ORIGIN

Mice? The mongoose tilted her head to the side, confused for a moment. Hmm, she'd never thought about eating mice nor had she ever tried. Perhaps she should get on a new diet, one that didn't exist primarily on insects. "Never had a mouse..." A mischievous grin appeared on her face. "Perhaps when I beat you, you can go catch me one, eh?" The little noodle laughed aloud herself. Challenges were so much fun! As was being competitive, she was quickly finding out.

Fang watched his tail wagging for a moment before she mirrored it. Was this some sort of affirmation or show of good will? Perhaps it was. "Of course, I have! Just had to make sure, ya see? That should be an oath of our kind, 'ain't never scared'!" The little female gave a resolute nod of her head. "Ain't never scared" she liked that! She'd have to remember it for later on. "You win? Ha! Those first two challenges were flukes, buddy. This one is the real challenge who decides who's the most noodle-y for the day! " She didn't know where that word came from but she liked it and felt it fit both of them.

The mongoose herself turned her attention to the tree root and after she rubbed her forepaws together, ran straight towards it.

Unlike her companion she managed to leap and make the jump to the top of the tree root whereupon she gave a brief pause to lick her tongue out before continuing on. The race had begun!

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That's right! They weren't scared of anything! The mongoose smiled as she ran for the glory of the mouse! And just for running in general. The taunt that the fisher threw her way caused the mongoose to turn her head and lick her tongue out at him. This distraction however must have messed with her because when she turned her head she ended up tripping over her paws. She rolled for a minute and fell to the ground, she was unhurt though and managed to pick herself back up and keep going but now she was behind Fisher. "Nu-uh! I'm the better noodle 'cause I'm smaller more petite and pretty!" The yellow mongoose called back undeterred. If he wanted to distract her then two could play at that game.

The mongoose laughed as she chased after the brown large-noodle, chasing after him and trying to regain the ground she'd lost. After the fisher she made it to the rock and then turned to head to her new destination. The Fern! Which would be their last destination and decide who would be the winner and who had to hunt for the other.

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The vixen was right behind the fisher, leaping right after he did. This was it! This would determine who was the better noodle! Fisher grasped onto the fern but fell through while she landed easily on top with room to spare. With her miniscule weight the thing hardly even dipped beneath her. "Ha!" She said enthusiastically. "I win!" The mongoose laughed triumphantly. "Hear that, Fishy?" The little creature looked down from her perch to see her companion laughing. What on earth was so funny? He'd just lost the race!

But he'd had fun doing it. Perhaps that's why he was laughing. Now that she thought about it... She'd had fun too! Fisher wasn't a half bad guy! It would be fun playing with him and doing competitions to see who was the better noodle! With another laugh she looked down at the Fisher and leaped, landing squarely on his back. Since she didn't even break ten ounces yet she highly doubted that she'd hurt the fisher so she just laughed down at him, using her paws to tickle his ears. "You heard that, Big-Noodle? You gotta catch me a mouse! Hop to it!" Her voice was positively giddy as she informed him of his duty.

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Yay! It was time for mice! She had to admit that catching a mouse was something she'd never done before, nor was it something she knew how to do. So she was content to "watch a master" do the catching before trying it later on herself. Admitting such things easily wasn't something that she did though and instead of giving an enthusiastic "okay" she smirked and said teasingly, "A master, eh? We'll see about that!" With a giggle she rolled off of his back when he started batting at her. She parted with a few playful nips at his paws.

The mongoose leaped up to a nearby rock where she would have a good view of Fisher's technique. She thought she could feel her diamond tooth tingling for a moment but she must have been mistaken as the sensation quickly stopped. Now she was focused intently on what the fisher was doing. It seemed as if he was using his nose to sniff things out which made perfectly good sense to her. The mongoose used her own nose to sniff and just thought she could catch the whiff of something near them.

Fisher was heading straight towards the base of the ferns. Walking slowly and carefully. He seemed to be preparing to pounce, sort of like she did when she caught bugs. The little mongoose was anxious to see how to catch a mouse or what exactly a mouse was for that matter. Her tail started to wag with excitement as she crouched on her little perch, waiting.

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The mongoose continued to watch the fisher. Absorbing every single little detail so that whenever she had to hunt she could perform the techniques flawlessly or close to flawlessly. No one could ever do anything right the first time, no matter how much they bragged and said they could. The fisher's technique must have been close to perfect though because the mouse didn't even move, not even when he neared! Wow! His steps must have been super quiet! Despite herself the mongoose was impressed but that facial expression of hers didn't change. She just watched as Fisher pounced and killed the mouse with a bite.

He brought the kill over to her and sat it down in front of the mongoose. In that moment for the first time in her life she felt like a real queen! A satisfied smile plastered onto her face as she looked down at the prize. "Much obliged, Big-Noodle." The mongoose hopped from her perch down to the fisher's level. Or rather, below his level since she was so little. Then, as if it was an afterthought she said, "Good job with the huntin'. You've got ah-- good... technique." Technique? Was that the word she was looking for? Eh, sounded good enough.

The mongoose placed one paw on the mouse to keep it still while she tore of a chunk of flesh to try. It wasn't half bad! You could tell with the way her tail wagged and her satisfied grunts that she was quite pleased with her meal. After she was all done the mongoose looked to Fisher happily, tongue running around her mouth. "That was good!" She sat back on her haunches and cleaned her mouth and paws fastidiously. "A close second to insects, I'd say." With a laugh she attempted to bump his shoulder with her own playfully.

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