Hunters - Act One (Read Desc.)

' ' Chapter One ' '

She unsheathed her claws, scrambling onto the lowest branch of the tree and crouching down. 

She waited as her sister counted. "One, two, three... what comes after three?"

Her sister started saying the names of plants and prey to substitute numbers. "Ready or not!" The voice shouted, then making loud pawsteps in the opposite direction of her. 
Orchid giggled quietly. 

The other voice, her sister Pheasant, started stalking through the bushes, avoiding fallen leaves. 

Orchid sat on the branch, waving her stub tail slightly. She had fooled Pheas- 

Paws pounced on her back, causing her to jump a mile in the air and fall out of the tree. She landed on her side, sitting up and coughing, winded. 

"Found you!" Pheasant chirped, swinging from the branch by her tail and batting Orchid's ears.

Orchid huffed. "Stop being so good at sneaking!" she complained. "Or.. I'll steal your tail!" 

Pheasant looked like she was holding back laughter, dropping off of the bush onto her paws. 

"You only want my tail cause you don't have any tail." 

Orchid flattened her ears, jumping to her paws. "You take that back!" She yowled, starting to chase after Pheasant as she darted into the bushes, laughing. 

Pheasant zigzagged between bushes and ferns, sliding through small spaces where it would be harder for Orchid to chase her. 

Orchid jumped into a tall bush and chased her sister from above. She launched herself from one branch to the next, her heart leaping into her throat for a moment as she soared through the air. She landed right behind Pheasant and kept chasing her. 

Pheasant soon got tired and slowed down, panting. Orchid crashed into her flank and toppled both of them over. 

The black-and-white kitten yelped in surprise as she stumbled down a hill, rolling into a dip in the earth. Orchid peeked through the bushes, sliding down next to her. 

Pheasant's side was a little scuffed from the slide, but nothing major, she concluded. 

Pheasant tried to scramble her way back up the steep slide, but slid back down. Orchid grabbed her tail and pulled her back to where she was. "Stop trying to climb that thing, you're gonna hurt yourself." 

Pheasant brushed herself off as Orchid padded slowly toward the thick wall of ferns, sniffing curiously. A familiar scent caught her attention, and she pushed her way into the ferns, following it. 

Pheasant's alarmed call sounded behind her, followed by pawsteps swiftly following her. "Wait- Orchid where are you going?" 

The ferns rustled as she pushed her way through, following the scent further. She started picking up a strong, stone tang she felt like she knew but couldn't put a paw on what it was. 

She emerged into an open grassy clearing surrounded in trees, her gaze falling from the bird nests in the trees to the limp body on the ground. 

She saw blood pooled on the ground around it, a small trail leading into the far edge of the clearing and cutting off at the grass. Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and she flicked her ear, practically unphased. "Ew."

Pheasant scrambled to Orchid's side, taking slow steps foward with her nose held shakingly out toward the body. "What's that thing? A cat? Why does it smell like stone or iron? What's all that red stuff? Why is it-" 

"You have more questions than you do hairs on your pelt." Orchid cut her off, padding forward to investigate. Pheasant hung back, unsure of the situation. 

Orchid sniffed the blood, following the trail to the grass. It seemed as if the blood was wiped on the grass before the culprit ran off. She put on a determined look and turned to Pheasant, licking a paw and drawing it over her ear. 

"It's detective time."