OMS! 300 reviews! Thank you so much everyone!!!! Eeeeeep! Special thanks to brackenfurlover and Mudfur, and a few others I haven't memorized. You guys have been reviewing almost ever since the beginning. Okay, okay... Enough blabbering. On with the chapter.
The bushes rustled, and two cats emerged.
One was much taller then the other, and his eyes shifted from side to side.
The other, a kit with extra big paws and glittering eyes stood beside him.
"How much farther?" the little kit asked, his voice tired and worn.
"Stop complaining, Tigerkit. If you become my apprentice, I don't want to have one that doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut." snapped, Thistleclaw, the taller cat.
"But you said you'd teach me how to catch prey!" Tigerkit mewed, and he stared up at Thistleclaw with trusting eyes.
Thistleclaw grunted, his large head swinging from side to side.
"This way." he replied, and padded onward.
Tigerkit sighed.
It was obvious Thistleclaw believed in "early training."
No wonder he had shoved Tigerkit (his apprentice-to-be) out of the nursery in the dead of night and told him they were off to start hunting lessons.
It was a mouse-brained idea in Tigerkit's mind.
He was so tired, his eyes sagged sleepily every time they paused.
"Keep up." Thistleclaw growled.
"Are we there yet?" Tigerkit asked.
"Be quite."
"But-"
"I said, keep your mouth shut or else!"
Tigerkit clamped his mouth shut, not bothering to see what "or else" meant.
After a few minutes of tramping through the forest, Thistleclaw and Tigerkit stopped.
"Sniff." Thistleclaw directed.
Tigerkit sniffed loudly, then coughed.
What was that smell?
"Crow-food. It's rotting prey." Thistleclaw said, as if replying to Tigerkit's own thoughts.
"Yuck." Tigerkit stuck out his tongue and made a face.
Thistleclaw's eyes darkned.
"Take another sinff." he commanded.
Tigerkit sniffed again, putting himself through the terrible scent of crow-food once more.
"What else did you smell?" asked Thistleclaw, waiting expectently.
"Um..." Tigerkit scrunched up his face and sniffed again.
"Well?"
"Uh, I smell... Mouse!" Tigerkit exclaimed.
Thistleclaw hissed for silence.
"Yes, mouse. Now where is it coming from." the mentor asked.
"Over by that big oak tree." Tigerkit replied, pointing with his striped tail.
"Mm-hm... Now go hunt the mouse." Thistleclaw said sternly.
The instructions left Tigerkit puzzled.
He stood, staring at the warrior.
Then he shook his muzzle and tip-toed over to the oak tree.
He peeked his nose under a pile of leaves.
Nothing.
He looked up the tree, wondering if mice knew how to climb.
Nothing.
He looked back over at Thistleclaw, feeling a bit nervous.
How was he supposed to hunt?
He couldn't ask...
He was too shy.
"Well?" Thistleclaw called, growing a bit irritated.
"Um... I think the mouse might be playing hide-and-seek with me." Tigerkit mewed shyly.
"Hide-and-seek? That's the most mouse-brained thing I've ever heard!" boomed Thistleclaw, and the birds in their nests above shuffled nervously.
"I... I don't know how to hunt." Tigerkit wimpered, ducking his head.
Thistleclaw wasn't even teaching him how to do it.
"Mouse-brained..." Thistleclaw muttered, then padded over to the oak tree.
Tigerkit watched the warrior as he breathed in, then turned his head to the side.
"Over there. The mouse is in those growing ferns on the side of the oak. Find it. Kill it." the mentor growled.
Kill it.
Tigerkit flexed his tiny claws.
He had to kill it.
Then Thistleclaw would be proud of him.
Right?
Stalking over to the ferns, Tigerkit crouched down like he had seen the apprentices in his clan's camp do when they practiced hunting.
"Here mousy..." Tigerkit whispered, and he heard Thistleclaw curse behind him.
Kill the mouse...
Kill it, and then Thistleclaw would be happy.
Tigerkit pressed his belly to the ground, then caught sight of the little beast.
It was scuffling around, unaware of the death looming over it.
Tigerkit sprang.
He caught the mouse between his paws, and heard the meow of success coming from Thistleclaw.
Without thinking, Tigerkit bit into the mouse's little flesh.
Blood dripped onto his claws.
He let go of the now dead mouse and froze.
He had killed.
His first kill...
But why was he not happy?
Tigerkit turned his gaze to his claws, gleaming in the moonlight.
They were blood splattered.
Blood...
The blood of Tigerkit's first kill.
The first of many to come.
Dun, dun, dunnnnnn! *evil music plays in backround* I thought it would be cool to show Tigerkit's "first kill." I like the line, "I think the mouse is playing hide-and-seek with me." I cracked up as I typed that. XD Next up is Yellowkit. Yayyyy awesome kitty with my favorite color as her name!