oh, run run run {p, poppy. <3}

[alehue]

he was new to this world, new to the concept of life. and yet, the taking of life was one of nixen's only pastimes - it was not the fault of the feline that he was hungry so often! he seemed to have a long way to grow, and though he never had met another creature other than the ones he hunted, nixen had a feeling that these first few hours of his life would be very crucial to him, and his survival.

it was strange how easily habits develop among young ones, and for nixen, the habit that had developed on his first hunt was rather...gruesome. the first mouse he caught was caught by the tail, with such force that it was ripped from the mouse. though it did nothing to ruin the quality of the rodent (for the tail held almost no meat or nutrients), it gave new reason for nixen to hunt - to collect more of these slivers of an animal, to have a momento from each hunt he had. it would be much easier to tell how many animals he caught, nixen persuaded himself. and so, the feline had begun to collect tails. and though he was hunting for food, to fill his hungry belly, he was truly hunting for tails.

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

Fennel swatted at the flies above his head with his paw in a decidedly feline-like manner. When they refused to leave, he gave up and flopped back down on his eyes, closing his eyes in the hot, hazy sun. The canine's schedule for the day went something like this: Eat. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Sleep.

When he awoke again, he noticed a brownish thing around fifty meters away from him. Fennel was uncomfortable -- the new thing looked far too different from his own kind. There had to be something wrong with it.

Cat, he thought. Cat. But what is a cat? In any case, it had to have been newborn, but it was already quite adept in hunting. He watched the newcomer catch a mouse and rip the tail from its body.

"Hello!" Fennel barked in greeting. "You must be new here."

[alehue]

nixen was not aware that he was not alone in the orchard - he assumed that no one who could journey away from it would ever come back, other than maybe to create a spawn of their own. as soon as he heard the voice beckoning him, greeting him, though, the kitten knew that this was not the case. his bark colored fur ruffling up slightly, as he was disgruntled at having to share the orchard with someone else (it meant he could not hunt for tails), nixen padded over to the canine that seemed to have been greeting him.

sniffing slightly, his nose wrinkling up and his red-violet eyes slipping slightly closed, the clear dashes blinking quietly in the weak sunlight, nixen greeted the male. "hello," he mewed, trying to control his annoyance. "yes, i am new here." he sniffed at the canine's comment about his 'newness' - wasn't he a newborn at sometime, too?

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

Fennel, the poor simpleton, didn't seem to notice the barely veiled annoyance in Nixen's voice. He sniffed the feline in an unassuming manner. He smelled of sweet pod nectar, a telltale sign of a newborn. His brownish pelt and red-violet eyes were a combination that Fennel had never seen before. Strange, he thought. No, not strange. Just ... different.

"I was new here too, yesterday. But I met some really nice friends who helped me learn. It looks like you're already hunting. Do you ... need any help with that? To tell you the truth, you're probably better than me. I can barely hunt."

[alehue]

the chocolate male was already annoyed by this incompetent canine, but he kept from expressively sighing at the tri-colored male; as he was a male that was not easily annoyed, so nixen wondered why he was in such a mood. deciding he should be more pleasant with this new acquaintance, so the red-violet eyes let the anger go, the tight voice became, once again, a smooth serenade, and the lips, pressed in a straight line, curled into a feline smile.

"i'm sorry for my snappish behavior - just a bit overwhelmed by the new things in this world." nixen paused as the canine commented on his hunting skills - and the canine's own inability to hunt. "would you like me to catch you something?" he offered with a small smile.

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

The canine finally noticed that maybe not all was right in the world when it came to Nixen. Fennel could see that the feline was relaxing, becoming less uptight. But that had to mean that he had been uptight before. The thought disturbed him a little, but when the feline became friendly once again, he put it out of his mind.

Fennel smiled. "Thank you for the offer," he said, somewhat formally, "but I think I'll be okay for now." He laid back down and put his head on his paws before he realized that the conversation didn't have to end there.

"Unless ... you'd like to teach me to hunt? You don't have to, of course." He smiled politely at his new acquaintance.

[alehue]

nixen shifted his position so he was comfortably seated, his tail wrapped, somewhat protectively, around his beautifully manicured paws (hey, if you were going to be a hunter, you needed to have your weapons protected!), and listening intently, his cupped ears pointed towards the male he was speaking to now, as he often did to others. his head tilted to the left side as he contemplated the idea of teaching someone how to hunt.

"i'll give it my best go," nixen finally said, hoping he could fulfill this promise. "it might be hard, i have to warn you - if you're going to learn hunting, you're going to need more than one lesson to get everything down."

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

Fennel stood up and waited awkwardly for Nixen's reply. He shifted his weight from side to side and scratched at one ear. When the feline finally opened his mouth to reply, he let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"So you'll do it? That's great!" Fennel wagged his tail eagerly and let his tongue flop out. He didn't know just how much he craved the acceptance of this cat who was younger than him and already better at life until this moment. "Trust me," he said, grinning, "hard work is my middle name. No, wait, chivalry is my middle name." He sat down next to the feline.

"In any case, I need to learn. It's so embarrassing to have to ask everyone for food all the time." He wagged his tail again.

[alehue]

nixen gave a half-smile as the canine let out his held breath; it was amazing what little things could do to help a creature's life - him accepting the proposition to be fennel's mentor in hunting could mean the difference between starvation and contentment for this tri-colored canine. "well, i'm glad to help," nixen said, his half-smile becoming a blinder for a moment, before settling into a comfortable, companionable closed-lip grin.

"well, i guess we should start with the basics, as you aren't a very advanced hunter. and the basics start with two things - what will fill you up easily, and what you can feasibly catch. now, i don't want to be lecturing you this whole time, but i need you to think about this - will a mouse fill you up? and how much energy will you spend hunting that mouse? and when you get enough mice to fill you up, how much energy will you have spent?" nixen felt bad catapulting so many questions, one after the other, at this male, but it was information he needed to think about. because where a mouse may make a nice snack for someone his size, a mouse won't even dent the hunger of a canine like fennel, and the time and energy it took to get all of the mice to fill the canine up would make him hungry again. which was not good, at all.

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

Fennel thought for a moment. He tried his best to imagine the size and shape of a mouse (he had seen very little thus far) and his own hunger level. "I think," he said slowly, "that a mouse would not fill me up. Especially when you consider the energy that I would spend catching one. If I get enough to fill me up, I'll probably have spent so much energy that I'll need more.

"Mice aren't the best idea, then," he continued, "or they won't be, until I'm so good at hunting that I don't need to spend a lot of energy catching them. Maybe we should move on to bigger prey. What do you think about catching rabbits? They're bigger than mice, but they are quicker. Then there are the really big animals, the ones with hooves, but maybe those are too big for us, because sometimes they actually defend themselves by kicking."

Fennel, realizing that he was rambling, quickly shut his mouth and sat quietly. "What do you think?"

[alehue]

nixen nodded in approval as the canine spoke - no, a mouse would not fill him up, and he was smart enough to realize all the effort he put forth catching all those mice would be wasted, and would therefore be rewarded by the joy of having to catch more mice. "that's correct." nixen said briskly as there was a gap in the male's speaking; he needed to know that this was, indeed, the right answer. nixen believed that affirmation was the best way of teaching someone something new.

"yes, rabbits would be more suited to your taste. but again, before we try this, you need to think; how do you usually hunt? and how much has that been helping you eat every day?" nixen said, looking slyly at the canine.

[poppy]

f e n n e l . . .

Think, Fennel, think, the canine commanded himself. "How do I hunt?" he repeated. "Well, I usually ... I usually don't hunt," he admitted, lowering his head. Fennel tucked his tail between his legs in an unusual display of shame. "I've always gotten others to get food for me.

"If it helps, though," he said, "I think I know what I'm doing wrong. When I try to hunt, I always get so worked up that I bark a lot, and really loudly, and I scare all the prey away. So if I stop doing that, I think I'll be a lot more successful."

Fennel looked at Nixen for affirmation. What an odd pair this was -- the older one looking to the younger one for guidance. Even so, the canine didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

[alehue]

"Well then, Nixen said with a soft sigh. "That's part of your problem! In order to hunt, you need practice, and lacking practice can mean that your skills don't get any better." Of course, the feline had not yet heard the worse of the problem, for he was studying his student with an intensity; the way he walked, the way he carried himself, his stance, his size - everything was important in hunting, especially the latter two. Of course, Nixen was jerked out of these thoughts when he heard what his student said next - he barked while hunting! Who would be stupid enough to do that!? Of course, Nixen wanted to be the supportive teacher, and only nodded, saying softly, "That is definitely part of the problem..."

"Okay, so I've gotten all the information I need to choose your first quarry. You're going to be hunting a mudoodle - it's like a deer, but it only had one front leg, set in the middle of its chest. It's not much bigger than you - a head taller for a really big one - and I have an idea as to how to keep you from barking. Good plan?" Nixen asked, looking up at his student with stern eyes.

[poppy]

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[atrb=background,http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh52/warriorcat12345/fennelfiller.png] Fennel smiled broadly at Nixen. What a good teacher he was! He hadn't been expecting the feline to yell at him because he barked while he hunted, but now he realized that Nixen could have done so and been totally justified. Fennel was absolutely gratified that he hadn't. When Nixen began to talk about the "mudoodle," the canine panicked. The whole affair sounded terrifying -- finding the strange animal (that in itself would be a difficult task to undertake, as Fennel had never before been exposed large exotic animals), implementing Nixen's plan to keep him from barking. Something was bound to go wrong. "Nixen, what if I get into a fight with it and it takes me down? What if it kicks me with its leg and I can't do anything about it?" He paced about anxiously.

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