Late Training

Nightbird sat in the cold sunlight of Leaf-fall, waiting for her apprentice to appear. She knew this training had been put off for far too long, and she knew how that felt. But this mentor had no reason to not train him, so she waited quietly, patiently. Today was very important battle training- one of the last few steps into becoming a warrior. If this went well, Littlepaw would become a warrior very soon; perhaps even this very moon.

Ooc- OMG I'M SO SORRY LITTLE D:

ooc: I'M SO SORRY TOOOOO *huggles*

IC: Littlepaw bounded up to his mentor excitedly, his eyes with with determination. He ran up, stopping for a moment when he saw Nightbird. "C'mon, lazybones, let's go!" he mewed, his eyes glowing. "I'm almost gonna be a warrior!"

ooc: Is this an assessment?

Ooc- No, but I was thinking of lumping battle training and a border patrol together..
 
The dark pelted she-cat stood at the appearance of her apprentice and purred. "Yes you are. After this, only an assessment stands in your way." She noticed all of his bouncing and well, being hyper on excitement basically. "Hmmm..." she murmured, circling around Littlepaw before coming to a stop. "I've got an idea. Why not we combine battle training and a border patrol? They do go paw-in-paw, after all."
 Twitching her tail and planting a cheerful smile on her face, the warrior burst out her plan. "What I was thinking of doing is that I go and hide along the border. Don't worry, i'll only go from here to the Thunderclan border, which shouldn't be too far. The objective is to find and pounce on me! Fun, right? Then I would show you some good battle tactics for that situation. You can even try them out on me, of course. Keep your eyes, ears and, if you can, your nose open. Ready?" Now nearly as excited as the apprentice, Nightbird swished her tail back and forth, and her simple smile had become an ecstatic grin. Even I can't wait to see what happens!
 After giving the multi-colored apprentice a chance to process the plan, she jogged into the brush that signaled that one was in the vicinity of the Gorge. Hiding underneath a smooth-skinned bush, she waited quietly, with that stupid smile plastered on her face.

Ooc- ImprettysureIhavetopostthisheresoyeah

ooc: You called me multi-colored ;A;

IC: Littlepaw gave a bounce of excitement and followed after is mentor.

Nightbird narrowed her eyes and slowed her breathing, trying to get her apprentice to work his senses hard to find her. Dark pelt camouflaging her quite easily, she waited for paw steps. And if Littlepaw could pounce on her without her knowing he was there, well, she'd be very impressed (after putting her pelt back on of course.) "Now, this pre-test will let me know if you can learn the territory quick enough to find an opponent and take them by surprise.", she meowed, that from the outside, seemed to be coming from everywhere but yet also nowhere.

Littlepaw nodded, opening his mouth to find his mentor's scent. Looking around, eyes narrowed in concentration, he stalked quietly to a bush, almost making no sounds as his soft paws treaded lightly on the grass.
The apprentice crouched down low, stalking around to the back of the bush. He got really close, keeping really low to the ground, and then pounced suddenly, jumping on the back of his mentor, but not hurting Nightbird. "Gotcha!" he mewed in happiness.

"Gah!", The mentor growled in surprise. After shaking her apprentice off, she turned and purred. "You did very well. I didn't even hear you coming. Something you could have done if I was an enemy cat; was to pull my tail to confuse me, then come around the front and box my ears. Since we're near the Gorge, I wouldn't go jumping or sliding around.. for obvious reasons." Nightbird thought back to the last cat that had fallen into that deathtrap..it hadn't turned out pretty.
"Hmm.. next stop is Sunningrocks. It'll be much harder to find me, but there are more battle tactics that can be used." Following the border, past Fourtrees, and going besides the Thunderclan border, by the time it was past sunhigh, they had reached those warm stones by the river. Before Littlepaw had even left the brambles, this sneaky cat had already hidden in the cold shadows.

Littlepaw twitched his ears, listening as his mentor stalked away. Then the small apprentice slid away through the trees, looking around, confused. She said sunningrocks, right...?
Littlepaw stopped when he got to the smooth stones, sniffing around quietly for the scent. A better thing for an enemy cat to do is hide their scent in the river... he thought before he followed Nightbird's trail, his paws treading lightly against the smooth stones. He came to a shadowy patch of rocks and found Nightbird, but just barely. She blended in really well against the shade, but he had still found her.
Littlepaw silently slithered behind his mentor, making sure he hadn't stepped on any twigs. He took the advice at first, stalking up slowly and pulling Nightbird's tail to confuse her, and quickly slinked to the front, toppling Nightbird over with a well, not too hard, tackle, landing on top of his mentor.
"Gotcha again!"

Hm? Who's there? Nightbird felt a weight fall on her shoulders and flatten her. "Greaft hob", she muttered, her chin smooshed against the dirt. Wriggling out from under Littlepaw, the rather squished mentor grunted and groomed her fur down. "Excellent. For here.." Her green eyes flashed, for the last time she was here, she was with her clan fighting Thunderclan for the control of these sun-bleaches stones.
After a few heartbeats, the dark she-cat continued. "Are you surprised I didn't hide in the water? Well, apparently the other clans are afraid of it- they wouldn't get ankle-deep to save their lives! That's why our, Riverclan's, main way of ambush is to take to the water they are so afraid of!"