Moonpaw's Assessment

Crowstar sat at the Halfstone waiting on his apprentice to join him. Today was her last trial as an apprentice. After today she would be closer to becomeing a warrior, and honestly the leader was proud. It had been a while since he had an apprentice, so the knowledge he trained a young cat well enough to become a warrior was exciting to him, but he didn't let it show. She still had this one trial.

After grooming her fur, Moonpaw padded out from the apprentice’s den. Her paws led her to the SkyClan leader as soon as she spotted him on top of the Halfstone, wondering what would be in store for her this time. The she-cat was still young, but she was definitely one of the oldest apprentices now and she couldn’t help but think that she was ready to become a warrior, though she was careful to keep this to herself. She didn’t want to annoy Crowstar or make him feel rushed, he probably had a lot of things to worry about already “Greetings”.

Crowstar looked at his apprentice when she approached. She was basically warrior size now, it was certain she would be earning her name soon. The fluffy leader let out a small sigh, but it wasn't a bad thing. "Today is rather relaxed. I want you to go out and catch three pieces of pray on your own and come back. Alright?" He said to her, he didn't want to tell her it was her assessment just yet. He wanted to see how she would preform first before he told her, and when he would tell her would come if she passed or failed

ooc: You can just catch all three in one post to make this go by faster.

Hunting uh? Perfect! This was one of Moonpaw’s strong points after all. She got a bit curious about why she was supposed to bring exactly three pieces of prey, but she just shrugged it off, she could always ask later after all. Probably three elders were hungry, or queens.

“Got it, I’ll be back as soon as possible, Crowstar!” With a smile, the silver tabby rushed towards the camp entrance. If any hunting patrol had decided to go out earlier they would obviously be fairly ahead of her by now, so she would need to go straight to one of the areas that those patrols usually checked last to have a good chance to come back with something good for the clan.

It took her longer than she would’ve wished to arrive to the desired place, but the lack of recent scents of cats around the area gave her a nice confidence boost, knowing that she had a good chance of finding the desired prey without much issue.

Her first target was a nearby squirrel that was eating what she guessed was some kind of seeds near the base of a large tree, which she sotted thanks to the sound it made while eating. She was careful to have the wind on her favor to avoid giving away her position as she silently got closer to the squirrel, not wanting it to climb up the tree before she even had a chance to try to catch it. Once she was as close as she could be without being spotted she darted forward at full speed, taking the squirrel by surprise and killing it quickly through a swift bite to the neck.

After burying the squirrel to avoid having it stolen by another animal while she hunted the remaining required pieces of prey, she used her nose to try to find her next piece of prey, which turned out to be a sparrow on a nearby bush. This one was trickier for her, as she had to approach it even more carefully to not get spotted thanks to the advantageous position of the bird. The position of the bird forced her to jump from a somewhat bigger distance than she would had liked to, but getting any closer would’ve only ended on the bird spotting her and flying away. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to catch it on her jaws on time, she hit the sparrow with her paw and unsheathed claws, throwing the now slightly stunned bird to the ground where she could finally give the final blow. She decided to bury it next to the squirrel after making sure that no other animal was watching her while she was on it. She had heard tales of animals unburying fresh-kill if the cat wasn’t careful enough and she wouldn’t want that to happen to hers.

The last target was actually a mix of luck and skill, as she heard a song thrush and finally spotted it through scent. It was perched on a nearby tree. Taking a deep breath she decided to try to go for it, climbing the tree carefully, so she wouldn’t alert the singing bird, until she managed to get to the branch where it was resting. Approaching it without getting noticed was a lot harder than it was on land, and she also had to be careful to not lose her balance and fall. When she finally pounced on it she almost failed, managing to grab one of the bird’s wings with her jaws on the very last second as her claws dug deep in the tree’s bark. She had to admit it, she was glad of being skilled at climbing now, as the fall that she would had been forced to experience otherwise would had been fairly ugly.

After killing the bird she carefully climbed down the tree, she wouldn’t had dared to do such a risky thing if she didn’t know that song thrushes were between the clan’s favorite prey, and she really wanted to impress Crowstar.

After picking the hidden pieces of prey alongside with the one on her mouth she smiled, proud of herself, and returned to camp with her tail held high. Hopefully she had managed to do this quickly enough.

Crowstar waited patiently for his apprentice to come back. He didn't follow her like he wold have done with his other apprentices, he had confidence that she could have done it with little to no mess ups. The fluffy leader took the time to soak in the sun, and groom himself slightly. When Moonpaw had finally come back he noticed that she did indeed have three pieces of prey. One of them was quite rare. Which made him quite proud of her. "Congratulations. You passed your assessment." He said before hopping off the stone. "Let's head back and get these to the queens shall we?" He said. He didn't really wait for her reply though. The leader began walking back to his camp.