A Sunset Hunt

[Yoko]

The forest was far from quiet, but the chirping crickets and rustling prey were hardly anything to be frightened of. The wild noise actually felt a bit exciting as Patchpaw padded in step beside Lionclaw. They had come all this way to go hunting, but she did not want to leave his side just yet. Occasionally, they spoke, but at times the sight and smell and sheer feeling of the forest were too much for even Patchpaw to put into words. She had never been so happy.

As they approached the Great Sycamore, a tall, strong, tree that was unmatched in its beauty so close to the evening, Patchpaw spotted a small curved dot on one of the lower branches. A squirrel! And she suddenly felt compelled to catch it first.

"That one's mine," she whispered to Lionclaw, with a pointing flick of her tail.

And she dropped easily into a hunter's crouch, sliding away from the handsome tom's side. She crawled quickly and quietly, keeping her tail up and her ears flat. Moving too slow would mean it could get further away. Moving to fast could startle it. When she reached the tree base, she stretched up slowly, making her calico body as long as possible before digging her claws in. She was slow and careful, but she still ended up kicking off a few scraps of bark. The squirrel paid no attention, steadily nibbling at its food. At last, Patchpaw crept onto the branch. Her amber eyes were side with anticipation. The squirrel turned to face her at the last moment, but she pounced, shaking the branch lightly as she caught the prey beneath her claws. Swiftly she nipped its neck in a killing blow. Looking back down at Lionclaw she grinned.

Patchpaw was about to leap down, when she caught a glimpse of the beautiful sunset sky. "Lionclaw! Come look!"

[:c a i:]

The journey out from camp had been a pleasant one. Lionclaw and Patchpaw had settled into their usual, comfortable companionship, ambling slowly through the trees, sometimes talking, sometimes not. It was what he liked best about his relationship with her; there was never an awkward silence between them, only comfortable ones. They didn't have to talk all the time, but when they did, there was always laughter and joking. They talked a little, and on occasion Lionclaw teasingly pushed Patchpaw, his expression mischievous. It was a beautiful evening and Lionclaw smiled lazily, very pleased with his choice in hunting partner.

With a relaxed nod, Lionclaw lingered back to allow his young friend to dart off after the prey she had spotted, continuing to pad along at a slow pace while watching Patchpaw with amusement and affection. She made a very nice catch, taking the squirrel with practised ease, even though it was quite a tricky catch to make, up in the branch of the old tree.

"Nice catch." Lionclaw called in a low voice, returning her grin with a wink. He reached the base of the tree, and when Patchpaw called him, he smoothly jumped up to join her on the branch, following her gaze to see what she was looking at. He stared out at the glowing sunset, many-coloured and illuminating every part of the sky as the sun slowly drifted lower and lower. Beautiful. Lionclaw shot Patchpaw a sidelong glance, half-smiling as he noted the effect of the glow on her fur. Also beautiful.

With a cheeky flick of his tail to Patchpaw's shoulder, Lionclaw stepped around her again and glanced up. "Want to go higher?" He asked, craning his neck to seek a better perch. "We can see better from up there..." without waiting for a response, Lionclaw made a rather athletic leap, landing quite neatly on a higher branch where he paused briefly, then climbed up even higher.

"Come on, slowpoke. You should see this!" He called back down, making an appreciative sound as he looked at the incandescent sky. The branch he was sat on was quite a small, stout one, but they'd have room to sit on it side by side if they sat quite close. Lionclaw was surprised by how relaxed he felt up here in the sunset, happy and peaceful. Quite a nice feeling, really.

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[Yoko]

Patchpaw felt a slight tingle as she watched Lionclaw make that huge leap. He was so powerful. Had it simply been the transition from apprentice to warrior, or had the difference between their strength always been this huge. She watched as he wove his way to a reasonably thick branch.

"I'll be right up," she promised with a grin.

Quickly, the calico apprentice snatched up her caught squirrel and leaped down the tree. Even though she was in a rush and rather excited, she made sure to cover her catch with a fair amount of dirt, before stretching her way back up the tree trunk. Elegantly, she pulled her way up from branch to branch, not quite possessing the power to clear jump from one to the other, but it did not take very long before she was settling in beside Lionclaw, brushing his pelt slightly.

The sight was beautiful. They were just high enough to see over many of the ThunderClan trees, ad Patchpaw was quite glad she never had a fear of heights.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she breathed. "I wonder where the borders are...?"

She squinted a little, trying to locate the ThunderPath or the River. Perhaps the trees had blocked them from view, or perhaps they were facing the wrong way? It did not bother her much. She was perfectly content with sitting here and look.

[:c a i:]

Lionclaw vaguely watched Patchpaw disappear down to take care of her catch, keeping one eye on the sunset all the time. When she returned, Lionclaw shifted over slightly to make room for her on the branch. They settled into a comfortably silence for a moment, fur touching slightly and quite relaxed by the peaceful setting. At times like this, war, Clan drama, lack of kits and trouble in the forest seemed like things which belonged to another world. It didn't feel like any kind of problems would be able to penetrate the serenity of this evening.

Lionclaw smiled down at Patchpaw, glancing at her sidelong. "It is." He replied, chuckling slightly. "Erm... I think they're over... there. See that little patch of trees next to the rock?" Lionclaw squinted and put his head next to Patchpaw's, directing her to see the little strip of grey which marked the end of ThunderClan's land and the beginning of ShadowClan's. "That's the Thunderpath... So you can see ShadowClan's territory. Kinda." He swiveled around on the branch, rather putting them in danger of overbalancing, and scanned the other direction.

"And there's the river!" Lionclaw grinned triumphantly. They could indeed see a little bit of water out beyond the trees. "... Oops" Lionclaw grinned rakishly, having just jostled about a bit too much and managed to nearly lose his balance. He sat down quickly, deciding he'd better not attempt to point out any more borders, as much fun as it was.

[Yoko]

Patchpaw squinted in the direction that Lionclaw indicated. The small cluster of trees were beside a grayish sort of rock, which was a bit orange in the sunset glow.

"I see it now," she nodded. "And over there, you say, is the river?"

She squinted in the opposite direction to see, but Lionclaw had unbalanced himself pointing. Patchpaw raised her paw to her muzzle to keep from purring in amusement. Apparently great warriors didn't do everything perfectly. It was good to know. After a moment, she put her paw down and pretended it didn't happen. For his pride's sake. Besides, an idea had struck her.

"Lionclaw, this would be an excellent way for ThunderClan to plan its attacks and defense against other clans. If they could see it all laid out like this, they would know how best to defend it."

[:c a i:]

Lionclaw gave Patchpaw a roguish grin, getting over his near-fall rather fast. He hummed under his breath as he nodded, pleased that Patchpaw had seen the borders.

"Yep, river's over there." He confirmed. He smiled a bit at Patchpaw's keen mind and bright ideas, nodding slowly. Aerial viewpoints would be useful for ThunderClan, but the issue was the trees.

"It would be helpful to see the territory from a different viewpoint, but the problem is the trees. They obstruct most of the paths and landmarks. It was difficult for us just to see the borders, wasn't it?" Lionclaw explained, craning his neck to look at the river again. "...besides, I bet Ashstar's already seen the territory from up here too. Probably sneaks up here with her secret boyfriend or something," Lionclaw chuckled, his tone light and joking.

"Anyway, you want to hang out up here longer? The patrol should be back from WindClan
soon."

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[Yoko]

"Hmmm, I guess you're right," Patchpaw murmured, thinking of a way this could still be useful. But she shook it off. There was plenty of time for thinking when she would be alone. And without Lionpaw...Lionclaw out of the apprentice den, she would be alone a lot.

She flicked the tom with her tail tip while trying to muffled her amused purr. "You can't say something like that about our leader!" she pretended to scold him.

At the mention of the WindClan patrol she perked up. "Yeah, let's go!"

And in the fading sunlight, she climbed down carefully, stretching as far as she could and always being sure that she had sure footing the whole way down. It may be silly-looking, but it was much less embarrassing than falling and hurting herself in front of Lionclaw would be.

"RACE YOU THERE!"

She shot off through the undergrowth, feeling safe in her own territory...and with Lionclaw.

[:c a i:]

With one of his trademark cheeky grins, Lionclaw winked at Patchpaw. "I won't tell her if you won't." He replied, following her down the tree as she carefully picked a neat route down to the ground. He, on the other hand, simply bounded with great leaps from branch to branch, cheerfully unbothered by the height or the risk of falling. Cats always fell on their feet, didn't they?

"Hey, you cheater!" Lionclaw's laugh was loud in the quiet forest. "What happened to one two three go?" Rolling his eyes, he watched Patchpaw streak away for a second before he too broke into a run, his strong legs carrying him swiftly as he sprinted to catch up. He was bigger than her, and so he made up the ground fast, levelling out with the she-cat and turning to smile mischievously at her.

"Can you keep up, little cat?" He started to push ahead, darting over the forest floor with almost surprising agility. "One fat mouse says I'll get there before you!" He yelled over his shoulder, exhilarated by the fast run and feeling the wind brushing through his thick pelt. He felt lucky; how many other warriors had fun like this? He and Patchpaw would always be friends... he was sure of that. And he would never get too old to have races through the forest either.

[Yoko]

Patchpaw loved this, the wind in her fur, the beauty of the forest. Her paws soared over the forest floor, but even so Lionclaw made up distance quickly, though she was not unhappy to see him. She broke into a wide grin, "You're on!"

Of course, he had the longer stronger limbs, and Patchpaw felt a pang of envy. But she decided it best to use her size to her advantage, she veered into the thicker undergrowth, a straighter line to camp. She slipped easily between the narrower gaps through trees. It wasn't giving her much head-way but some was better than none. That mouse was hers. The ravine was up head, she veered back towards Lionclaw so she'd be in front of the entrance too, her shoulder brushed his. Her head just a mouse-length further back. But in the last stretch, she burst into a fit of giggles, her steps faltering just a bit.

She was laughing so hard. We forgot the prey! And she found this so funny, she hardly minded losing the race. Only Lionclaw would make her this forgetful! Oh, if Flameclaw knew he'd never let her live it down!

She skidded down the ravine. And halted at the bottom, still laughing her head off. That prey will be safe for the night, right?

[:c a i:]

In the edge of his periphery, Lionclaw spotted Patchpaw's diversion into the undergrowth and smirked, admiring her clever little manoeuvre. She had the shorter route, but he was going at a faster pace. It meant that the pair of them were rushing towards camp, neck and neck, neither of them giving ground. He thought that this was quite a nice representation of them and their relationship: always on equal footing. Neither of them considered themselves better than the other, and they seemed to be going through life at the same pace.

Just then, Patchpaw seemed to drop back, and Lionclaw heard her laughter. Just the sound of it made him smile too, and as the pair of them clattered down the ravine and drew into the entrance of the tunnel leading to camp, he too slowed down and looked back at her, an amused grin on his face.

"What's so funny?" He asked, finding her giggles infectious and resisting the urge to laugh too. "Must be something good to make you lose the race," he remarked "and by the way - you owe me a mouse." He grinned roguishly, leaning back and stretching. He decided he'd bring Patchpaw something at the next meal anyway as a surprise. What are friends for, if not for sharing food with? Lionclaw was feeling lighthearted and amused, having spent his idea of a perfect evening out in the forest. Life was good.

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