A Flurry of Fire

Flurryshine stretched out her limbs as she stood up from her nest in the nursery. Her son Icepaw had already been apprenticed, but her daughter Palekit had fallen ill before her ceremony, so she still had to remain in the nursery to tend to her sickly kit, as well as Aspenstrike's own kits. As such, her limbs were sore and trembly from lack of exercise. Today's training was going to be interesting.

She poked her head into the apprentices' den and mewed softly to her apprentice, "Wake up, Firepaw. It's time to begin your training. Meet me by the entrance." She pulled her head out and went to wait by the entrance.

Firepaw blinked awake. That early? Ugh. He wasn't at his best, but he supposed he had to. "Coming." He padded out and made his way to the enterance.

Flurryshine smiled when she saw her apprentice slip out of his den to join her. "I hope you're ready for a long, busy day of training. I'm just sorry I hadn't had the time to train you before now, but I want to make up for that. Come on, let's get you hunting, hm?"

The snow-white queen led Firepaw out of camp and down to the main river of their territory, and she turned her head to her apprentice. "First thing's first: do you know how to swim?"

Firepaw trotted along. But... He hadn't eaten anything yet! Did warriors skip breakfast? If that was what he had to do, he guessed he would. They made it there more suddenly than he'd expected- he'd been in his head. "Yeah, in still water." The pools he'd swam in never moved.

"Perhaps we should practice swimming in a moving current before you can begin fishing then," Flurryshine decided. "That's how your mother taught me, and it's much easier to fish when you don't have any fear of accidentally falling in." She waded into the cool water, her long white fur and tail trying to flow downstream with the gentle current, then looked back at Firepaw with a supportive, inviting smile.

Firepaw stared at the water, relatively nervous but with a smile still. "Yeah, that might help." He realized she wanted him to get in. Oh dear... If it ended in disaster, he called it. Tentatively, he stuck his foot in, solidly placing it in the mud before taking more steps, each time making sure the current couldn't wash him away. He looked at Flurryshine questioningly, as if to say What next?

"Now try to paddle over to me," Flurryshine instructed. "The stream isn't that strong, so it won't sweep you away. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you." She wouldn't dream of letting anything bad happen to Dewshine's son, but even if he wasn't directly related to her former mentor she would still protect him with her life. Becoming a mother herself had given her a strong sense of protection for younger cats.

Firepaw tried to keep calm as he lifted his paws and paddled as if trying to walk on air.

"That's right. Just take it nice and easy. You're doing very well so far, Firepaw." Flurryshine gently encouraged the young tom as he paddled closer and closer to her, and once he finally reached her she smiled. "Now, I'm going to have you try something a little more difficult, but you'll be just fine, okay? I want you to dive underwater and open your eyes. In case you lose your balance on the riverbank while fishing, you'll need to get used to swimming underwater. Go ahead and try, I'll be right here to help you if you need it."

Firepaw took a deep breath. He had to be brave, like his dad. He had to do this too. He took a deep breath and dove under, blinking his eyes open. It was dark and murky, and scary. He came up to breathe, not wanting to do that ever again.

Pushing herself forward when Firepaw came back up for air, Flurryshine gingerly licked the dripping water out from the apprentice's closed eyes, just as Dewshine would always do for her when she herself was an apprentice. "That was a very good first attempt, Firepaw. I'm proud of you. Do you think you're ready to begin fishing training, or do you want to try getting used to being underwater first?"

Firepaw opened his eyes back up. "Um... I think I'd prefer battle training."

"I understand how nervous you are, Firepaw," Flurryshine mewed gently after a few moments of silence, "but you'll still have to learn how to swim and fish at some point. We can train how to battle for now, but then after that, we'll practice in the water some more. Do we have a deal?"

ooc: oH OH OH i thought it said "fighting" not "fishing" XD he was intended to just be nervous about first time things but now he's a bit of a drypaw isn't he

ic: Firepaw nodded. "Yes... But fighting should make me stronger, and if I'm stronger then I'll be a better swimmer, right?"

"That's a very good way to look at it, Firepaw," Flurryshine purred with a smile. She began gently ushering the apprentice back to the riverbank and crawled out only once he had, making sure he was completely safe. She shook out some of the water from her thick white pelt, though it still continued to drip from her fur. "Alright, do you see that large reed over there by the edge of the river, the one standing alone from the large clump of reeds? I want you to attack it with all you have."