This is how legends are made (Closed)

Bloodstrike surprised himself by how excited he was to have a first apprentice. He figured eventually he would get one, but this soon? It was almost surreal. He got up a little earlier than usual for his patrols, which were usually at night but he requested morning patrols while training his apprentice. There wasn't much easy prey to be found at night and he didn't want to have his apprentice discouraged by difficult catches. Bloodstrike stretched in the early morning sun while they sky was still a lavender color rather than blue. No doubt his apprentice was sleeping, but she was probably just as excited to start their day as he was. His plan was to take her where prey was plentiful, so that even if she missed a few, she would have plenty of opportunities to get her practice in.

Bloodstrike walked quietly to the apprentice den and picked out Sweetpaw's calico fur right away. Cute little balls of fluff... Bloodstrike thought to himself upon seeing the pile of apprentices breathing together in their slumber. He wondered if his dad had thought that when Bloodstrike was Bloodpaw. I probably wasn't cute... I was huge. Indeed, with Bloodstrike being nearly double the height of the average cat and definitely double the weight of an average cat at 20 pounds, Bloodstrike's size and muscular build was comparable to that of a bobcat. He wondered why Wolfcall had chosen this apprentice for him. Was she named Sweet because she was or was that just her mother being excited over her kit? Bloodstrike was about to find out, he supposed.

"Sweetpaw," He called to her softly and gently nudged her with his paw. "It's time to start your first day. I'll give you a moment to wake up and get ready and I'll be outside." Bloodstrike then stepped back out of the apprentice den and reclined smoothly into a sit. He'd take her to the creek today... there was always stuff to hunt at the creek.

Sweetpaw had been buzzing with a bit of excitement for her first day most of the night. It took a while before the excited apprentice had finally fallen asleep and when she did she was fast asleep no doubt about that. It was as if time had flown by before she felt the prod against her body and her green gaze opened some as she gave a big yawn. She had heard what her mentor,Bloodstrike, said and had woken in just enough time to see her mentor push his way out of the den. Shakking her fur out slowly she stood and picked out a few peices from her nest that stuck in her fur. She groomed her fur down quickly before picking her way around the slumbering apprentices to outside the apprentices den after giving a long stretch. She smiled craning her neck up at her mentor"I'm ready!"She piped up smiling some.

Bloodstrike waited patiently for Sweetpaw to come out of the den. He remembered at the ceremony that she was particular about her appearance, so he had allowed her plenty of time to groom. He himself had barely wiped a paw over his face on his first day as an apprentice... Once Sweetpaw was out, he gave her an encouraging smile and got to his feet.

"We're going hunting first. I'll show you the best spot to find prey in our territory, but first you need to learn how to stalk properly. There is no point in me bringing you around tons of quarry if they all know you're there."

Bloodstrike then sunk smoothly into a low crouch to demonstrate. "Ideally, your posture should have your head, neck, shoulders, back and tail all in a straight line. Don't let your tail drag on the ground because it will catch a leaf and make noise and your prey will hear you."

He himself lined his body up perfectly to demonstrate. He then began to stalk silently forward.

"The next thing you're going to do is bend your elbows and your knees in a way that spreads your weight evenly across your paws. This will decrease the chances of you crushing a leaf or twig that you happen to step on. Your muscles will ache at first as your body gets used to it, but I promise if you keep at it, you will."

He then looked at his apprentice.

"I know it's a lot to remember and learn right now, but do you have questions before we go to the creek?"

Sweetpaw wasn't really one for her appearance but she was one for first impressions which was why she groomed herself before exiting the apprentices den. Upon being greeted by her mentor he started going into explaining the hunters crouch while he was in it. She looked to him for a moment her tail flicking before she herself tried to mimic his crouch wanting to do her very best. With each instruction she did her best to do so. Bending her elbows and everything. She kept her tail off above the ground but she couldn't help the small twitch in excitement."like this?"she asked before she had heard his next statement asking if she had any questions before they went to the creek and she shook her head some"I..dont think I do"she spoke smiling.

Bloodstrike watched her form and gently put a paw on her rump to lower it more. There. Perfect form. Satisfied that she had no questions, he gave her a nod and began to walk in the direction of the creek.

"Do you want me to catch something first so you can watch or do you want to try it yourself?"

The creek could be heard not far within a short amount of time. At this point, Bloodstrike dropped into a crouch and stepped lightly so as not to spook any prey. He trusted Sweetpaw to follow suit.

Sweetpaw hadn't moved an inch until he adjusted her stance lowering her rump some. She made a mental note to make sure it stays that way when she goes to hunt. She then got up from her crouch. She looked up to her mentor as she followed him"Could I watch you do it first?"She asked "that way I know how to do it?"She asked before she seen him drop into a crouch. She then quietly followed suit and she crouched following after him as best she could.

Bloodstrike smiled and nodded. She needed to watch first and that was fine with him. He inhaled through his nostrils to try to detect what was around. Squirrels,  birds, the usual.  He nodded in the direction of a squirrel that had slowly descended to the forest floor. Bloodstrike dropped low into a crouch and stalked forward in total silence. He took his time, step by step, and only moved when the squirrel's head was down looking for acorns.

He closed the gap slowly with practiced movements before he kicked off the ground in an explosion of speed toward his quarry.

OOC: For hunting, you would stop your post here, click "preview", then it will give you the option to roll the hunting dice below your post. Just select hunting dice from the dropdown menu and hit submit to see the result. You then go back and edit your post based on what the dice say.

IC, (after dice roll): Bloodstrike slammed his claws down on the unsuspecting squirrel and finished it off with one swift bite. He picked the squirrel up in his jaws as its body kicked in its death throes. He brought the squirrel back to Sweetpaw to show her and dropped it at her feet.

"Did that help?" he asked quietly. He would bury the squirrel in a moment and then watch his apprentice hunt next.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

Yep that makes sense)))

Sweetpaw had watched intently making mental notes of what to do for a moment as he stalked his prey before she stood up a bit more and gave a small nod. "that helped...do I get to try?"She asked her voice quiet but full of excitement as her paws needed the ground in excitement for a moment.

Bloodstrike smiled a small smile then nodded once.

"Yes. For your first quarry I'd try for a bird or squirrel, but if you catch a squirrel make sure you kill it fast. They bite." and with that he picked up his own squirrel and buried it to take it back to camp later.

He sat quietly and watched his apprentice, keeping a critical eye on her in case there was something that needed obvious improvement.

Sorry for the super late response college was killing me thid week))

Sweetpaw listened intently before she gave a small nod"Okay "She mewed her voice quiet before she focused on catching her first peice of prey her nose lifted to the air as her maw parted catching whatever scent she could before she caught the scent of another squirrel. Her ears lowered slowly as she crouched stalking along the ground so as to be sure she didn't scare of the potiental prey as she spotted it just past a few trees its fluffy tail twitching as it nibbled on an acorn

As she had continued to creep forward her gaze had been solely focused ont he squirrel that she didnt notice the twig under paw that she had put too much pressure on cause it to snap alerting the squirrel. In a bit of fruitless attempts she moved to launch at the squirrel but it had scrried its way up the tree to safety causing Sweetpaw to hit the tree and shake her head. She huffed some as she stared up at where the squirrel vanished to almost dejectedly. She had really hoped she would be successful in catching her first peice of prey

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 9

Bloodstrike watched as she stalked toward the squirrel. Her form wasn't bad at all, but unfortunately, it was her lack of attention to the environment around her that cost her her kill. He had caught his first squirrel, but only after chasing it up a tree and onto the branch of another. His father had praised him for such an impressive catch, but Bloodstrike didn't realize how hard squirrels were to catch for new apprentices. He watched her chase it and he hoped that maybe she would chase it up the tree as he had, but instead she bonked her head into the trunk.

Bloodstrike trotted over to her, tense, worried she may have hurt herself. Once he got close, relief filled him as she was clearly more aggravated than hurt.

"Well, it happens. It's no big deal Sweetpaw. Your stalking form was great, but definitely be more aware of where you place your paws. It takes practice, so don't feel bad. Give it another try. What else do you smell, or hear that you could go after?" He had already picked out a number of animals around, but he was content to let Sweetpaw do it herself. He went quiet and allowed her to find another prey item to chase. This time, he would stalk quietly several fox-lengths behind her until she made a kill, so she wouldn't be worried about going too far away from him.

Sweetpaw's ears slowly pricked as her mentor padded over and she turned her green gaze to him after she finally stopped staring at where the squirrel vanished to.  She dug her claws into the dirt for a moment before retracting them."I...know I just wanted to do my best and I messed up"She mewed her voice quiet before she nodded willing to try again as she let the scents waft into her partially opened maw as she deciphered what scents still lingered that she didn't scare off. As she pricked her ears she heard the sound and spotted the feathers of a bird getting to her paws once more she crept forward towards the feathered creature her gaze focused on the area around her as well as the bird not wanting to mess up again.

As she crept closer she bunched her muscles and launched herself pushing off the ground to catch the thrush in her claws. As she did it just breifly slipped past her claws and went to a lower branch injured that much she knew as a few feathers had been where she had tried catching it. Sweetpaw didn't want to let it escape so she had wasted not time gripping the tree and pulling herself up not even thinking as she reached the branch. She stopped thankful the branch was thick enough to walk upon. She moved as carefully as she could. The bird thinking it was safe was grooming itself but Sweetpaw wasted no time as she moved carefully and moved forward quickly and killed the thrush quickly soon it hung limp in her jaws and she looked down her ears pinned back against her head as she tried to figure out how it would be best to get down.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 4