camp in which a box turtle snack is brought to camp

[DOGFUR]

Near a pond, on a rock, sat a young box turtle.

It had been watched by pallid yellow eyes for quite some time now. The sun had already passed from the tops of the trees to a hare-length below. The watcher was twitchy and kept thumping his hind-leg against stone and rock, which was causing a bruise to form just above his hock.

The turtle moved and its reptilian eye blinked slowly at its watcher, who blinked his own eyes—not in tandem, but his left eye first followed by his right. Then, without much ceremony, the tortoiseshell warrior stood up, walked over to the turtle, and picked it up in his mouth. It was small enough to be carried, as it was still young.

The creature suddenly shrunk into its muddy shell and Dogfur instinctively bit down, only finding his teeth to brace against what felt like hard bone.

He turned around, turtle in his jaws, and walked back to camp.

Upon arrival, Dogfur set down his unorthodox prey and kept a paw over it in case it decided to sprout its legs again and run off. "I require... assistance! There's prey inside this beau-ti-ful rock-thing. If we break it open, we can eat what's inside. Absolutely,postively, yes."

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[Halfshade]

"Dogfur, what the hell is that?" Uncouth, unladylike, but a statement all the same. Halfshade stared at the strange critter and could not for the life of her figure out what it was. She had seen many strange animals in their marshlands, but never one quite like this. It seemed almost lizard-like, but had a strange shell akin to a beetle carapace but far harder; the colors were intriguing as well, spotted and mottled like the very tom who had delivered it upon their camp. The torbie sauntered over slowly, swaying in her dancing manner and pausing as she peered down at the circular 'rock' as the other warrior had so cleverly refered to it as. A paw extended and lightly tapped on the top, noting it was indeed really rock-like as far as she could tell but sounding hollow? Hard, but the inside was empty or maybe it was where the rest of this creature's body was.
"Can we even eat these? Are they safe?" She asked, though she was already eagerly looking around the edges of the camp for something to try to break it open with out of curiousity before thinking better. "What if we drop it from a tree?" Let the fall do the work for them so they didn't need to suffer and struggle.
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[FERNDANCE]

The tabby's eyes light up as she spots potential food flailing sluggishly in Dogfur's maw, a wide smile encroaching on Ferndance's maw as she moved closer. She had mostly just been entertaining the tortoiseshell's imagination when they said that they'd hunted giant cockroaches in their youth, but upon seeing the creature get pinned beneath their scraggly paw, she had to wonder if there had been a modicum of truth to his statement. "Aw... it's a little turtle." She answered Halfshade's question, craning her head closer to the young reptile. She had heard that some had teeth like a tiger's that could snap through bone like it was a strand of grass, but she doubted this turtle in particular had the capacity to do such an impressive thing. "Hi little buddy, oh you're going to make such a wonderful meal. Oh yes you are, oh yes you are~" She coddled the hiding animal, nuzzling its shell in a seemingly affectionate manner. In actuality, she was searching for weaknesses that Dogfur may not have noticed, pre-existing cracks or holes that enough force could pierce through. Upon finding nothing, she reclined, offering one of her closest friends a thankful nod of her cranium.

"I have seen plenty of these in my time before the clans. Much bigger than this. I never did find out a way to break their shells though..." She tilted her head towards Halfshade once more, her muzzle pursed in consideration. "That could work." Carrying such a creature up a tree might be a two-cat job, she'd found that prey was much harder to carry vertically than horizontally, but with the fate of the clan on the line, anything should and would be attempted. She offered a quick glance to Dogfur, a signal to either get started on the shell-breaking process or to invite her to help - she was fine with either as long as they got food out of it.



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[Ravenwatcher.]

So I walk alone down the darkest roads​

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It was Halfshade's remarks that had brought the normally watching warrior over, blue gaze drifting down towards the tiny turtle while Ferndance began to coddle it and explain what exactly the thing was. Halfshade had the brightest idea to drop it from a tree and she hummed a bit, that seemed smart enough but... "maybe put rocks underneath the tree too?" she suggested. The clan was hungry enough to try just about anything at this point and seeing as they do not know the strength of this creature's...shells, she figure they might as well make an attempt at using anything to their disposal, including rocks.

Though she wondered if the creature would even taste good? It looked quite small and she hardly doubt it was good, yet...desperate times call for desperate measures she supposed so, really no point in complaining at what they get, food is food after all, and if they get desperate enough they could always resort to other matters, of course that probably wouldn't be the best thing to do now would it? Not worth the risk... ​

"speak""Thoughts"​

 

[Wolfpaw.]

❝ and they saw trouble in my eyes ✧°. ———————————— Curousity is definitely what will kill this cat. Wolfpaw’s feet brought him to the little trial for the turtle’s fate. It was a silly looking thing, like a rock with holes. Wolfpaw had to assume that something came out of those holes, or could go in.

They were talking about dropping it from a tree but Wolfpaw honestly couldn’t see why just sticking a clawed foot in wouldn’t do the trick. So he did just that. His rather small paw was stuffed into the large front hole in a rather quick motion, and then promptly yanked out with a howl “It bit me!”

It of course was not a bad bite but the surprise of it almost hurt more. His face scrunched in upset as he sucked on the paw. “We could just drop a big rock on top of him” he spit at the little creature.

[penned by user - [tags]]

———————————— .°✧ they were quick to recognize the devil in me ❞ ​

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[CHILLEDSTAR.]

DON'T YOU GIVE ME UP, PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP​

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food was food, no matter how odd it looked or where it came from. when you were starving, food was food. they'd already done so many different things to get said food, because desperate cats made desperate decisions. this couldn't have been more different. turtles notoriously bit. they had a bite to them, and they pushed themself back into their shell to keep from being eaten by curious cats, and even more curious dogs. still, food was food, and this would feed enough.

"maybe we should try to make it bring its head out so we can kill it. will be a lot easier to... break its shell that way."

they could just try and climb up a tree with it and drop it, but that would be a lot of work if the thing wasn't dead. they'd have nothing to hold on to unless one of its limbs were out , and if it was still moving– that would be nearly impossible. they gently dug their claws into the ground with an unreadable expression on their face before they turned to look at the small crowd.

"no idea is– actually, no. that's a lie. some ideas are stupid as fuck. so maybe you can come up with some more ideas on how to kill the thing that aren't frog-brained."
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