Soulpaw's Assesment

The white and black runt sat in the depressing, marshy territory of Shadowclan as he waited for his apprentice to join him. Today was Soulpaw's assessment, and Shatteredsoul was glad to have the burden of training an apprentice off his shoulders.

A lean white and spotted tom with icy blue eyes padded into the marshy territory where his mentor waited. Taking a seat in front of the tom Soulpaw waited further instructions.

Shatteredsoul looked over his warrior-sized apprentice. The tom was slightly smaller than Soulpaw, but he definitely showed him who was boss with his menacing gaze. The black and white striped warrior had carved his lump of an apprentice into a fine, warrior-fit masterpiece....well, not quite yet, actually. This assessment would determine if Shatteredsoul had accomplished his work of art. "Let's make this quick and simple; catch six pieces of prey before Sundown. I'll be watching. Go." He didn't want to waste time explaining when Soulpaw could be completing the assessment, so he barked out what he said quickly and harshly. The nephew then waited for his younger adopted uncle to start.

Soulpaw nodded and got to his paws and headed off into the territory. He stopped to scent the air for any prey near by. Catching the familiar scent of a frog he quickly located it and started to stalk it. Getting ready to pounce on the decent sized frog the tom leaped and landed, claws unsheathed on the frog and swift killed it. He carried it over to a spot and dug a hole, soon hearing and then scenting another frog. Soulpaw located the frog and instead found two close by both in different directions. Leaping soundlessly onto the closest frog he killed it before it knew what hit it, then proceeded to catch the other frog that had hopped off into the marsh. He buried the other frogs with the first one and the searched for a different prey, ignoring the next frog he saw, since it was really small. Finding a lizard Soulpaw moved forward and jumped and pinned the lizard with both paws, claw unsheathed of course and killed it quickly, then burying the lizard with the frogs. The tom looked for a bird and was in luck finding a thrush. He quietly stalked the feathered creature while it searched for food among st the roots of a near by tree. Catching it by the back of the neck the tom put his paws on its body and gave a sharp yank to the side breaking the birds neck. Only one more to go.. He thought and buried the bird with the rest of his prey. Seeing a crow the tom stalked close enough, and once he was with in pouncing distance it started to rise and Soulpaw saw his chance. It's now or never.. The tom thought and crouched as low as he could then sprung up with as much force as he could muster and caught the bird by the wing and landing on it and breaking its neck. He uncovered the rest of his prey and went to take it to where Shatteredsoul was waiting.

Shatteredsoul was pleased at how well his apprentice had done. He had been following him and watched it all, then quickly made it back to where he was supposed to meet Soulpaw. "Well done, I see now that you're not a total waste of space anymore. Take those back to camp and I'll talk with the leader about your ceremony." Though his words were a bit harsh, the warrior knew that somewhere deep inside of him he cared a lot for Soulpaw. He'd never admit it, though.

Soulpaw nodded, ignoring the harsh words, he was used to it by now. He gathered up all his prey and padded back to camp.