Could Curiosity Really Kill the Cat? [Sota]

[Jay]

It was fall in Hexasol, that meant that the air was getting colder, after a year of living in Hexasol, the orange and white tabby tom wandering the streets knew it would only get colder from here on in. As he trotted along the streets, eyeing the various alleyways in case of some desperate starving mutt or some other crazy critter who decided he looked weak enough to just beat up for no good reason, as he knew some crazy creatures would do. Unfortunatly though, it seemed his constant observation wasn't good enough, as a small gathering of dogs, loners obviously, from their unorganized behavior. But even small groups of loners had developed new methods of hunting, now that they didn't even have human garbage to scavenge. And these dogs were hungry enough to see a skinny little cat as good prey. The tom, who had paused and was looking behind him, watching another feline scramble into an alleyway, hadn't even considered the thought of a small gang of dogs coming after him. And for once, he hadn't taken his lack of hearing in his right ear into consideration, if he had, he may have heard the skittering of claws on pavement sooner.

Even so, upon hearing the panting breaths and paws, the tom spun, seeing the lead dog aiming straight for him, and quickly turned and pelted away. As he ran, his mind was racing, trying to figure out a plan to get away BEFORE these dogs caught up to him. He made a split second descision, and turned into an alley.
Bad Choice. The alley was a dead end, with only a dumpster and some trash cans. The tom slid under the dumpster, knowing it would only be a matter of moments before they caught up, and realized where he was. As he crouched under the disgusting smelling dumpster, he cursed himself.
'Stupid, why'd you let your guard down? You know better than that, Atlas. You know better but you still let this happen. So now what are you gonna do? Yowl for help like a lost kitten?' He held his breath as he spotted paws in front of him, hoping for these dogs to just go away. Alas, as a muzzle sniffed it's way under the metal dumpster, Atlas couldn't help but hiss and lash out, claws finding purchase and scratching small gashes into the mutt's nose. As one left, another lunged underneath, teeth coming just to close for comfort, Atlas hissed and scrambled back.
'Oh, this is bad, I have my back litterally against a wall. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!'

[Hunter]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] Sota walks, ”Sota talks” After hearing some reports from spies and hunters, Sota decided to walk along the borders to follow up on the guards. After some of the scum had been rescued from the slaughterhouse, Sota was extra strict with the felines who stood watch at the boarders. How could it have been possible for such a big group of Tempest canines to infiltrate their territory and even free some of the prisoners? It was unacceptable and Sota didn’t want it to happen again – especially not while she was the Duchess. She was supposed to help Alexander keeping the Iris Pride fit for fight but at this point she’d certainly failed. After all, the pride would only be as strong as its leaders, so the female cheetah definitely saw it as her job to make sure that nothing like that would happen again. And how she wanted the canines to regret that they’d saved their comrade – an attack on Tempest was something she thirsted for, just as a reminder to those pathetic dogs that they should be careful of whom they messed with. The sound of dogs barking made her perk up her ears, piercing brown eyes narrowing. Dogs, they were just anywhere weren’t they? The three-year-old cheetah sneered in a displeased manner before setting into a run. She would personally make sure that those dogs never would dare to venture past the Iris Pride’s borders again. And just to make it even better for the dogs, Sota was in a really foul mood today. Luckily for other pridemembers, they weren’t deaf. Two wild cats whom Sota knew were some of the alley cats of the pride followed her, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Soon the three felines reached the scene, a dead end where a group of dogs barked and growled at a dumpster as if it was alive. ”Excuse me, boys,” Sota sneered, introducing the felines’ presence. ”You’re on the wrong side of the border.” The dogs, who appeared to be nothing but mere loners, turned around to face her, fear painted in their faces for a second as they realized the meaning of her words. But then the seconds were over and the lead dog attacked, his followers right in his heels. Readying herself for the impact, the two wild cats jumped down from their hiding places, each of them landing on one of the dogs. As Sota leapt to the side to avoid the mutt’s blow, she grabbed one of his companions by the neck and easily bit it in two, a satisfying crack sounding before the life went out of the dog’s body. Dropping the dead body on the ground, Sota hissed fiercely at the lead dog, daring him to attack her again. But the mutt was nothing like the soldiers of the Tempest Pack. Seeing how one of his followers had been killed in a second, he whimpered and turned around to run away as fast as he could. The two dogs who’d been fighting the wild cats ran away as well, both leaving trails of blood. ”Follow them. Make sure they get out of here. We can’t have dogs sneaking around inside our territory,” she said to the cats who ran, following the bloody trail which the dogs had left behind them. She wasn’t scared that the dogs would attack her two smaller pridemates – they’d been scared to death, and if the unlikely should happen, there would be plenty of guards to help them. What she was more concerned about was why on earth the group of dogs had been around the dumpster. Had they hunted something beneath it? Walking into the alley she lowered her head, trying to look underneath the dumpster. ”You can come out,” she said as her eyes found a little feline silhouette. ”They’re gone now, it’s all safe.” The silhouette looked really tiny and probably wasn’t of more than a young domestic cat. Her tone had therefore grown softer, not wanting to scare the newcomer, who – by the scent – told her that it was a loner. How scary it must have been for such a little one to be chased by the group of dogs.

[Jay]

”Excuse me, boys, You’re on the wrong side of the border.” A female voice sneered from above the dumpster. Atlas, still eyeing the obviously frustrated dog's paws, and the muzzle that retreated from under the dumpster, couldn't help but wonder where he'd led these idiot mutts. He heard a slight whimper, which wouldn't have been audible from anywhere but his unfortunate position, before there was a snarl and moving paws. With just his limited details of seeing paws move and hearing the sounds of the battle that was taking place before him. There were a pair of thuds as two of the dogs stumbled, two sets of feline paws coming into view. Another set of paws landed not even a second after a loud crack sounded, he could see the body of one of the dogs drop onto the ground, and heard the whimper and skitter of running paws from his packmates.
”Follow them. Make sure they get out of here. We can’t have dogs sneaking around inside our territory.” The female voice stated again, as the two sets of paws vanished from view. Atlas stayed where he was, crouched and still panting, though now out of fear, he recognized the scent, however overpowered by the stench of trash, of an Iris Pride feline, and relaised how badly he had messed up. He was in their territory, and now, judging by the paw size of the feline left, he was alone in the alley with a large cat, probably a cheetah or another of the lanky portion of big cats.

But now it was too late to run, the larger feline was crouching down, peering under the dumpster to investigate the reason as to the dogs' presence in her territory. A pair of brown eyes came to rest on his, probably small and terrified looking, figure, and the feline spoke again, this time in a gentler voice.
”You can come out. They’re gone now, it’s all safe.” Atlas couldn't help but blink in shock at the soft tone. Glancing over at the body that still laid on the ground, he considered just staying under the dumpster.
'Don't be a coward Atlas, she just probably saved you life, be grateful and move.' He mentally scolded himself, slowly creeping out of the dim area under the rancid dumpster, looking up at the female cheetah before him. He gulped, looking at the body of the mutt, now being able to see it all he realised wht that snap had been, the mutt's neck. She'd broken it. Atlas could feel his ears pinning themselves back against his head, subconsciously reacting to the fear and shock, but he quickly shook his head, this cheetah saved him, he needed to remember that and be polite.
"Sorry, it's just... shocking to have gotten myself caught like that... Thank you, very much, for driving them away." He spoke calmly, and politely, thought not without a slight tremor in his voice. "My name is Atlas, by the way, and I apologize for leading them across your border, I did not know where I was going at the time."

[Hunter]

It didn’t take long before a little, orange cat came out from beneath the dumpster. He looked shocked, his eyes slightly flickering, but Sota couldn’t be sure if it was the sight of the dead canine behind them or the sight of such a big Iris feline standing in front of him which made him a tad fearful. For a second he pinned his ears onto his head, but then reconsidered and opened his mouth instead to speak, politely thanking her for driving the dogs away. ”What a brave little one you are,” she started, meaning her words. Had she been in Atlas’ paws, she would’ve been terrified of a feline which was many times bigger than herself – and had scared away something she in the first time had found scary.

”My name is Sota. And as you already have out together, I’m a part of the Iris Pride,” she introduced herself in a friendly tone. ”You shouldn’t worry about letting those dogs into our territory, though – served them right to get a lesson, and besides we also need to stay fit for fight. The fact that the dogs unnoticed could get this far into our territory just proves that we have some work to do,” she said almost teasingly with a crooked smile on her lips. At first she’d been mad at herself that the dogs had come so far without anyone but her noticing, but then again, now she just knew what to do better. Had the dogs been from the Tempest Pack, she would no matter what had been angry with herself, but since they proved just to be loners, it wasn’t as important – at least not now when they’d hunted them out and even killed one of them. Perhaps it was good enough that she’d tasted a little blood on her teeth. It had after all been a long time since she as the duchess often stayed on the pride’s territory to work on serious matters instead of having fun with chasing dogs.

Looking behind her at the dead body, a thought struck her and she turned to look at Atlas again. “You might be brave, but you still look so young – it could’ve been dangerous. Are you alone?” she asked thoughtfully, looking at the dumpster again as if thinking more cats would emerge from beneath the dumpster. The orange cat’s scent still told her that he was a loner, but surely he had to have some family to care for him? Or maybe she, as a big feline, just wasn’t very good at guessing a domestic cat’s age.

((OOC: Sitting on little computer with bad internet, so I can’t bother to insert her posting table right now! :b))