The End Of a Long Wait [Closed]

Hawkstrike walked out of the camp with a quick flick of his ear after fetching his apprentice. Lately he had a lot of things in his mind and this caused him to neglect some of his own warriors duties, something in all honesty he was not proud to admit, reason why he always came up with excuse after excuse for it…but even he knew this couldn’t wait any longer. Not without a great deal of embarrassment weighting on his shoulders he finally had decided to give his apprentice some proper training, even if admitting he was late kinda hurt his huge pride. With a deep breath the chocolate tabby turned his head towards Mumblepaw, but his eyes evaded the younger tom’s “Is there anything in in specific you want to do today?”.

Finally being around Hawkstrike made the much smaller tom shift uncomfortably. In his time as an apprentice, he had done virtually nothing other than hang around camp and care for the elders. They told great stories and he had begun to enjoy their company within the safety of the Skyclan camp walls. There was once he had even been dragged on a hunting patrol, only to not catch anything due to his obvious lack of training. Now that the time was finally here, his excitement had only dissipated and was replaced with plenty of nerves. There was no doubt the great warrior would quickly be disappointed in his less than useful apprentice. Mumblepaw's ears briefly flattened at the thought. If he had a tail, it most certainly would have been twitching in discomfort.

His orange-brown eyes quickly glanced up too try and read Hawkstrike's face, but darted back to the snowy ground in almost an instant as he padded after him. It took a second for the apprentice to comprehend his mentor's words, given every thought that churned through his tiny head, swimming with anxiety. That fear only increased with the question. What would he pick? What would be the easiest so he didn't make himself look like a complete fool. Mumblepaw's mouth just barely opened and closed a few times before he finally stuttered out an answer, "I-I, uh, I don't know." Nothing else came to his mind. It was a pathetic first thing to say to one's mentor, but it was all he managed to come up with in the moment.

Hawkstrike nodded softly as he reached a small clearing that should suffice for the training of that day. While he wasn’t sure of how much had his apprentice learned without him he decided to start with the very basics, just in case…he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit relieved when his apprentice didn’t ask for hunting training though, he had never been exactly good at hunting and letting down his very own apprentice after all the wait he had forced him to go through was something he definitely wanted to avoid “Very well, in that case we’ll start with battle training. Is there anything you already know about the subject?” He stepped away from Mumblepaw and turned around to face him “Actually…no, don’t tell me, just show me. It’s easier to know what we’ll be working with if I can actually see your strong and weak spots during an attack” He took his usual battle pose, way more aggressive than the average even if he was clearly defending as he waited for the first hit. After all, when you’re trained to kill and not just to defeat your opponents it was imperative for you to cause as much damage as quickly as possible.

As they approached a small clearing, he found himself sighing in relief. It was rather open. If anything were to happen, they could easily bolt or see it coming. Since the incident with Crowstar, any time away from camp seemed even more daunting than before. Despite having been an apprentice long enough to be a warrior, the little apprentice had only made it outside of the safety of the camp a pawful of times. That had only increased his fear of the larger world. As uncomfortable as he felt next to Hawkstrike, mostly due to his own internal fears, he was grateful to have such a strong and trained warrior escorting him through the territory. Maybe the older tom could rub off on him someday.

'...we’ll start with battle training.' Mumblepaw's blood seemed to freeze and he stopped short at the thought. Even though he had a very limited set of skills, and had little time to sharpen them, he had managed to at least attempt hunting on several occasions. Fighting was the exact opposite. His shivered and continued to follow after his mentor, stopping as he stopped. A slight protest stuck in his throat. If only I had said hunting, he thought to himself with dismay. This would not go well. In an attempt to calm himself, the black and white tom let out a deep breath and allowed it to escape into the cold air. But, then he caught the rest of Hawkstrike's words 'just show me'.

Being too afraid to speak up, he simply froze. His eyes widened as he watched the warrior crouch down defensively and in a far more aggressive manner than he had ever seen another warrior attempt. It took a second, but he shook his head and got down into his own very sloppy and awkward crouch. Mumblepaw wanted to say something, speak up about how he literally had not the first clue how to fight, but it stayed in a lump in his throat. He felt like he couldn't just stay there. Hawkstrike's disappoint would be greater at nothing rather than something, right? Forcing himself to not think, the apprentice charged forwards. The snow made his gait awkward and slow due to his size and before he knew it, Mumblepaw was tumbling head first through the flakes towards his mentor. That had not gone well at all.