Dappled Moonlight (c)

Dappledlight trotted over to the apprentice's den. It was time for Lightpaw's first lesson. She easily slipped through the entrance, as she wasn't much bigger than most apprentices. It took her a second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the den. When they did, it was quite easy for her to spot her apprentice. Dappledlight wove through the other nests filling the small hollow and nudged Lightpaw. As to not disturb anyone, she quietly meowed in her ear, "Come on, it's time for training." She found her way back to the entrance and waited at the edge of camp. Now that Greenleaf was upon the clans, it was a blessing that ShadowClan was active at night. She pitied the other cats who had to deal with the scorching heat of the day.

Lightpaw was on edge to say the least. Her first lesson! She was so ready! Her white tail twitched with excitement as her mentor came to collect the silver tabby. She shivered with a small thrill when Dappledlight nudged her and told her it was time. Time to go hunting! Dappledlight didn’t need to whisper twice. Lightpaw slipped out of the apprentice den and bounded after Dappledlight to the camp entrance. “I’m ready!” she chirped.

Dappledlight nodded to Lightpaw and led the way out into the forest. She brought her apprentice to an open clearing. "I'm going to demonstrate a hunter's crouch for you. Try and copy it after I'm done," she explained to Lightpaw. She dropped down into the crouch and stalked back and forth across the clearing.

ooc: sorry this took so long, I've been kinda busy

Lightpaw listened intently to her mentor‘s instructions. She watched closely as Dappledlight showed her the proper form for hunting. Once she felt she’d seen enough to try it, she crouched low and began to pad softly and silently across the grass. She was a bit wobbly but actually pretty good for a first try.

Dappledlight watched Lightpaw with satisfaction as she stalked across the clearing. She was doing pretty well. She called out a few tips to her apprentice to help her stay more stable on her paws. "I want to show you how to pounce now," she meowed while moving back into the clearing. "You'll want to bunch the muscles in your back legs so that you can launch yourself into the air." She demonstrated what she had just said and leaped into the air, landing neatly a few fox lengths away.

Lightpaw nodded in response to Dappledlight’s advice and gradually grew more sure as she prowled the clearing. When Dappledlight started to talk about pouncing, though, she got a little nervous. Would this work out? Recalling a time she tried to pounce on one of her brothers and fell on her face, she winced a little. Okay. That was moons ago. She could do this. Crouch, legs tense, launch! And as she feared, she didn’t quite stick the landing, kind of tripping and falling over. Still, if she’d been pouncing on a mouse, she would have caught it. Just not gracefully.

Dappledlight watched as Lightpaw leaped forward and stumbled a bit. She flicked her tail and encouragingly meowed, "Don't worry, Lightpaw, nobody gets it first try. You can try again if you want." Dappledlight had worked really hard, but still couldn't master hunting the first time she tried. She waited to see what Lightpaw would do.

Lightpaw shook herself off. “I think I’d like to go ahead and try on some real prey,” she said hesitantly. “Is that okay?”

"Of course," she meowed. Dappledlight led Lightpaw out past the clearing to find some prey. She instructed, "Scent the air to find a trail and follow it to your target. Stalk it until you are in pouncing range." She waited for Lightpaw to take the lead and followed carefully behind.

Keeping her mentor’s instructions in mind, Lightpaw lifted her nose and inhaled deeply. A wonderful scent wafted through the air. Mouse. Looking in the direction of the smell, the tabby pricked her ears for any hint of a sound. A rustling noise alerted her and she saw a patch of leaf litter move. Gotcha. She stalked towards her prey, not making a sound, then sprang. Success! Lightpaw had caught her first prey! Her landing wasn’t graceful, but it was better than the last, and she pranced back to her mentor with the mouse firmly in her jaws.

The member 'Nerd' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 4

Dappledlight watched as Lightpaw stalked a mouse and successfully pounced on it. She nodded in praise and softly called out, "Good job, Lightpaw, I'm going to look for my own prey. You can follow and hunt with me as well." She flicked her tail as she wandered around, trying to find something to hunt. The scent of frog wafted through the air, and Dappledlight followed it towards the source. She crouched down once the frog was visible and slowly crept forward. She wiggled her haunches before leaping into the air and landing straight on the frog. She delivered a swift bite to the neck, quickly killing it, and brought it towards an area she could bury it in.

The member 'Lilystorm' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 2