Copperpaw's Hunting Patrol (Closed)

Smokestripe sat near the entrance of the camp, his eyes gleaming as he waited for Copperpaw. His training with Badgerpaw was being slow and inspired by what he had done with Snakeblaze, he had decided to help out with more training. His tail was curled around his paws as he waited, having already decided to take on teaching Copperpaw how to hunt for today. It felt odd, Copperpaw had been tasked with Littlebrook as his mentor - the same as Smokestripe. It felt odd but Smokestripe had faith he could teach Copperpaw...At least he hoped so. He blinked, suddenly a bit nervous as he shifted from paw to paw.

Copperpaw perked his head out of the apprentice's den as the next day found him and the Shadowclan camp. He was eager to get out of camp and continue on his journey to becoming a warrior. He walked out of the den as he spotted his mentor, Smokestripe, sitting at the entrance of the camp and padded over to him. It was obvious he was bright with energy when he said, "Can we go hunting yet?"

There was a purr from Smokestripe as Copperpaw came padding up, getting to his paws as he dipped his head. [color=slategray"Yes, in fact that is the plans today!"[/color] Turning, he led his new apprentice into the territory with a deep breath. "Today, I'll be teaching you the basic of hunting. How to stalk your prey and kill it. Simple stuff, I'm sure that you will have no problem catching on. If we are lucky, we can bring back a good amount of prey for the Clan," he rambled excitedly, trying to hide his nervousness with seer joy of doing some training.

Copperpaw quickly followed his mentor to the training area of the ShadowClan territory. "I will do my best to bring as much back as possible." Copperpaw said, unable to sense his mentor's nervousness.

"I'm sure that you will, Copperpaw!" Smokestripe grinned at Copperpaw, happy that his apprentice was so eager and upbeat. After a short walk, he came to a stop as he tasted the air. The scent of many different prey stuck out to him, most of it masked by the scent of mud but his well-trained nose easily pinpointed the prey that they would be hunting. Turning to look at Copperpaw, he flickered his tail at his apprentice. "Tell me, Copperpaw? What do you smell?" It was a simple question. He doubted Copperpaw was as well trained to ignore the scent of mud that covered the ShadowClan territory but it would be important to teach him how to find the prey that used it to mask their scents to hide from ShadowClan eyes. Not that it helped them in the end.

Copperpaw paused just as his mentor did and started to focus on the smells around the territory. The smell of mud was clearly in the air but he did catch a scent of prey as well. Even though he wasn't totally sure that he would answer correctly Copperpaw responded, "I smell a strong scent of mud along with the scent of mice." He hoped that he answered correctly.

Pleased that Copperpaw could at least pick out a single scent among the overbearing muck that surrounded them, Smokestripe gave him a small eager nod. The scent of mice indeed hung in the air - perhaps driven out from the Carrionplace by the rats that called it home but that barely mattered. What did matter was the simple fact that they were around. "I recommend getting rather use to the scent of mud instead of trying to block it out to focus on the other scents," he said as he scanned the clearing they were in. "That way when you scent something other then the mud, it sticks out to you more...Along with learning the scents of prey as well so that you can easily recognize those. Now...We should try to find some of those mice you smelled. Drop into your best hunting crouch and we will start from there."

Still with the scent of mice on the tip of his nose, Copperpaw did what he was told. He crouched down low on his paws with lightweight on each of them. His tail was off the ground so he wouldn't disturb any leaves or earth by accidentally brushing it across the floor. His front legs were lower to the ground than his hind legs. Feeling kind of awkward, he looked up at his mentor and asked, "How is this?"

Watching as Copperpaw dropped into a crouch, Smokestripe watched with a smile. "Good!" he cheered as he strolled up to his apprentice, dropping into a hunting crouch of his own. Using his own body for reference, he studied Copperpaw's pose once more before nodding in satisfactory. His weight looked even on his paws for light steps, his tail was down but not touching the ground to avoid making any noises. Perhaps there was a few fixes here and there that could be made to prefect but for now, it was good enough for Smokestripe. He raised his head slightly to taste the air, locating a mouse for them to hunt. He gently touched his tail to Copperpaw's side to get his attention, jerking his head quietly in the direction of the mouse. "Watch me, then I want you to copy to the best of your abilities and try to catch a mouse of your own," he whispered as he turned and stalked always toward the mouse. It felt odd just telling Copperpaw to copy him but it seemed like the best thing he could do - see how Copperpaw hunted and make fixes from there. Spotting the mouse he had located, he watched as it nibbled on a stray nut that it had somehow found. He drew closer, leaving the mouse unaware of his presence until he leaped at it. It barely had time to squeak before he killed it and raised his gaze to Smokestripe, dipping his head in a signal for Copperpaw to give it his go.


OOC: Alright, hunting system time! The hunting system isn't a very complex thing to use luckily. I am sure you have seen the topic that outlines how to use it and whatnot seeing how its a global announcement and thus can be found in every forum at the top of the list of topics. But, for simplify sake, here is the link to the topic.

The hunting system uses the dice system, which can be found when previewing a topic. Upon hitting preview, underneath where you make changes to the post is a Dices Rolls feature. There are drop down tabs, Dice Rolls #1 and Dice rolls. For the Dice rolls, don't bother with it. The current hunting system only uses a single dice but you will need to change the Dices rolls #1 to hunting dice which rolls a ten-sided dice.

When posted, a new post will be added which will state what you have rolled. That answer decides if you have caught something or not. On the Hunting System topic, there is a list of all of the prey we can hunt (with mice falling under rodent). Each Clan has a success roll with each, so that certain Clans are only good at hunting certain prey with you getting to decide what you hunt. For example, lets say that I end up rolling a 6 while hunting hares. If I was a WindClan cat, I would succeed as I need an 8 or below to catch it. But if I was in any other Clan, I would fail as I need a 1 to catch a hare. After you roll your dice and figure out if you caught it, you simply need to go back and edit your post to reflect if you succeed or failed.

If you end up rolling a 10, you have found yourself in an encounter. You have decide what attacks you and you are tasked with defeating it (with the help of others of course.) Luckily, because the fact we can pick what we find, we can make it easy for yourself or hard but you must do an encounter if you roll a 10.

Also the hunting system is not always needed for hunting topics but it must be used for assessments.

The member 'Badger' has done the following action : Dices roll

---

'Hunting Dice' : 5

Copperpaw examined Smokestripe's movements carefully as he caught the mouse. After that, he got back into his crouch. Tail off the ground, light and even weight on all four legs, and front legs lower to the ground than his hind legs. He carefully followed the scent of mice until he spotted one kind of close to where Smokestripe caught his. He backed up slightly before springing forward and landing on it a second afterwards. He was satisfied when he realized that he had killed it and brought it back to Smokestripe and said excitedly "Look, I caught it!"

The member 'Spottedleaf' has done the following action : Dices roll

---

'Hunting Dice' : 2

Smokestripe watched Copperpaw's movements with a careful eye, studying every pawstep...Every movement to make sure he was doing it right. And when Copperpaw came hurrying over with the mouse hanging limply in his mouth, the warrior let out a strong purr. He was going to be a great hunter and would serve ShadowClan well. "Good job!" he purred with a flicker of his tail, motioning that his apprentice to drop it at his paws. He tasted the air, the scent of prey still strong. "We should keep hunting. Lets both try for two more prey each and then we can call it a night, alright?" Getting to his paws, he tasted the air as he turned and stalked toward a different scent then what they had been hunting - this scent belonging to a frog. His eyes glimmered, always having enjoyed frogs more then any other type of prey that ShadowClan ate. It reminded him of a simpler time, of kithood when a frog had gotten lost in the nursery and he tried to catch it with his denmates. Not that they managed however. But now he was a fully grown cat and he knew that if he got his paws on this frog, it wasn't going to survive. The moment he spotted it, he drew forward and made a leap at it. He was quick to pin it down and finish it off before picking it up and carrying it back to the little pile that he and Copperpaw were making of their kills.

The member 'Badger' has done the following action : Dices roll

---

'Hunting Dice' : 7

Copperpaw happily and excitedly dropped the mouse near where his mentor's catch already was. Easier to keep them together, right? He thought. "Sure, I don't mind staying out and hunting for a while. It's nice to be out of camp for once." He had not been out of camp for a good little while because he was sick. (I made that up since I was absent from RP for a while :P). As he saw Smokestripe add the freshly caught frog to their little pile of prey, he said "Great catch! My turn!" Before dropping back doing into his hunter's crouch. He sniffed the air like he had done when he caught the mouse and quickly caught the scent of a lizard. Without saying a word to his mentor, he slowly started creeping towards it. When he got nearer to it, he leaped forward and caught the lizard just like he had caught the mouse.