nothing gets crossed out. (open)

[audrey]

[/i] merciless Leaf-bare for all the cats. Snowpaw was worried, like most of his clan mates, about his clan. Cats were in danger of becoming sick and some were already starting to show signs of illness, even if it was just a harmless cold. The thought that he mind get black cough or fall victim to a terrible plague frightened Snowpaw to no end, it scared him so much he couldn't sleep at night without have terrible nightmares of cats dying. Despite him knowing that his nightmares wouldn't come true because only medicine cats can have visions like that (or so he was told), he still thought they might. Snowpaw sighed, shook himself and said a silent prayer to Starclan that they would keep his clan safe at this time and that every cat stayed healthy and strong.

After shaking himself one more time, Snowpaw opened his mouth to taste the cool air for prey scent. He detected something immediately, a small brown mouse, nibbling on some food a few fox lengths away. Instinctively, he dropped into a hunter's crouch and began to stalk his prey. He put all of his weight onto his haunches and slowly, carefully made his way towards the tiny creature. Step by step he was getting closer, and when he was finally close enough... He pounced! The mouse was stunned and frightened, glued to the spot so it wasn't hard for Snowpaw to reach and kill it. Just before he grabbed it, the creature got ready to run but it was too late!

"Not as plump and juicy as some mice but you'll do, little one," Snowpaw meowed, satisfied with his catch. Burying it beneath the soil to collect later, he moved on in search of more prey, perhaps even a rabbit![/ul][/size]

[untilthis.echo]

[e c h o] x s t a r

There was a chill in the air, he noted as he slipped away from the camp. The slight tinge of coldness in the breeze made his fur bristle. His pale eyes stared into the distance beyond the rolling hills, unconsciously slithering over to the thick forest of Thunderclan. The Bengal tom gazed heatedly, claws unsheathing and digging into the soil beneath his paws. How long had passed since the time in the clearing? It couldn't have been more than a week, ten days at most. I mustn't be thinking about this. Pushing aside the thought from his mind, the feline loped down the hill he'd perched himself upon.

His paws bore a rhythm in their step, the soft sound trying to dispel the lingering thoughts in his mind. Maybe, just maybe, if he ran hard enough and long enough, those past discrepancies would leave him. Maybe he could chase them away. So consumed was he by his thoughts, that the massive Bengal didn't see the snowy shape bounding across the moor in shape of prey. The thundering lope consumed him, drowning out all other sounds in his hearing, his vision glazed by thought. He neared the foot of the hill, mind still far away. The snowy shape glinted in the corner of his eye.

He turned, angled his body and whipped his head back and forth for the source of the pearly coat, something inside him flickering at the paleness of it. Pale...Dream...frost...? A second look exchanged the silvery pelt he'd formed in his mind for that of white snow. He blinked at the small cat in the distance, ears pinning as he called, "Who's out there alone?"