A New Commitment {CLOSED}

Finchbreeze awoke with a start, his yellow eyes stretched wide. It's dawn... The tom told himself, rolling onto his back to gaze into the sky. I should take Aspenpaw out on the territory...
Finchbreeze had been named a mentor yesterday, much to his surprise. The majority of his shock came from the fact that he was still such a young warrior, lacking experience. But he wouldn't let it his hesitation show. Mostly because his best friend, Brookclover, had also received an apprentice quite recently. The orange tabby glanced over to see her lying in the grass next to him, sleeping peacefully. I want her to be proud of me... I want Windclan to be proud of me... It wasn't often that the warrior thought like this. Usually he wouldn't care what most of his clanmates thought of him, but this new sense of responsibility had been given to him. The education of one cat now rested in his paws. It was a commitment, and he knew he'd give it his all. With his mind made up, Finchbreeze rose to his paws and stretched, gazing over Brookclover one last time before padding over to the apprentices. They slept apart from the warriors, sharing the same view of the sky, but a different patch of ground.

"Aspenpaw." Finchbreeze whispered, weaving his way over to the gray tabby tom. "I think we'll go hunting today, are you ready?" The tom took a few steps back to give his apprentice a moment to rise, remembering how Ryecloud first woke him on his first day out as an apprentice. Back then it had been leaf-fall, and the wheatgrass was dry and crunched under his paws. But today was far colder. Finchbreeze fluffed up his short fur against the icy wind. The sky was still dark, and a thin layer of frost coated the grass, it gave the moor a white haze. There was no snow yet, but Finchbreeze could tell from the nip in the air that it would arrive soon.

Aspenpaw was already half awake. It was hard for him to sleep in the cold weather, but mostly, he was anticipating training. He was excited to go beyond the expanses of the camp. He often watched the stars in the beautiful night sky and imagined how they looked from the gorge or the thunderpath. He asked some older apprentices about it, but they mostly called him mousebrained, since the sky looks the same everywhere.

"Oh-! Alright. Are we going to hunt? Or fight a patrol? Or go through the tunnels?" he demanded with eagerness.

Murkpaw shivered outside, hunched into himself as he tried to think of anything but the cold. It didn't work. I HATE morning patrols. How many of these things did he have to do before they finally stopped picking him? If it had been anyone but Finchbreeze, he would have just found somewhere else to sleep and made it clear he wasn't going. But he'd somehow found himself here, grudgingly remembering how Finchbreeze had showed him around when everyone else just ignored the new kit.
Unfortunately, going on patrol with Finchbreeze also meant going with one of his denmates, an apprentice called Aspenpaw, who snored about as much as the rest of the cats in his den, which was why Murkpaw had found a nice place in the den that had a lot of twigs between him and the rest.
For once, he'd actually found himself awake on time, before anybody poked him. And now he was even reminiscing about old times and cats snoring. I'm going soft, aren't I? He snorted, the cold air turning his breath into a white mist that billowed in front of his eyes for a moment. Not like everyone else isn't strange. Straightening up as much as he dared, he waited for the other apprentice to finally get up so they could get on with it.

Lilyflower had woken up early in the morning not feeling like sleeping, to the young warrior the warrior den was still a little odd besides she enjoyed the morning's sometimes she would wake up extra early just to see the sun set. She gazed at her clanmates who where joining the first dawn patrols. She sighed and got up she was awake might as well make herself useful.
She saw Finchbreeze and his apprentice readying themselves to go out so she figured she could just join them. She made her way over to them her eye looking at Finchbreeze and Aspenpaw.
"Hello there, do you two mind if I joined in on the patrol?".

(so sorry for being late)

"I think we'll try our paws at hunting today..." Finchbreeze commented to Aspenpaw, gazing out over the moor, a shiver running down his spine. A dark blur in the corner of his eye revealed itself to be Murkpaw, sitting alone near the entrance. Finchbreeze remembered meeting the tom a few moons ago, and thought of him as a friend.
It was a strange thing, to be such a young warrior. The orange and white tom found that he viewed the apprentices as friends rather than pupils. He wondered how it would affect his mentoring. But Finchbreeze was never one to worry. He shook out his pelt as if to shake the thought away.
"Murkpaw." Finchbreeze smiled at the darker tom, Aspenpaw trailing behind him. "Why don't you come with us? We're going hunting."
While Finchbreeze wanted Murkpaw to join, the thought of having the two apprentices under his watch was somewhat intimidating, so he was very relieved when Lilyflower decided to show up.
"Not at all. We were just leaving." The tom responded to the she-cat. He identified Lilyflower as a young warrior like himself, that was something they shared. With a nod to the three, Finchbreeze padded out of camp, a gust of wind rising up to meet him.

The four had been walking for a while and came to a halt beside a large stone that jutted out from the moor. "This is called Outlook Rock." Finchbreeze mewed, voice raised slightly to compensate for the occasional blasts of wind. "It's called this because..." The orange tabby leapt to the top of the stones in three graceful bounds, gesturing to the apprentices with his tail. "...you can see everything from here!" The moor stretched out before him, unfurling itself like a giant green pelt. Fourtrees stood tall a distance away, and beyond, Shadowclan and Thunderclan territory stretched back into the mist. Finchbreeze remembered his first time scaling the rocks moons ago. And the view never ceased to amaze him.

"Can you scent anything from here?" The tom asked Aspenpaw, hoping to find some time to teach his apprentice as well. "If you find a scent, try following it, if you want." It still felt strange to be mentoring. Finchbreeze hoped it would get easier with time. He turned toward the rest of the group, leaping down from the stones. "We could start hunting from here, prey is pretty scarce, but at least one of us should be able to find something..."

OOC: Sorry for late response, it's standardized testing time .~.

Aspenpaw followed the little patrol out of camp with a slight spring in his step. He was happy to be out, spreading his legs. He loved the smell of the fresh morning air. He tried desperately to swallow the eagerness in his bones that urged him ahead. He almost missed what Finchbreeze was saying to him. He bunched up his muscles and hopped on top of the Outlook Rock, feeling a cold snap whip his ears. However, he felt nothing but glee looking down at the frost-tipped grass. He almost swore he could see every warren in the moor. "Come look, Murkpaw," he said in hushed reverence.

A few vague scents caught his attention, but the strongest ones were his clanmates. "If that's the gorge, then RiverClan must be over there. D'you think I can smell them from here?" He tried to concentrate on the scent of fish, but he resolved that they were just too far away. "I think there's prey somewhere close... I can't tell what it is."

Murkpaw hung behind, acting as unenthusiastic as he possibly could. Grass, more grass, dryer grass. So, when the other apprentice told him to look, he slumped up to the rock and gazed over at the rest of the moor stretching out in front of him, with a few gorse bushes and stuff he didn't really care about. "Mmf." He'd already seen it all before anyway, but if he made the other apprentice unhappy then Finchbreeze would be unhappy. "It's good, I guess."
The other apprentice then proceeded to try and sniff for RiverClan, and Murkpaw had to hold back a scoff as he sat down and wrapped his tail around his paws, trying get some warmth back into them. At the other's mention of prey scent he opened his mouth, drawing in the chilly air and almost wincing as it cut through his scent glands. "Rabbit."
(ooc: just ignore Murk being a grumpy angsty boy ;) I swear he's got more emotions that this somewhere....)

Lilyflower watched the apprentice pick up cents when they got to the gorge however she got nerves and called out "hey you two don't come to close to the gorge we don't want anyone falling in now do we?" there was an unusual amount of kindness and cheery in her voice that made Lilyflower herself stir. She quickly blinked and looked away wondering why now her voice had softened. She quietly sighed, maybe she was restoring from Fernwing's death after all it had happened moons ago.
She walked away from the rest of the group when she caught the cent of an hare. She quickly lowered herself and tried her best to scan the area for it, her one eye making it a difficult task.
By a miracle she saw it, peeking its head out of his hole. She sighed realizing that this was going to be a harder catch then she wanted it to be. She quickly sneaked to a place where the wind was in her face so the hare could not catch her cent, and creeped forwards using the few bushes to hide her a bit better. Her light grey pelt came of use and she almost blended in with the ground her ear tips the most visible . She sneaked closer and closer until she thought it would make a save jump and leaped.
The hare did not now what happened until it was to late and he was already in her mouth. True her jump was not as balanced as it could have been which made the whole catch look a bit improvised but a catch was a catch and in bare-leaf all was welcome.
She quickly walked back to the group and tried to burry her hare only to notice that the ground was to hard and giving up just dropping the hare on the ground. She looked around wondering how the apprentices where doing.

The member 'rainypool' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 4

"Great catch!" Finchbreeze commented, watching as Lilyflower made her kill. They were near the gorge now, and the rush of the waterfall could be heard crashing into the river below. He nodded to the apprentices. "You two did well scenting that rabbit, and Lilyflower was able to catch it."
Finchbreeze caught a scent of something different, and starting trailing after it, flicking his tail for the apprentices to follow. He made an effort to make his paw falls softer, as not to alert the prey.
"When hunting, you want to rely on speed rather than stealth." The warrior was addressing Aspenpaw, but hoped Murkpaw was listening to. "...if you think that's what'll work best for you." Again, Finchbreeze still felt as if he was speaking with friends. He needed to be unapologetic, strong. He winced at himself as he thought of it, but then shook the thought away. The scent had become stronger, and the parted wheatgrass revealed a bird, nibbling at the ground. A rare catch, usually they wouldn't be in the territory during leafbare, but it was prey nonetheless. Watch this. Finchbreeze mouthed, hoping the two apprentices were paying attention. He flattened his ears to his skull, tail still, then shot forward sprinted the short distance between himself and the feathered creature.
The orange tabby landed squarely on the bird, swiftly lowering his head to kill it. "There we go." Finchbreeze breathed, ears twitching. "Why don't you two try your paws at hunting. See if you can find some prey!" He gestured to the two apprentices, padding deeper into the moor, the bird hanging from his jaws.

The member 'lemongrass' has done the following action : Dices roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 5