[fresh]

Originally Posted by Charmer

Thistlepaw wanted to take comfort in Ambercloud's assurances, but he was still feeling about as useful as dirt after the missed catch. His ear twitched as his mentor instructed him to try hunting on his own while she watched. Isn't the entire point for her to teach me? he thought scornfully. "Sure, I'll holler when a hawk mistakes me for a shrew," and Thistlepaw spun and raced down the moor before his mentor could respond. He crouched behind a tuft of heather, and opened his jaws, tasting the greenleaf air. His ears perked up when her heard a rustling at the edge of a clump of tall grass, about three four fox lengths away. Thistlepaw crept toward the sound, keeping low. He was almost certain that he had caught a whiff of mouse, but he couldn't see it yet as he carefully crept over a patch of stony earth, careful not to disturb the ground and send a stone clattering to frighten it off. Just then, the mouse scurried into the open, busily nibbling on grass seeds, not having noticed the young tome. Thistlepaw squared his shoulders and prepared to pounce, when a sudden movement in the grass sent the mouse sprawling, lying on it's side with a paw twitching helplessly in the air. Thistlepaw watched with fascination and fear as a huge adder came slithering out of the grass, and began stretching open its wide mouth and clamped it's jaws on the still-twitching mouse.

The pretty dappled tortoiseshell made no reaction to his smart remark. She followed the tom through the moor easily, darting from clumos of heather. She came into place where she could watch without being smelled, seen, or heard. Ambercloud grinned at his near-perfect form and steady, sure-footed movements. Just then, as Thistlepaw prepared to pounce, a sleek shape slid through the grass and bit the mouse itself. Adder! As the snake swallowed the mouse she leaped onto her apprentice, knocking him out of the way before it could turn and bite him as well. The movement distracted the adder and it made a lightning-fast bite for Thistlepaw, in which Ambercloud jumped in the way. Its teeth met in her shoulder and she gasped, collapsing onto the ground and writhing around in agony. "My eyes! I can't see!" She wailed, her eyesight faltering and her body heaving with large spasms. "Where's Surgestorm?!" She screeched, her voice cracking. Froth formed alongside the edges of her mouth and she retched repeatedly.