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✦ Step 1: Capture. ✦

Jijikko huddled low, creeping out from the pile of warm breathing bodies that were his brothers and sisters and edging — quietly as he could manage — away from where his family had nested for the night. They were still at the foot of the Terra Expanse, near to the same place he and his sister had snuck off to earlier that day, and as such, Jiji was unwilling to give up so easily. He’d been so close but barely even gotten to sniff the creature last time before its mother had arrived. Perhaps, this time, if he was very careful, he could lure it out from its nest or catch it unawares and capture it that way.

What precisely he planned to capture it with, Jiji had yet to figure out quite yet, but perhaps if he could simply catch it by the scruff of the neck…?

The further Jiji worked back up the trail, retracing their path from earlier, the more he began to second guess his planning methods. Perhaps, he reasoned, if he failed again this time, he could return with a better plan. But it never hurt to try?

‘So long as you don’t get yourself killed in the process,’ clipped back a mental part of his thought process that sounded a little too much like Aja. Or perhaps one of his sires. Or really, anyone who didn’t approve of his taste for various adventures. Jiji snorted, stirring up dirt, and shook his head. He knew how to be careful. He would get it this time. He just had to be—

CRACK.

An especially brittle twig snapped under Jiji’s forepaw, and he froze, snout lowered and tail stiff. Just ahead of him, the family of baowi was nestled up on a flat expanse against the mountainside near what appeared to be a cave entrance. But not just the family, beyond them, a yawning swath of them — cluster after cluster — an entire pack of the beasts.

Jiji felt his resolve waver briefly. How was he supposed to deal with all that? But then, he spotted it. One of the younglings, toddling off near the edge of the pack, sniffing around. It appreciated scents.

He had to have one.

Thus, crouching low and edging forward again with the utmost care, he closed in on it. When he drew near enough, he made a soft cooing noise, combined with the little clicking sound in the back of his throat that his mother often made to soothe and gather the attention of him and his siblings as nestlings. The cub noticed, lifting its furry head with apparent curiosity.

Jiji waited, holding his ground near the edge of the outcrop and continuing to make the occasional quiet call until the cub finally started toddling his way. It made it within inches of him, dark eyes wide and inquisitive, small snout nearly brushing his. Then, seconds before making his move—

“GGRRRAAAAAAAAAWWWRRRR!”

Jiji made the second run for his life of the day.