OOC: Word count is 903.
Long, tan ears twitched in her direction and Sirius hit the ground quickly, hoping she was fast enough to avoid detection. Above her the tall grass swayed, but that could be blamed on the breeze, right? She didn't have a whole lot of hunting experience under her belt, but the young Armada was getting better. What she did have a lot of experience in was trial and error. She had a pretty good idea of what not to do now as well as an ever growing idea of what to do.
Slowly she stretched up so she could peek at the rabbit. It was sitting still and its little nose was twitching, but neither its ears nor its eyes were pointed in her direction. That was a good sign, right? Soon enough it would chalk the weird I'm-being-watched feeling up to being an easy meal and go back to eating. That was her hope, anyway. Her legs were starting to ache.
Siri's head lifted and her ears pricked forward as the rabbit took a single hop away from her. A few seconds slipped by and then its head lowered. "Yes, yes. Go on, eat the clover." The silent willing of the pup seemed to work. The rabbit began to nibble at the green at its paws, its head occasionally rising and its ears constantly swiveling.
Should she move now? Was it time? Regardless, she was going to go for it. Sirius rose slowly. She was careful to keep her body low to the ground, and her muscles tensed and ready for the inevitable chase. She could do this. Maybe not without flaws, but she could do it. She had patience aplenty and enough mistakes at her back to see her skills to perfection.
Snck. Sirius froze as the twig underfoot snapped. The rabbit stilled too, its eyes and ears clearly pointing in her direction. For several long seconds she debated what to do. Should she go for it anyway or wait? There was no guarantee that she'd been seen. Just because it was looking her way didn't mean it was looking at her. Likewise, even if it did know she was there, was that really a good enough reason to give up? To stand up and be like 'welp, you got me. Until next time, my tasty friend'? Nah. She may as well go for it.
Several more heartbeats passed as prey and predator mentally labored over their next move. It was a showdown with each party primed and ready for the draw. Sirius was confident she could make short work of the distance between them, but with the rabbit aware of her presence (to what extent, she couldn't quite tell) she didn't know if she was fast enough. She swallowed, her tail flicking side to side as her resolve faltered. The young Armada hated losing. She wanted to win so bad, to be good at something. Her jaw set and her tail stilled. She would do it.
Springing forward suddenly, Sirius barreled towards her target. The rabbit was no less hasty; turning on a dime and taking off in the opposite direction in an all out run. Oh, wow was it fast! Her stride lengthened, her legs a blur beneath her, as she tried to keep up. Already she could tell the pace was unsustainable, but she kept at it anyway. Determination set in and blocked out the little alarm bells that began to ring and alert her to various bodily grievances. She was going to catch it and she was going to rub it in her siblings' faces.
A zig to the left almost threw her off the trail entirely and if not for the zag to the right that quickly followed, the winner might have been determined there. Sirius recovered and pressed on, her attention now riveted on the rabbit's hindquarters as she tried to predict its movements. It was then that she decided to test a theory. On her last hunt attempt the zigzagging of the rabbit was what had cost her the hunt and that wasn't the first time it had happened. She'd gotten in the habit of mirroring her prey's movements as close as possible, but what if she used it against them? What if, instead of mirroring, she continued on in a straight(ish) line? The rabbit had to be wasting precious seconds in moving to the side before moving back. It was a theory worth testing.
Sirius tested her theory. She stayed the course and let the rabbit make all the extra moves by itself. Bit by bit, second by second, she gained on it, until the opportunity arose to end the hunt. The rabbit moved to arc around a bush and the pup, sensing this, moved to cut it off. Her jaws snapped wide as her target unwittingly ran straight at her. It tried to recover, to backpedal, but the seconds were precious and there just wasn't enough time. In a matter of heartbeats the two collided and Siri's teeth slammed shut around the head of the rabbit. Excited and spent, she jerked it off the ground and stood still in a state of exhaustion as her prey kicked frantically at the air. Panting hard, she quickly crushed the life from the rabbit and once she was sure it was dead, dropped it on the ground. She then followed suit, flopping down and rolling to her side to recover. Man, hunting was hard.
"Speaking" "Thinking" |
