freed[o]m is sweet

Flight stepped outside the cave, shivering in anticipation as a breeze stirred her fur. Finally. She had waited her whole life for this, and now she felt a trill of pleasure at her liberty. Pleasure, and... was there something else? Nervousness? She shoved it down, whatever it was, and glanced behind her, her grin taking on a softer note. For her first venture outside the cave, she had brought her littermate, Sundiata. His was a unique case; the tom aged backward, and at the moment he was roughly the age of a five-moon-old kit.

Sundiata pranced from the cave, basking briefly in the sunshine that broke through the trees. He could no longer train due to her condition, and so, still being a Future, could not leave the cave without an escort. He was proud of his sister, even if he didn't fully understand what she had accomplished- toms and she-cats were roughly equal in his juvenile eyes. He was mainly happy to be out in the sun again.

"Hey, Collateraldamage!" Flight called pleasantly, smiling at the tom. He seemed nice- she remembered him cheering her promotion and then walking up to talk to her. She'd seen him around camp on occasion, and he didn't seem very sympathetic to she-cats, but that was natural behavior to her. "I'll say," she continued, scanning the bright surroundings. "Care to join us?"

Sundiata smiled indiscriminately at the tom, pleased at the cheerful greeting.

"Of course." Flight dipped her head, inviting the tom to lead the way. She still wasn't accustomed to being on the same level as males; this would take some getting used to. But she didn't mentally curse herself for slipping. He probably knew the territory ten times better than she did, and she would rather ease her way into this rank than jump in with all four paws.

"Roger," Flight replied with an affirming nod. She began scanning the underbrush for rabbits, using scent to paint the picture her eyes only partially revealed.

Sundiata looked, too, with a juvenile eagerness that made him seem less than half his physical age. He loved hunting and chasing bunnies, even if he rarely caught them.

Flight's attention was on Sundi, too, but mainly to look out for him. Thus, it was almost startling when the odor of rabbit snapped her back to her surroundings.
Tapping Collateraldamage on the shoulder with her tail, she whispered, "Rabbit," and pointed with her forepaw to a bush against a tree. She motioned for Sundi to get behind her, which he did abruptly.

Flight nodded again, gestured for Sundi to be silent and still, and crouched to wait. When Collateraldamage gave the signal, she tensed and threw herself forward, scattering gorse and bracken in an exaggerated leap toward the bush. The clatter she made drove the animal out, running straight toward the tom. Flight hesitated, wondering whether she should go after it. She was unused to this kind of hunting after her long lapses in which she no longer left the cave. He seemed to be getting along well without her help, though, so she just waited rather than risk fumbling a catch.

"I'd like to continue, if that's okay with you." Far from tire her out, the thrill of the chase had momentarily pumped adrenaline into her. She hadn't realized how much she had missed hunting. She felt like a kit again, memories coming back to her of the hunt, long ago, on which she had met Nebuchadnezzar. "I know this one trail by a stream that leads to a lovely meadow with a bunch of birds, if you don't mind me trying to find it. I haven't been that way in a long while." Glancing around, Flight realized she didn't know exactly where they were.

Flight laughed, a confident, easy laugh that didn't betray the nervousness she felt at leading. Peering off into the trees, she padded toward the direction she thought the clearing was in, praying to Fortis that it was the right one.

As she nosed through bushes and in between trees, Flight grew a little nervous. She wanted to prove herself, but she didn't seem to be doing a very good job of it so far. The terrain was unfamiliar after her long absence from the outside world. She began relying more on smell and hearing than on sight.
The bubbling of slowly running water reached her ear just as she caught the pure smell of meadow grass, and she glanced behind her, eyes bright with triumph. "It's just up ahead."

"Just ahead," Flight meowed confidently. "I recognize this stream, and the meadow's just beyond. We're more or less here."
Padding forward, she hopped the stream- did it really seem so huge all those moons ago?- and crept forward into the meadow, which was more of a clearing now that she was older. It was brightly lit, which made her all-black pelt stand out against the tall heather.