At A Snail's Pace

Swanpaw waltzed over to her mentor with her usual air of arrogance, but it quickly dissipated into excitement. "Snailbelly! Are we going to do training today?" she asked politely - it wouldn't do at all to be on her mentor's bad side. She was eager to learn, after all - so she could show off and impress her WindClan friend, Cloverpaw.

Snailbelly was lounging on a rock, sleeping off his meal of a fat fish from the river. He heard paw steps, but ignored it with an ear flick. It probably wasn't anything important, he mused. Of course, then the owner of those paw steps shouted in his ear.

"Eh... wha...?"

Training. Oh yeah, he had completely forgotten he had an apprentice. That he was supposed to train. Opening one eye hazily, he said, "Yeah, we can..." he yawned, "train."

Swanpaw was pretty obviously excited, practically bouncing on her paws. "Let's go, then! What are we going to do?" All traces of the self-important cat had disappeared in her excitement, though she did seem oblivious to Snailbelly's laziness - or, if she did notice, she ignored it. "Fishing? Or fighting? Diving? I've been practicing by myself! ...Oooh, are we gonna do all three at once?" She paused, realizing that she probably shouldn't have said that part about practicing alone. Oh well, too late now. If she got in trouble, she'd face her punishment with her head held high. She had to practice, after all - she wanted to be the best, and that didn't just happen by doing nothing.

Her over-enthusiasm reminded Snailbelly of his brother, thus bringing him some tiredness. If she was anything like Rockpaw, who was still somehow an apprentice, then he was definitely in for the long haul. A very, very exhausting long haul. Why couldn't she be moderately enthused? Oh well, at least it made his job a little easier... she would most likely easily and eagerly soak up any 'pearls of wisdom' he had to offer her. Swanpaw then bombarded him with all the methods of training they could do... "Wha--? No, we can't do all of them at once!... Fish can't fight back, I don't think."

No punishment came to her, though, as he completely missed the part about practicing by herself. Or, rather, he did not understand entirely what she meant. What he gathered was there would be less work for him, which was good. He was more interested in just hanging out than doing strenuous work (which fishing did not count as-- he could lay on the riverbank carefully and scoop up fish easily).

"Oh. They can't?" Swanpaw's dreams of fighting off a gigantic fish died that day, but she shrugged it off. "What will we do, then?"

ooc: short post is short and bad

"Uh..." Snailbelly paused, thinking of something that he would not have to put much effort into. He could teach her... "Fighting? I can, like... show you simple stuff? Simple swipes?" he offered.

If only he knew that he was adding fuel to the fires of eagerness.

"Okay! Let's go!" she exclaimed. "Teach me everything you know!"

He blinked, taken aback at her enthusiasm, then turned and swished through the reeds into the territory. Snailbelly knew a good spot for training-- or at least thought he did. His memory was... lackluster to say the least.

The spot he ended up taking her to was sticky and wet from recent rain. Huh. This was not at all how he remembered it. Still...

"So, uh, battle training. Usually if conditions are good, mobility isn't an issue, but it's a bit muddy here..." he said, making things up completely.