Tearing Through the Trees (Webpaw)

Waterlily yawned as the sunlight pored into the warriors den.  Slowly, she got up and walked out of the den.  There was warm breeze out today, making it more enjoyable than those just hot days with intense sun.  This was a good day for hunting she thought and she hoped Webpaw would feel the same.  She strode over to the apprentice den, trying to wake herself up alone the way.  "Wedpaw?" She half whispered.  "Are you ready to go train?"

Webpaw stirred at the sound of his name. As he opened his eyes, confusion muddled his brain. His surroundings were different from what he was used to waking up to. It took him a moment for him to remember that he was in the apprentice den. Right, it was his first day of training! He rose and allowed himself a quick stretch before emerging, blinking his eyes against the bright morning light.

"Yes Waterlily, I'm ready." Webpaw answered, his tone soft yet determined as he turned his amber gaze onto her. He stared at her with every ounce of focus he possessed, awaiting her next instructions as if he might miss them if he blinked. He was aware that he still didn't know exactly what apprentice training was like, even though he had tried to visualize it many times. But now he was going to finally know, and Waterlily was the cat who was making it possible.

Waterlily watched the little apprentice as he quickly got up to see her.  She felt happy that Webkit was so excited to train.  She remembered how excited she was when Orangeheart called her out of the den to start training for the first time.  All that joy and excitement and happiness as she thought about how bright her future would be.  She remembered the feeling of wanting to be a great warrior and she had no doubt that most apprentices felt the same way.

"Alright," she spoke.  "Follow me, I know a good place for hunting."

She made her way not too far out of camp, but to a spot that she always had luck catching stuff.  She didn't talk too much on there way over, because she didn't really know what to say, but she really hoped Webpaw wouldn't mind.

"Alright, here's how you hunt," she meowed.  "Get into a stance like this."  She got low to the ground, her front legs stretched out in front of her and her back one's low, but leading the movement.  "And then you'll slowly walk up to your prey and leap to catch them or, depending on how far away you are, just be able to grab them in your paws."  She looked around and saw a big white rabbit eating some leaves.  Her voice dropped to a whisper.  "Watch what I do, please."

She did exactly what she told Webpaw to do.  She stayed low and stalked the prey.  She got closer and closer and then finally she leapt towards it.  Unfortunately, it noticed her right as she jumped.  It hopped out of her way, and she only grazed it with her paw.  She sighed, but didn't chase after it, not wanting to leave Webpaw by himself.  Then, she turned to look at him again.  "So, um, not exactly like that... but you get it, right?"

Waterlily used -3SP to attempt to catch a rabbit. The catch was unsuccessful.
157 / 160

The member 'Little Ripped' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 6

Webpaw nodded at her words and followed her. He was grateful for the silence, as it provided him the chance to listen to his own thoughts as he observed the forest. Birds were chittering away from the safety of the trees. The occasional bug would leap or fly away from its hiding place as he brushed past plants. There was so much life! Part of him wanted to stop. To observe how it all functioned. To understand. To ask questions and then come up with his own answers. However, he knew now was not the time. Today he would learn to hunt. There would be a different time to mull over the many intertwining details that made up the forest.

Webpaw cleared his mind of all distractions when they reached Waterlily's hunting spot, giving her his full attention. He watched as she got into a hunting crouch, mimicking the movement himself.  When she saw the rabbit, he followed her gaze and spotted it too. Instinctively, he shrunk lower to the ground, making himself the least visible he could so that the rabbit couldn't spot him before Waterlily had the chance to demonstrate. He watched the way she moved as she stalked. His paws tingled with adrenaline as she got closer, silently cheering her on is his mind. She was so close! As she pounced, something about the rabbit changed. It possessed a new alertness for a split second before moving to run away. He let out a tiny gasp. Without being aware of it, he dug his claws into the ground in his state of anticipation, willing Waterlily to catch it. But fate had decided that it was not to be and that the rabbit would live to see another day.

Webpaw nodded at Waterlily to show that he got the idea. "You were really close." He said, stating the obvious in a quiet tone. "I want to try now, if that's ok."

His eyes scanned the forest floor, his ears pricked as Webpaw searched for any potential prey. Unbeknownst to him, his chances of finding anything were slim after all of the noise the rabbit had made while running away. However, he was able to catch sight of an unsuspecting toad as it leaped from the dirt in the shade of one plant to another shady spot protected from the sunlight. Toads weren't one of the creatures that Webpaw usually associated with the label "prey," but it would work nonetheless, right? Besides, he was still learning, and he told himself the experience of getting to practice stalking would still be useful, even though he had no idea what they'd actually do with the frog if he caught it.

Webpaw lowered himself into a crouch and tried to stalk the toad as he had seen Waterlily done with the rabbit. He focused on replicating the way she had held her body and gracefully moved forward. It didn't take an expert to see that Webpaw wasn't doing it correctly. Even he could feel that something was off. His movements were lumbering and clumsy as he fought with his legs instead of working with them to produce the movements he wanted. The toad looked right at Webpaw. The apprentice froze, anticipating that the toad would hop away. However, it quickly became apparent that this toad wasn't particularly smart. It just... sat there, making eye contact with Webpaw the entire time. A sense of infuriation rose over Webpaw, as it seemed like the toad was mocking him. It was as if the toad was telling him that it didn't even have to move. That it just knew that Webpaw would fail if he tried. Well, he would prove it wrong! In the midst of emotion, Webpaw forgot about trying to emulate Waterlily and did what came naturally to him. He paused for a long moment and thought about catching the toad, and how exactly he could go about that. The toad continued to stupidly sit there, giving him plenty of time to do this. His instincts stirred, and told him, step, step, pounce. He listened. Webpaw took two quick steps forward, closing enough of the distance to pounce. While still a bit uneven, his balance was a little better than before. He pounced, landing with his claws unsheathed on the toad. He finished it off with a quick, determined bite, and proudly held up his kill as he presented it to Waterlily.

It wasn't long before he set it back on the ground, making faces at the awful taste it had left in his mouth. "How was that?" He asked, his face still scrunched up in disgust.


Webpaw used -3 SP to attempt to catch a toad. It was a success!
77 / 80 SP

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 3

Waterlily carefully watched as Webpaw caught the toad.  She quickly noticed that his stance was a little off, but for an apprentice who just saw there mentor do it once?  It was pretty good.  It took a little while for Webpaw to catch the toad, but like mentioned before, it was good for a first catch.  He showed it to Waterlily and she smiled at him.

"That was really good," she told him.  "We'd need to work on your stance, but for your first catch, that was really good."

Waterlily, looked for prey again, to show this apprentice what to do now.  She looked around, but saw nothing yet.  Then she saw something move behind a bush.  It was fairly small so she was worrying about it much.  She slowly walked up to it getting in the fighting stance she was before, and in a moment she leaped forward, catching it in her paws.

When it got in her paws however, she felt that it had scales not fur.  And she had unknowingly grabbed its tail.  Her eyes drifted upward to see the snakes head above, eyes locked on her.  Within a moment the snake had grabbed one of her legs in its fangs and let go.  Some blood rushed down her leg, but nothing like she couldn't stand.  She quickly hopped back slightly, but was still close enough to do an attack of her own.  Waterlily tried batting at it with her paw, but it moved out of the way before she could hit it.  It started to retreat, though.

Or... at least she thought it was starting to retreat.

Instead it went towards the apprentice.  Her eyes widened and she tried to run over and grab the snake, but she couldn't really put too much weight on her injured leg.  "Alright, Webpaw," she called to her apprentice.  "This is just battle training, okay?  Use what you can, your teeth or your claws or whatever, and do as much damage as you can.  Then jump away so it can't hurt you."  Right after she finished speaking, she saw the snake go right up to Webpaw, and her eyes widened, hoping that the apprentice didn't get hurt... or worse.

The snake used Serpent Strike, dealing 10 in damage and using -20SP.
Waterlily used Front Paw Blow, dealing no damage (because it missed) and using -5SP

Waterlily
35HP / 155SP (-10HP) (-5SP)

Snake
10HP / 60SP (-20SP)

Wedpaw
20HP / 60SP (-20SP)

The member 'Little Ripped' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Effect Dice' : 5

(OOC: I apologize in advance for Webpaw's character. It's nothing personal against Waterlily, he's just a judgemental little brat at times xD.)

As Waterlily spoke words of praise for Webpaw's first catch, his ears flicked in surprise. Was it really as good as she claimed? The toad had sat there, practically begging to be caught. Surely anyone would've been able to catch a piece of unmoving prey? Besides, it didn't even seem edible! Was there even practical value to the catch if it wasn't edible? A bit dumbfounded, he stared at Waterlily, unsure of what to do about this praise he felt unworthy of. He didn't feel that voicing these thoughts would be of any practical value either, so he simply dismissed her opinion internally and resigned himself to continue to train and learn so that he could meet his own high standards.

The apprentice made sure to watch Waterlily closely as she demonstrated once again. Webpaw took note of her stance, observing how it was even and balanced as she stalked prey that was invisible to him. What was she stalking? It was exciting to see her leap and catch something, and he looked on eagerly to see what it was that she caught.

His curiosity quickly turned to a feeling of dread as he saw Waterlily's "catch" reveal itself to be a snake as it bit her leg. She dropped the snake, and his mind entered a full-fledge panic as started towards him. Some, very useful advice was shouted at him. Battle training?! Wasn't he supposed to learn fighting moves first before actually fighting things?!? This didn't feel like training; it felt like his mentor wasn't in control of the situation, leaving him to fend for himself! This was ridiculous! Why had Waterlily gone after a snake in the first place if there was the possibility of this happening? Was she a mouse-brain?

Webpaw started stepping backward, his first response to avoid rather than fight. However, the snake moved faster than him, and it didn't take the apprentice long to realize that his current tactic wouldn't work for much longer. It wasn't even helping get the situation under control! It was just delaying time until he had to act. Act. How would he act? Was there anything he could do to get the situation under control? He could kill the snake. Obviously. How? Get close, attack, get out. All while being faster than the snake. Was that possible? It seemed unlikely. The snake was fast! Wait, was there another option? If the snake's head was pinned, it couldn't bite him regardless of how fast either of them were! That seemed more in his favor, and he had already been taught how to pounce! He got into position and lept.

Webpaw landed with his paws on the snake's neck. Sinking his claws in with one paw, he slid his other paw so that it was over the snake's head and applied pressure, forcing the dangerous part of the snake to lie flat against the ground. He reached down and bit the snake as it squirmed beneath him, holding it there until it stilled. He stayed in that position well after it was dead, too spooked to let go. What if it was just playing dead?



Under the assumption that Waterlily is now out of the battle due to the injured leg and distance between her and Webpaw, turning it into a 1v1:

The snake used its passive ability Serpentine Movement. Effect Dice Result (the first one): 3  
The next attack hits the snake!

Webpaw used the move Leap-and-Hold, using 10 SP. Effect Dice Result (the second one): 4
The snake is pinned for two turns! Webpaw does 6 HP of damage to the snake.

The snake is unable to attack this turn!

Webpaw
HP 20 / 67 SP

Snake
4 HP / 60 SP


Webpaw's Leap-and-Hold is still in effect! The snake takes 6 HP of damage and dies. Hooray!

Webpaw
HP 20 / 67 SP

Snake
0 HP / 60 SP

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

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'Effect Dice' : 3, 4

Waterlily hopped over trying to get to her apprentice as quick as possible.  She was so afraid, not knowing really what to do next.  She was too slow.  Her heart beat so fast.  She couldn't even imagine what would happen if Webpaw got hurt.  She could never forgive herself if that happened.  She saw the apprentice pin down the snake with her paws.  By the time she got there, the snake was dead.  She looked in surprise and happiness at her apprentice.  She smiled.

"Very well done Webpaw!"  She exclaimed.  "I think we should get heading back to camp..." She said looking at her wound.  "But I think you did amazing.  Maybe we could go on a hunting patrol together again sometime."