Ch 17 Nature's Documentary Part 2

The two shadowcats were slowly moving toward the cave. They had thick black fur with white stripes and were the size of a mountain lion from Jon's past life. The main thing to take notice of was that both of them had visible injuries, with the smaller female one being more injured than the other, as she was visibly limping.

There was a huge scar on the back of the smaller one that almost looked fatal and from that Jon was able to deduce that they were a victim of a failed bear hunt. The shadowcats were rare in this area as they were mostly found in Westeros in the lands beyond the Wall, the Mountains of the Moon, the Northern Riverlands, and the Red Mountains of Dorne.

They were fearsome agile and silent predators who were known for their sharp claws which can disembowel a man with a paw and their pelts are prized possessions known as Shadowskin.

'You didn't tell me that there was more than one here, Frost,'

Jon grumbled to Frost mentally who gave a mental shrug at him that told him that she only saw one of them last time.

From the accounts of veteran hunters he knew, Jon knew that they were very fast and good climbers too so he was sure that he could barely handle one of them which meant that the situation here was too risky and he didn't want to find out for himself if they were fast enough to dodge arrows.

Jon was just about to declare this as a failed hunt and go home to come back with more preparation when an interesting development started taking place in front of the cave.

There seemed to be some kind of disagreement between the two as the male started bristling in anger about something and growled at the female while moving toward the cave. The female jumped in front of him and arched her back defensively while hissing furiously as if denying him entrance.

The male was enraged and snarled in warning while showing his fearsome set of teeth but the female held on and insisted on standing in front of him.

Jon was confused over the drama in front of him, as while they both looked a little emaciated as if they had just recently crossed the wall, he couldn't fathom why they would fight over a cave but ultimately he decided that it was all the better for him if one of them was sufficiently injured.

The situation escalated after the male lost his patience and lunged for the female, which started a fearsome brawl to the death between the two big cats. There was a lot of biting, clawing, and screaming involved and none of the two were holding back but the female was already limping so the outcome was clear from the start to Jon.

Jon scratched his head over why the female wasn't running away from her sure death before the reason came stumbling out of the cave.

The new entrant seemed like a smaller version of the male outside and was the size of a small dog and the moment he came out he started foolishly barking at the bigger Shadowcat who was almost done with the female.

Jon had read somewhere in his past life that there were parents in wildlife that would even eat their own children but watching it with his own eyes left a foul taste in his mouth.

The bigger Shadowcat was disgustingly salivating at the sight of his meal and didn't waste a single moment as he stalked for the child who was futilely barking. The female tried to stop him once more but she was a lot slower now and a sharp slap of the male's claw took the fight out of her.

If the scene wasn't already tragic enough, an even younger Shadowcat came yipping out of the cave and going toward her sibling, this new one was barely the size of a puppy.

The male Shadowcat wasn't waiting anymore as he lunged at his meal. This would have ended in a very bad tragedy if not for an arrow that came out of nowhere and toward the Shadowcat's eyes who was barely able to move his head and was struck just below instead of his eyes.

The Shadowcat screamed furiously and wasn't interested in his meal anymore as he didn't waste a single moment and immediately ran for the tree where the second and the third arrow came for it, but he was too nimble for them as he dodged them easily not even breaking in his stride.

The big cat reached the tree before the third arrow even hit the ground and without breaking a sweat took a jumping start and started climbing the tree. Jon was crouched on the tree with an arrow strung in his bow and watching his death approaching calmly.

It looked as if Jon was petrified as he didn't lose the arrow even when the Shadowcat was halfway up. Jon was about to become cat food when suddenly something moved blindingly fast across the Shadowcat's vision and before the cat could even blink its right eye was clawed out as he fell off screaming.

Jon chose that exact moment to lose the arrow precisely for the eye and the cat wasn't able to dodge this time as the arrow easily pierced his uninjured eye and straight into his brain stopping its scream abruptly.

The Shadowcat's body fell with a thud on the ground and after shooting another arrow to make sure that the cat was dead, Jon climbed down the tree and moved toward the cave.

The female was on her last breath, with her children whining at her to stand up. When Jon came close enough the stupid bigger sibling, who turned out to be a male, came at him barking with all its might, but it was too small to do anything as Jon easily caught him by its neck and dangled him in the air.

The huge eye of the female was looking at Jon imploringly and he was proficient enough in warning to know that she was asking him not to kill her children. Jon closed his eyes and after establishing a faint connection with the dying cat, sent his thoughts to her without full warning into her.

'I will not kill them and instead make sure they live,' he said using emotions and images.

Jon had no idea if the female understood him or not but she stopped looking at him and instead growled something at her children for a while before her eyes closed and she breathed her last.

...

That day the town of wintertown was sent buzzing with the news that their lord's bastard had hunted two fully grown Shadowcats that hadn't been seen around here in years so it was somewhat of a feat.

Becca was finally able to start on her journey as a warg when she chose the little Shadowcat who she named Moon as she was a female.

Jon was followed everywhere he went by a striped cat that scared the shit out of all the hounds in the kennel, and he named his new animal companion, Tiger.

A few weeks later the town celebrated in jubilation when the news arrived of the Iron Throne's victory over ironborn.