Just a quiet morning... [P, developing characters]

It was morning, and the sun was beginning to show over the mountains, muted by a thin veil of clouds that hung in the sky. The soft light touched the earth below, bringing the colors in the pine trees and flowers into subtle focus. Though it was winter in the mountains, the gentle gale that swept across the land was warm and only slightly tinged with cold, making for a comfortable temperature.

Moth sat on her perch overlooking the camp of the Spirits. Her gaze traveled from the dim sun down to the small gorge beneath her. Her brown head slowly swiveled from side to side as she scanned the rocky surface of the camp with calculating golden eyes. Not many of her companions had awoken yet, and so the camp was silent. Rising to her delicate paws, the empress leaped off of the rock she had been resting on and landed gracefully on her feet. Almost lazily she eyed the small prey pile and wondered if she should get something to eat, but this thought was quickly dismissed as the she-cat was not yet hungry. Still, she surveyed the small pile with a serious expression before turning away with a determined swish of her tail. We need more prey. Perhaps I can find a gatherer or two and we could go hunting... Moth again studied the faces in camp before setting out towards the gatherers' den.

Moth's face remained impassive as she untangled herself from the dark sepia cat, but her eyes betrayed a faint hint of amusement. With all the dignity she could muster, the empress rose to her paws again and quickly groomed any ruffled fur back into place. "Good morning, Koi," she mewed mildly, looking up at him as she righted her pelt. She assessed him quickly and found that he appeared to be decently awake, if not more so after the little incident. "Would you care to join me for a hunt?" Her eyes never left the other cat as she spoke.

Moth was satisfied with his answer. "Good. Come." She stood and turned, flicking her tail in sign for Koi to follow her. A small hunting patrol was what the empress preferred; she felt no need to add others to their party so early in the morning. She was not worried about leaving the camp unattended; there were hardly problems with rouges, and she trusted her guardians and the Kami-speaker to keep everything orderly in her absence.

As they trotted up the small slope that marked the exit of the camp and the entrance to the forest, Moth glanced back at the gatherer. "Everything is going well, I trust? Are you having fun helping the newer gatherers with their fighting skills?" The brown she-cat spoke lightly, but the words carried little of her inward amusement. She had seen the tom sparring with the younger cats the previous day and after fretting for a short time had decided it was good for the younger ones to release some of their obviously pent-up energy.

She accepted his words silently. The cats had reached the treeline now and Moth only hesitated for a moment before delving into the trees. When they were decently far enough in, she stopped and parted her muzzle to scent the air. Several prey scents flooded her senses, mostly those of the smaller woodland creatures like pika and chipmunks. The empress turned back to her companion. "Where do you want to go?" She asked. Moth didn't have the experience of the more skilled hunters like Koi since she had to divide her time between fighting and leadership as well, so she was content to let him decide.

After so many moons, sometimes a rare moment passed when Moth still felt like a guardian, not an empress. This was one of those moments. "I thank you for the offer," she mewed with a slight dip of her head to show her gratitude. "But I'm not yet hungry." She buried it in the moist mountain earth.

A small rustling caught her ears, and the empress pricked her ears. Tracing the sound back to a nearby bush, she saw a gray mouse nibbling on a fallen berry. She immediately dropped into a crouch and a few moments later she returned with the creature dangling limply in her muzzle. "I'm a little rusty," she remarked; the mouse had nearly fled when she stepped on a stick wrong.

Moth cocked her head at his words, then decided he was joking and flicked her ears, almost as if in dismissal. "Yes, I do believe I would make a much better guardian."

The empress watched as the dark brown cat suddenly lowered into a hunter's crawl, following his gaze towards a well-fed hare. That would make a good meal, perhaps for the Kami-speaker or the queens, she mused. The brown she-cat was a little surprised when he began instructing her on how to assist him in catching the hare. She blinked her golden eyes, and crouched down beside him. Hesitantly at first, then with more confidence, the empress began approaching the hare, her concentration strengthened by the embarrassment she knew she would feel if she messed this up. When she was a decent distance away, she dared out from underneath her partial covering of foliage.

The hare took off immediately, and Moth followed by its side, just as instructed.

The movement of the hare was so unexpected that the empress nearly let the creature slip by.

Almost.

As the hare darted just out of her reach, Moth swiftly readjusted her position and pounced. Her landing was a little shaky--her biggest hunter's folly--but she managed to pin the struggling creature down and swiftly end its life. A little winded, Moth stared at the hare for a few moments, then looked up at Koi once her breath had returned. She was grateful to see that he had been in range should she have failed.

The empress gave him a curt nod, but her golden eyes expressed her praise and thanks in a way her gestures rarely did.

A faint hint of amusement colored her eyes before fading away swiftly, as a flame being snuffed out by the wind. Moth broke their gaze and nudged the unmoving hare with a paw. The realization came to her slowly, and the expression adorning her face was so thoughtful and serious, it was almost comical. I don't think we're going to be able to bury this thing. Rising swiftly to her paws, the empress dragged the creature over to a bush and concealed it from sight.

With a twitch of her ears, Moth turned back to her hunting partner. Her head was ever so slightly inclined, as if she was taking a new interest in the cat. There were, she realized, very few cats who ever joked with the empress, and she found his confidence to be...refreshing? Yes, that was the word. "I think that's nearly good enough, for the morning, anyhow. Shall we try and find a bit more?"