Learning the Ways of ShadowClan: Little Edition

Asterspark sluggishly slipped out of the warriors' den, his eyelids heavy with lack of sleep. Yet another sleepless, nightmare-filled night for the insomniac tom. Stars, how he didn't want to take anyone out training today, especially this early. Why in StarClan's name did Scorchstar decide it would be of everyone's best interests if he trained Froststone's apprentice Littlepaw while he recovered from whitecough in the medicine den? Seriously, there were plenty of cats who could take on the responsibility! Like his 'adopted mother' Minnowcall, whom he doubted remembered how to train apprentices anymore after being stuck in the nursery all the time. Or Liontail, his eldest half-brother, who finally recovered from his own bout of sickness. He... didn't really have anything negative to say about him.

Well... whatever. It couldn't be helped. Or rather, he chose not to do anything about it. What would change anyway? Nothing, that's what. Scorchstar would probably ignore his request to give Littlepaw to another warrior, one more capable of training a young cat than him. Whatever.

Trudging to the apprentices' den, he grunted, "Littlepaw. Up and at 'em, we've gotta get your training out of the way. Let's go." He knew he was speaking quite loudly and abruptly in a tone that would definitely wake the other apprentices, but whatever. If he had to be up this early, there's no reason why they should be allowed to sleep in. He stalked over to the entrance of camp to wait rather impatiently for his other apprentice.

Littlepaw's head jerked up at the sound, her breaths coming in heavy gasps as her frantic green eyes flickered around the den before resting on Asterspark. Right. She was in Shadowclan with her siblings Burntpaw and Slatepaw, not back at the barn or at four-trees with her mother dead at her paws. Squeezing her eyes shut she got to her paws and padded after her newly assigned mentor, her legs shaking from her nightmare. Spotting the bad-tempered tom she approached him carefully, hesitant and nervous. "I-I'm ready to go, Asterspark... sir." She meowed timidly.

Asterspark stood up and shook out his fur, fluffing it up as much as he could to protect his warm skin underneath against the cold. Looking down at Littlepaw, who seemed to cower before him, he blinked a few times. She appeared to be the exact opposite of Frog when she had been an apprentice. Well, hopefully this would mean she'd be less trouble. And if she'd be less trouble for him, then he'd be less trouble for her.

His lips curled up into a grin. The smile wore no sarcastic malice or anything like that. It was small and casual. "Hey, don't look so down in the Carrionplace, eh, kit? Don't worry 'bout a thing. Your ol' pal Asterspark's gonna take good care'a ya. Now, whadaya say we make like brittle twigs and make a break for it?" Winking his right yellow eye at her, he began leading the apprentice out of camp.

Littlepaw blinked, a bit surprised at the shift in tone, but she was quite alright with that, after all, there weren't a lot of nice cats around Shadowclan. She stood a little straighter, the small smile that wasn't mixed with anything negative giving her a bit of confidence. Littlepaw nodded seriously, padding off after her mentor before realizing what the tom actually said. Was that- Was that a pun? Littlepaw snorted, her maw quirking up just a little bit at, "Y-ya, oak-kay." She meowed, she never really tried to be funny, everyone was all too serious and her brothers too scary to even try. Littlepaw's cheeks heated up just a bit out of embarrassment, feeling as if her own pun had fallen a little flat.

It didn't take Asterspark long at all to get the joke his new apprentice threw back at him, and he couldn't help but snort softly. "Heh, good one, kit. You're a nature-al." He said no more as he continued on deeper into ShadowClan territory until they reached the marshes. Stopping right before the large swampy pond before them, he turned his body around to face Littlepaw. "So, somethin' tells me you've had a rather, eh, brawl-some upbringin' before joinin' ShadowClan. How much huntin' and fightin' do ya know?"

Littlepaw's mouth quirked up a bit again. "A-Am I? That's good." She mewed shyly, trotting next to her mentor but purposefully staying just a little behind. It was disrespectful to walk side-by-side with one higher than you in rank, after all. Littlepaw jerked back when her mentor turned on her, her fur spiking up in shock before settling back down along her spine. "U-Uhm, none? When I-I was still with dad and mom we never really did any battling or hunting training... Shade yelled at us a lot though and taught us a couple things though, bu-but I was too young at the time to remember? Lichenmask- I-I think was going to start teaching us but then the whole mess at Four-trees happened, y'know? Mom and Dad didn't make it back so I guess I never re-really got the chance until now..." Littlepaw rambled, looking down at her paws, her voice quavering with grief at the memory and embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry I rambled! Let's just- Can we- Can you teach me to hunt? Or-Or fight? I know that's what mentor's do and- I- Oh dear Starclan I apologize I didn't want to tell you how to do your teaching and- I'll just stop talking now." She meowed, shutting her jaw with a loud click and making her head rattle.

Her tail tucks, averting her gaze and looking at the marshy ground, nervous and fearing the worst. Her ears press against her head, her maw stuck in a frown as she mentally berates herself for being so stupid.

Suddenly she felt a paw boop her on the nose. Asterspark smiled down at her, a soft glimmer of amusement in his eyes. "Hey, quick lookin' so down. Your mentor's right here, not stuck in the ground." His whiskers twitched. "Just forgeddaboutit, okay? It's no problem at all, I can teach ya. Let's start with huntin'. You cool with that?"

Littlepaw's eyes widened in shock as she fell onto her rump with a 'whump' blinking gratefully up at her mentor she nodded happily, glad to be shaken out of the memory of her parents and her incessant muttering. "Y-Yeah! Lets get started! I can't wait!" Littlepaw mewed happily, her eyes shining and her body quivering with excitement.

Asterspark suddenly froze. With a sudden jolt, he realized he didn't even know where to begin with teaching a cat how to hunt. When he had been Frogmarsh's mentor, he barely paid much attention to her, just telling her to wing it and see what happened. Stars, he had been such a terrible mentor...

But he was determined not to be as bad a one to Littlepaw. She deserved much more. Thinking back to how he himself was trained by Daisyflame back when he was an apprentice, he finally smiled and nodded. "Okay. The first thing you gotta know 'bout huntin' is how to keep quiet and outta sight. Crouch down as low to the ground as you can, but make sure your belly isn't touching the ground, and spread your paws out with your weight evenly distributed; this'll help ya balance when you stalk. Hold your tail straight out behind you for balance, and whatever you do, don't swish it or let it drag along the ground. Like this." Demonstrating, Asterspark dropped himself low to the ground, just short of flattening himself completely to the ground, with his tail held out straight behind him. Then, he took a few careful paces forward, planting each paw down slowly and gently on the snow so the frosty blanket doesn't make a single sound underpaw. "Notice the snow isn't crunching beneath my paws when I stalk. You gotta be as careful and as gentle as possible when stalking so you don't make any noise. Even a subtle crunch of snow or snap of a twig could alert your prey, and you'll miss your chance at catching it."

Standing back up to his full height, he sat down and wrapped his tail neatly around his paws, smiling encouragingly to his apprentice. "Now you give it a try. Don't get frustrated if you don't get it right the first few times. You'll get it eventually. Trust me."

Littlepaw nodded along eagerly, her brow furrowing in concentration, giving her mentor little 'mm' and 'uh-uhs' as he told her and demonstrated what to do. Trying her best to commit everything to memory she tried her best to imitate what he was doing, her tail wavered a little but was pretty still. Her large paws were pretty great for staying on top, and the webbing really gave her an extra boost. Even if she had big paws she kept crunching through the snow, when it wasn't one paw it was the other but eventually, she figured out how to evenly distribute her weight.

Her belly fur dragged a lot, and it was a struggle to stay just high enough to not let it drag on the ground but she got there. She almost threw a couple tantrums when she couldn't get it right all in one, but she did it, and just by sun-high as well. Littlepaw was quivering, if it was out of exhaustion or excitement she didn't know, but she felt ready. "I'm gonna see if I can catch something." Littlepaw mewed quietly as if the prey would hear her if she spoke too loudly. Littlepaw padded quietly through the pine forests, her nose twitching and mouth open, searching for scents. Finally, she smelled the scent of a mouse, it smelled fresh to her but she wasn't too certain.

Littlepaw dropped into a crouch, still uncertain on her paws but better off than from what she had been when she started. Suddenly, she spotted the light grey form of a mouse and her mouth seemed to water. Lowering she let herself still, her consciousness hyper-focusing on everything around her and herself. Crawling forwards with very light crunches she approached the mouse. It's little head whipped up from its seed and looked straight at her. But she was on it, soaring through the air Littlepaw landed with a heavy thump, turned on her paws and snapped her jaws around its head. Not the cleanest kill sure, but she got it on her first try!

Littlepaw caught a Mouse! The item has been added to her inventory.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 7

Asterspark had to admit, sitting around until the sun rode high in the sky watching Littlepaw work on perfecting the hunter's crouch and stalk was really making him want to take a nap. However, he forced himself to stay awake and watch her progress, even pointing out little tips and tricks to help her perform better. When his apprentice told him she would put what she had just learned to the test, he remained quiet, only offering her a nod of acknowledgement, and watched her closely as she began stalked what he soon found to be a mouse behind a snowy rock.

The tom didn't even realize he was holding his breath in anticipation until he exhaled a puff of air when Littlepaw managed to pounce on and kill the mouse. She reminded him of his first apprentice Frogmarsh quite a bit; she had been a fast learner, too. Asterspark offered Littlepaw a smile that was slightly bigger than usual. "Hey, great job, kit. You seemed to have gotten the crouch and stalk down pretty fast. Tell ya what, this ain't a huntin' patrol, so you'd be allowed to eat if you catch anythin', especially considerin' you haven't had breakfast yet. The next piece of fresh-kill you catch, you can eat, then we can do some battle trainin'."