For a moment Silverpaw was too distracted by Pythontail and Cobrastorm's teamwork, and his eyes shone when they successfully caught the toucans, almost an unison. But at his mother's voice, he snapped out of it and scented the air, trying to see if there was anything nearby he could catch. "I think I smell...iguana, maybe? It's some kind of lizard."
Nothing, that's what, Cacaopaw thought, but she simply shrugged in response. She doubted anyone could make her excited. When Tigerlily announced it was time to start hunting, she nodded and began to half-heartedly scent the air.
Pythontail hid his toucan into a hollow at the base of the tree, hoping that would be enough to keep it from any predators lurking nearby. Still, he would scent them if there were any. Flicking his tail for Cobrastorm to do the same with her catch, he moved on, looking for the next catch.
Rainfall nodded and tapped Kinkajoupaw's flank with her tail. "You heard her. What can you smell?"
Peacockpaw was about to re-explain the plan when all of a sudden, an ocelot burst into the clearing, Fishbelly on its back. His eyes widened. He had never seen one before, but it matched the description he'd heard of. It was bigger than an average cat, but far too small to be a jaguar, and there was a look of aggression on its face unlike any he'd seen before. Instinct pulled him in two different directions: one towards the ocelot, to help fight it off, and the other as far away as he could get. For a moment he remained frozen to the spot, unsure whether to run away or follow the warriors into the fray, but at last he decided he couldn't risk Lochpaw's and Canopypaw's lives. "Nobody did. Now run! Back to camp!" He shoved the two apprentices in the opposite direction. He would come back for the warriors once the she-cats made it safely to camp.
Fishbelly clung on for dear life as the ocelot took off with him, only sinking his claws in deeper to keep himself stable. He barely noticed when more of his clanmates had appeared; the predator was running and jumping around so wildly in an attempt to dislodge its attacker that it made it hard for him to focus on anything, but he refused to let go. "You killed him!" he yowled. "You savage monster!"
Whitetail bounded after his leader, crashing through the bushes and into a clearing, where he was half relieved and half horrified to find Tapirfoot, Rockrose, Sunleaf, and their apprentices. They needed any help they could get, but he didn't want to endanger the apprentices, although thankfully it looked like they were about to hightail it out of there. Whitetail launched himself at the ocelot, preparing to rake its flank with his claws, but it leaped out of the way. "Fishbelly, let go!" he cried out. The feline would just be running around uncontrollably as long as Fishbelly held onto it, and that would make it harder for them to drive it out--but were they trying to drive it out? He realized he didn't know whether their goal was to kill or drive out the predator. He had never killed another cat before, and while ocelots were far more savage than regular cats, they were all still feline. But then again, it hadn't had any qualms about making prey out of Mambastride. Still, it could be dangerous for Fishbelly to hang on to something so wild and unpredictable. "Fishbelly! Get off!" he yowled again when his clanmate ignored him, just barely scraping the ocelot's shoulder as he lashed out again.
