An Ember in the Mist [Emberleap]

As the sun began to set, Mistyfalcon stirred awake. He stretched halfway, then seemed to think better of it and curled back around Murkystrike, allowing his eyes to close. The nest they shared was warm and comfortable, and the dark-furred tom wasn't exactly keen on moving. It wasn't full dark yet, and therefore Mistyfalcon saw little need to pull away from the fluffy tortoiseshell just yet. A lazy purr rumbled in his chest as Murkystrike pressed against him, quickly subsiding as he fell into half-dozing off once more.

An hour later, the quiet was broken by more cats stirring, and Mistyfalcon twitched an ear with a sigh. Night had fallen, much as he'd rather fall back asleep, it wasn't going to happen. Carefully, he untangled himself from his mate, giving her forehead a lick before slipping out of the den with a yawn. He gave his pelt a quick shake, blue eyes sweeping around camp.

He paused at the sight of a rather sorry looking fresh-kill pile. It couldn't stay like that for long, not with how many mouths Shadowclan had found themselves feeding as of late. More kits and apprentices was a good thing, but it meant they needed more food, too. Mistyfalcon made his way towards the camp entrance when a familiar white and calico pelt caught his eye.

"Hey, Emberleap. Feel like hunting?" He asked. He'd recently earned his warrior name, and Mistyfalcon, for all his quiet aloofness, was happy that he was back in Shadowclan.

In a rare burst of foresight, Emberleap had given Firepaw the night off from training. Being an apprentice took a lot of work—but teaching an apprentice was harder still. All the ins and outs of mentorship made his head spin. Tonight was supposed to be a break from thinking. If only his mind would cooperate. Rolling onto his stomach, the mottled tom raised his head. The rest of him followed a moment later, and he turned to tuck the fox pelt safely underneath his nest. If he couldn’t make himself relax, he might as well make himself useful. Maybe he’d stumble into relaxation along the way.

He stepped outside; the controlled chaos of ShadowClan beginning the night’s work (or play, in the kits’ case) greeted him. He’d always enjoyed the sounds of other cats living their lives around him. A warrior didn’t have time to stop and listen, though, especially with a prey pile as bare as ShadowClan’s right now, so he padded on until a familiar voice pulled him away from his path.

At once, Emberleap turned. “Mistyfalcon!” He grinned, caught himself, tamped the grin down a bit. From a sensible cat’s perspective, he had no attachment to Mistyfalcon beyond Mistyfalcon’s role in leading him to ShadowClan—a bond as flimsy as spider silk. It didn’t make them friends, or close, or anything more than Clanmates. He needed to remember that. Let Mistyfalcon decide if that trust was to be mutual. “Well, we definitely need the prey, and…” His gaze flicked downward. “I could use the practice. I’ve got to make sure I’m doing everything right—for Firepaw, you know?”

Mistyfalcon offered Emberleap a quick grin before turning to lead the way out of camp and toward the pine grove. A tattered ear flicked in the other tom's direction as he spoke.

"You'll do fine with Firepaw. Just... Try not to overthink things, you know?" He'd done the same with his first apprentice, Rainpaw. Training Moonshine had been easier, but he had had more experience by then.

Mistyfalcon fell silent as the rustling of foliage caught his attention, and he stalked silently towards the source of the noise. A vole, he noted as he drew closer, scuffling among the roots of a pine tree. Pouncing, Mistyfalcon nipped the back of the vole's neck, and turned to bury it.

OOC: Don't need the req so not rolling for things myself.

In another, more experienced cat’s voice, it seemed like sound advice. Overthinking hadn’t done him any favors so far. At least Firepaw seemed as uncertain about the whole process as Emberleap himself felt—though he couldn’t tell whether that was a blessing or a curse. “I’m worried I’ll go too far and underthink it,” he said on a half-laugh. “Really, though—I’ll try to remember that.” As the last words left his mouth, he noticed Mistyfalcon’s posture shifting forward, and shrank into a hasty crouch of his own with flattened ears, hoping he hadn’t given away their position. This was a patrol, not a social hour. Fortunately, Mistyfalcon turned back holding a dead vole by the scruff of its neck. “Good catch,” Emberleap offered, straightening up.

A fat, lumpy shape near one of the pine trunks caught his eye. Toads weren’t many cats’ favorite prey—even Emberleap preferred lizards—but a meal was a meal. He approached in fits and starts, careful to shift his paws as quietly as he could. Unfortunately, silence alone couldn’t hide a near-white pelt. The toad went rigid (as much as a toad could, anyway), then hopped deeper into the grove. Emberleap swallowed a sigh. “I knew I should've put mud on first,” he muttered, and stepped away from the trunk.

Emberleap attempted to catch Toad, using 3 stamina. Failure…

Emberleap
45/45 HP
157/160 SP (-3)

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 9

"I thought I would do the same with my first apprentice." He admitted, "Had no idea what I was doing, and I'm sure it didn't help that I'm hardly a talkative cat... Or good at explaining things. I got lucky with Moonshine being half-trained in the basics, at least." She'd been an inquisitive cat, and had been eager to tag along on any patrol she could even before becoming an apprentice of Shadowclan.

"I count it as a win if they can watch what you do and listen." He was joking... Mostly. Emberleap went after his own prey, and Mistyfalcon turned to spot a mouse near the roots of a pine tree. He leapt for it without hesitation, quickly dispatching his prey and stashing it for alter retrieval, offering no comment on Emberleap missing his own prey.

Emberleap cracked a smile, more than a little grateful Mistyfalcon hadn’t mentioned his error. “Firepaw is good at that.” For all his worries about her not listening to him, specifically, it’d never occurred to him that an apprentice might slack off in something as crucial as training. Hunting, fighting, healing—at its heart, it was about survival. At least Firepaw seemed to take it seriously. “You know, my first mentor didn't do much explaining either, but we still turned out…” His mouth tightened. “Well, we knew everything we needed to and then some by the end. And Murkystrike—”

His sentence stopped on a sharp inward breath; a mouse had wandered into view to root around in an unexplored patch of dirt. Emberleap just about threw himself to the ground. A distracted target made for an easier catch, not a guaranteed one. He closed the distance quickly, and launched himself at the mouse with only a heartbeat's pause. The mouse hardly had time to flick one of its rounded ears before Emberleap's claws were buried in its back, his teeth at its throat. Digging a hole some tail-lengths from one of the tree trunks, he dropped the mouse in and kicked dirt over it. He wouldn't be coming back to camp empty-pawed today, thank goodness.

Emberleap attempted to catch Rodent, using 3 stamina. Success!

Emberleap
45/45 HP
154/160 SP (-3)

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 9

An ear twitched as Emberleap spoke, though Mistyfalcon stayed silent. He spotted the rodent after Emberleap abruptly stopped talking, and hung back a bit as the younger warrior went for the kill.

"You've had a different experience than most." Mistyfalcon shrugged. "All you can really do is strive to be better, and try not to repeat the mistakes you see others make." That was all the advice Mistyfalcon really knew how to give. "Even Murkystrike worried about being a first-time mentor." With that he fell silent upon spotting his own prey. Lizards weren't his favorite thing in the world, but someone else would undoubtedly pick it up if it was on the fresh-kill pile. Mistyfalcon crept towards it quietly, leaping forward. The lizard was a tiny bit faster, and his claws just missed the long, thin tail as it darted for safety. Mistyfalcon let out of quiet huff, though wasn't really annoyed by it. Both he and Emberleap had caught prey, so they wouldn't be returning to camp with empty paws.

Mistyfalcon set off in pursuit of ShadowClan’s next meal, and Emberleap, beside the mound of dirt hiding his mouse, quieted to ponder the older tom’s advice. So far, he’d avoided the most obvious pitfall for an ex-Asylum cat. Firepaw wouldn’t be leading a forest-wide takeover anytime soon—not by using anything he’d taught her. The rest, though… Maybe he could ask. Sit in on some of his denmates’ training sessions, if they didn’t mind. Discuss with Firepaw what worked for her and what didn’t. Still a daunting prospect, but possible. A small smile had taken root on his face by the time Mistyfalcon returned. He picked up the conversation right where they’d left it: “Really? Huh. She never seemed like it… Well, maybe a little when we ran into that porcupine, but it’s hard not to be nervous around something with that many quills.”

Across the grove, a bird fluttered down to rest. Emberleap watched it ruffle its spotted feathers, one ear twitching. ShadowClan certainly didn’t need anything to make their nests warmer. Worse, if he missed, he’d scare off everything in the area. He…he just had to be careful. He flattened himself until he could feel the ground’s chill through his fur and made his approach. Pawsteps away, the bird spread its wings. In a panic, Emberleap smacked it with a paw; he sprang onto it when it fell, snapping its neck before it could start squawking. A moment's pause—shock, probably—and he returned to bury his newest catch beside his first.

Emberleap attempted to catch Bird, using 3 stamina. Success!

Emberleap
45/45 HP
151/160 SP (-3)

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 3

"Porcupines, nasty critters." He agreed. Anyone would be nervous around them, of course. That Murkystrike hadn't seemed so nervous to her own apprentice wasn't that much of a surprise to Mistyfalcon. She hid it well, and then confided in private. He felt little need to say any more on her nerves than he already had, now.

He remained quiet asa Emberleap made a bold choice in going after a bird. Shadowclan wasn't known for climbing trees or catching many of the animals that made their homes in their high branches, and birds were a hard catch with their ability to go where cats couldn't exactly follow. And yet by some miracle, Emberleap managed it.

"Good catch," he grinned. Mistyfalcon had never been quite bold enough to go for birds himself, unless they attacked him first. They weren't a common sight on the fresh-kill pile either way.

Mistyfalcon turned to find his own prey once more, and carefully crept toward a shrew. He darted forward, one paw slamming down onto the shrew's tail, pinning it as he quickly nipped the little rodent's neck.

This time, when a grin tugged at the corners of Emberleap’s mouth, he resisted the impulse to hold it back. That his mouth was currently half-hidden by feathers made the decision easier. With a muffled “thanks!” he turned and tucked the bird in next to his mouse, then heaped dirt over them both, pausing briefly to let the fierce glow of pride wash through him. His risk had paid off. Sure, he’d probably used up a season’s worth of luck in the process, but he’d done it, and someone back at camp would see that bird on the prey pile. He couldn’t explain why that mattered, only that it did.

Emberleap looked back to see Mistyfalcon and a newly-dead shrew. Five pieces of prey. Whether or not that was typical for a two-cat hunt this time of year, it certainly felt like an accomplishment. Motion near the ground drew his gaze, then. Maybe six? Sliding his paws quick and quiet, he crept toward the lizard. His pounce struck home, and, dispatching the mottled creature with a bite, he trotted back. Maybe the rush of catching a bird was still carrying him... Whatever it was, he wouldn't question it.

Emberleap attempted to catch Lizard, using 3 stamina. Success!

Emberleap
45/45 HP
148/160 SP (-3)

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 3

Mistyfalcon noted that they'd managed a decent haul for the night, and was about to suggest heading back before they would need to make two trips when a large brown shape caught his eye not far off. Whatever he'd been about to say vanished in an instant, the dark tom far more focused on the hare that was yet unaware of his presence. It would be a nice addition to the fresh kill pile... And if nobody else wanted it, Mistyfalcon enjoyed hare far more than he enjoyed frogs or lizards. They were difficult to catch, but Mistyfalcon was never one to say no to making an attempt.

He made his way closer, and the sudden rush of wind and the scent of feathers made him rear up as talons dug into his shoulder. Looked like he wouldn't be catching that hare tonight, but owl feathers would make for good nest lining. Mistyfalcon twisted, rearing up and slashing at the owl with unsheathed claws. Blood dripped from his shoulder, but it could wait, he was sure.

Owl used Swoop on Mistyfalcon for -20 sp, dealing -20 damage.
Mistyfalcon used Rear-Up to Slash on Owl for -15 sp, dealing -17 damage.
Night finesse is active, +2 damage.

Mistyfalcon
80 / 100 hp (100 - 20)
265 / 280 sp (280 - 15)

Owl
31 / 50 hp (50 - 17 - 2)
100 / 120 sp (120 - 20)