Tora's dark grey coat blended into the shadows as she stalked through the forest's thick foliage. Mentally exhausted from the strain of keeping her clan-mates 'pleased', she just wanted to relax now. The day had dragged by, every hour a snail's pace. Tora had felt like snapping at one of them, but wisely kept her mouth shut, despite her top lip curling every now and then.
As she sat there alone, she found herself reconsidering everything. The more she thought about it, the more terrible her idea of hanging out with a pair of Koga dogs sounded. She didn't even have a backup plan in case something went wrong. Tora glanced up at the sky, wondering what the time of day was.
Time ticked by and Tora found herself growing increasingly more concerned. Concerned that the dogs weren't going to show up, concerned that she had walked right into an ambush and concerned that somebody from the Iga was going to notice she was missing and find her loitering just a few paces away from Koga territory.
"You actually came!" She jumped as Kaguya's head popped up from behind a clump of ferns. The Iga heir hadn't been expecting the Koga to surprise her like that.
"You actually came!" Tora found herself repeating. She sniffed at the air, searching for the scent of any more Koga Kaguya may have brought with her. The smell of another dog hit her senses and a moment later, Raiju emerged to linger beside his sister. He glanced at her, his gaze unreadable, before sitting down on the ground.
"You know, you never did give us your name." He muttered.
She wasn't happy with telling them her name, but if she lied, she didn't know what they would do. "Tora," she answered, unsure where the conversation was heading.
"Tora?" Raiju echoed curiously. "Tiger."
"I think my parents had an animal theme when they named us." Tora remarked, struggling to make conversation. "You?"
"Kaguya and Raiju are nice names." Kaguya said.
Tora opened her mouth to respond when Raiju blurted: "Do you want to hunt?" At the sight of Tora and Kaguya's flat stares, he shrugged. "I mean, we may as well do something. Do you really want to just sit here and talk?"
Kaguya frowned and Tora shrugged. "Sure." To be honest, she was beginning to grow jittery from talking about herself; a good run might put her mind at ease. But there was a question she couldn't help but ask.
"Do you really think we'd be able to catch prey on the border?"
Raiju didn't seem to bothered about straying onto his enemy's turf. "There's nothing wrong with bending the rules a little."
"You're not setting foot into Iga territory." Although Tora felt uneasy at the prospect of setting one paw over the border, she disliked the idea of a pair of Koga prancing through her father's territory even more.
Pretending not to notice Raiju's flustered expression, Tora inhaled deeply, picking up a sweet scent that made her mouth water. "Rabbit." Kaguya had sensed it, too. The two females' gazes met, eyes glimmering with anticipation as they took off in the direction of their unsuspecting prey.
Branches whipped at Tora's face as she sped through the undergrowth. Up ahead, she caught sight of the fleeing rabbit's white tail swerving into Iga territory. Without hesitating, she darted after it, making a wide arc and forcing it back toward the border and into Raiju's salivating jaws.
Its shriek was cut short and Raiju dropped its limp body to the ground. "Not bad for an Iga weakling."