- Feb 23, 2023
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// in this thread, Bluepool makes Featherpaw kill a rabbit while she holds it down so if such things upset you please do not read on tw is also for descriptions of death and dead animals
Death is inevitable. Bluepool knows it as well as any other cat. But Featherpaw is young, she does not understand yet that in order to live other creatures must die and they must do so by her paws. She certainly can see all the fresh-kill laying in a pile, certainly enjoys tearing into flesh and blood and filling her belly, but it is important to remember that the food you eat was once alive, that it was once a living breathing creature racing across the moors just like herself. Its a somber thing, to feel a life leaving a body underneath your paws, to see the fire behind a creatures eyes die out, but it is necessary for their survival. In this life it is either kill or be killed and Bluepool has every intention of ensuring her apprentice had all the tools necessary to survive. That was her job, was it not?
She had departed early that morning, allowing her apprentice to sleep in for a bit. No doubt he was awake now, chatting with his friends maybe or wondering where she was. She comes into camp now, a rabbit clutched gently in her jaws, its twitching movements an indication that it is still alive but terror keeps it frozen. It thinks that perhaps if it doesn't move she wont kill it. It works out too that the creature is young, just barely old enough to leave its mother and not the full size of a regular hare. It is in the same developmental life stage as Featherpaw, just figuring out what its like to be on its own, though now she supposes it would never know. This was a cruel lesson, but one that needed to be imparted all the same.
She places the rabbit down in front of her, placing a paw on its neck to keep it in place. Its sides heave and its brown eyes dart around to look at the faces of the cats that surround it, fear evident in its gaze as Bluepool uses claws to keep the creature from moving. "Featherpaw!" she calls out "Will you come here please?" she waits until the red tabby is before her, yellow eyes impassive as she looks at her apprentice. Still so young but he would need to know this feeling if he had any hopes of safely killing his own prey. "The first step to hunting, is not learning how to stalk or how to chase your prey, it is learning how to kill" she begins. "A hare can be a dangerous creature, they have powerful back legs that can seriously injure you if you are caught by one. You must not hesitate when going in for the killing bite during a hunt so I want you to practice this now" and if it was not obvious by now what Bluepool wanted him to do, she now shifts, so that one paw is placed on the rabbits hindquarters and the other holds down its shoulders. It struggles but only for a moment before she is pressing claws to its flesh and it stills, its small body trembling under her feet. "Kill it." she instructs him plainly.
// please wait for @FEATHERPAW to post