It was almost time. Raven was one plateau away from her enemy. Today was a day for preparation! A sleek, black she-cat with amber eyes, a strange mark on her side, and a bird-claw necklace, slunk across the snow towards the dead body of a bird. Sniffing it, it still seemed fresh and warm as if it had only just died. Raven studied the marks of the bird and found them oddly similar to the ones of the eagle that had attacked her. A surge of satisfaction made her smile.
Justice always has a way.
She thought, a little bitterly. She ate gratefully and felt the soft flesh fill her belly and stop the hunger cramps. When she was full there was still plenty of meat left for her later, so she sat up and started to groom herself. The rhythmic motion made Raven drowsy and her eyelids drooped, but a harsh cry from up above reminded her it could be fatal to fall asleep in the open.
Drawing one last paw across her face she stood up and decided to to some battle practice to sharpen her skills. But the barren landscape held no sparring partner and Amber briefly crossed her mind.
Amber... NO!
Raven pushed him away almost immediately.
I'm past that.
She said to herself. Hardly convincing, but for the moment it held. Raven took three deep breaths to relax, then drew a large circle in the snow. Inside the circle she drew four lines with different distances between them, before stepping to one end of the circle. She focused on the closest line, bunched her muscles, and pounced towards it.
Mouse-dung! I went too far. Raven paced back to her starting point and repeated the activity until she landed squarely on all four targets. When she was satisfied she wiped out the lines and crouched in the center. Raven leaped as high as she could over and over, until her legs trembled from the effort of just a small jump.
Sort of satisfied she sunk down in the snow for a short rest. While she lay there panting she thought she felt someone looking at her. She looked around sharply but couldn't catch a trace of any other creature. Shrugging to herself Raven stretched the stiffness out of her muscles and tried to come up with another way of training. Her eyes drifted to the a particularly steep and an idea formed. Raven ran over to it and patted it with her paw. No rocks or debris fell down; the surface was hard and smooth. There were no sharp points that could harm her paws.
Grinning, she backed up a distance. She braced herself and crouched low, as if to leap. She took a deep breath and ran straight towards the wall, jumped up and landed on the wall with all four paws, the kicked hard with her hind legs while bending backwards. The result was a smooth back flip that definitely would confuse her enemies. Pleased, she repeated it a few more times until she was sure she had nailed it. Then she decided to take it a step further.
Raven did the exact same thing as before, but instead of doing a complete back flip she twisted to the side so she bounced away to the left and right. Handy if she had to evade an attacker but had nowhere to go but backwards into a wall. Twisting around to land forwards was a little harder though, and she landed on her belly in the snow. Raven shook it of her black pelt and spat out the icy crystals that had gotten into her mouth.
She practiced every move until she had mastered them all, even the twist so she would face forwards after she had jumped of the rock wall. Raven practiced at different distances, with different speeds, different heights. She practiced until she was sore all over and her fur was soaked from melted snow and her pads slightly bruised. The sun had long since touched the middle of the sky and had almost disappeared in the distance when she finally stopped to rest. Her belly was screaming for food again and her muscles longed for a rest.
