Snowy's Gift

Chapter 1: Home sweet Home

The sun was just beginning to peak over the trees when Snowy woke up from her slumber. She yawned, stretched, and then looked around the den. To Snowy's right was her brother Cliff, who was snoring as he slept. To her left, was her mom and dad, sharing the same nest and sleeping peacefully. 

Snowy was always the first to wake up, so she hunted for prey to give to her brother and parents. The morning was also one of the very few times she could go fly without her parents nagging her about being seen. 

She stepped out of the den, and sat outside the entrance. The grass and trees glimmered with dew, and the sharp taste of the night was lingering in the air around her.

Their den was underneath an old birch tree, and was on the edge of an open clearing. The trees surrounding the clearing were all oaks and pines, and it made their birch home stand out. Snowy and her brother cliff would often climb the den tree to see who could go further, but dove had always caught them before they could go above the surrounding trees. 

 The old birch always looked best in the morning when the morning sun hit the dew on the laves and made it sparkle like the night sky. Snowy took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh of satisfaction. It left a cloud in the air that soon disappeared.

"Perfect." Snowy stretched again before padding to the edge of the small clearing. "Now, lets hunt." 

Snowy's wings and tail feathers melted seamlessly out of her pelt, and grew to their full size. She stretched and flapped them, jumping up into the air to give herself a bit of a boost. She hovered for a bit before flying into the forest. She glided, and kept her wings as quiet as possible. Her jaws were open as she smelled the air for prey. Soon, she caught scent of a blackbird.

Snowy landed on, and climbed out onto the nearest tree branch. Swiveling her ears, she tried to listen for its song. There were plenty of other birds singing, but the blackbird's call was not in the noise. Snowy parted her jaws once more, and smelled the air. 

The scent was stronger, and was blowing to her on the breeze. She turned to face the direction the scent was carried, slowly tracking it through the trees until she saw it.

There was two blackbirds, and they were grooming themselves. Snowy thought about her own messy pelt, and made herself a note to groom it after she caught her prey.

She stalked along the branch until she was close enough to pounce. She bunched up her haunches, and leapt to her prey. The Blackbirds flew in different directions, and Snowy only managed to snag one by the wing. She pinned it to the branch as she watched the other get away.

~Fishscales!~ Snowy glanced back down to the blackbird she had caught, and killed it with a swift bite. The blackbird she had caught was the smaller of the two, but was still a decent size. She picked it up, and climbed down from the tree. She buried her prey, and looked around, jaws open to smell for more prey.

~Nothing... Nothing.. oh-? Aha!~ Snowy locked on to a scent. ~Shrew.~

☆━━━━━━━☆ Snowy's gift - Chapter 1 ☆━━━━━━━☆

The sun had burnt away the morning mist when Snowy decided to head back to the tree den. She had caught 2 shrews and the Blackbird, but hadn't had much other luck. She even tried the streams in the forest, but found that the river had no luck either.

~The prey has been getting harder and harder to find recently. If it keeps going on like this, we might not have enough to feed ourselves..~

When Snowy walked into the clearing, the first thing she saw was her grey tabby mother Dove laying in the sunlight like she normally did. Dove sat up when Snowy came close to her.