Spread Your Wings! [C]

Wolfblaze had only excitement running through her veins at the prospect of being able to train her very own apprentice. How cool was that! Besides, she thought she had a lot to teach others, not just warrior stuff, but stuff about having fun and not being too uptight. Sometimes cats just needed to relax a bit, even when times got tough. Not enough mentors taught stuff like that. Thinking all these things, she trotted her way to the Apprentice's Den, sticking her head inside. She only had to look for a moment before finding the sleeping form of Sparrowpaw, having what she hoped to be a good dream, or maybe no dream, as long as it was nothing bad! Doing her best to be quiet, she nudged her apprentice, and whispered, "Sparrowpaw, time to get up for training, meet me by the entrance!" Of course, she had whispered a bit loud, and as she saw the slightly shifting forms of other apprentices, Wolfblaze smiled a bit sheepishly and retreated from the den with haste. Tripping over her own paws a little as she exited, she made her way to the entrance, sitting down with a smile at the sky. It was getting lighter, and not too hot yet, it was nice and the perfect time to get some training done.

It didn't take much to wake Sparrowpaw up, as she wasn't a heavy sleeper. She was already blinking her eyes open when Wolfblaze nudged her, and the semi-quiet whisper of her mentor fully drew her out of her sleep. The brown she-cat yawned, stretching her legs with the little room she had, before padding out of the apprentice's den. She was careful not to disturb anyone else and got out without much trouble. 

"Hello, Wolfblaze!" she greeted cheerily, bounding up to her mentor, "what are we gonna do today? Battle training? Hunting?" She was quite eager, despite having woken up moments ago. She had overheard other apprentices boasting about how their training was going and was excited to start hers. She wasn't sure if her littermates were among them, though..."Hopefully not. If they haven't, I can get some bragging rights!"

Wolfblaze's amber eyes glanced to her brown apprentice as she bounded up. With a smile, she motioned for Sparrowpaw to follow her out of camp as she began to explain. "Ok! So I'll show you a bit of the territory, and I'll teach you the basics of hunting, but tell me, what are you most excited to learn?" Wolfblaze continued padding slowly along, looking back at her apprentice as she asked her question. Teaching everything a warrior needed to learn was obviously her objective, but finding something that Sparrowpaw wanted to learn might help the process along. Sparrowpaw was enthusiastic, and she wanted to use her enthusiasm toward something she wanted to learn. Suddenly, they were at their first stop! "Ok, firstly I'm going to show you somewhere you cannot go! This is the Stony Hollow, and through that is a cave that seems to never end, and can flood really easily. It's just not safe for apprentices. Not really safe for me either! Just don't go there until you're a warrior." With that, she continued moving along, ears perked to answer any questions. The first training was always the longest it felt like, plenty to see, plenty to learn.

Wolfblaze lead in a large circle, soon coming up on their next destination. "Alright! Here's the Snakerocks. I don't want to get too close, because plenty of things that like to bite live here. There are snakes, badgers, foxes, you name it, it probably has a den here! Don't worry though, as long as you come here with a patrol, you'll be just fine. Not a place to traipse through on your own though!" Waiting only a moment for questions, Wolfblaze lead on. She was so excited to be showing off the territory! It was so exciting! Her path curved once more, leading to the next area of the territory.

Wolfblaze couldn't help but chuckle when her apprentice smacked into her and did so again when she heard what Sparrowpaw thought about badgers and foxes. "They sure do! Usually, they don't get too close to camp, but if they do then we have to chase them off or remove them." With a smile, and a playful bump of her shoulder, Wolfblaze lead on.

After a short while, they reached the next location. "That big tree, over there on the horizon-" Wolfblaze directed herself to face it, doing her best to show Sparrowpaw where the tree was. "That's called the Owl Tree, I'd bet you can guess why it's called that. Anyway, just be careful if you ever head over there because that owl can be lively, and sometimes it doesn't like us over there! Further off in that direction is Four Trees, where gatherings are held, and if you go over in that direction-" Wolfblaze proceeded to point herself left, "That's the Sunningrocks, but Riverclan owns them right now." She then beckoned Sparrowpaw with her tail, moving further into the territory once more.

"Alright! That's all the major areas! Time to actually show you how to hunt. Now when you hunt, you want to get low to the ground, as low as you can get, and then some. When you scent the air, you'll know what smells like prey, because you've probably smelled it from the fresh-kill pile before! It'll be different, but you'll know its food. Anyway, when stalking prey, be slow and step lightly, and make sure to watch for small branches underfoot! Just take your time, everyone hunts a little differently, but the idea is the same. You'll figure out your best way to hunt after practice and time! When you're close enough to pounce, bunch your hind legs and jump! Once you have the prey, bite it in the neck, no reason to make it suffer. Never play with prey, it is important to the clan! You don't want to be giving the elders and kits bad prey. I'll demonstrate the crouch, and then you!" Sliding down into the hunting crouch, she looked over at Sparrowpaw for a moment, giving her a few moments to see what it looked like in practice. "Now you. Do what I did, and I'll correct you if theres anything out of place."

"Hm...good to know," Sparrowpaw replied, eyes squinting as she absorbed the information. She stumbled a bit at the shoulder bump because of her small size, and after regaining her balance and pride followed after her mentor. 

The brown she-cat's attention turned to the large tree in front of them once Wolfblaze stopped again. "Owl Tree...hm, wonder why they named it that. My guess is...mouse. Definitely a mouse infestation," she joked, turning to the older cat with a wide smile. She followed her gaze over to Four Trees, then Sunningrocks, nodding along at the information as they passed through the territory.

As their tour came to a close, Sparrowpaw remembered that she still had to decide what she wanted to learn that day. Her pelt bristled in embarrassment--how did she forget so easily!! She hoped Wolfblaze would've forgotten as well and chosen a random lesson. She let out a relieved sigh when her mentor said something about hunting and listened eagerly once the burden was taken off her shoulders. She watched closely as she demonstrated the proper posture and explained how to hunt. Sparrowpaw nodded and dropped into the closest thing to a hunter's crouch she could get. "Does this...did I do it right?" she meowed, stumbling a little on her paws.

"Put your paws a bit wider, that way you're more stable. Get a bit lower too, that is a good tip for hunting and fighting. It makes you harder to knock over when fighting, and harder to see when hunting!" Nudging her paws into a more proper position with her paws, Wolfblaze backed up a bit to look over her apprentice. Looked pretty good for her first time! "See, now you're getting it. You'll end up doing this a bazillion times, so getting it right now is important, that way you don't have to relearn it later on! Since you'll be doing it so much, it'll get really easy eventually. Practice is important though, keeping your skills sharp is one of the best things a warrior can do, no one is ever really done learning." Putting her nose to the air, and opening her mouth, Wolfblaze attempted to scent some prey. The best way to learn, was to do!

It took only a moment for Wolfblaze to catch the scent of squirrel, something plentiful this time of season. Looking back to her apprentice, she began to instruct once more. "Ok! Time for the next part of training, actually hunting something. I'll stay close by, but I want you to try hunting one of the squirrels around here! Remember what I told you, and you'll do great! Or not, but this is your first time, you'll get better. Alright, go for it!" Wolfblaze, for once in her life, shut up so her apprentice could focus. When hunting, you needed to be quiet, and Wolfblaze wasn't great at that. Shutting her mouth was the very least she could do for Sparrowpaw.