Small Talks Over Small Prey (closed patrol)

Ferretpaw was nearing the end of her apprenticeship. She was quite proud of the stocky muscles she had built up in spite of the harsh winter. She could see them under her thin tabby coat. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at herself: she was still a short she-cat. Her eyes came to rest at the noses of most of her senior clanmates. Her stumpy appendages stressed her deeply. Nonetheless, she was an excellent hunter, enthusiastically launching herself into snowdrifts for mice. Her ears were fine-tuned to listen for the soft scratching of prey burrowing under ice. She worried about how this would affect her hunting come Greenleaf.

She poked Lynxpaw's head with her nose. "Psst. Let's go for a patrol. I think Emberheart is organizing one out there. Up up up!" she laughed, batting her denmate's ears.

Lynxpaw shifted with a groan, his tufted ears swiveling as Ferretpaw prodded him. "Fine, fine," He mumbled, shifting himself into a sitting position and blinking at the smaller she-cat blearily. "I'm up."
The fluffy tom took a second to stretch, resisting the urge to fall back into his nest and steal a few more minutes of sleep.

The short-tailed apprentice finally hauled himself to his paws, shooting Ferretpaw a small, sleepy grin. (He noted that he had to look down to do so with a small, self-satisfied purr). Lynxpaw had nearly doubled in height since his return from Twolegplace- something that he loved to tease his shorter friend about. "How in the world are you so small?" He mewed, nudging Ferretpaw playfully before trotting outside. "C'mon, Tinypaw. We shouldn't keep the squirrels waiting."
Spotting Emberheart, he scampered through the crowd of bustling warriors to her side. "Morning, Emberheart!" He purred.

"Good morning, Lynxpaw. Ferretpaw," Emberheart greeted the apprentices with a pleasant expression on her face. It was good to see that at least one of the ThunderClan apprentices that had been captured by Twolegs was recovering well, and it was even better to see at least some of her Clanmates in good spirits. "If you're both here for a patrol, I think the three of us should be enough, don't you?"

Ferretpaw bristled. She wondered if she deserved the taunting for waking him up. She lifted her chin a little higher and let her ears perk up a little more. She stiffly walked along beside Lynxpaw, glancing once in a while with her better eye to see where she met him. Even with her adjustments, she was only eye level with his chin. She sighed and let herself go loose. I must look positively ridiculous.

Determined to do well on this patrol, she trotted towards the exit first. "I thought I heard some birds earlier! Leaf-bare is finishing up." She poked her nose through the brambles. "There's so much melting snow and mud out there, our paws'll stick like a... well, a stick in the mud, I guess." Shrugging her broad shoulders through, she inhaled the air. She loved the wet smell of the oaks and pines. It was overpowering to her senses, and she had to will the scent of prey into her mind if she wanted to even dream of catching anything. "Where to?"

Lynxpaw felt a pang of regret as he saw the hurt look in Ferretpaw's eyes. He nearly apologized to the small she-cat, but she moved before he had a chance to say anything. Sighing, the tabby tom padded after her.
"It's good practice for Newleaf, I suppose." He purred, staring up at the snow-covered branches above them. Hopefully the branches don't break...
He looked to Emberheart, his tufted ears twitching. "We could head towards Sunningrocks," He suggested. "I've been hunting there before and the prey is pretty good, even with all this snow."

Emberheart frowned at the mention of Sunningrocks, but nodded anyway. "Sunningrocks is fine, as long as you don't plan on picking a fight with RiverClan," she agreed. "This is supposed to be a hunting patrol, not a battle patrol." Her attention turned to Ferretpaw for a moment after that. "Lynxpaw is right, and practice is the most important part of learning."