Chapter Two

Pepper perked his ears as he heard a tiny scuttling across the ground. The black and white tom lifted his muzzle and sniffed the air. Mouse! Pepper automatically crouched low to the ground and unsheathed his thorn sharp claws. He silently but quickly stalked the mouse. It was nibbling at a large acorn, not noticing Pepper. Pepper put all his weight on his haunches and took a flying leap, his claws extended. The mouse squeaked with terror as Pepper pounced on it. The mouse darted out from Pepper's paws and scurried away. Pepper leaped to his paws and gave chase. But the mouse was quicker. It scurried away into a small burrow, escaping Pepper's eager claws. The largetom stopped infront of the burrow and shoved one paw into the hole. He felt his claws brush fur but no flesh. With a hiss of frusteration, Pepper yanked his paw out of the burrow and stormed away. The black and white loner had failed once again. His mother never taught him how to hunt. The only thing Pepper ever caught, was a baby starling that had fallen out of it's nest. Pepper, who was only 10 moons old, had killed the bird when it tried to crawl away. It wasn't even enough to fill him up. Pepper trudged on, annoyed with himself. I'll never catch anything! his thoughts snarled. Pepper then heard a water flowing over stones. He followed the sound of the water. Pepper almost fell over the side of a large gorge. Down below was a rushing river, threatening to wash away whatever fell into it's swirling water. Pepper backed away from the gorge. Fish! Pepper's stomach ached with hunger. The black and white loner looked around for a place that could take him down to the river. He saw a spot where it wasn't as steep as the rest of the gorge. Pepper ran to the spot and started to carefully climb down. When he was close enough to the river, he leaped onto a nearby boulder and stared into the water. He saw the slender bodies of fish swimming around. Pepper twitched his whiskers and stayed absolutely still. Then, a large fish swam near the boulder, it's scaly body glistening as the sun hit it. Pepper unsheathed his claws and swiftly swiped at the fish. He felt his claws it flesh and and the tom saw blood spill out into the water. He had hit the fish! Before the fish could swim away, Pepper scooped it out of the water and he flung the fish to shore. Pepper pounced on it and gave it a hard bite to it's neck. The fish went limp. Pepper let out  a yowl of triumph. He had caught his very first prey! The black and white tom knelt down and took a bite. He wrinkled his nose. it tasted like soaking wet meat that was left out in the sun for to long! But it was food so Pepper shrugged it off and ate the fish, trying to ignore the fishy taste. When the last bit of fish was gone, Pepper climbed up the gorge again and followed the direction of the sun, thinking about his sister Snowfall and how she was so eager for him to find the Land of the Clans.