PM to join Cut From the Same Cloth (Cynnya)

[Kalina]

34th Day of Winter, 513AV Time seemed to pass much faster for Kalina when she was in Zeltiva. Compared to Ravok, where she was severely hindered by the presence of such a vast amount of water, here the ocelot Kelvic had nigh on free-reign of her movements and actions. Yes, there were places that her Master had told her not to go, and there were days where he required her to be with him so she couldn’t go off to explore or hunt. Those days were the best, though, where she often had her Master’s full attention. Oftimes, the man would be locked away in meetings with Clyde, the strange person who had taken the time to teach her about fish, or her would be talking to people Kali didn’t know. Given the choice, she would have loved to run up to them and give them attention, but she knew that such actions would not be well received by her Master or his company, so she stayed out of the way. Today, she wasn’t sure where Marcus was, nor either of the other two people she knew of in this city, so she had headed out alone again, knowing that id she headed to the Mirahil Pass, she was likely to find something small to catch and play with before killing and eating it. Her paws treaded lightly along the ground; she now knew the terrain well enough to know how much pressure could be applied before she started making too much noise. She was lucky – despite her small frame, ocelots were blessed with remarkably large paws, and the greater surface area meant that she could spread her weight and remain silent as a ghost as she made her way through the wild region just outside of the harbor city. As of yet, she had not caught the scent of any rodents, or deer – she shuddered at the memory of the last buck she had tried to attack, on occasion, she would still feel shooting pains in her side. The wind was blowing from behind her, though, and it was possible that she might see any prey before she smelt it. It was a small chance, but she didn’t want to risk her heavy footfalls alerting her prey to the ocelot’s presence before Kalina even knew that it was there. If there was one thing that the small Kelvic had learnt in her short time of teaching herself to hunt, it was that patience was always rewarded. A half of a bell passed, and Kalina remained as silent as ever. Every so often, she would lose attention or misjudge a step, and a twig would break underfoot. She was lucky with the recent rainfall, in a sense: the crunching of dead leaves on the ground was lessened by the moisture, and she could move far more silently. The problem was that the rainfall had washed away most traces of animal scents. Marcus and Amelia ensured that Kalina received food regularly, but today Kalina had skipped her first meal, knowing that she would be coming out here to hunt. She growled in irritation at the fact that nothing had yet crossed her path. A few more steps however, and the ocelot kitten paused, raising her head a little and breathing in deeply. A few more deep breaths and there was no doubt about what she could smell: a buck. But not just any buck; from the scents carrying through the air, Kalina imagined that the creature was dead, as the blood was potent. She could smell nothing else, so it had either died in a fight with another buck, or its predator was long done with it. Despite this thought, Kali continued to move slowly, careful to continue searching for whatever might have killed it. But she couldn’t smell anything. The buck itself was lodged in a tree, and it took little effort for Kalina to use her powerful hind legs to make the first leap. From there it was easy, using her claws to latch onto the bark, she hoisted herself up inch by inch until she finally reached the branch upon which the buck was hanging. The kitten wondered what had managed to drag the carcass up this high - she could barely get herself up here, let alone drag something equal to her own body weight. From her dream about that dog, Kyo, she remembered that dogs couldn’t climb, even though they ate the same things as her, so putting it in a tree was sensible. Kalina cast her gaze around again, from her vantage point, her large, dilated eyes could see more, but she saw nothing amidst the undergrowth. Satisfied, she continued along the branch to the buck and buried her jaw in the already ripped open flesh.

[Cynnya]

Cynnya had a day off from classes and working in the library and decided to take the opportunity to grab a meal and burn off some pent up energy at the same time. The cold days had prevented her from hunting for awhile and most of the game around the University had been scarce. Now the weather was improving just a little as spring approached, at least enough that she could go outside in her ocelot form and be more than comfortable. After a few hours sitting quietly in the trees, finally reasonable prey had emerged from the fauna and Cynnya locked onto the small buck, shifting her stance from 'crouch' to 'attack'. Her tail remained low and flicked back and forth slowly. The buck took a few more steps forward to reach tasty leaves and other vegetation that was starting to come to life. Her eyes narrowed and she leaped, landing with precision on the back of the buck, her jaws immediately clamping around the deer's neck. Of course, the buck was startled and panicked, flailing about and running forward as if to run from a predator. However, the predator on his back had her claws sunk firmly into his flesh and her sudden weight threw off his balance. He stumbled and fell to his knees, exactly the moment Cynnya was waiting for. She shifted her jaws to pierce the jugular and bit down hard, her sharp teeth slicing open the buck's neck easily and spilling his blood through the vital artery in his neck. He kicked and struggled for a few more minutes until the loss of blood finally ended his life. At times, Cynnya did wish she was more like a wolf and had the strength to twist the necks of her prey to end their life quicker, but then her stomach growled and she would forget about such notions. It took her awhile, but eventually she managed to drag the young animal into the trees so that other predators could not access her meal until she was done with it. She fed for a few chimes before she was full and crawled down carefully from the trees to get a drink from a nearby stream. As she was satisfying her thirst, an unfamiliar scent blew past her nose and she picked up her head, ears twitching this way and that as water dripped from her mouth back into the stream. She turned her head to the left, back towards her kill and caught the scent stronger than before. Her ears picked up the sound of another animal tearing into flesh and she growled, slightly annoyed that someone was already chowing down on her kill before she had even left the area. Cynnya stalked back towards the tree and circled around, her keen eyes picking up a brown and tan patterned tail near her kill. She jumped and climbed as quietly as she could until she was on a branch directly across from the young ocelot who seemed to be engrossed in eating the buck. She sat still and watched the small predator intently, saying nothing and not making her presence known other than by a small flick of her tail. { made by ally of thesintax and rpgd, please leave this credit intact }

[Kalina]

*

In her travels from Ravok to Nyka, the long journey had given. Kalina plenty of time to hunt, track and try to kill deer. But, for all her efforts, although she was getting better tracking the creature, whose scent she now knew well, and getting generally better at remaining silent enough to get close, she had not yet actually caught a deer. Many close calls and almosts had left her more and more desperate to catch one and dig her teeth into what she was sure would be the succulent, rich taste of deer flesh. Now that she was finally able to dig her teeth into a fresh kill, Kalina was not in the least bit disappointed by the bloody taste.

As she rested her front left paw against the buck's neck and used her powerful jaws to rip part of the flesh away, a part of the ocelot kitten was embarrassed by what she was doing. No one had even taught her how to be an ocelot - all her skills and opinions had been self taught, or based on instinct, but a part of her mind whispered in disapproval: she was not a scavenger, she should be hunting for her own kill, and only eating that. It wasn't even as if she was desperate, starving, she had just decided that she wanted to eat some of the buck. It occurred to her however, that she should try to put her own kills at a height - ironically - to stop scavengers, most of whom she knew couldn't climb. She had yet to catch something large enough to warrant putting in a tree for later enjoyment.

Taking her time, she ripped another section of flesh away from the carcass, savouring the delectable taste. Her desire to catch more of the prey, her own kill, had grown. Rats and small mammals, whilst filling and easy to kill, could not compare to this amazing animal, where the freely flowing blood filled her mouth, and warm viridian an drops of blood dripped from her mouth, staining the golden-grey fur around her jaw. Only fish could compare, but she found it harder to catch the water-bound creature than she did land animals.

She glanced up again, and moss green eyes scanned the ground below her branch, checking that the original killer had not returned to eat its prey. She saw nothing, but the slight vibrations of the branch caused her to glance behind her, where, as if she were seeing a looking-glass, she spied a second dwarf leopard silently observing her. The buck's flesh still dangling from her jaw, she stopped chewing, and stared back for a few ticks. This other ocelot was another female, and a little larger than Kalina, though not by much and, from its gaze, the kelvic guessed that it was the huntress. Her large ears dropped as she dug her claws into the branch and turned. A tick later, she had dropped herself to a lower branch, so that she had created a little more distance from the other ocelot, and was facing her. Her body was lowered, her ears still tucked back - an instinctual position of apology and submission to the other.

*

[Cynnya]

Cynnya remained perfectly still as the young ocelot munched contently on her kill, her hackles raising slightly in annoyance. Finally, the smaller animal took a moment to check her surroundings and met her gaze. Cynnya blinked back at the kitten slowly, struggling to contain a smirk as the ears of the younger cat dropped down. As the other cat dropped to a lower branch, sinking into a position of submission, Cynnya stood up from her sitting position and jumped onto the same branch. Her increased weight caused the branch to sway precariously, but the older Kelvic took it all in stride, balancing herself with ease. Now seeing the apologetic posture of the younger ocelot, Cynnya's anger had faded to amusement and curiosity. Ocelots were not a popular species in this area, in fact she had been pretty certain she was the only big cat around. More common were canines, foxes, and other less exotic animals. Could this youngling be another Kelvic? Whether she was or not, she felt almost protective over the other ocelot and wanted to help her. If the youngling couldn't catch her own food, she wouldn't survive out here for long. "So, you thought to just take another predator's kill for your own?" she purred, trying to keep her tone stern and upset when she was really neither. Her hackles were raised, her eyes narrowed and posture as threatening as she could make it. "And so far from home with no one to protect you..." Cynnya sounded threatening for a moment before she couldn't contain herself anymore. She shook herself in the ocelot way of laughing, sat down comfortably on the branch, and widened her eyes to a less threatening gaze. "Forgive me, youngling, I had to have some fun at your expense," she said before casually cleaning her right paw with her tongue. "What is a young ocelot doing in the forests of Zeltiva?" { made by ally of thesintax and rpgd, please leave this credit intact }

[Kalina]

*

Keeping her belly as low to the branch of the tree as possible, Kalina did her best not to take her eyes off of the larger ocelot. It wasn't often that the ocelot kitten found herself scared, nor had she ever been in a situation where she had even met another predator, let alone had to submit to one. Despite her fear, however, she was excited and curious - logic told her that she was not the only one of her kind, that there must be others who took the ocelot form, permanently or otherwise (though she had never been taught the name of her animal form, thus did not know it). Here, she could see another who looked like her. Bigger, with slightly different colouring, but still... it was like her. And that was beyond exciting.

But as the two communicated, the kitten whined, and elongated her neck, as if exposing her jugular to the adult. It was instinct, rather than something she knew she had to do. The other was angry, and rightly so... Kalina was no scavenger, she was a hunter, and should have known better than to help herself to food that wasn't hers. But it had smelt so good, and tasted even better than she could possibly have fathomed. Kalina found it easy to wrangle her way out of trouble when around humans, manipulating them with how adorable she knew she could be, but she knew that that would not work with another feline.

Then, surprisingly, the demeanour of the adult changed, taking on a much more playful stance. After a few ticks of hesitation, Kalina also relaxed her stance. A little longer and the branch shook again as the younger ocelot bounded closer to the other, claws extending and retracting to ensure that she would not fall. Once closer, she began to sniff the other, trying to discern whether or not they really were the same. The two smelt a little different, she found, but they were, for the most part, indistinguishable. "Like me!" came the excitable chirrup of reply, as if this were a momentous discovery that would shake the world.

"Hunting. Wanted buck. Found yours... Sorry," Due to the nature of the two languages, Feline was much easier to master than Common, and Kalina was fluent in the former, yet her over-excitement at meeting another like her left her own utterances just as broken as if she were speaking a human tongue. "Master is in Zel-va working... I get bored." All the while, she continued to stare at the adult, as if amazed that she could meet another like her. Finally, she bent her hind legs and sat on the branch, tilting her head to the side.

*