Atlan had been just planned on quickly passing through, the tom eager to try new and deeper hunting spots that might have a better prospect for more prey -- even if it was at the expense of a little bit of safety. The last thing he expected was to see a cat stuck in a hole on his way there.

Hearing a voice call out from in the tunnels, the tom paused, not responding immediatly but quietly stalking up to the sound, only to notice the his fellow group-mate stuck in the wall. He had to force his fur to stay flat; the situation was pretty bad. There was nothing quite like the danger of a cat getting stuck in a place they couldn't get out of. It was rare a cat died from it, most were rescueable, but some being so tightly squeezed in that they could never be helped out wasn't unheard of.

"Hello, I'm here. I'm Atlan, and I'm supposing..." He said as calmly as possible, taking an extra look around the whole to try and assess how how dire the situation was. "You're pretty badly stuck."

Atlan gave a small sigh, hesitating on a full response as he tried to think through the best way to solve the she cat's predicament. She was very obviously stuck. He could try to help pull her out, but the last thing he wanted to do was get her hurt with a bunch of pointless tugging that might not even work. He could grab some wet moss and try to help loosen up the area around her to get her out, but that would only help so much and might just waste the she cat's and his precious time. He looked at the ground around where the she cat had gotten stuck, noticing it was more dirt that rock. The area seemed stable though, not like the kind that would cause a wall to collpase with a little bit of digging. So the tom figured that might be the best way to go about getting her out.

Looking for the best angle to try and widden, the tom began digging in attempt to enlarge the gap enough to help the she cat be able to back out, finally responding as he did so. "Sorry about that, just trying to find the best way to get you out without having to make you wait even longer or call an entire patrol. I'm Atlan Prospero, by the way." He answered calmly as he continued with his effort.

"You're welcome, but it's not that big of a deal. I'm sure you didn't go into this planning to trap yourself in a wall. It probably good to note for future catching, though; I imagine it'll be a good lesson learned. Nice to meet though, Alurela. " Atlen said as he continued to digging, his voice fairly sympathtic. He continued digging for a short while, till he figured there was a reasonable amount of room for the she cat to make another valid attempt at slipping out.

"I think it should be big enough to back out of now by the way. If not I can try and widden it some more, but might as well make an attempt." The tom advised, standing back a bit to give the she cat room.

"Maybe that's not exactly the type of thing you want to share with the entirety of the regime." He agreed, with a touch of amusement in his tone. "I'm glad you're out though, and that it was a relatively easy fix. Like I said though, I imagine it's not exactly something you'll be trying again. Or at least trying with a hint more care." Atlan said, giving a quick look over at the she cat now that he could actually see who he had been talking to. He made a quick note that she seemed fully okay. Not wounded at least, which was good. It wasn't too uncommon to get slightly injured when doing all the pushing and twisting to get out of a hole like that, but the tom was glad to see that Alurela looked fine.

"But I do applaud the extra effort in the hunt, seriously. The way the regime has been on prey lately has made making a few risky choices seem worth it." Atlan said, once again recalling where he had been heading before he had come across his fellow group-mate's former predicament.

The whole comment about enjoying being stuck appeared to leave the tom dumbfounded a moment, but he seemed to very quickly brush it off, he himself also quickly breaking his attention from her previous tanget to answer her question with a slightly awkward laugh.

"Well, you're free to join me, but I don't know if I would call if fun, per say. It's more your regular hunting work, although it you're a fan of 'high risk, high reward' it might be considered fun for you. I was planning on going deeper into the tunnel system to see if there might be any hiding out there. Of course, that brings the chance of more predators, but with any luck they're avoiding the deeper networks as much as we do." Atlan explained to the she cat, taking a brief pause in his run-down to briefly asses how the she cat would react to the implication of potentially facing down a fox or a badger. Normally he would have assumed that would be enough to make most cats turn tail, and he wouldn't have blamed her if it did. But something equally told him, if his read on the she cat was right, that Alurela wasn't the kind of cat to be so easily disuaded from joining him.

Altan only gave a small, slightly fazed blink in response to the obvious lie, but didn't speak on it further. It fact, beyond that he didn't even hint at notcing it, instead only giving a small nod of his head in acknoweledgement that she had chose to go along with her for whatever her reasoning.

"With how low prey has been recently, just seeing prey is interesting." The hint of humor in his voice was only equaled out by the note of exhuastion, and yet without hesitation the tom started forward on to his destination he'd been heading to prior to helping Alurela escape, assuming the she cat would follow close by.

"So," Atlan started, assuming it was best to keep up conversation rather than risk awkward silence till they hit their destination. "Are you a a scout or mercenary?" The tom asked. Normally the answer would have been a little more obvious even at first meeting, their duties and tasked normally fairly well seperated. But with the recent lack of prey and the harsh winter, the two groups had been practically merged into one massive hunting force. At this point, he wouldn't have been shocked if guiders or raisers were thrown into the mix as well, although the very thought made him feel uncomfortable.

Atlan nodded along to Alurela's spiel, letting her talk and explain as they continued deeper into the tunnels. At the question he gave an actual small pause to reflect, searching his memory to see if he could recall ever seeing one. "I believe so, once when I was a cadet actually. I remember being very specifically told to be wary of them. Aparently they can kill a cat if you're not careful, a few cats have even claimed they've seen them hunt bats. It's not really a creature I'm hoping to come across again any time soon." He said, a hint of amusement unable to fully equal out the wariness in his tone. It wasn't exactly that he was scared of coming across one, although that was more than possible deeper in the tunnels that few bothered to go down. It was more just a reminder of why it was important to stay alert. It could be all too easy for a cat to let down their guard, especially cats like him who had been born in the Regime. Every turn and movement of the tunnels was in some way slightly familiar, the darkness and stone was naturally home. But it was wise not to forget that the caverns and tunnels were as unforgiving to those who were born in them as they were to oustiders, and sometimes more so -- at least outsider were more inclined to be alert. The thought alone made him inclined to change the topic to one of a slightly lighter nature.

"Hm. But anyways I should say, being a scout is a good job, perhaps the most important job when the group is low on prey like it has been lately. In fact, sometimes I think being a mercenary is an impractical role. The Regime rarely goes to war, and most scout teams are as adept at taking on larger predator animals than most mercenary squads, if not more so. In short, I don't think you're missing out on much." The tom mused. "In fact, I know my younger brother has always been a scout, and he's been handling the hunting much better than most mercenaries and bringing home more prey, which shows you how much that training shines through when the Regime really needs it. An army marches on its stomach as they say, and you can't even think about starting a fight unless everyone is healthy and well fed."

There was a moment the tom paused as if considering her words, before giving a hesitant nod in agreement. "...I suppose. The Regime manages to keep me pretty well on my toes, and I've never really had to worry about being bored. But, equally, I like the type of work I do, so I don't find it a chore. I still think you're right that being a mercenary would change it up all that much for you though, we do about the same thing scouts normally do just with slightly different steps. Same routine, just a different focus. The regime is very structured on that front." Atlan explained, as they padded onwards through the tunnels. "And the good news of course is, both jobs let you explore, and scouts a lot more so than mercenaries. I've been through more new tunnels and locations the last few months thanks to all the hunting we've been doing this winter than I've been in all the seasons before combined."