and yet, the sun still shines (closed)

Sand filled Cherryblossom's mouth as she was squashed to the ground under Moonpaw's weight. She felt the pressure on her back abate as the apprentice let her up, and she spit out sand as she stood. Once her mouth was mostly sand-free, she smiled.
"Great! In battle, you'll want to pin your opponent for as long as you can, but you did well."

"The next move I want to show you is the belly rake. If you've got the chance, and your opponent's belly is exposed, kick at it with your hind feet, and rake it with your claws. Try to unbalance me, and use this move, again, with claws sheathed."

---

ooc: here's red and ash's training topic!

Moonpaw bounced up and down, excited for her next battle move. She was going to be the best fighter ever! "Here I come!" she called before barreling towards Cherryblossom. She hooked a paw around her mentor's to unbalance her, and gently pawed at Cherryblossom's soft underbelly before jumping back, letting her mentor stand up. "Was that okay?" she asked, "I wasn't sure how to unbalance you..." she trailed off, smiling sheepishly.

Cherryblossom flopped onto her side as her legs were hooked out from underneath her, and she watched as Moonpaw pawed at her exposed belly with hesitation in the split second it took for the little cat to find her paws and stand again. The sun was beginning its descent in the sky, and the little sunlight that pierced the canopy was coloring the clearing gold.
"The unbalancing was great! However, with an enemy, you'll want to grapple them with your front paws and kick their belly with your back legs and claws really hard."

She shook out her pelt.
"Do you wanna give it one more shot before we head back to camp? It's getting pretty late, and we need to take our prey back to camp as well."

At the thought of camp, Moonpaw's jaws popped with a giant yawn and she blinked, surprised. "I think I'd like to head back to camp. This is the most I've, well, done apprentice stuff before." She felt the sudden urge to sleep, and yawned again. Shaking her head, she mumbled, "If that's okay with you?"

Without waiting for a reply, Moonpaw padded to the place they had dropped their prey and plopped down on the nearby grass, not bothering to care about her appearance. She gazed at Cherryblossom hopefully, looking as cute as she could. Realizing she probably looked like she was spooked or dying, she straightened and stood up. "Can we go?"

A smile crossed Cherryblossom's face as Moonpaw flopped down on the grass, clearly tired out by her first day as an apprentice. She padded over to where they'd left their prey, and picked up her squirrel as Moonpaw grabbed her own prey.
"Yeah, let's go."

She led the way back to camp, Moonpaw in tow.

Moonpaw picked up her prey, and padded after Cherryblossom to the ThunderClan camp. Her head drooped and she stared at her paws, not noticing anything on the way back. Dropping her catch on the prey-pile, she stumbled to the apprentice's den and promptly passed out in her nest.