Snowpaw's Border Patrol

Thrushstripe couldn't see why not, although they had spent quite some time out in the territory, he figured he could start hunting if she insisted. Although they were quickly running out of moonlight. "Alright fine. Before you start hunting, you need to learn how to crouch and sneak. It doesn't look very hard, but it is more difficult than you think." He quickly dropped down into a hunting crouch with his body close to the ground and weight off of his feet. Using his tail for balance, he crawled across the soft marsh grass, barely making a single sound. Stopping to look back at Snowpaw, he began to speak. "First of all, you want to drop as close to the ground as you can. The smaller you are, the harder it is to see you. Next, you need to keep all of your weight off of your feet. This part will take a lot of practice, but now that you see how I've done it, you give it a shot."

Snowpaw crouched as low as she could and started walking slowly over to where Thrustripe was waiting. On the way though, her tail brushed the leaves and made noise. Snowpaw quickly lifted her tail straight and finished next to her mentor. She looked expectantly at Thrustripe, waiting to see what he said.

The look he gave was a slightly amused look, but he quickly turned back to his usual blank face. Standing up to look at her crouch, he studied her for just a moment before slightly shrugging (as best as cats could shrug). "Your overall posture is decent for your first attempt, but as you stalked, your tail was like a snake with bees in its brain. You cannot make any noise at all. One small slip-up and whatever you're chasing will be way out of reach from running away. Try again. Make sure to keep light on your paws."

Snowpaw crouched and kept her tail straight out, which also helped with balance to her surprise. She lightly walked over to a pile of leaves and pounced on them. "Like that?!" Snowpaw quickly turned around excited.

Thrushstripe nodded and gave her a small smile. "Yeah, there you go! You're definitely getting it. Not perfect, but definitely better. Alright, now that you have the basics down, tell me what you smell. Even though it's pretty are into Leaf-bare, there should be a little something around here." and it was true. Thrushstripe had smelled it just a little bit earlier. Granted, it was just a tiny frog, but something was better than nothing.

Snowpaw lifted her nose. "Ummmm..... I... I think I smell a water creature. I... I can't tell..."

"Try a little bit harder. Try opening your mouth a little too. It will help you pinpoint the smell a little bit better. You should be able to tel which direction it's coming from even if you don't recognize the smell," he said, trying to encourage her to attempt a hunt. He knew she could do it. She had already caught onto everything else so fast.

Snowpaw lifted her mouth and nose. "A frog! And.... By Riverclan border, not in it though." Snowpaw looked at her mentor excitedly.