Under Spiderstripe's Command

[Ten]

With a loud, screechy battle cry, Shortwhisker leaped at the rat and slashed its hindquarters, then chomped down on its spine, shoving Patchfur away and shielding Speckledclaw. In his mind, he was not only helping kill the rat, but protecting his Clanmates from its retaliation. With one paw crushing its head into the dusty ground, the tom lifted his head in triumph. Blood formed a ring around his jaws.

[kayte103]

Barkpaw slowed when he saw Speckledclaw deliver the death blow. He was in awe of her incredible speed, agility, and accuracy. What a kill! He would hate to meet her in battle, and was all the more glad that she was hunting on his side.

He trotted over to Speckledclaw and Patchfur, and when Patchfur spoke, he took the words right from Barkpaw's mouth. There was no way ordinary training could have produced such skill, and he wanted to learn Speckledclaw's secret. But though eager for an answer, he shifted his attention to the catch and edged closer to it. Now, how much should I take... He wanted to have enough for himself, Blackfoot, and Redstream, but still knew he had to leave something for the others.

When Shortwhisker rushed at the kill, Barkpaw jumped back in surprise. What was that cat doing? It's already dead!

[Darky [Megan]]

"Hm?" Speckledclaw turned, meeting the gazes of the two other cats. "Huntin's just a question of training, I s'pose - and I had an incredible trainer." Her eyes misted over just the slightest bit as she recalled her father. "Ye could say it's in my blood--"

She was cut off and startled by Shortwhisker's response, Speckledclaw, having not had the adrenaline quite drained out of her yet, retaliated out of instinct. Her paw, claws still unsheathed, swiped at Shortwhisker's back as he rushed past her.

Realising her mistake almost immediately, she uttered a hurried apology and mentally slapped herself for having done such a thing. Shortwhisker had made himself out to be a great source of drama, even for the smallest things. "I'm sorry - yer just rushed by me and hissed like that - I thought yer were somethin' else ..." As she said this, she tried to look over the wound she'd just helped to create - it seemed quite shallow, but it had already touched rat's blood - they needed to wash it, just to make sure.

[duckyaisha]

The tom hadn't really been affected by Shortwhisker flying into him. He'd just fallen down and gotten back up again. It was no big deal, and he made sure to show Shortwhisker that as well. When he went down, he didn't say anything, and he got up again very nonchalantly. He got up quickly enough to see Shortwhisker 'attack' the rat. Shaking the sand out of his fur, Patchfur rolled his eyes. And he'd thought Shortwhisker was stupid before. "Are you kidding me? The rat is already dead, cricketbrain! No, wait, I don't want to insult the poor cricket. It doesn't deserve to be compared to something as utterly brainless as you!"

[Gosh]

Feeling a little bad that Speckledclaw had done most of the work in the hunt, Spiderstripe padded over to the kill in time to hear Patchfur's remarks. "Hey! Patchfur! This hunt - and that includes after the hunt - is supposed to be about us working together." She stopped, looking at Shortwhisker's back. She hadn't really seen Speckledclaw's impulse attack, and she ended up saying, "...We should get that cleaned."

[duckyaisha]

Patchfur rolled his eyes. "The rat's dead isn't it? I only have to work with him-" he flicked his tail at Shortwhisker to indicate who he was talking about, if it wasn't obvious from his tone "- until the rat's killed. Then we can disagree all we want. Arguing isn't going to bring it back to life. And besides, he'd the one that needs to work together. He was so out of it, he wasn't even paying attention to the thing. You should be scolding him, not me!" This was a bit of a stretch, but Patchfur hadn't annoyed someone in a while, and he wanted to see how Shortwhisker would react. Spiderpaw would remain calm, of course, but Shortwhisker didn't have a calm bone in his body. He was always worrying about something or other.

[Ten]

When the pain of Speckledclaw's blow soaked through to his brain, Shortwhisker froze. The walls spun before his eyes as he sunk into a panicked confusion. Had a rat attacked him? Would he die? Wait, no... huh? What? That had to be a... a cat. Trembling, panting with the effort of his assault on the rat, he stepped back from the carcass and looked around, spotting Speckledclaw's guilty face. The cat who had led him during the hunt... was the one who clawed him after?

He must have done something wrong. Despite his best efforts, he had blundered and displeased her. His lackluster eyes widened as if he were choking, and considering his current speaking ability, he might well have been.

"Sp-Speck-ckled-d-cl-clawww.... I-I'm s-ssso s-sssorre-eee-eee." He laid himself down at her paws, head low, ears flattened, tail wrapped around himself as if fearful she might take it from him as further punishment -- though if she had asked for it at that moment, he would have given it to her in an instant.



ooc| anddd it looks like he's still not going to be listening to Patchfur for a while. Ah well. He'll get over this.

[Darky [Megan]]

ooc
Hie there Ducky, Spiderpaw's got a much more impressive name that she's using now. x)

bic
Speckledclaw raised an eyebrow in confusion. Was Shortwhisker fooling around or was this all genuine? It seemed too silly to be real, and she apologised after all ... When Shortwhisker actually went so far as to lower himself into a submissive position before her, as though he were a kit awaiting a frightful scolding from its stern father, she supposed he really was joking.

Irritation written on her face now, she prodded Shortwhisker with her now-clawless paw. "I'd wash that immediately, if I were you. My claws weren't clean, and I doubt you'd want yerself a nasty infection. Hurry up and get off the floor."

She glanced at Spiderstripe tentatively, hoping that this incident hadn't hurt her reputation. Shortwhisker's reaction had totally been blown out of proportion - though she trusted Spiderstripe knew that. Patchfur certainly did.

[Ten]

ooc| I like how she calls the ground "the floor".

bic|

Shortwhisker flinched and scrambled to his paws as ordered, inside bemoaning that she was still angry with him. Then he twisted around to lick his black back. Washing the wound, he found that it was not serious, though it brought him terrible pain in more ways than one -- and he couldn't reach all of it himself.

[duckyaisha]

"He's not joking," Patchfur meowed to Speckledclaw. "It may seem hard to believe, but he's really that stupid." He extended his claws as he stretched, wanting nothing more than to claw Shortwhisker right in his face. But he couldn't do that until after this obnoxious experiment was done with. Reluctantly, he sheathed his claws and trotted over to the rat. While everyone was still obsessing over Shortwhisker, he'd actually eat. The tom tore into the rat carcass with delight, savoring the taste of real meat on his tongue. He didn't eat more than his fair share, of course, but his stomach was full and he didn't really feel like antagonizing Shortwhisker anymore. At least, not right now.