue once he'd done so. The prey still hadn't taken notice of him. He now took two steps before pausing again. Nothing yet. Two more strides—he didn't want to get too overzealous and make a misstep. So far, so good. He had cleared nearly half the distance now. But was it enough? If he darted forward now, there may still be a slight chance for it to notice and react in time to escape. No. He didn't want to chance it. He had to be sure of himself first. One more step would probably do the trick, so he went ahead and finally crouched into a proper stance.
The bird suddenly lifted its head without warning. He instantly froze, mentally panicking. Had it somehow heard him? Was it now aware that he was there? Thankfully, by some sort of small miracle, it didn't bother to turn and peer behind at the stalking feline. It instead looked to the sky, possibly musing over the scarcity of clouds in this area… or something else decidedly lame. After a moment of quiet, it resumed its curious pecking.
Now was the time. Raising his haunches ever so slightly, he began generating momentum in his hind legs. The looser his muscles, the faster he could sprint. After a few brief seconds of this, he launched himself forward.
An abrupt instance of light flashed in the not too far off distance, the slightest hint of a thrumming sound echoing from the source. Startled, the songbird furiously flapped its wings to gain velocity and rose quickly into the air. A single thump sounded below, now drawing its attention. In the very spot where he had perched just a moment ago now lay a cat with a pair of open, empty paws in front of its bewildered face. Talk about too close of a call, the bird silently noted. I need a place that he can't easily reach me from.
There was such a spot at the far end of the rooftop. He noticed some external piping that rose from the metal foundation in several collected rows. Just try to pounce on me from among those. You have no real chance of it. He glided over to the brass protrusions and settled on one that was coated with condensation. Must be a part of the air conditioning system. At least I can drink from this. He began pecking up the water droplets one at a time.
Disgruntled at the gross failure of his first attempt, the cat wheeled around to realize the bird hadn't gone too far. Who the fuck warped in here at a time like this? he wondered about that flare of light. I swear, if it turns out to be that brother of mine… He didn't bother to finish that thought. There was still a potentially good lunch to be had. At least it wasn't the terrible concoction that the cafeteria workers tried to offer him daily.
The bird was now busy poking at the pipes. He didn't really care for whatever it was doing, so long as he could maneuver fast enough to actually grab it this time. Once again, he moved through his stalking ritual, even daring to make the gap lesser than before. With all those bothersome pipes in the way, he was forced into this alternative if he wanted to be successful. The bird surely wouldn't remain much longer. It had to be close to satisfying its thirst.
Three, two, one… go! He sprung up and forward, paws at the ready to seize his prey.
The bird rounded on him suddenly, anticipating this moment. He had been more careful this time, observing the cat from the corner of his peripheral vision. Rather than head upward, he veered to one side. As there was no more rooftop beyond those pipes, the cat rushed past with a despairing scream.
The feline wanted to slam his eyes shut in horror at what had just happened. He clawed rapidly at open air, though he knew there was no purchase to be had. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to close his eyes. He dared to glance downward as he catapulted to what had to be certain death.
So this was it for him. Shit.