Mountain of Dire Connect the dots straight to the stars

… Maybe you can go behind, in case they try to escape? The ebony boy nodded dutifully before taking his place on the side opposite of his teacher. Although he had grown and nearly reached his first birthday Cyril still looked up to the tawny female and listened intently to everything she said to him despite the role of teacher being absent from her title. She knew her shit, despite her timid demeanour, and the boy soaked up every word that dripped off her tongue like a sponge. He watched her from his spot, yellow eyes narrowing softly as she paced back and forth before deciding on a spot to dig.

Patience was the key now. Watching, waiting… making sure that none of the small, furry creatures escaped through the back entrance. He could hear them moving beneath the rock, shuffling over each other in a desperate attempt to escape the noise that Lenae was making. I can see a few! He called over the rock in response to the tawny Selwyn, his yellow gaze narrowing as he peered through the crack in the rock. Keep diggin’! A little more noise... the pikas should be making an appearance any minute now... they just had to be patient. Persistent. And then the food would come... practically running into their mouths.

Digging was a lot easier said than done. As much as Lenae tried to be graceful and genteel, it was hard to maintain such composure when she was kicking away so fast, trying to spook the pika into making a run for it. She paused as Cyril's words reached her ears, only to dig even faster at his suggestion. Almost there! Her muscles burned and ached, in all her years she had never really had to overly exert herself. Hunting as a pack was one thing, everyone did their part, like a well oiled machine. But that was honestly easier than this. When she ran she only had the wind resisting her motion, mud was a lot thicker than air. At least that's why she figured it was harder work, either that or she was out of shape!

Thankfully, all of her effort wasn't for nothing. The pika panicked, and not knowing what else to do flooded out into the daylight. All Cyril had to do was snap them up!

"Cyril, watch out!" She called, ceasing her digging as she stood up as tall as she could manage, her ears perked. They out in the open air!

They were much quicker than he had expected.

The first pika rocketed out of the den, zigzagging past the leggy yearling as he scrambled to find his footing on the collection of rocks. His expression immediately darkened as his focus returned to the hole in the rock, his front half lowering into a soft bow. A second pika appeared, hesitating at the mouth of the den before running straight for the brooding teenager. He lunged forward without a second thought, his jaws closing around the creature’s small body. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth creature appeared, scooting across the rugged terrain. Cyril quickly dropped the one in his mouth before pouncing on another, a wide grin tugging at his lips as his paws scooped one up. Come ‘ere, Lenny! He called as excitement overtook him. It was a strange, foreign feeling, but he did not have time to think twice. Not when it was raining pika.

Kicking off, Lenae circled around the rock to see all the commotion for herself. She trusted Cyril to catch a pika or two, but honestly she was amazed at the sight of him catching one after the other, till the ground was littered with furry little bodies, some moving still and other's not. She hurried to his side to try and help, to see if she could catch one or two but by the time she was close it enough it seemed as though the flood had come to an end, that the pika river had run dry.

She was in awe really though, Cyril had scooped up far more than she'd thought he would-which wasn't to say she doubted his hunting prowess but...Wow.

She couldn't help the wide smile that tugged at her lips, her tail hastily swished behind her as she gave Cyril an affectionate, if not proud, little nudge.

"You caught so many! Are you sure this is your first time hunting pika?" She looked over the balls of fluff once more, they'd fill their caches to bursting, surely. She bent down and started to scoop them up, hopefully carrying them home wouldn't be too hard. "Cum awn, ughts ake em herm."

Fade