Thickening Mists [C]

Ashfall awoke early in the morning, as the first rays of sunlight crept through the sky toward Windclan's camp. Though they did little to dissipate the growing chill in the air, she still was able to appreciate being able to see the prey she hunted with clarity. Today she wouldn't be alone... no, she'd have her apprentice with her. The rude one. With an audible sigh, she picked herself up, limping towards the Apprentice's nests. It wasn't hard to spot Mistypaw, and she approached carefully. With her bad paw, she gave a gentle whack to Mistypaw's body to wake her up. "Time for training, meet me at the entrance." Then as soon as she had appeared, Ashfall had gone to the entrance to wait. With luck, her apprentice wouldn't be as bratty as she had been during her ceremony.

It was no secret that her apprenticeship was off to a very poor start, but today seemed to fare no better as she was awoken, seemingly at the same time she would expect the dawn patrol to wake as well. Was sleep no longer allowed? Ashfall had given her no time to complain before leaving to the entrance, but that was so not going to stop the runt from chewing her ears off as she groggily followed?

"Can't you at least try to be a normal cat? The sun is barely even up, would a few more heartbeats of rest be so bad? It's not like we're ShadowClan!"

Ashfall remembered, just as Mistypaw started spouting off complaints, that she had terrible terrible luck. Flicking her one ear in annoyance, she lead her apprentice out of the camp before replying. Didn't want to wake anyone who deserved her respect. "Mistypaw, we're up early because we're going to be out for a while. I need to teach you all the basics today, we can get more particular tomorrow. So open your ears, and shut your mouth." The molly limped on, through the moors, until she caught wind of some prey. It was getting harder and harder to find... leaf-bare would be here soon enough. A wave of her tail signaled for her apprentice to stop, and she turned her head for her seeing eye to face her.

"Welcome to the moors 'paw. This is our home, something worth defending. I'm going to teach you how to defend it. First, though, I've got to teach you how to hunt it. Watch me." Ashfall's hunting posture was something a bit different from the average cat, having to lift her bad paw off the ground and position her good paw in the middle, but overall it was similar enough that her apprentice should be able to imitate it. "Lower yourself until it burns, keep your tail from dragging on the ground, and watch your surroundings, you don't want to step on a bunch of crunchy dead grass... or into a tunnel. When you're close enough to your prey, bolt at it. You're Windclan, you'll be fast enough to chase down a rabbit or hare, and if you weren't... nothing that practice won't fix..." A distinct memory of her father's quickness, despite his origins, popped into her mind, before she focused again. "Try for yourself, and I'll correct your posture if I need to."

While she obeyed and kept her maw shut (only to help her own hunting, not because Ashfall told her to), there was no stopping the eye roll as she watched her mentor get into a hunting crouch. She couldn't even do that right, her stupid limp made that impossible. How was this cat still a warrior when she couldn't even do anything???

With the tiniest hint of a grumble, Mistypaw got in her own position, only partially listening to Ashfall. Some of what she said made sense, but the paw thing was just weird. She caught sight of a pheasant, and so began to stalk it, not really caring if Ashfall wanted her to truly hunt yet. She was annoyed enough.

Launching herself, she soon had the pheasant grasped in her maw, looking at her mentor with a smug look. "Happy now?"

Mistypaw attempted to catch a bird. Catch was successful! -3 sp.

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

Ashfall nearly shouted after her apprentice as she ran off to go hunt. Nearly. Her eye watched carefully as her apprentice's posture was... well not great. It was good enough to catch a bird, sure, but was it good enough to catch a rabbit or hare? They were Windclan for Starclan's sake, not Skyclan. It was good for short-range, not for running like the wind their clan was so well known for. So when Mistypaw returned proudly with a pheasant dangling from her jaws, Ashfall's face remained neutral, at least for a time. "Well done on catching a pheasant, I will give credit where credit is due, that was good work. The clan will have something a little different to eat today. Bury it, if you would."

Once the pheasant was buried, she turned back to her apprentice, sighing. "Look, Mistypaw. I get you think I'm some idiot that got hurt in a battle and am not "good enough" or something, but I would appreciate a little respect. If you want to be a good warrior, I'd recommend listening before running off. Your stance was good enough to catch a pheasant, your stalking was good and quiet. However, you would've never caught a hare or rabbit, you would not have been able to start running fast enough. Trust me, I know. So let me fix your stance so you can catch Windclan's most common prey animals, and then we can move onto combat. Got it? Honestly, I'm sure you're smart enough to get it. If you weren't, I'd be worried. Go into your stance again, and this time, don't chase anything." Ashfall was trying. She really was. Mistypaw obviously just had an ego too large for her own good, and she'd never been in a real battle anyway. She had no expertise, and catching a pheasant on her first try was not going to help. Her approach needed to change, and, honestly, she could do with being nicer to Mistypaw. They had gotten off on the wrong paw, there was still a chance for them to be friendly though. It'd need to happen if any training was ever going to happen.

Wow. Ashfall actually praised her. For a moment, Mistypaw was frozen. Like, what was with this? "Uh, who are you, and what did you do with Ashfall? Hello, I am the good for nothing apprentice, here. This congratulating thing is not supposed to happen. It's......weird." The silver tabby narrowed her eyes, studying Ashfall for a moment, before finally burying the pheasant.

She was still out of sorts when Ashfall began the typical lecture, because of course there was always a lecture. But honestly? She had no response. She just opened and closed her maw, trying to come up with something, anything, to fire back with. But there was nothing. She just got in her crouch, trying to get her brain to work.

Then, she figured it out.

"Wait a minute! I got it now! You did all that playing nice thing to confuse me! Get me to shut up! Do you honestly think I am that stupid? I know you don't like me, no cat does. And I don't like you. So stop pretending and let's get this training over with so we can go back to camp!"

Ashfall ignored her apprentice's protests for a moment, picking up her bad paw to prod Mistypaw's stance into alignment. Much better. "Hold your stance like this when you hunt, you'll do better. It's also not that I don't like you, you are just annoying and are rude to me because of things you weren't alive for. If you didn't dislike me for... no reason, then maybe we'd get along better. The compliment was true though, I'm not sure if I could've caught a pheasant at your age. Though I did kill a fox with-" A memory of better times. Before she knew what he was, perhaps ignorance was bliss after all. "-with my father. He did most of the work though, even got hurt."

Ashfall checked around for an open spot, a place where she could teach combat. Most of the moor was open at least, and they probably wouldn't be scaring off too much prey. "So you know that hunting crouch you just learned? It can be applied to combat too. Mostly for when you leap at your enemy. Best for when they aren't looking, because a proper pounce can take a moment to set up. When you want to use your claws, use your speed. You're Windclan, you're faster than any other hare-brain out there, especially those bird-brains from Skyclan. When they attack, use the opening to strike, then back up. That's the rundown, we can either head back to camp now and do combat tomorrow, or we can spar a bit and I can show you the moves today. Your choice." She sat down, checking the sun. It was still fairly high in the sky, there was time for some combat. Though honestly, Ashfall would rather go back to camp. Her bad paw, though it was always numb and cold, was annoying her more today than ever. Maybe it was just the effect Mistypaw had on her.