#ayden;

Ayden's voice was harsh, but his posture spoke more as a feline utterly embarrassed by what had just happened than someone defensive. Having his prey spooked and his hunt interrupted by a cat twice his size was painfully awkward for a serval who quietly prided himself as a self-taught rogue ranger. Even more so because he hadn't even realized the feline in question -- introduced later as Straya -- had even been stalking the same rabbit!

"Can we just forget it? The rabbit's probably already hit the undergrowth trails anyway. Even if we worked together, we'd still have no chance of catching it."

A small puff from Ayden would end his thoughts of food right then as he retreated into himself to quietly size the female snow leopard up. She seemed friendly -- and just as embarrassed as he. Obviously, she hadn't set out that day to stalk all of his hopes of scoring a decent meal since his paws had left the beach...

"...ugh." The light, annoyed sigh that'd escaped him was a sign marshlands clearly weren't a favorite of his either. At this rate, it'd take him forever to clean his fur enough just to get his light colored paws back in order again! Though, it wasn't just the sloppy mud and sharp tender that'd put Ayden on edge-

He could smell other felines, too.

Large cats, small cats; some trails carrying the same scent by many and others didn't. There were loners like himself here, he could tell, but also groups. Large groups. By the way the scent marks mingled into one another, Ayden could only guess he was skirting along the borders of an entire Empire -- but he'd been so long removed from these lands by now, he couldn't even begin to guess with which one.

What Ayden did know, however, was that he'd tread lightly; choosing to deal with the goopy mud and reeds over accidentally confronting an entire Empire border patrol.