"You need to lean back farther," Tinypaw advised Rowanpaw, while Crescentpaw kept her own gaze fixated on the quiet waters among the pebbly stream-bed. This particular channel was quite thin, and closer to Greenleaf Twolegplace- so that the cats could hear them shouting and hollering from afar within the tall, water-logged grasses.

"It's a wonder we can even catch anything with them shouting so much!" Rowanpaw complained and flicked a bit of water from her whiskers, then wrinkled her snout with annoyance. "Why did we even choose this area?" She sneered.

"We didn't want to run into the sunhigh patrol, remember? They usually follow the bend around the thickest part of the river when they leave. And Emberfawn is hunting with Lagoonstripe in the marshes. I heard Quietdew mention it before we slipped out."

"Well this is still stupid," she growled crossly. "Besides; I'll only get ridiculed or told what I'm doing wrong here. I'm going to hunt by myself." With her fringed reddish-brown tail held high, she rose and began to stalk down the sandy shore.

"Someone put mouse-bile in her prey again?" Crescentpaw looked pointedly over at Tinypaw, who nodded and cracked a smile.

"I wish I could say I was guilty, but nope- she just acts that way. My, she's as testy as a fly." Tinypaw murmured lightheartedly as she leaned back from the water. With her ears pricked and muzzle tipped at an angle, she focused before feigning towards a shadow that she had thought was a fish.

"Mouse-dung frogs. Get out of my way!" Tinypaw hissed, lashing her tail and then quieting herself.

"Well, we could always send her Mother's way."

"If only," Tinypaw sighed agreement, and twitched her whiskers mischievously. Her black pelt rippled along her spine, shining where the light hit it as she moved.

Crescentpaw was only kidding, of course. She didn't actually despise her bark-brown sister- despite how repulsive her bad attitude could be, it was sort of understandable.

"What do you think the clan will do now that-"

"Hey! I found trapped prey!" Someone began yowling from beyond the overhanging water-reeds and switchgrass. The wind tugged on their stems gently at first, and then they violently began rattling and shaking. Rowanpaw hopped out a moment later, her ears pricked with enthusiasm.

"What do you mean?" Crescentpaw asked her russet-furred sister before hearing Tinypaw curse in annoyance, probably about her actually-a-fish-this-time fish being scared off.

"There's this weird mesh-contraption thing inside the sedge grasses near here. It's by the greenleaf Twolegpath," she said, her eyes focused on them as she breathlessly gasped for more air. "And I was trying to scent for a mouse or vole when I found it! It's got an entire carp inside."

Rowanpaw's yellow eyes were wider now, as if she were excited and proud. "I tried to get it out myself but it looks tricky. There's a flap that I need some other cat to keep pushed open for me, I think." Their littermate looked more and more apprehensive as she continued to ask for her sister's help. But Crescentpaw was quick to nod before Rowanpaw could react negatively again.

I don't want her to storm off for the dozenth time this week. Even though this idea seems dangerous, Rowanpaw deserves the thought of us at least taking a look. After all we were kind of just joking about her. Good thing she didn't hear...

"Where is it?" Crescentpaw blinked her dual-colored eyes at her sister, her fur beginning to bush with excitement at the prospect of free prey. Maybe it really can be that easy.

"But it sounds like a Twoleg thing. And it's too close to the paths that they walk in Greenleaf," Tinypaw reasoned.

Impatiently, Rowanpaw began to flick her tail to and fro, opening her jowls to argue. A dragonfly flew above their ears as Crescentpaw cut her off.

"Well, yes- but we can at least check it out, right?" She gave her smaller black sister 'the stare.' Which in and of itself was saying Let's not make her run off on her own again.

After a moment of blank-eyed confusion her kin understood and nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah. I mean of course it couldn't hurt to look. We can come back here and fish on the way back. If you want to that is, Rowanpaw." Tinypaw tried to save face, speaking kindly instead of critically now.

Crescentpaw turned to follow her sister with an eager tail-flick, ready for the challenge. But she didn't miss Tinypaw's sad glance back at the water as she murmured, "Dang. I almost had a huge trout from in there!"

She swiveled an ear backwards in understanding but was also relieved when Tinypaw began following. Her second littermate trotted behind Rowanpaw as they nosed their way through the grass and away from the sandy shorebed. The she-cats were temporarily swathed in cool green shadow. Their vision was cut off; unless they should stretch their eyes above the overgrown leafage.

Crescentpaw was following Rowanpaw's fresh scent trail through the switchgrass when she began losing her, and a few minutes later the scent was nearly entirely replaced by the smell of Twoleg.

The grass was trampled a lot here. In a particularly high-reaching tuft of weeds sat a submerged wire-mesh contraption.

It was shaded by a tall, twisty tree. One end of the thing was flat and see-through, while the other was bent inward on one side. The object was rectangular and mostly visible below the lined-up trees, but had ripped-up grass thrown atop and heaped beside it. The wires along the bottom had gaps, allowing the grass to grow through the floors of it as well.

"It's odd isn't it? The twolegs tried to make it seem like it's been here forever, but their scent is all over the place. And they've put food inside for us! But why?" Tinypaw stared almost dumbfoundedly at her sister, to which Crescentpaw almost laughed. She sat down on her haunches, her dark stripes blending into the shading of the overgrown grass stems.

"It obviously looks like a trap to me. We should leave it and go back to fishing. We could even hunt for land prey if you wanted to-"

"Ugh, anytime I have an idea you guys just think it's horrible." Rowanpaw began curling her lip, but Crescentpaw was quick to stand back up with her plumey tail held high.

"I think we should try it. I mean, we can't hear the Twoleg's shouts from here- and we all know that we could help get each other out if one gets stuck or trapped. There's three of us." Crescentpaw felt her stomach ball up into a knot, wondering if that was actually true.

But for once they had to support one of Rowanpaw's decisions. The reddish-brown she-cat had been growing farther apart from them in the recent moons, and more willing to avoid or even oppose them. Crescentpaw didn't like how her sister was withdrawing from their trio.

I'll support her in this. If anything just this once.

"All right then..." Their velvety black sister still sounded hesitant as she avoided their gazes, wrapping her tail around her dainty little paws. "So how would we use it?" Tinypaw asked uncertainly.

🐈‍⬛

Though it took quite some time, the she-cat's had found a way to get safely inside without getting trapped. One had to hold the sideways metal flap-door open with their shoulders, while one held it with their paws to properly adjust it up or down; and provide as a fail-safe if the other cat slipped on the smooth metal they were holding above.

It was odd, but after many experimental tries Crescentpaw found that she was best at shouldering the flap open as far as she could, because she was the largest. Tinypaw would be the cat to go in and retrieve the fish since she was the smallest. And Rowanpaw used her paws and nails to push the flap even farther up, giving more of an opening than Crescentpaw could provide with her awkward leverage.

"I gof it!" Tinypaw mewed from around the fish in her jaws after she had securely grasped it. Now that it wasn't lying flat, the others could see that it was quite a large fish- almost wider than Tinypaw's head. Her jaws were stretched wide around it.

"Great!" Rowanpaw sounded pleased that her plan had worked. Crescentpaw stared over the tips of her sister's ears as she watched Tinypaw turn around in the metal box to face the exit's direction. She shimmied back toward them.

"I'm going to slif back through now, so puff it open as much as you can. I'll flaffen myself!" Tinypaw mumbled, laying her ears flat against her skull and squinting her eyes while she crouched.

As Crescentpaw pushed her shoulders up against the metal flap hard, she felt the it digging into her flesh. She nearly flinched at the pain but then instinctively turned her head as she heard something behind her.

There were voices. Twoleg sounds, coming from afar and growing louder. Snapping herself upright, she nearly let the metal slip from above her, then stiffened with panic.