Sandpaw's Assessment

OOC: This is overdue and I guessed you were tired of waiting on me in the battle training topic. Feel free to double post and stuff. You don't have to even use the dice if you don't want to. I don't care.

IC: Reedstar sat with his tail curled around his paws in a small clearing, facing his apprentice. They were enclosed by a wall of mist and fog, and a chill pierced right through his fur. The cries of birds could be heard somewhere off in the distance, but all smell of prey seemed suppressed under the sweet scent of the recent rains.

"I'll be monitoring your hunting abilities today." he mewed. "I want you to try and find three pieces of prey before this fog clears and bring it back to this spot. I'll be watching you. Is that clear?"

OOC2: My posts on WCC have been so rubbish lately. ;A; I suck at roleplaying cats.

OOC: Woah, I don't even have to use the dice? Awesome. Can I just make one big long post? And I don't mind the waiting, really. I have been quite busy lately myself, or else I'd be approving as many creations as I could! XP

IC: Sandpaw was not so nervous this time around. He was a hunting ace; nothing could stop him! Or at least, that's what he felt like. A rare feeling of confidence flooded through him. But at hearing the time limit he had, a flicker of doubt filled his mind. Fog was a fickle thing; though it usually lifted in warmth, it could fade or be blown away at any moment. Sandpaw nodded enthusiastically at Reedstar and then set off through the reeds, heading straight for the river.

The fog dampened his sense of smell considerably, but the prey he'd set his mind on couldn't smell him. Could they? Ah, probably not. But the fog also meant that no land prey would be able to smell him, either.

As he stepped on stealthily through the reeds, he felt the coldness of the ground seep into his paws until they went numb. He sighed inwardly at the thought of dipping them into the frigid water, but now that they were numb he might be lucky enough to not feel the chill. He stopped by the water's edge and stared into it at the sparkling fish swimming closely to the bottom. That's a disappointment. The shuffling of a tiny creature caught the corner of his eye, and he turned to see a water vole as it searched outside its hole for something to eat.

Sandpaw dropped into a crouch immediately, pleased to have not been spotted yet. He pulled forward carefully before leaping and crushing the life from it with a heavy front paw. Picking it up, Sandpaw found a good place to bury it before lifting his nose to find more prey. He smelled nothing, but the bird calls from earlier rang in his ears. He headed inland, determined to track this one down by ear.

The target sat in a clearing, pecking away at prey of its own. Sandpaw watched in intense concentration from the reeds, his eyes gleaming. The pale ginger tom tensed as the bird stopped pecking as if it were going to fly away and jumped into the clearing with impeccable timing, catching it in between his claws and nipping its neck with precision as it began to lift its wings. He did indeed have the skill of hunting land prey most RiverClan cats lacked.

The fog was starting to lift, he realized. Sandpaw grabbed the bird roughly by the wing and hurried away to the river once more, burying it with the water vole. He glanced into the river, pleased to see that the fish had gotten closer to the surface. He stared deeply into the mesmerizing water and waited a few minutes before flashing a ginger paw into the chilly river and pulling a wildly flopping fish out, delivering a killing blow before it could jump right back in. He remembered the first fish he'd caught, and how he had watched it flop back into the river after staring in surprise.

The bird, the vole, and the fish were very hard to hold at the same time, the apprentice soon realized. He struggled to fit all three into his mouth before deciding to hold the fish by the tail, the bird by the wing, and the vole by a tiny paw. This'll have to work- the fog is getting really thin! He sped back to the meeting place as fast as he could, but not before dropping them and picking them back up a couple times. Sandpaw piled the prey and sat down in front of it, his ears twitching in excitement. He no longer felt the freezing cold penetrating his fluffy pelt, as the constant movement of his muscles had warmed him up.

Reedstar waited a moment after Sandpaw bounded off before dropping into a stalking crouch and following the scent trail and tell-tale signs of where the apprentice had gone off to. He always had to work hard in these assessments as well; if he alerted Sandpaw or, StarClan forbid, his prey to his presence, then it'd all be on him. It wasn't long before Reedstar saw the apprentice's ginger fur up ahead.

The leader watched in silence as Sandpaw crept towards a water vole before swiftly dispatching it with a sudden leap. Impressive. he thought to himself, padding silently closer as the apprentice buried his prey. It seemed like the assessment had only just started, yet he he had already caught his first piece of prey. Two more. You can do this.

As Sandpaw headed off, Reedstar inhaled deeply to try and sense prey. Nothing. The mist disguised all scent, cat or prey. That was precisely the reason he'd chosen this morning to test his apprentice's hunting skills, both a blessing and a curse in disguise. At the shrill cry of a distant bird, he realized what Sandpaw's next target was.

He had never had much of a taste for birds himself. They were all bones and feathers, and it was hard to take a mouthful without coughing some plumage up. Another thing RiverClan didn't have in common with SkyClan, he supposed, but one couldn't be picky with Leafbare around the corner. It would be some moons until it had truly arrived, but Leaf-fall was only a transitioning phase between bountiful hunting and starving.

Reedstar crawled silently after Sandpaw, taking caution with each step and paused, mouth agape, as he spotted the ginger tom leap forward and knock the bird back to the ground as it began to take flight. Very nice! He was only an apprentice, but his hunting skill rivaled even that of RiverClan's more senior warriors. Any birds caught in the Clan were usually accounted for dumb luck, but Sandpaw seemed to have a true talent.

The tom felt he had seen all there was to see and began to head back to the clearing to receive Sandpaw once he caught his prey - or not. He curled his tails around his paws and waited, looking off into the gray sky above. The fog was beginning to lift, he realized, when the apprentice came rushing in with the three pieces of prey in his mouth. Reedstar purred and twitched his whiskers. A fish, a bird, and a vole, and before the time limit was up. "Very well done, Sandpaw. Let's head back to camp. I'll help you carry that."