Falcons Hunt By Sight [Closed]

Nudge.

A thin, lanky she-cat stretched her paw out towards a young tom within the apprentice's den. She'd spent much of her life inside this den, actually, held back by the death of her mentor and the harshness of Leafbare. Firflower poked her new apprentice with a bit of awe. Did the Poplarstar actually think her competent enough to train Falconpaw? Well, she would have to live up to expectations and train him to the best of her ability, as was what she thought she'd read during the ceremony. When he appeared to be awake, she motioned for him to follow her with her tail before leaving the den. She planned to teach the dark-furred tom to hunt today. If she'd figured it out, who couldn't?

Falconpaw spent the night in the apprentice's den with a sense of apprehension. What was his new mentor like? Was she stern? His apprehensiveness faded when he remembered. Firflower was deaf. With that, came a sense of forboding. If she couldn't hear him, how could she possibly train him? He'd have to train himself.

When she nudged him, he woke easily, then padded out of the den with a confident, though slightly uncertain stride.
"Fir-" He paused as he padded behind her. Right. Deaf. He took a deep breath, then padded in front of her. He stopped, then blinked in confusion. How was he supposed to comunnicate anything!? His confusion was obvious as he looked around as if hoping some other cat would come and help him out. Meowing words he knew she couldn't hear.
"Come on... somecat's gotta know how to... uh. Firflower, How are you supposed to train me?"

She watched the tom carefully. He seemed apprehensive about all this, and his words reflected that as she read them from his mouth. 'I'll have to try my best, I suppose.' Although slightly hurt, she resolved herself to speak as best she could. If Cloudroar, a blind, grumpy tom of all cats, could learn to understand what she meant, this shouldn't be too difficult. Right? A quick shadow moving its way across SkyClan camp caught her attention. Gazing up, she watched as a young robin lazily flew above them. Might as well use it to her advantage. Feeling a bit silly doing so, she tried her best to catch Falconpaw's attention before mock-swatting at the bird far beyond their reach, throwing a few pointed motions as the freshkill pile for good measure. This was embarrassing, but if it got her point across, then she'd do it. 'I feel like a kit.'

Oblivious to the she-cat's inner turmoil, Falconpaw sighed. Almost walking away until he caught her paw making a movement. He blinked in confusion, what was that supposed to be? OH! Perhaps it was a battle move! His amber eyes narrowed in focus as he observed the she-cat's movement. Then, he copied her first 'swat' with a strike against the air in front of them. The young brown tom had no desire to hurt his mentor, so he focused his attention on a leaf that drifted down between them. A smirk on his muzzle as he slashed it down to the forest floor in a clearly aggressive manner, but the smirk on his face belied the aggression.

His tail twitched proudly as he looked to the second 'move' of the lesson. The twittering of a robin overhead went unheard as he focused ... in the direction of the fresh-kill pile? He blinked in bemusement, then looked at his paw. The twittering of the robin echoing in his ears as he looked at the trees where it sang happily. His ears flattened, and eyes widened. Did he- ... he looked at the leaf still attached to his claw. Then blinked and yanked it off with a baleful look at Firflower.

Firflower watched him somewhat sheepishly herself. She wasn't sure what was going on inside his head, but at least he'd caught on that she wanted him to copy her movements. 'It's a start, I suppose. He has good form.' Perhaps this would work better if they were out in the territory. She stood up straight and motioned for Falconpaw to follow her with a flick of her tail.

Once they were out, the young warrior began weaving through the trees to a spot where she herself had trained extensively; a patch of woods littered with pine needles and sparse underbrush. Breaks in the canopy shed splashes of sunlight onto the earth. As she had discovered, pine needles seemed to deaden sound, something she's struggle to control by herself. She stopped to briefly poke her head into the warm sunlight, mouth agape. There was the scent of crow in the air, a few of them, if her nose was right. There was one in sight, but it was far away and didn't appear to be all too concerned about their presence. Firflower gave a purposeful look to Falconpaw before getting into a hunting crouch. 'Please, do as I do.' Since her own mentor died not too long into her apprenticeship, she'd done her best to perfect her stance by watching her Clanmates and through trial and error.

Falconpaw watched Firflower leave, his pelt still bristled with embarrasement as he reluctantly stood and followed after her. He half considered going up to Tinylegs and begging him for a new mentor, as this didn't seem to be working out too well, but he kept his muzzle shut and followed her into the forest. Weaving easily through the trees with her until they reached the training area.

He tilted his head curiously as he reached out with a paw to prod at a few of the pine needles. His head lowered to sniff them, his tail flicking in his bewilderment. When he looked up, he observed her crouching position with curiousity and padded towards her. Awkwardly, he tried to get into a similar position. His body crouched but his paws were awkwardly spaced out. Displeased, Falconpaw corrected himself, but the pine needles felt strange. Still, he would be hunting in this forest, he couldn't let pine needles distract him. With a determined nod, he crouched again, trying to get it as close to Firflower's position as he could.

Observing him carefully, she got out of her crouch and padded towards Falconpaw. 'Relax.' She nudged his paws slightly and held his tail still. Backing up a bit, she gave him an approving nod before crouching once again. 'Alright, stalking.' Firflower began to stalk forward, keeping an eye on her own paws and being careful to gradually put weight on them instead of just slamming them down. Her eyes found a knobby tree root poking out from the forest floor and made for it. A quick look back told her the tom could still see what she was doing, but instead of going ahead and "pouncing" on the root, she turned and waited for him to copy her. Had she kept her tail straight?

(OOC: Ack, sorry this is so late! Feel free to nudge me next time!)


His yellow eyes shot down to where his paws were nudged, moving them slightly and quieting his tail with a stiff breath. He felt as though if he breathed too hard he would break the position. Though as Firflower began to stalk, he slowly followed along. One paw in front of the other, his movements changing from snappy and too quick to avoid branches and debris, towards a smoother motion as he realised he was making more noise by doing that. Now, he stalked forward low and kept his paws careful but quiet as possible. He heard the odd rustle, but didn't look towards it.

He focused instead on watching Firflower pounce onto a root. His gaze watched, then he nodded and lowered himself to do the same. Mimicking her smooth gait and straight tail as he lined up, then lunged for it with a mighty leap. His heart thudded fiercly in his chest as he regarded the root like it was actually prey and raked his claws down it. Falconpaw looked at Firflower proudly. This time, he thought he did it perfectly, even if a leaf did catch on his paw during his leap and his claws were now regretfully sore from scoring across the root.