Instead of chasing after Kera and the rat, Aka attempted to change his plumage to match the dark gray color of the rock face. Successful, the owlette pressed himself up against the rock face, hiding from the sight of any creatures.

"This.... this is awesome." The barn owl whispered to himself quietly, waiting and watching for another chance at prey.

@Kera

(RIP short post)

Kera was unaware if Aka was bothering to follow or not-- she had to do what she hated most. Chase a rat. Her leg ached enough as it is, and the pain of hitting the ground hadn't completely faded, but she kept her eyes on the faint scurrying outline of the rat in front of her.

It was fast. Faster than Kera was. As much as she wanted to keep up, the rat just got further and further away until it faded completely into the dark and she had to rely on sound to chase after it instead. She could hear it up ahead.

It turned. Kera turned after it, and came into contact with the wall.

She growled beyond the pain, sticking her paw forward. There was a hole in the wall-- a burrow, where it had hidden into. Her muzzle crinkled with frustration and anger as she swatted and clawed at the entrance of the burrow, brush tail thrashing in the air behind her.

@Aka

Waiting. More waiting. How Aka hated waiting. He almost groaned, when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. The small bird's head silently swiveled, now carefully watching a large mouse sniff at a blue glowy mushroom. Aka waited until the rodent moved to a smaller, greenish mushroom closer to him and the rock face, and then he made his move.

But he failed. Again.

Aka graned in frustration, hating himself for tripping over that rock.

"Stupid rock...... I'm getting super hungry!" Aka grunted, getting up and moving in the direction he had seen Kera go.

Too stubborn to give up, the tunnel filled with the sounds of enraged growling and snorting and spitting as Kera frantically dug her aching paws into the burrow. When it was wide enough, she plunged both legs straight into it, as far as it would go, and started raking and tearing into anything she could grab in there.

Her claws ripped into something. Something big, something that was bleeding, and something that was screaming. She'd done it!

Kera's paws began raking the fat, bleeding rat out of its burrow and into the open. It shrieked at the sight of her. It shrieked until her jaws clamped around its neck and bit down until there was a low, very satisfying crunch in her mouth, that sounded through her whole head.

With her tail wagging lazily, she straightened herself up and started limping back towards Aka-- who in her time gone, seemed to have failed to catch anything himself --and dropped the dead rat before him, breathing heavily for a moment while she lapped blood from her jowls. "I got it," she announced importantly. "I got the rat."

@Aka

Seeing Kera coming back with a rat frustrated Aka. She had gotten something and he had gotten nothing.

"Cool! Well, I look like freaking rock now, and I have nothing!"Aka said with fake enthusiasm. He tried to turn normal again, and soon his fathers were normal again. At least he was good at something.

"So, wanna try to get another? One rat is definitely not enough." Aka said, not waiting for an answer. He turned around and walked back to the mushrooms, huddling against a little crack in the wall, and waited. Again.

@Kera

Kera's tail stopped wagging as she saw Aka's lack of excitement and appreciation. Disheartened, she started scraping back dirt with her aching legs. "Uh, sure," she said as she picked up the rat and buried it, carefully piling dirt back over the corpse and pressing the dirt down for security. She could pick it up again after they tried for another.

She tried to forget about it as she limped back after Aka, who had left before she even answered, and was long gone by the time she even moved. She wasn't even entirely sure where he was, but she scrambled back onto the ledge she was on before and huddled down in silence, watching the cluster of mushrooms.

It didn't take long for another rat to come searching, lurking, moving close to her beloved fungi. As it began to take a bite out of one of the glowing caps, Kera leapt down.

She must have been really bad at this, because the rat had scrambled out of her way when she hit the ground, landing for a second time on her injured leg. With an agonized bark, she stumbled, falling, and then started to scramble back up onto her paws again, painfully, running after the rat.

@Aka

Watching Kera fail again at catching a rat, Aka sighed. She must be a dumb wolf. But he wouldn't let her know that. Figuring that he'd just make himself look strange, Aka tried to do the feather change thing and become the strangest shade of purple he could. ANd it worked! Going back into hiding, Aka grew bored.

And sleepy.

An- oh. He was asleep.

@Kera

Kera hated rats more than anything, and her hatred for them only grew as she ran across the tunnel on a busted leg, where every time she put pressure down on it, pain shot up her leg and into her spine.

What she hated more, was the lack of talons clicking on the cave floor behind her. Aka wasn't helping her. Perhaps he was too young, or he had gotten stuck somewhere, but she couldn't see him in the first place. Perhaps he had just left?

Kera did not know. She kept running.

She knew she was catching up, because the rat was slowing down and she sure wasn't. Soon, before she even knew it, her paws found their way onto the rat's flank and she was punching her claws into it. Breathing heavily, she slowed to a stop and lifted the rat in her jaws.

She limped back towards the mushroom cluster, but saw nothing. Great. Amazing. At least she could eat two rats to herself. She wasn't sure why Aka would leave, or why he'd been so short, but she supposed it didn't matter.

What she would definitely not acknowledge is how much her feelings were hurt.

She dumped her catch next to where she buried the other and lay painfully on her side, licking her broken, throbbing leg. It didn't matter. She had food and she'd take a nap. She huffed, shut her eyes, and drifted into unsteady sleep.

-exit- @Aka

Waking back up due to Kera's arrival, Aka paid attention to where she hisd her second rat. She didn't need two. Aka had tried to get one a couple times, but it didn't work. Creeping quietly out of the shadows, the owl moved over to her hiding place and dug up the rats, took one out, and covered up the other one. Sneaking away with the rat, Aka left. He didn't give Kera another thought as he left. he had gotten food and learned a couple things from her.

He could survive on his own now.

[exit]