Big Things Come in Little Packages

"Littlepaw! Hey, Littlepaw, wake up, wake up! It's time to train!" Fernwing bounced around excitedly by where the apprentices slept under the open sky, her eyes arched happily. She was so excited to begin her second apprentice's training. She was honestly surprised the she-cat hadn't come to her first begging to begin; that's what she had done with Lionstorm while she herself was a 'paw.

"I'm going to teach you how to hunt and fight!" Fernwing purred happily. "Truth be told, I'm not the biggest fan of fighting, but I still know that it's a part of warrior life. Even if you aren't fighting other cats, you'll need to learn how to fight off predators. It'll be fun, though, you'll see! Come on!" She turned and led the way rather quickly out of camp and towards the lone stump in their territory.

OOC: Oof almost forgot this

Littlekit's contentness fell a little at the thought of fighting, but she still maintained her happy smile. The tiny cat never liked violence, but she guessed it was simply part of life. Cats are carnivores, after all. Her mentor quickly trotted away and left little time for the tabby to catch up. As they exited the shallow hollow and into the wide open moor she couldn't help but gasp. Rolling pristine hills going virtually as far as she can see, soft grays and brilliant oranges in the dawn light. The grass was soft and spongy beneath her feet and reached up to her shoulders. Some blades had tiny shoots coming off of the sides, or purple bell-shaped flowers drooping from the top. Once they got some distance away from camp the mews of cats faded away, and the only sound was the whistling wind and their soft crunching paws. The only marr in the virtually perfect landscape was the gray strip of rock she knew as the Thunderpath in the distance, and the almost sudden onslaught of scraggly pine trees beyond. Every time this place was more and more beautiful, and it never got old. At one point she stopped to sniff some aromatic white flowers, before realizing with a jolt that Fernwing had managed to cover a large distance while she was stopped. She quickly bounded after her and resumed trotting.

After some time Littlepaw saw a rotting stump on the top of a hill. 'that must be our destination,' she noted, speeding up to reach the tree faster. It was pretty reasonable for Fernwing to choose that place as destination. It was the only noticable feature on the grassland. She stopped, panting, at the crest and laid down on the grass. She wasn't used to this much running, that was for sure. She inspected the area. The scent of rabbit was fresh and coming from all directions. The grass was soft and intermixed with moss, which probably helped in terms of training. As her eyes trailed across the grass she realized with a jolt that there were many patches of disturbed, grassless soil, some of them quite recent. Several cats must have died here in the past. The thought caused a lump of uneasiness to form in her throat, but she forced it down. There was no way she was going to die from training! The code forbade it. Plus, Fernwing was a sweet cat and Littlepaw was sure she was going to have the best care with her.


"Are we going to be doing hunting or fighting first, Fernwing?" she chirruped, turning her attention to the fluffy she-cat. She didn't know which she wanted to do first- hunting, which she was sure to enjoy, or fighting, so she can get that out of the way quicker? She didn't even know if apprentices got to decide what they did that day. She was just going to let Fernwing choose for her just in case.

Fernwing purred happily at the eagerness her apprentice showed as she led the way to the training grounds. She already had a set answer to Littlepaw’s inevitable question before she even asked it. ”We’re going to start off with training how to fight. Most mentors may start their apprentices off with hunting, but you see, sometimes during hunting things may not go according to plan. In case we run into a predator while hunting, you’ll have to already know how to defend yourself. But that’s okay, because self-defense is completely different than actually battling!”

She purred with happily arched eyes, then bounded off a few tail-lengths to lower herself into a battle crouch. ”Alright, I’ll pretend to be a great big meanie fox, and you try to defend yourself from my attacks, okay? Pretend you’re trying to defend the nursery from me!” Without missing a beat, the she-cat broke into a run towards Littlepaw, imitating a fox’s snarling.

OOC: Oof almost forgot and this is short aa

IC: Littlepaw let out a small eep as Fernwing charged straight at her. How was she supposed to pretend to fight off a fox? Just as the two gray tabbies were about to collide, Littlepaw jumped out of the way, relying almost entirely on instinct. After regaining her footing, she gently charged (does that make sense? idk) and leaped at her mentor. Before she could even fully process what she was doing, she had knocked her mentor to the ground and was now standing on top of her. "Great Starclan, I'm so sorry!" she yelped, jumping gingerly off of Fernwing. "I'm so sorry," Littlepaw repeated, nudging her mentor to make sure she was still alive. "Oh Starclan, are you okay? Are bleeding, did I hurt you? Should I go get Goosepaw? What if I snapped your neck by accident? Is your neck snapped? Can you still move or are you paralyzed? Am I going to the Dark Forest for this?"

(OOC: That's okay. Also, Littlepaw is super adorable! <3)

Fernwing huffed as she fell to the ground, about to praise her apprentice for her job well done, when she began her endless stream of mews. In contrast to the older tabby she-cat, however, Littlepaw's words were full of anxiety and fear. She quickly stood up and smiled down at her. "Don't worry, Littlepaw, I'm perfectly fine. You barely did any damage to leave a claw mark. But that was some very quick thinking; I'm very proud of you!"

The excited glimmer in her eyes softened, and her voice was serious, yet affectionate. "Don't forget, Littlepaw, I'm a warrior. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself, so anything you may do to me I'll be able to quickly recover from. You just give it your all during our training and focus on your techniques, okay?"