Can't I just be a vegetarian? [Meesh&Aries]

Antares snorted as the canine crowed and licked his cheek, and began padding after her. "I can hunt, I just choose not to!" he snickered, he hadn't been hunting hardly at all, but when he did he was usually successful, but then again he always picked off the already sick or dying animals. It made him sick sometimes, but he just felt so guilty about killing that he just wasn't capable of killing another healthy being.

"You have the size advantage, no fair!" the feline sprinted after her, lips pulled into a massive grin. He still had the advantage of agility and his body was nearly the same length, longer with his tail. He still lingered behind her by a bit, he honestly didn't want to beat her, competition wasn't his gig.

"Where are the hunting grounds exactly? I've always just followed scent trails." Antares called to Silva, catching up to to her. He almost skidded to a halt when he saw a few unfamiliar plants but resisted, it's not like he could eat them unless something else did first. Being poisoned was not on his list of things to do, not that he had one anyway.

"Touche!" Antares slowed to a steady trot as the canine slowed with him, birds aren't too smart but if you're not silent you won't get any lunch. He learned that the hard way, but it's not easy to stay quiet when you haven't had meat for days on end, and were growing weak from it. He'd learned since then that no matter how much he hated eating meat it's something that has to be done. Although he'd learned to scavenge, or poach eggs to avoid killing.

"Ah, okay. That's good, I'd rather not attack any of the healthy, young ones. Maybe I'll be able to get into their nests for some eggs too, I've done that before." his pace grew slower and quieter as the scent of bird grew stronger, as Silva had pointed out, they were just about there. He scouted around the trees and sure enough there was birds, and nests as he had hoped.

"Shall we?" Antares dropped to a crouch, snaking around the dark trunks of the trees to stay camouflaged, getting ever closer to the bright orange birds. Sure enough there was a couple that looked sickly, and old, he was going to go for those. He slid silently forward, careful to make his footfalls blend in with the leaves rustling in the wind. In a flash he snapped forward, muzzle instinctively sinking into the soft body of the bird, killing it instantly. As fast as he could set that bird down he chased another older, slower bird down and killed it in the same quick manner.

"I told you I could hunt." He scoffed at the canine, gathering up his two kills.

"Okay, that was amazing, but I'm good in the form I've got." Antares scraped the ground awkwardly next to their kills, he really did like his new form. It wasn't too big, as to not be terrifying, but it was strong for carrying things, while still being able to be gentle as he'd always been. He didn't know what he'd turn into if he evolved again, and he really didn't want to find out.h

"Ah, I'll get it. I've got experience in not breaking them on my way down. I'm not sure if you do or not, so." with that he began scaling the tree with the lowest branches. His long ebony-like claws were excellent for digging into the bark, and his dense shoulders were plenty strong enough to pull him up. That and he wanted to show off to her. He quickly reached a thick enough branch to hold his weight that had a nest full of eggs in it. Carefully, he walked with his claws dug into the bark, now only feet away from the nest.

A flurry of orange feathers and claws blocked his vision, causing him to lose his balance. The mother bird had the audacity to come protect her unhatched babies. Antares didn't want to hurt the bird for protecting her young, but it was either swat the bird out away from him, or fall painfully to the ground. He wanted to take the latter approach, but he also didn't want to look like a wuss in front of Silva. As the bird came in for another attack, Antares now hanging from this forelegs, he snapped it between his jaws.

"Incoming." the feline muttered, dropping the dead bird down to Silva and began scarping his way back up onto that branch with his hind legs. Hopefully the other parent wasn't interested in attacking him after what happened to the other. Quickly, he gathered the three relatively small eggs into his jaws, careful to not crush the thin shells. He made his way to the next lowest branches, which wouldn't hold his weight for long so he hurried down. He then scurried down the trunk, hitting the ground softly, but sending tiny orange leaves flying.

"For you m'lady." he dropped the still intact eggs near her feet.

"Better to have extra food than no food at all, right?" Antares replied with a smile after dropping the eggs. It was hard to talk with a mouth full of precious cargo. He pretended that he didn't see her flustered reaction after he dropped the extra bird down earlier, though he wondered what she'd been so absorbed in. She'd been deep in thought about it, whatever it was. He wouldn't ask, though.

The feline grinned shyly as she complimented his hunting skill and pushed two of the eggs back at him. If he could blush he'd be brick red by now, but thankfully he couldn't for his own sake. "Heehee..." Antares accepted her toast and crunched on the two eggs. It'd been a while since he had eggs, they even were more delicious than he remembered. It didn't take him long to finish the eggs, the both of them weren't even a mouthful for him now. He walked over to the mount of birds and began plucking one of them, laying the feathers in piles according to size as he always had.

"So after we're finished here and drop the extra birds off at the den do you want to head to the Orchard because..." I want to sleep under a tree with you "...I think it would be nice to visit the newborns again." Antares awkwardly passed the now featherless bird back and forth between his paws.