A Tour and a Lesson (closed)

Harefoot stood just outside the apprentices' den, frozen in place besides his shivering. He didn't feel ready for the responsibility of training an apprentice, not one bit. He pondered how to go about this first day. A hunting trip? Battle training? Border patrol? 'Too many options... I should just see what happens.' He inhaled a deep breath in an attempt to gather his courage. "Honeypaw! Let's get going so we can train!" the nervous tom called into the den, quickly padding away to regain any lost composure. He sat by the camp entrance, dreading the next six moons.

Chocolate brown eyes immediately shot open, dilating to adjust to the incoming light that flooded the entrance of the den. Honeypaw sat up with an excited squeal, though quickly silencing himself at the sound of a few tired groans from the other apprentices. It was his first day of training, how could he not be excited? 

He cleaned and groomed himself with a few quick licks; only the necessities. The tom didn't have any time to worry about his appearance, he just wanted to get out and about. With that, the curly-haired tom strolled out of the den, greeting Harefoot with a warm, wide smile. "Hiya, Harefoot!" The caramel apprentice wasn't much for words, preferring to keep things short, simple, and straightforward.

"Er... hello, Honeypaw." The young warrior meowed, a bit lost as to what say besides that. After a few moments of awkward silence and uncomfortable glances about the camp, Harefoot stood and gestured towards the exit. He considered that it would be best to come up with a plan now before they got lost doing some obscure task. "This morning we'll be... learning the borders. And a bit about the other clans. We might hunt a bit, too." He decided, speaking as he padded along into the territory. "Try not to wander too far. Most of the borders are dangerous. So are cats from other clans, come to think of it," Harefoot meowed as an afterthought, compiling all the reasons in his mind that it would be a bad idea to cross the border by accident. The tawny tom became silent and didn't speak again until they came upon the first border.

"This is the Thunderpath." He meowed at last, a trace of hesitance in his voice. He'd gotten into a... confrontation of sorts here, one that was not at all pleasant. A memory of claws slicing through his short pelt surfaced and then was quickly extinguished as Harefoot turned to Honeypaw. "Please be careful here. This black path is the path that giant monsters run across day and night. There are times when it's quiet, but every now and then a big monster will charge across... and kill any cat in its way. But they never leave the path, so we don't have to worry if we keep our distance." He said rather absently. He stood, staring vacantly at the path for a few heartbeats, before realizing he'd left out something important. "It's also our border with ShadowClan. So there's two reasons to stay off of it."

At Harefoot's greeting, Honeypaw smiled happily, his eyes closed and curved upwards. Once a few silent moments passed, he opened his cedar coloured eyes, smile devolving slightly and containing more anxiety and awkwardness. The apprentice silently sighed in relief when the warrior finally stood up and motioned to the camp's entrance, not wanting to delve into more nervous, silent bits of time. Nodding in excitement at Harefoot's plan for the day, Honeypaw's cheeriness returned.

Upon approaching a black, musty pathed area, Honeypaw's small muzzle wrinkled in distaste. He looked up at Harefoot as he spoke about the path, learning its name and other various information about it. The small tom nodded, though a small sense of fear lingered in him that made him want to shrink away from the Thunderpath and hide in his pelt. "O-okay. Thanks for the warnings."

OOC: hey i'm sorry i'm terrible. also yes Hare is supposed to be an awful mentor

Harefoot looked back at Honeypaw when he heard the stutter in his apprentice's voice, wincing slightly. He hadn't mean to scare the young tom, only tell him why the Thunderpath was so dangerous. Unsure how to alleviate the situation, Harefoot meowed, "Yeah, I think the ShadowClan cats end up being a bigger problem, usually, 'cause they're always awake at night when we're asleep," and then cut off abruptly. Another couple of silent heartbeats passed until the young warrior stood up, seeking an escape from the situation, and headed off in a new direction, flicking his tail for Honeypaw to follow. 'Great StarClan, why'd Leopardstar give me an apprentice?!' He thought to himself, certain he was screwing up everything.

After another long, silent trek through the territory, the pair of toms came upon the end of the trees and a quickly rushing river. Harefoot stopped, stared for a bit, and then turned to Honeypaw. "This is the river. Farther that way is Suningrocks, but it belongs to RiverClan so we'll walk past it but we won't go onto the rocks." He meowed, pointing downriver with his nose. "You should try not to get into the water... it can suck you under and drown you, and then your body will wash up somewhere. Maybe at Sunningrocks, or farther down in SkyClan territory." He paused, remembering to speak about the clan it belonged to. "RiverClan lives across it. They swim in shallower parts and eat the fish that lives in it, and they're always fat because the fish is available in every season."