Redtail Rise run rabbit run

The huntress refused to be deterred just because they’d lost any element of surprise. Masque watched shrewdly as the woman crept carefully toward their quarry, her eyes darting between the two. Once more, she held her breath.

Intuiting that she was meant to continue taking part in this exercise, Masquerade mimicked her mentor again. Despite her painstaking efforts to move as stealthily as the adult, the grasshopper immediately flew into the air again.

This time, the movement triggered an undeniable impulse in the youth. She raced after the fluttering bug, snapping her jaws. It landed in the grass, only to spring swiftly into the air again, Masquerade bounding after it with a flash of her teeth. They scrambled across the rendezvous site.

Eventually, the grasshopper disappeared into the brush at the edge of the clearing. Masquerade halted there, head held high and ears pricked, tail dangling between her legs. She whined. She wanted to keep chasing, yet she’d lost sight of the prey in all the greenery. Besides, she knew Avicus had forbidden her cubs from leaving the area.

Exhaling noisily through her nose, Masque turned her head to peer at her guide. Her limp tail gave a couple halfhearted twitches.