Training for Sagepaw

Smokepelt woke with the sun and gave a yawn. Today would be a pretty relaxed day, but he knew that he needed to take Sagepaw on a patrol. Padding tiredly out of the warrior's den, the dark grey tom made his way to the apprentice den. "Sagepaw, wake up." He meowed softly, poking his head in and looking around the sleeping cats, trying to spot his apprentice.

The newly appointed apprentice had been sleeping in, still not used to having to wake up so early in the mornings. The tom's ears flickered as he heard someone call out his name slightly lifting his head from his nest and opening his eyes narrowly too see who it was and it was Smokepelt, his mentor. "We need to get up this early...?" Sagepaw had said with a yawn slowly rising from his mossy nest.

"Sorry, but training awaits." He meowed and padded out of the den, waiting for Sagepaw to catch up. "Would you like to eat or shall we go?"

Sighing Sagepaw had slowly followed after his mentor before stopping to answer his question. He was hungry.. but he was tempted too just go on ahead hopefully he can eat something he caught himself, that's be really exciting. "Let's just go" Sagepaw had answered simply before asking his mentor a question. "Are we hunting today?"

Leading them out of camp before anyone else could ask to join, he slowed the pace. "Yep. My father showed me one of the best places to hunt in WindClan territory, I'd like to show you it. But first, we need to patrol the borders." He meowed. After a little bit of walking, they finally reached the thunderpath. It smelt as horrible as ever but by now, Smokepelt was somewhat used to it.

Patroling borders? That made Sagepaw walk forward eagerly. He would always be happy to make sure that no other clans tried too get across windclans borders. "Okay cool!" Sagepaw had responded with eagerness in his tone as he glanced around he wondered how the forest looked outside of camp.

"As you've probably heard, this is the Thunderpath." He meowed, just before a monster came roaring by. "Never get to close. Those monsters have killed a number of cats." He gave a small shiver. "Let's keep going." He meowed, starting to walk away from the path.

When they approached the thunder path Sagepaw instantly didn't like it. The tom had leaped backwards once he felt the ground moving and blinked when he saw something giant race down the black road. "I- okay..." He was about to say something but decided against it. The brown tabby quickly followed after Smokepelt.

Padding on, Smokepelt stopped a few times to mark the territory, explaining to Sagepaw why he did this. After a little bit, he led the two of them to the top of a small hill looking down at the field bellow. "Here is where we will hunt, but there's some to know about this place. The prey is plentiful but you need to be stealthy with your hunting cause there is little cover." The grey tom sat down on the hill. "Go catch as much as you can until I find you."

After walking around most of the territory Sagepaw became a little tired, he felt the pads of his paw beginning to ache though he did his best to keep up with Smokepelt. When they had reached a small hill Sagepaw's ears had perked as he glanced around he wasn't really sure if he would be able to catch anything. "Wait smokepelt! I can't I never learned how."

"That's why it's a test. I want you know or what you are capable of learning." He meowed. Smokepelt didn't mean to seem harsh, but it was a good way for his apprentice to learn.

Sagepaw sighed he wasn't very confident in his hunting skills but he had to try and everyone started off where he was even Sablestar when she was just an apprentice. Although he believed that Sablestar was much more skilled even in the start of her training, he wanted to be leader like her one day. Hopefully when he becomes a respected warrior although he wasn't to sure. "O-okay Smokepelt" The tom had said as he started to sniff the air and was able too detect the scent of a rabbit to the north of him. Moving forwards silently he had tried to stay as quiet as possible since there was no cover at all. When he had spotted the rabbit the apprentice decided to just go for it and leaped forwards onto the rabbit and digging his sharp claws into it's back. Although it was still alive he had carried it in his jaws where the rabbit was still twitching and trying to escape. "Good?"

Well, at least he'd caught a rabbit. "Good, but when catching prey it's better to put the creature out of its misery with a bite on the neck." Smokepelt pointed out, feeling somewhat bad for the half dead rabbit.

Sagepaw didn't even realize that the prey was still alive. Blinking he had sank his fangs further into the rabbits neck until he had heard a loud snap indicating that the neck of it was broken. "Thought that I had killed it.." Sagepaw had said his ear flickering.

"No worries." He meowed with a smile. "Bury that and I'll teach you some tips." Giving a smile the tom walked down the small hill unto the moor, waiting for his apprentice.