Stumbling Along

Marshcloud padded through ShadowClan's territory, his apprentice not far behind him.

He eventually stopped, looked at his apprentice, smiled, and said brightly: "Alright, Ebonypaw! This seems like a good spot to practice hunting!"

It was a good spot to practice hunting, but that was purely coincidental. Marshcloud hadn't been aiming to go to this place. He hadn't really been aiming to go anywhere specific at all-- he'd just been walking.

He hadn't gone in a direction so much as he'd just gone, stumbling forward, sideways, and at one point backward through the territory without any particular end point in mind. He didn't really have the mental clarity to be thinking of things in terms of destination right now. Places kind of blended into each other these days-- it all just was. The only reason he'd even really stopped was because he'd tripped slightly on a twig. If he hadn't, he might've just continued to lead Ebonypaw aimlessly through the territory, not even realizing he was doing it.

"So, ah-- hunting. Um, basic. We'll start with-- those, yeah. The basics. Of hunting. For prey. Hunting-- that. Basics, uhhhh," Marshcloud said, his broken sense of direction applying equally to his speech, words tumbling out without much deliberation behind them. Marshcloud's mouth had always had a habit of working faster than his mind, but now they weren't even really working together at all. "Right, yes, okay, yes-- hunting basics. Do you-- how much do you-- have you heard, from like, older apprentices, or warriors, and, um, various others? or just like-- heard generally, or whatever, about things like the hunter's crouch, uhh-- technical...things. Techniques-- basic techniques?" he shook his head out. There as a buzzing sound in his ears he couldn't shake. It was distracting. But he was still aware of how ramble-y he sounded, so he took a breath and tried again, piecing together bits of his words into something more coherent.

"Sorry, uhh- what I'm asking is, how much do you know about basic hunting techniques?"

OOC: This isn’t my first assessment so I know the ropes

“Well...I do know that you have to get into the hunting crouch and...um...not get spotted by prey?” Ebonypaw flicked her dark tail, thinking hard. “You have to be very silent...and yeah...” She was as nervous as her mentor was and her pelt felt very warm.

"Right!" Marshcloud said, absent-mindedly nodding for longer than he probably needed to, "Those things are all true. So--"

There was a silence for a moment while Marshcloud stared off into space, ears perked like he was listening to something-- though there was no noise other than the normal sounds of the territory.


"--I'll go over in detail how to do those things," he continued, as if the sudden pause had never happened. "So- so- so, okay, so, here's what the pose looks like,"

He dropped in to an example hunting crouch, continuing his explanation as he did so. "And you're definitely right, it's important prey doesn't see or hear you or anything, so you have to move carefully and slowly, like this--" he said, almost immediately stepping on a twig "Uhh, okay, so. Not like that, exactly that, but like the, the general idea, of moving slow enough to pay attention to your surroundings but not so slow that you let the prey get away..."

He paused and stared off into the distance again, a vague look of concern flashing on his face. He blinked it away and turned back to Ebonypaw, his expression back to being perfectly relaxed and cheerful.

"Would you like to go ahead and try it?

Ebonypaw frowned at her jumpy mentor. Nevertheless, she copied her mentor’s hunting crouch, pressing her belly onto the ground and lifting her tail into the air. Her dark grey fur blended well with the background and she was sure that little to no prey could spot her. “ Marshcloud, is this okay?” Ebonypaw asked.

"Yes-- that looks good!" Marshcloud said happily, nodding his approval. He paused a moment and scented the air, catching wind of some prey, then dropped back into his own hunting crouch. "I'll try to show you what it looks like in action, so, follow along with me! Oh, and stay in that pose as best you can so that neither of us startle prey," he told Ebonypaw.

Marshcloud followed the trail a little ways, then spotted the toad he'd been tracking. He prepped himself for the pounce, and in one quick motion, leaped after the amphibian. Marshcloud had always been a pretty good hunter-- even if his form was sometimes a little sloppy. But in his current state, he was more prone to letting details slip than usual, and he didn't notice that his right back leg was positioned at a slight wrong angle. His back foot slipped as he leaped, creating a loud noise, but he managed to spring onto the toad before it got away-- though only just barely.

"Right, so, uh, I guess that was kind of a close call," he said awkwardly. "My form wasn't as clean as it could've been. So...I guess, again, follow my general example but not, uh...my specifics, I guess. But hey-- I did catch it, and that's what counts. Anyway. Would you like to try catching something, now?"

Marshcloud used 3 SP to try and catch a toad. Catch was successful!

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 1

Ebonypaw stared at Marshcloud as he leaped at the toad. She spotted a mouse nearby, sniffing the ground and squeaking. She mimicked Marshcloud’s moves. Ebonypaw prepared herself to leap at the mouse. She pounced, slamming her paws on top of the unfortunate mouse. Ebonypaw prepared herself to kill the mouse, but she hesitated, and the mouse wriggled out of her paws with a squeak. She deflated slightly.

Ebonypaw attempted to catch a mouse, catch unsuccessful

Ebonypaw:
SP: 77/80 (-3)

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 9

Marshcloud watched as Ebonypaw's prey escaped her.

"Hey, don't fret it," he said to her "That's-- it's probably my bad that you missed. I'm...I'm a pretty poor example, I guess," he tone dropped for a split second, and again there was a flash of concern behind his gaze, but he shook the thought away and laughed. "Anyway, it's all good! It was your first try! And you'll catch the next one, I'm sure! So let's both try again, okay?"

He nodded brightly, then immediately switched back into a hunting stance, searching for another piece of prey. He tracked down a lizard and pounced, this time putting more focus-- though "more focus" for Marshcloud was a relative term-- onto keeping the proper posture. But before he could make his move, he was interrupted by an angry cry and a pair of glowering yellow eyes getting crashing down towards him.

Marshcloud only had time to look startled before the owl struck at him, painfully tearing at the fur on his shoulder.

Marshcloud used 3 SP to try and catch a lizard. Catch was unsuccessful, and an owl has appeared!
Owl used talon strike on Marshcloud, costing 10 SP and dealing 10 damage.

Marshcloud:
HP: 30/40
SP: 114/120

Owl:
HP: 50/50
SP: 110/120

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 10

Ebonypaw was about to say something, when suddenly, a shriek interrupted her. She looked at Marshcloud to see that the warrior had been attacked by an owl. Ebonypaw could only stare in shock at the owl and scrambled to her mentor’s side. “Are you okay, Marshcloud?”

OOC: I dont know any moves to attack owls

OOC: To my knowledge, you can mostly just use the same attacks you'd use for any other enemy/predator

Marshcloud made a noise that was somewhere between an acknowledgement of Ebonypaw's query and a grunt of pain. Already exhausted from not having slept well, Marshcloud struggled to pull himself up onto his hind legs and slash at the owl, but somehow, he managed it, sinking his claws into it.

"...Please don't fight me, owl...we don't need to fight," he mumbled as he landed back onto all fours, half-thinking it might actually work, and the owl would somehow understand him and back down.

But of course, the owl didn't, and went right back on the attack.

Marshcloud used rear up to slash, dealing 9 damage and using 15 stamina
Owl used talon strike on Marshcloud, dealing 10 damage and using 10 stamina

Marshcloud
HP: 20/40
SP: 99/120

Owl
HP: 41/50
SP: 100/120

Ebonypaw saw the owl strike at her mentor again. She felt anger stir inside her. As the owl swooped down again, Ebonypaw slashed a claw at its face. “Take THAT!” She yowled.

Ebonypaw used front paw strike, dealing 6 damage and costing 10 SP.

Ebonypaw

20/20
70/80


Owl: 
35/50

100/120

Marshcloud wavered in place as Ebonypaw struck the owl, taking the heat off of him for a moment. He was barely keeping himself steady, and knew he didn't have all that much fight left in him. It wasn't even that the injuries the owl had inflicted were that deep. But the pain, on top of the energy he was spending fighting, on top of already being severely sleep deprived...Marshcloud wasn't going to be able to fight much longer. He only hoped he'd have enough in him to drive it off before he lost consciousness, so that poor Ebonypaw wouldn't be left alone with it. He realized suddenly that this was her first fight-- he hadn't even had the chance to teach her any basic moves yet. He felt a burst of pride for his apprentice-- she'd jumped into the fight without a second thought, and had managed to strike a real blow against the owl, too. It was reckless-- but Marshcloud had always been an impulsive one.

Fueled by a little more energy now, Marshcloud launched himself up again, bringing his claws down on the owl's head and back.

The owl reciprocated the blow, striking at Marshcloud's chest as he fell back down onto all fours.

Marshcloud used Rear Up To Slash, dealing 9 damage and costing 15 stamina
Owl used Talon Strike, dealing 10 damage and costing 10 stamina


Marshcloud
HP: 10/40
SP: 84/120

Owl
HP: 26/50
SP: 90/120

Snarling, Ebonypaw scrambled under the owl, striking at it’s feathery chest. She rolled out, but it was too late. The owl screeched angrily, then slashed at her left flank. Ebonypaw fell down, gasping in agony. Pain made Ebonypaw go weak, but she managed to get up and stumble towards Marshcloud.

Ebonypaw used belly rake, dealing 7 damage and costing 10 SP
Owl used Talon Strike, dealing 10 damage and costing 10 SP

Ebonypaw:
10/20 HP
60/80 SP

Owl: 19/50 HP
80/120 SP