Third Time's the Charm

It was a rough night for Flurryshine. The nightmares of Snowblossom drowning or falling off a cliff or being ripped to shreds by a predator hadn't ceased once all night, and she was so incredibly tired. Still, she knew she couldn't afford to try and get at least a little rest during the day. She had to start training Hawkpaw right away, so that at least he would live to become a warrior. She just had to do this for him, and for herself.

Padding sluggishly out of the warriors' den and towards the apprentices' den, she stuck her head in through the curtain of woven reeds and mewed to her sleeping apprentice, "Wake up, Hawkpaw. It's your first day of training." Slipping back out and heading to the camp entrance to wait, she sat down and began grooming her messy fur. Usually she would blow a fuse at even one stray hair being out of place, but nowadays, now that she barely had the time to groom herself as properly as she wanted, she just forced herself not to care so much about it, with varying degrees of success. Today, however, due to her exhaustion, her messy fur made her feel really grumpy and annoyed, feeling as if even one wrong thing that could go wrong today would set her off.

Hawkpaw stirred at the voice of his new mentor, Flurryshine. It was only last night he'd been made an apprentice, and after his ceremony, he'd been bushed. Right after the ceremony he'd gone to the apprentice den to lay down. After a moment, Hawkpaw abruptly sat up. Training! He eagerly pulled himself out of his bed of moss and rushed to the entrance of the apprentice den. As he felt a rush of the cold leaf-bare wind, he regretted it. Fluffing up his fur against the bitter cold, he marched out into the middle of camp. He found Flurryshine by the camp entrance, grooming her fur. Hawkpaw thought about grooming his own, but he didn't really care about how messy his pelt was. "So, what are we gonna do first!?" The dark brown tabby asked.

Flurryshine looked up to meet Hawkpaw's eyes, and she smiled gently, being reminded of her first apprentice Firepaw. She stopped grooming, even though she wasn't finished yet, and stood up. Perhaps a dip in the river would help smooth her fur down. "We're going to the river today. I'm going to teach you how to hunt for fish, as well as how to fight." Turning and swishing her tail to tell her apprentice to follow, she slipped through the camp entrance and headed into RiverClan territory towards the large river that stood as the border between RiverClan and the rivaling ThunderClan. Once they arrived, she stopped and turned to face Hawkpaw. "Before we continue, I must ask, have you learned the basics of swimming while you were a kit? Every kit must have learned the basics at the broken pools by their mothers or another queen or warrior."

(OOC: this is a hard question XD)

Hawkpaw jumped with excitement. They were going to the river! Not wanting to get left behind, the newly appointed apprentice rushed ahead to meet Flurryshine. He jumped along behind her, looking at the territory as they went. There were so many things out here that he could only look at from a distance at camp! Eventually they'd made it to the river, when his mentor abruptly turned around. Listening to her question, Hawkpaw thought. After a moment, he said, "I don't think i've ever been to the broken pools."

This answer brought back memories of Flurryshine's own childhood. She herself had never been taken to the broken pools either because Snowblossom was too busy taking care of six she-kits at once. In fact, Firepaw had never been taken to the broken pools, either, before he was apprenticed. She had taught her first apprentice how to swim, so she should teach Hawkpaw, too. "A RiverClan cat can't properly fish without first learning how to swim. You might fall into the river by accident, and then what? That being said, I believe we'll start with teaching you how to swim. It's a little scary at first -- I myself was very hesitant when I was starting off, too -- but it'll come naturally to you." She turned and approached the riverbank, then easily slipped into the rather cold water. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as cold as it could be, and her thick white coat protected from the worse of the chill. "It's pretty cold, so we won't stay in for long, but you do need to get at least some understanding on how to swim. Come on in, Hawkpaw."

Hawkpaw looked at the running water hesitantly. It looked pretty cold. But he did as Flurryshine said. He slowly walked into the shallow part of the river, shivering at the bitter coldness it sent up his leg. Paw by paw he walked further in, getting deeper and deeper. Hawkpaw thought the feeling of the mud-like sand that coated the bottom of the river felt weird as he picked up his paw, heading deeper still. He was far enough in for the water to reach his chest. By this time Hawkpaw's whole body was shivering. " H-how D-do fish d-deal with this c-cold w-water?" He asked, stuttering on almost every word. "W-What do I D-do now?" He asked, looking at Flurryshine. He'd gone a little deeper into the bank so that the water had reached the middle of his neck.

Flurryshine smiled sympathetically to the shivering tom, and she approached him, her tail swishing gently in the water behind her. She paddled behind him and gave him a gentle push, edging him further into the gentler part of the river where neither of them could touch the bottom with their paws without their heads submerging into the water, and she stayed by his side the entire time. "Now, you paddle with all four paws to keep your head afloat. I'll be here for you in case you need help, but I want you to try to swim in three circles before heading back to the shore."

Hawkpaw panicked for a moment when he couldn't feel the soft, sandy surface of the river bottom between his pads. But following Flurryshine's instructions, he started kicking his paws. He struggled to keep above the water a first, teetering back and forth like a leaf on the water, but then he started to get the hang of it. "Hey, I g-got it!" The tom exclaimed. He wasn't as cold as he was before now that he was moving. He started moving in circles, and it wasn't long until he made three. "I did it!" He said, his blue eyes shining with triumph.

"See, what did I tell you? You're a natural!" Flurryshine purred, eyes arching happily. Stars, when was the last time she felt so genuinely... happy? It hadn't been ever since Firepaw was alive, she was sure. She shook her head to clear the thought away and helped Hawkpaw back to shore, slipping out of the water and shaking out her fur. "We can practice swimming more another day, I wouldn't want you catching a cold. Now, do you feel you're ready to practice fishing, or would you like to do some battle training first? I'll let you decide."

"I want to start hunting!" Hawkpaw answered, rather loudly. He was gonna bring more fresh kill than anybody else!

(OOC: sry for the short and oogly post CX)