Last Morning

[hazel]

Tansy stretched and gave a little yawn as she woke up. Blinking sleepily she lifted her head to look around the barn. No one. The she-cat sighed and rose, padding out the hay as a grumble from her stomach urged her on. She sniffed, instantly catching the warm smell of mouse. It was hard not too when there were so many around here. Tansy trotted out of the barn and around the side, freezing when she spotted the brown little thing, nibbling on a sunflower seed just outside its hole. Unable to resist the challenge, she lowered herself into a hunter's crouch and began stalking forward slowly. The mouse froze. Tansy leaped but it had already darted into its nest with a squeak of alarm.

Her tail flicked impatiently. Any mouse around here would have heard that! Hopefully they were all dumb enough to come back out for food anyway. Rolling her eyes, she continued to walk around the barn, smelling the next mouse before she saw it. It's head poked outside of a little hole; evidently it was trying to determine whether or not to come out. Tansy sat perfectly still. She would get this mouse. A minute passed before it scampered out, its nose to the ground as it sniffed for seeds and grains. Tansy crept forward carefully and then, just as it scented her and froze, about to dash off, she pounced, nipping the back of its neck sharply and killing it at once.

The she-cat grinned, letting out a mrrow of triumph. She courhced down and began to nibble at the mouse, purring as the warm meat fed her up nicely. When she was done, she jumped up onto a small wooden table nearby. The sun was up in the sky and it shone down, warming her fur and giving her a pleasant, drowsy feeling. Tansy continued to purr, her eyes shutting softly under the sun's warm influence. Just another peaceful morning...

OOC: This is actually Lu, Hazel is quitting and has agreed that Tansy may be killed off by the dogs as part of the plot. Therefore I need a dog here, maybe two. But no cats please! Thank you xD

[rune]

Rune stretched her legs sleepily and yawned, getting to her paws and looking around at her surroundings with her amber eyes, blinking, momentarily confused. She had forgotten where she had fallen asleep last night, and it took a few moments for her to regain her memory. She remembered chasing some cats and trying to kill them… No wonder she had been so tired. She stretched again before starting to walk towards the barn. There should be some cats in there to kill, right? Those things just couldn’t resist rats and other vermin.

She sniffed the air, tasting the scents to see if there was anything around that might pose a threat to her. Nope. Just chickens and mice and some human. But it was still early, perhaps the human was still asleep. The canine shrugged and lazily wagged her tail slowly, smelling cat scents coming from the barn. She was still a little too sleepy to find out if any of them were fresh or not, so she decided that she would just go in and see. If she had any luck, there would be a cat in there to kill. One less to have to deal with later, right?

Suddenly fully alert and awake, she crept into the barn, trying to cause as little noise as possible. She knew the value of silence and surprise. She resisted her instinct to just go in and run around killing everything in sight. That wouldn’t be very tactful of her. As she started to sniff the air, she wondered what Shiba would say when she brought her the body of a cat. Or maybe she would leave the dead body here to scare off other cats, and show Shiba or Aspen the body afterwards.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw a cat sitting down and eating a mouse. Rune smiled, and crept towards her. ”Good morning kitty,” She growled, her amber eyes sparkling with interest and excitement. ’This is going to be so fun!’ She thought happily. ”It’s time for you to have a nice long sleep, I think,” She said to the feline, wondering what it would do. Would it attack her? ’Now that would be fun,’ She thought.

[hazel]

The harsh smell warned Tansy before the growl and she spun around, all thoughts of enjoying the sunlight forgotten. Hissing, she backed up instinctively until she bumped against the wooden wall of the barn. Her eyes widened in horror. The only way out was... past the dog?! She let out another hiss, her fur fluffed with alarm until she looked nearly twice her size. Tansy let out a growl of her own. "B-back off," she hissed angrily, hating herself for stammering over the first word. "Back off!" she hissed with more alarm, her voice louder and clearer this time. But the dog was so... big. She wanted to whimper - it would have been a reflex - but found that she would too scared stiff to even do that.

Paralyzed by fear as she was, Tansy tried to judge the distance between herself and the open door. If she could just run past the dog and get out, she was sure that she would be safe. Well, not sure - but her chances would be much higher. She was a fast runner. How stupid she was to have let herself be trapped in here though. How stupid! She cursed mentally. But there had been no scent of dog when she'd woken up - it had obviously just arrived. The smell of the mouse as she'd been eating it must have masked out the scent of the dog until it was too close for her to do anything but cower. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

With a sudden screech, Tansy darted forward, making as to swerve around the dog. At the last second, she turned slightly. The dog was much large than her, it would be a simple matter to slip through its legs if it wasn't expecting that - and Tansy was quite sure she wasn't. She darted quickly under the dog, shaking with terror as she ran. The door was only a few meters away now. And beyond that, the wide open world. She should run into the field, then the forest. Maybe the dog would get bored and find a squirrel to chase instead. Her paws pounded against the hay-covered floor of the barn, her heart thumping unevenly in her chest. She wanted to see how close the dog was - what it's reaction was - but she was too terrified to look. Don't look behind you. Just keep running.

[rune]

”Back off?” Rune repeated the feline’s question, amber eyes sparkling with amusement. ”Why don’t you make me?” She answered. As if some pitiful stuttering would make her go away. Because she wouldn’t show any mercy, she wouldn’t let this stupid cat off the hook. No matter how much it begged. She wondered again what Shiba and Aspen would do when she told them that she had successfully killed a cat. Had anyone else done that yet? These cats were small, but fast, so they weren’t the easiest creature to catch, but dogs overpowered them in size and muscle. So if a dog could catch one, it was usually the dog who walked away the victor.

But anyways, would they maybe give her a better place in the ‘pack’ or reward her another way? Well, she actually had to kill this scrap of fur first. It was probably too scared silly to even breath, anyway. So, it would probably be an easy kill, which she would elaborate about to Shiba and Aspen. Tell them how it had tried to fight back. She was surprised when the cat actually tried to escape, and she, after a slight hesitation due to her surprise, tried to bite the cat, she was even more surprised when it darted through her legs. But she recovered, quickly, and whipped around, intent on catching her prey.

She was focused on the hunt, now. The only thing she was focusing on was killing the cat. She snarled, showing her teeth, though the cat wasn’t looking back at her. She knew that she only had a few more seconds to catch her prey before it escaped and got away from her, fleeing from her and the barn. So, instead of just standing by and letting that happen, she pushed off of the ground, lunging at the cat, hoping to grab it before it made it to the exit. She knew it would be a close call. It would probably only be the difference of a half of a second, whether she killed the cat, or the cat lived to die another day.

[hazel]

[OOC: Hazel here. =) Lu gave me permission to powerplay so this thread can be finished.]

Tansy pelted forwards, her heaving paws almost a blur. Her long fur streamed out behind her, pushed back by the cold wind. Flurries of hay shot up behind her, kicked up by the cat's blunt claws. Another high-pitched shriek exploded from her as a sudden burst of energy let her through the barn door to the outside.
HelpmehelpmehowdoIgetoutofthismess-- Tansy's thoughts were a blur; she couldn't think from fear of the raging monster behind her. Ohnoohnothinkfast--
Time seemed to slow as Tansy calmed slightly, adrenaline lending her ideas. What was the one thing she could do that dogs couldn't? The answer was right in front of her as Tansy glanced around wildly. Trees! The small cat bolted towards a tall tree, straining to reach it so she could shoot out of the dog's reach.
Treetreetree! The dog had started of several feet behind Tansy, but the distance was shortened as Tansy reached the wide oak and started moving upwards instead of forwards. Digging her claws into the soft bark, a wave of relief overcame her, narrowing her vision as she almost fainted from the deluge of emotions: relief, exhaustion, terror...

Rune let out an excited bark as she reached the tree. She might not be able to climb trees, but-- heaving upwards, Rune lifted her front paws off the ground and thumped them against the tree where Tansy sought safety.
Yes! Both creatures thought this word as each assumed they had reached heir goal. Rune's powerful teeth came together around the tip of Tansy's tail, the only part of her that was within her reach. A third wail came from the young cat as Rune dragged her out of the oak. Tansy's claws scrabbled against the grassy earth as she strained to pull her tail out of Rune's jaws.
Stretching out a heavy paw, Rune pushed Tansy down to the ground and let her bloodied tail drop out of her mouth. "Goodbye, little kitty," Rune snarled as she bent down to close her teeth around Tansy's shaking neck.
A burst of pain entered Tansy's world, along with sheer terror. "No!" she wailed, her words running together as she babbled frantically. "No, please, no! I'll do anything, just let me go--" her words were cut off as Rune let out a triumphant laugh. A hot sheet of black fell over Tansy's eyes as she felt Rune's teeth pierce her neck.
Keeping her teeth closed around Tansy's limp neck, Rune lifted the body up and shook it triumphantly. "Hah!" the dog sang out, happy as the dogs won another battle.

[Thread over.]

[/blockquote]