For the Clan

Dewlight led the way through the territory, checking behind her occasionally to make sure Greypaw wasn't falling behind. With the twoleg and dog threat still very real, she wanted to start their training as far away from them as she could get, and keep her apprentice as close as possible. As they reached the small grove of trees, Dewlight relaxed some. The area was more open, so she should be able to keep her awareness of their surroundings high with little trouble. The risk was still there, however, so as they came to a stop she turned toward Greypaw. "I'm sure you've already heard about the twolegs and the dogs. We should be alright here, however, no where is truly safe right now. If any come, you run as fast as you can up one of the nearby trees, and do not come down until it is safe - no exceptions. I don't care what happens, your safety is my priority, so I need you to get up there and stay up there until it is safe, and once it is, go straight to camp and let everyone know what happened. Am I clear?" She asked, pausing for a moment to allow him time to respond. Once he agreed, she would start the lesson, but she had to be sure he understood first.

As he was led from the only place he had known for the six moons his life had consisted of, he kept his dull grey eyes on his surroundings, trying to keep aware despite struggling slightly to keep up with his mentor's confident pace. The lethargic tom wasn't used to such rough ground, the underbrush kept trying to snag his fur, the uneven forest floor kept trying to trip his paws. 'Troublesome, troublesome, troublesome-'

The mantra echoed in his skull as he tried to forget his attempts to cross the river on the stepping stones. Nausea was still rolling in his stomach, and the lingering terror of staring at the water below was still keeping the fur on his back bristling as if ready to fight, or more accurately, run from a danger that wasn't there in the first place.

He swore he had seen faces in the murky depths, the faces of his kin.

' No.' He tried to clamp down on the churning emotions with cold, hard logic.

This wasn't the time for such hindering trauma.

Taking in a breath he slowly released it, focusing on keeping up and keeping his footing. His pelt was going to be a hassle to clean later. 'Troublesome'.

The fresh apprentice let out a huff of relief as they finally stopped and promptly sat on the ground, raising his slouched posture so he could focus on his mentor's words. Despite his efforts, a yawn escaped him, making him seem far too uninterested when really he was just fighting off the lethargy born for waking up far too early from another nightmare.

Despite that, he still had to take a moment to process the words that had almost gone in one ear and out the other. It was a rather poor time to have his focus so hindered, though he had honestly expected his lack of restful sleep to be an issue when he was finally dubbed an 'apprentice'.

'Wait, I'm taking too long to answer.'

The tom blinked taking a moment to process the question again all while the mantra of 'troublesome' rose up in the back of his mind once more. "I'm not some rash idiot, obviously, I can't fight a dog, I'd prefer not to be devoured alive." He drawled, 'Ah, that was probably too blunt'.

He blinked at the thought, and let out a sigh. He was bad at this, interacting with... other cats. With the elders, he only had to ramble about some new idea he had, or he'd just have to listen to one of their stories about their time as a youth.

The thought dampened his mood, and he cast his gaze away, trying to shake off the memory of Carpsplash's too-still corpse laid far too peacefully in the clearing that he was used to having no bodies resting in. "So don't worry. Your apprentice isn't an idiot. I'll climb up a tree if a dog makes an appearance, and run back to the clan if things settle down in such a situation." He paused as another possibility struck him and his expression became deadpan as he thought a bit longer, and he let out a drawn-out hum of musing.

"Or... I'll at least try to... and hopefully not get lost... or maybe get stuck in some brambles..." He tilted his head in thought as he mulled over those possible scenarios. Greypaw had a tendency to take in all possibilities in situations as dire as that, usually, most of them were worst-case scenarios. He also had a tendency to blurt out those worse-case scenarios (His brain to mouth filter was very lacking).

"I could barely walk on the uneven ground, the camp was so level, I might end up tripping as a result... hmm... that might lead to a damaged ankle, not very durable yet... dogs have a strong sense of smell right? It wouldn't be hard to track me..."

He hummed in contemplation, train of thought going off on a rabbit trail, focus seemed to be a rather alien concept to him that day. "You know, maybe it'd be a better idea to try and traverse the trees to get back to camp, like squirrels, harder to get lost with a bird's eye view, and there are no brambles in trees..."

With that, the apprentice was properly thrown off-topic and into a world of how a cat might leap from branch to branch like a squirrel as a way of travelling. His mind was far away from dogs, or twolegs, or training...

The tom's unfocused gaze was fixated on the forest canopy as he watched a squirrel crawl up a tree in passive scrutinization. Idly he watched it stop on a branch, framed by the sun beaming down through the leaves, leaving dappled shadows on the ground. Such a peaceful day, a perfect day really.

You know, that branch looked like the perfect spot to sunbathe...

For a heartbeat, shock crossed the warrior's face at Greypaw's words. As he sighed and looked away though, the shock and momentary anger she had felt at his seemingly rude words melted away. She hummed as she realized that he had already seen how his words could have been taken, simply listening quietly as he seemed to get swept away into his own thoughts. Finally he trailed off, gazing up towards the branches overhead. After sitting peacefully for a few heartbeats, she saw the squirrel too and looked back to Greypaw, choosing to speak now that it seemed he had said all he may want to. "If you find yourself lost, try to make your way to Fourtrees. It should be easy for you to see and scent, and from there you should be able to find your way back to camp. Brambles wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, they catch your fur and the scratches hurt, but they hurt the dogs too, and dogs don't handle pain well from what I've seen and heard. They're not that smart, usually, so there's little to worry about with them returning to track you later. Traversing through the trees may work, but you run the risk of falling, and there's not many trees in our territory. We have this small grove, but for the most part the rest of our hunting grounds is reeds and water. SkyClan, ShadowClan and ThunderClan have the trees, and SkyClan is the only clan that really climbs and walks through the treetops." She mewed, glancing back and forth between her apprentice and the trees.

"Either way, we should get hunting. Go ahead and watch what I do, then let's see what comes naturally to you, and we can build from there. Give it your best shot, okay?" She mewed, looking around for a source of prey other than the squirrel. A frog hopping among the roots of a nearby tree caught her attention, and she dropped into a stalk, moving forward slowly until she was just behind it before lunging forward and catching it in her jaws. Swiftly killing it, she turned back to Greypaw and gave him a small nod. A frog wasn't her favorite... But the clan was slowly starving. There simply wasn't enough prey for the clan and those dogs and their twolegs.

Dewlight attempted to catch Frog, catch was successful. -3 SP.

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 1

Greypaw blinked, mildly surprised that his mentor had addressed all of his ramblings. He nodded after she finished, humming in thought at the information. The fourtrees, huh? He supposed they weren't terribly hard to spot, but with how inefficient he was at traversing the undergrowth his progress from here to there and there to camp would be slow. He supposed if such a situation raised he'd just have to hope night wouldn't fall before reaching camp. He wasn't skilled in fighting and was still rather easy prey for many predators.

A slight grimace passed over his features at that thought, but he shook it away so he could focus on watching Dewlight hunt. Quietly he observed her form, admiring the elegance of it and the pounce. He was sure if he tried to mimic her he'd look more like a badger trying to pounce on a rabbit (AKA he'd look very clumsy).

When she nodded to him he tilted his head in question. He didn't really know cues that well, seeing as how he spent most of his days as a kit avoiding everyone, daydreaming and napping. He glanced at the frog, then his own paws, which still seemed a tad too large for his furry body.

"I feel like if I tried to pounce on anything the noise of my following  faceplant into the ground would scare the all prey away." He muttered with a dry tone despite the self-deprecating words.

The tom sighed, what he gained from his observations was that you needed to crouch low, common sense, and basically try to keep you're back near to or at the same level as undergrowth if it was around. He'd need silent steps, obviously, and would have to draw near to the prey before pouncing in a perfectly calculated arc onto his victim.

So, evidently, he'd have to do something highly improbable for him to accomplish.

Greypaw stared doubtfully at his surroundings, and then at the uneven ground. He could barely walk here without plowing his muzzle into the ground via tripping over essentially his own paws, how was he supposed to stalk prey?

The reclusive apprentice blinked at the thought. It seemed his apprenticeship was going to last a long time.

He looked back at his mentor, letting out a huff of air as he tried to think about how he should communicate his thoughts. "That was... enlightening to see? And my conclusion from watching you is that I'm more likely going to get more mouthfuls of dirt them mouthfuls of prey from this endeavour..." After speaking he just sat there, unsure of what he was supposed to do from there.

Did she want him to try? Was that what that nod meant? Or was it just signalling that he no longer had to watch her because she had demonstrated her skills? Was she going to explain further? Did she expect him to just go off watching her?

Greypaw knew that if her style of training was 'Cat see, cat do', then their relationship as mentor and apprentice was going to be very, very rocky.

His ears flattened, eyelid twitching. Dealing with other cats beyond the elders was much harder than expected, he was completely lost as to how he was supposed to continue this interaction.

He shuffled his forepaws in discomfort, a tight feeling of apprehension resting in his chest. He didn't know why it was there, really, what was he apprehensive about? Social interaction? His mentor? The expectations of his clan? The fact that it was only him and his mentor here?

The tip of his tail twitched in agitation as he fought to keep his expression apathetic. Hesitantly he spoke after an uncomfortably long pause. "So... now what?"

Greypaw's discomfort was easy to notice, and after a long pause Dewlight realized where his discomfort was coming from. Having mentored a deaf apprentice, she had realized that not every cat learned the same way. With that in mind, she nodded slightly at his question. "Now, we're going to try something. My last apprentice was deaf, so my teaching methods may need to change. We'll try this, and if it doesn't work for you, let me know. We'll try something different instead." She mewed, searching around the ground for a large leaf. She found one among the roots of a nearby beech tree, and placed it carefully on the ground in front of the apprentice. "Here, let's start with this. I want you to practice stalking up to this leaf, and then pouncing on it. Keep your tail off of the ground, but not so high that it sticks up above your head. Keep your pawsteps soft, too - pretend that it's asleep, and you don't want to wake it up until you land on it." Dropping into a crouch, she waited a few heartbeats to let the apprentice look at her form before slowly stalking forward, one paw placed carefully in front of the other before she pounced on the leaf from about a tail length away. Releasing it, she placed it back on the ground and looked to Greypaw. "Go ahead, try your best. I'll correct your form as you go." She mewed, nodding encouragingly towards the leaf.

His mentor mentioned training a deaf apprentice before him, and he tilted his head curiously, eyes glinting in interest. he fought to keep his mouth shut though, even though he was now very much interested in how deaf cats would behave and function in their clan with the responsibilities expected of them.

She did change her teaching style, and he was rather happy that she took it into consideration. He felt that a flexible mentor would be the best for him. She wasn't too high-energy either, so it wasn't terribly driving to interact with her.

He observed her posture again, trying to imprint it on his mind, and watched her pounce in that same elegant fashion. His aze shifted then to the leaf, and faint memories of him and his siblings playing with leaves crossed his mind, his expression dropped slightly, hues unfocused from the sudden hit of nostalgia and depression.

After a moment though he shook his head, trying to banish the mood, and stood. First, he stretched, then stood straight, carefully lowering into a crouch. His tail was a tad high, footing a bit uneven, and he tried to make his steps soft. The pose felt rather unnatural to him, he was more often lounging than walking around, much less talking about. As a result, his movements were rather stiff, muscles tense before he was even preparing to pounce.

while he didn't snap any twigs or such and he didn't make the underbrush rustle much, his movements seemed to be forced into precision. Finally, though, he got close and tried to crouch to prepare to leap at the defenceless leaf. His footing was off though, the pounce was rather clumsy, and he landed on one paw first, making him careen because of the unexpected landing.

The fluffy tom fell onto his side, the unsettled breeze making the leaf flutter and slightly shift positions. Greypaw blinked, then heaved himself onto his paws, glaring at the leaf as if it had insulted him and all of his ancestors. His paw was a bit sore from the clumsy landing, and he sat down, shaking it out and grooming it, for a moment.

After the ache eased he sighed. "Troublesome... at least I didn't end up eating dirt." He looked up at his mentor, ears lowered in a sheepish fashion.

How embarrassing.

This new method seemed to be more agreeable to the tom, and she noted how carefully he watched her before trying on his own. She noticed the stiffness, the way his tail was slightly too high, and his paws just uneven enough to make him lopsided. She kept an eye on him as he lumbered forward clumsily, then prepared to pounce. Since he was already lopsided, he landed wrong and his body fell to one side, and she winced as she watched the way his paw was forced into the ground from the clumsy landing. He was quick to get back onto his haunches, grooming his paw before looking to her and speaking. She smiled slightly, nodding in agreement. "Very true - you did better than I did my first time trying. Even now there are times that I eat dirt, it happens to the best of us." She reassured him gently. "Is your paw okay? I have some critiques for you that should help, but I want to know if I should just show you or if I can fix your stance while you're in it. We can return to camp and continue training later if it hurts."

Dewlight tried to lighten the mood, her tone was gentle, she seemed to be a rather kind cat. He wasn't sure how to react to it, or how to react to the ache of nostalgia that arose from her words. Her inquiry about his paw met with blinking, after a moment he stood, carefully putting weight on it. There was a bit of soreness but it was rather manageable.

"The paw is fine. A bit sore but it won't be a pain to work with it." He settled back down, looking over with curious eyes. "The critiques?" He prodded, obviously seeming like he wasn't one to be insulted at the thought of being imperfect in his skills. He was always open to learning, to growing his knowledge.

Greypaw enjoyed learning, even, he just rarely had chances to in kithood, what with only socializing with elders, which mostly consisted of him sharing ideas with them or them sharing stories with him.

The thought struck him with another burst of sadness, he missed Carpsplash.

Shoving the thought away he refocused on his mentor, he had moved on from his family and the elder's death, but moments like that were common still. Troublesome... He needed to focus, his mind always kept wandering, for now he needed to keep a hold of it.

How exhausting.

Dewlight nodded as Greypaw said his paw was fine, quietly choosing to let it go but keep an eye on it as the training continued. As he settled and turned to her, she nodded and slipped into a hunting crouch, but instead of doing the same one she had shown him before, she mimicked his stiffness, the way his paws were slightly uneven, and allowed her tail to stay high just as his had done. "As you were crouching, this is what you looked like. Your paws were slightly uneven, your tail was a little too high, and you were very stiff. Correcting the stiffness will come in time, as you get used to the movements. Fixing your tail and paws will take some work, but nothing different from every other apprentice." She slowly balanced her weight across her paws and lowered her tail into a better crouch. "Pick one thing to correct first. Your tail will be easier - if you practice holding it just above the ground while you're walking through camp, it will be natural for it to fall there when you're hunting. You weight distribution is similar, practice shifting back and forth on your paws, and find where you balance best at. Go ahead and drop into a crouch, and I'll correct your stance before we go into stalking." She mewed, straightening to wait for him to do as she asked.

He watched as his mentor shifted into a hunting position once more for him to observe, but this time she seemed to be mimicking his. Blinking, and appreciating the clever tactic, he listed to her critique as he circled around her, critically examining what his positioning had been like. His sharp gaze tried to take it all in and note down all the little shifts he could do to make his crouch more similar to his mentor's more expert one.

When he finished and she finished lecturing, he fell into a crouch again, lowering his tail and trying to keep it from brushing the dried undergrowth below his paws. He then shifted on his paws, spreading them for a wider base and taking a bit to fall into a more comfortable, and stable position.

This time he was much better, of course, he wasn't 'experienced warrior' level, and he was still stiff from that inexperience, but it seemed less likely that he'd injure himself this time.

 "Never played much as a kit." he muttered, trying to adjust his position but being at a loss as to what else he could change, "The last time I played 'Hunt the leaf' was with my siblings." His tone lowered as he mentioned them, and he briefly closed his eyes to try and hide the tinge of gloom he knew flashed through them.  "After they joined Starclan I mostly slept through the days or chatted with the elders..." He tried to keep his voice apathetic as he spoke, opening his eyes once more. "Kinda regret not practicing at least the bare minimum now, how troublesome." He sighed.

Wallowing in depression seemed to have been a very counterproductive decision now. Well, to be fair being plagued by night terrors didn't help; constant exhaustion kinda clouded one's urge to socialize with the other kits even slightly. What a drag.

The apprentice then looked over at his mentor, trying to change the subject subtly,  "Is this better teach?"... huh, 'teach' was very much less of a mouthful than 'mentor'... well, now he'd probably use that title more often, the easier anything in life was, the better.

Greypaw walked around her, taking in the stance she had mimicked, and Dewlight felt a glow of pride. He was paying attention, and trying to take it all in... She knew it was a lot, and he was doing his best. That was the most she could ask of him. As he settled into his stance, she immediately noticed that he had attempted to fix the main things she had mentioned, and had done a pretty good job of it too. It wasn't perfect, but for his second crouch, it was much better. She circled him to look over it, pleased with how it had come along, as he spoke about his family. She listened to him as he spoke, she hadn't yet heard him speak about his family, but the way his tone lowered.. She chose her words carefully. "...Every cat has their own regrets in life. What if I had done this or that... It's an inescapable fate that we gain the moment we take our first breath, and carry with us to our last. There will always be doubts, and things we think we can do better, but no cat is perfect. Any who claim to be are lying not just to everyone else, but themselves as well. For what it's worth... You're doing a really good job. You've taken my criticisms into account, and worked to fix them. It will take more time to get it to be totally instinctive and natural feeling, but this is a really good start." She mewed, blinking as he used the word teach. After a heartbeat, she found that she liked it a little bit. It was different... And sometimes different was good.

Picking up a nearby leaf, she placed it a few paces in front of where Greypaw was crouching and stood to the side, dropping into a crouch next to it. "For stalking, you add in extra factors. You have to step forward while maintaining your crouch, and paying attention to what is under your paws to avoid cracking a stick or stepping on a thorn and getting it lodged in your paw." She explained, slowly picking up a paw and stretching it in front of her, placing it carefully in a clear spot before doing the same with her opposite back paw, and then on the other side. She did it in slow motion for him to watch and see until she had reached him once again, and she straightened and turned back to him. I'll stalk forward next to you, so you can copy me. If you get stuck, just watch what I'm doing and do your best." She mewed, dropping into a crouch next to him again to walk beside him.

OOC: If you'd like, you can go ahead and roll the hunting dice, using the success chart for Leaf!

After his brief moment of reminiscing, his mentor began to speak, making him pause as he took in her words... he almost felt as if she wasn't just speaking about playing with leaves at that moment. After a moment, he lifted his head slightly, shooting her a faint smile. "I'll... keep that in mind."

When she began teaching him once more, he refocused, eyes narrowing as he locked onto the leaf, pupils thinning to focus. He noted what she had done to stalk forwards, and did the same. Scanning the ground for a clear spot by letting his pupil widen and grow his field of view, he carefully lowered one paw in a clear spot. Trying to have it be as gentle as possible on the way down, he waited to put, pressure on it until he knew it'd be steady.

After a moment, he repeated the process, then again, again. When he deemed himself close enough to be in favourable pouncing distance, the apprentice lowered back into his previous crouching position. Once again, he made sure his stance was secure, his tail was low, and tried not to be too stiff.

Then, coiling his muscles, pausing for a moment to breathe and focus on his target, he sprang forward, acting through the air in a much better fashion than his last attempt. Sure it wasn't as graceful as the more experienced in his clan, but he was not at risk of collapsing onto his side again and messing up his ankle more... definitely an improvement.

With his gaze focused for once, he watched in satisfaction as his paws struck the leaf dead-center, claws coiling into the decay and soil below it.

He blinked then, straightening. His face didn't betray much, it had returned to its perpetually-lethargic expression once the 'hunt' was over. "... Wow... epic... I have killed an already-dead leaf." He looked back to his mentor, quirking a brow. "I'd say this tale is legendary enough to tell to kits when I'm a tired old elder." His tone was dry, but there was a glint of humour in his silvery hues.

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 5

She watched him from her place beside him, taking in the way he moved. He did it slowly, carefully, focusing intently on the task, and with each stride drew closer to the leaf she had placed before him. Soon he was close, and dropped into the crouch he had been working on moments before. It was much better, the balance more level and his muscles less stiff. It could still use some work, but for now it was a good start. He then leaped, his jump much better than his last. As his paws landed neatly on the leaf, his claws digging into the ground below, Dewlight smiled. "You did it!" She exclaimed, pride glittering in her eyes. "That was so much better than last time. Next time, it could be a mouse, or a water vole! Besides, the kits seem to like those kinds of tales best - they can reenact them fairly easily which helps their confidence. We all started somewhere, every single warrior in RiverClan has practiced hunting on a leaf or bug or mossball after all." She noted the humor in his eyes, and her smile widened. "You've done really well today, Graypaw. Let's start heading back to camp to get your paw looked at, if we come across any prey scent we'll stop to hunt along the way."