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Post by Twilidramon on Jul 10, 2014 18:17:52 GMT -5
Squirrelstar flicked an ear. "It's all right," she meowed. "There will be more. It's a good day for hunting."
She opened her jaws, letting the various scents drift over her scent glands. The wind shifted then, ruffling Squirrelstar's short, coarse fur. Her tongue curled as a stink wafted into her nose.
Shaking her head of it, she wondered, "What is that?"
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Post by Fox on Jul 24, 2014 8:58:07 GMT -5
Nightflight stopped as she sniffed the air too. "It smells like... I don't know." She mewed, dumbfounded. "I never smelled that before." She added. She sniffed the air again and wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"What do you think it is?" Nightflight asked Squirrelstar.
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Post by Twilidramon on Jul 24, 2014 11:22:13 GMT -5
Squirrelstar bristled. Normally she wouldn't hesitate to investigate such a stench - but with Nightflight she felt uncertain. What if it was dangerous, and the queen's unpolished skills led to her getting injured, or worse? Squirrelstar didn't want to lose a friend.
"Do you think you can handle it if it's dangerous?" Squirrelstar asked.
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Post by Fox on Jul 24, 2014 11:24:54 GMT -5
Nightflight lashed her tail. "Of course I can! I still have my warrior skills!" Nightflight mewed, a bit too loud. "Sorry," she mewed, her mew barely a whisper. She then sniffed the air again, hoping that the thing didn't hear her.
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Post by Twilidramon on Jul 24, 2014 11:42:23 GMT -5
Squirrelstar nodded. "I'm sorry I doubted you," she mewed, with a hint of a rusty purr. Opening her jaws, she realized that whatever was the source of the stench, it hadn't moved at Nightflight's protest. It seemed to sit there, stagnating.
What could possibly make such a stink? Squirrelstar wondered.
She led the way up the slope, crouched close to the ground with a still tail, ready to signal should they need to attack or flee. But what she saw when she came up the rise made her gag - and not just because the smell had intensified.
It was a fox. It's crumpled body lay crushed on a spire of stone, what remained of its limbs twisted and splayed. Crows were busy pecking at it, and none seemed to care that the cats were there.
"Great StarClan," Squirrelstar breathed.
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Post by Fox on Jul 24, 2014 11:53:20 GMT -5
"What is it?" Nightflight asked as she padded next to Squirrelstar. Her eyes widened as she saw the dead fox. "What the..." She murmmmered to herself. She was expecting a loner.
"What do you think killed it? Another cat?" She then paused for a moment, then she mewed, "Or a wolf, maybe?" She knew that wolves did live in the mountains, but they were on the far side of the mountains.
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Post by Twilidramon on Jul 24, 2014 11:57:15 GMT -5
Squirrelstar curled her lip at the thought of a wolf near her Clan.
"It's been there long enough for its stench alone to cover up what killed it," Squirrelstar growled. "We need more than just the two of us to figure out what happened here - a wolf is a possibility, but that fox also looks older. Where there's one, there might be more. Snowfoot and I need to organize investigation parties immediately."
She began heading back towards camp, but she took a different route - one that passed closer to the fox carcass. Maybe there was a hint somewhere that they could take back to camp? She'd rather not send warriors out searching willy-nilly with nothing to go on but worry.
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Post by Fox on Jul 24, 2014 12:04:21 GMT -5
Nightflight nodded her head as she padded after Squirrelstar. The smell of the dead fox was so strong. How'd she miss it when she was hunting? "I hope we find the bottom of this..." She muttered to herself.
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Post by Twilidramon on Jul 24, 2014 12:10:44 GMT -5
Squirrelstar look high and low, searching for traces of predators - wolf fur, claw marks... any sign of a struggle. The way the fox looked and the way the slope and the rocks were situated, the only way it could have been an accident is if the fox were to have fallen out of the sky.
She found paw marks - the fox's? But they were too muddled to tell. Definitely not cat prints. The scent on them was stale, too - but the prints were big, and that made Squirrelstar's fur bristle.
Squirrelstar continued along the path the prints made. Here and there they were clearer - but there wasn't a clear print until she'd walked some way. Here in the dirt she could see, clear as anything, both a fox's print and a wolf's print deep in the dry ground.
There was a wolf in their territory.
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