Winterpaw's Hunting patrol

Lightfoot stood in the clearing, nudging Winterpaw from her sleep by the place the apprentices gathered to sleep. "Come on, now. Time to wake up and get to training." He meowed quietly, aware of the other apprentices and trying not to wake them prematurely. He knew apprentice valued their sleep very much, and he couldn't blame them.

Winterpaw woke up, and drowsly walked out to the clearing. "What are we doing today?" she asked sleepily.

The friendly warrior nosed her ear in a greeting before saying, "We'll be out learning how to hunt today. Let's get out in the open, shall we? I've always found this camp to be too cramped." He trotted on out of the entryway tunnel, his pure white pelt hardly visible against the backdrop of the snow. Reaching a suitable place in the territory, Lightfoot halted and dropped into a crouch. "Now, Winterpaw, we're both white so we have an advantage this season. We're difficult to see in the snow, but we can still be smelled so we still have to be careful. As WindClan cats we don't stalk our prey too closely; instead we chase them down when we see them. This crouch is for hiding in the bushes before we spring. Go ahead and copy it."

Winterpaw crouched like her mentor,copying almost exaclt her mentor's crouch. "Is this good?" she asked Lightfoot.

"Good, good!" He said, nodding. "Try to sneak up on that rock over there." He motioned towards a small rock jutting out from the snow a short distance away. It may have seemed a little silly, but the tom knew practice was necessary to becoming better at sneaking. He'd practiced very much in his apprenticeship thanks to his disadvantage.

Winterpaw crouched and tried to sneak on the rock, but she landed one paw too heavy. Shrugging it off, she sneaked until she was a tail-length away from it, and pounced on it. She jumped back to the ground and looked at her mentor. "Was that good?" she asked him.

He nodded, pleased despite her initial mess-up. "Yes. It's always important to try again when you fail. You have a good attitude, and it'll get you far. Now, let's try this out on some real prey. Smell the air and tell me what you can identify. It might be a bit difficult to smell past the snow, but try to focus for me."

Winterpaw scented the air hard. She waited for a few miniuets, then caught the scent of rabbit."I think I scent rabit." she said to her mentor.

"Excellent." Her response was a little vague, but if it was because she needed more practice, then it would be remedied with time and more training. "You know the form and the instructions. GO chase that rabbit down!" Lightfoot said, interested in seeing if she would be successful.

Crouching, Winterpaw got a little bit closer to the rabbit, then jumped and ran, chasing after it.At first, it seemed Winterpaw would catch it, but the rabbit gave a burst of speed and started getting further away from Winterpaw.Winterpaw, with all she could do, ran after the rabbit, and when it was close enough,swiped at it, hitting the rabbits leg. The rabbit tumbled, and Winterpaw killed it with a unsheathed blow to the throat. When she looked back at her menmtor,she was surprised that he was very,very far away. Winterpaw picked up the rabbit, and headed back to her mentor.

"Good work!" He said when she returned. "That's your first catch. And very expertly done as well. I think the queens will appreciate this very much." Lightfoot was proud of his apprentice. she was hardly his first, but he was happy with her accomplishments nonetheless. He remembered how happy it made him when he was an apprentice and his mentor praised him. "Go ahead and find a few more, then we'll head home. Sound good?"

Winterpaw felt warmth flow over her. She was being praised by her mentor! She noded at Lightfoot, and got to work. The sun had moved a little in the sky when Winterpaw came back with 2 small rabbits and a squirell that ran into WindClan territory from another Clan's territroy. She had only missed one rabbit that was too fast for her."Is this good?" She aked Lightfoot. She was tired now,and Winterpaw wanted to go back to camp.