A cool breeze blew through the night, rustling the leaves in the trees. Their sounds, accompanied by the scuffling of mice on the forest floor was more than enough to disguise the rustle in the undergrowth as a young she-cat crept through it. Her light gray, tabby-striped pelt blended into the shadows as she inched along, her belly so low it brushed against the soft grass.
The she-cat's ears swiveled to the left as the sound of tiny clawed feet amongst the roots reached them. She turned her whole head in that direction to see a moonlit clearing. On the far side of the clearing, a mouse perched on the roots of a tree, nibbling a seed. The tabby inched her way to the edge of the clearing and remained crouched in the cover of the undergrowth. She inhaled deeply, drawing the mouse's scent over her scent glands and exhaled in an anxious sigh. Nervousness shone in her blue eyes which gleamed in the moonlight. She glanced up at the nearly full moon; a relatively small cloud inched its way over the moon. The she-cat smiled, relief replacing her anxiety.
When the cloud had cast the clearing into shadow, the she-cat made her move, creeping cautiously into the open towards her unsuspecting prey. Her worries raced away as she inched closer and closer to making the kill, nothing stood in her way!The cloud passed and the moon was allowed to bathe the clearing in its light once more. The silvery beams rained down on the she-cat and became trapped in her sleek grey hairs, turning them to silver and glittering between them. She looked as though her pelt was made of stars, twinkling in the night. It was quite a sight to behold, but the glow alerted her prey that it was no longer alone. Without risking so much as a glance back, the mouse scurried under the root and was gone.
"Mouse dung!" the tabby spat. "Curse this shiny pelt! I so had it!" She sighed with defeat and padded back the way she'd come, making no attempts to hide her presence any more; anything nearby had seen that display and would be on the run. This was not the first time this had happened, and the she-cat knew that when it did, her hunting was pretty much over. "Let's hope there's some stupid fish, or I'm going to bed hungry." She wandered through the forest, the undergrowth and dense canopy shielded her pelt from the moon's rays.
The forest thinned out and the slight trickle of water could be heard amidst the other sounds of the night. The she-cat walked right into the open and, once again, her pelt shimmered in the moon's glow. She approached the stream that flowed just outside the forest and inched, cautiously, towards the edge. She peered into the crystal waters that reflected the moon and stars above her. She could just make out a small, dark moving form beyond the glare of the moon.
"One shot," she muttered. She slowly moved her paw over the water and with one swift motion, she scooped the fish out of the water and it flopped on the shore. Her execution was flawless, the only problem was, it wasn't a fish she caught. "Eww, gross!" the tabby screwed up her face at the sight of her catch, a lumpy, brown frog. The frog opened it's mouth and let out a deep-throated croak at its attacker, then hopped back into the stream.
"Can't eat frogs, right, mommy?" the tabby sighed. She drooped her head and walked along the stream's edge, following the flow of the water. She hopped down a rough rock face to a shallow pool of water surrounded by stone walls. The trickling of the water down the rocks into the pool was the only sound in this secluded little place.
The she-cat walked around the pool and then hopped up to a hole on the opposite stone wall. She gasped as a scent swept over her scent glands from the hole. It was unmistakable, but the tabby had not expected it in the slightest. She padded to the back of the cave where there was a clump of bracken and moss and sat in it. Beside the nest, was a freshly killed vole. "Thanks, mommy!" the she-cat exclaimed into the empty cave before hungrily gulping down the vole in large greedy bites. She licked her lips contentedly and then stood up, turning in her nest until she was comfortable before settling back down again to sleep.