Back in the Saddle Again [Rookfire]

"Rookfire, let's go." Mistyfalcon called into the apprentice den. It felt a bit strange finding Rookfire in here rather than the medicine den, but Basilbloom had shown she was capable enough on her own and Rookfire had needed training. He was older than most apprentices and even most of Shadowclan's warriors by now, of course, so that task had to fall to someone older if only to avoid the awkwardness of the situation.

Tail tip twitching with impatience, Mistyfalcon stretched once more, shaking out his medium length pelt with a sigh. He'd been waking up stiff and sore, though he was positive it was just the cold and nothing else. Not anything he couldn't handle, at least. Once Rookfire approached, Mistyfalcon turned to him.

"Iniko taught you the very basics of hunting, didn't he? How much do you remember from your training with him?" At least, Mistyfalcon thought he'd been taught the basics... If not, he needed to know what Rookfire's skills beyond gathering herbs were. If those skills amounted to nothing, he could still be trained, it would just take longer. Rookfire was smart and was no kit, but he'd be learning a lot that most cats much younger than him likely already knew.

At hearing Mistyfalcon's voice, Rookfire bounced up onto his feet. The black tuxedo had always seen Mistyfalcon as one of his closest friends, but now the tom was his mentor while Rookfire learned how to be a warrior. "Okay, I'm ready!" he said, grinning at his friend. When Mistyfalcon asked him about if Iniko taught him how to hunt, Rookfire nodded in response. "I know that you're supposed to crouch down and stalk the prey, then when you get close enough you pounce at it," he said. "But it seems really hard to get close enough. The prey always moves away before I get close enough!" He was almost certainly doing something wrong, but he didn't even know what he needed to do to fix it. Perhaps that's what Mistyfalcon was here for, though, to help him learn how to hunt. "Do you have any idea on what I'm doing wrong, Misty?"

"It's a bit more than that." Mistyfalcon's whiskers twitched. "You need to pay attention to your surroundings too. Prey have the same senses we do. They can hear and smell us, meaning you need to stay downwind and make sure you don't step on a pine needle or rustle foliage because you're unaware of your tail." He went on, motioning for Rookfire to follow and leading him out of camp. His paws took them toward the pine grove, airways a good spot for hunting. The harsh leafbare made finding prey much more difficult, but the grove was free of twolegs and prey tended you like when that was the case. The pines gave prey lots of shelter to make their dens in, too. When the pair entered the pine grove, Mistyfalcon stopped and turned to face Rookfire.

"Alright, let's see your crouch. If you want to try going after some prey first, I won't stop you. Watching will help me get an users of where your skills are at and where you need improvement."

After hearing Mistyfalcon's advice, Rookfire nodded. "Got it," he said. "I guess I need to still work on that." Eventually, the two cats arrived at the pine grove. As Mistyfalcon gave him the okay to try to stalk some prey, the black tuxedo began to crouch down into a hunting stance.

As the black tuxedo noticed a rat in the distance, he moved to get himself closer towards it. Heeding his friend's advice, he made sure to keep himself downwind of the rodent so that his scent wouldn't alert it. Eventually getting close to the rodent, he pounced at it. It didn't even have time to react before Rookfire had it within his claws. Nipping its neck to kill it, he grinned at Mistyfalcon. "That tip really helped, Misty," he mewed. "I feel like I'm a better hunter already!" Maybe he was getting a little ahead of himself, but Mistyfalcon seemed like a really good mentor, and one that the black tuxedo was glad to have.

Rookfire attempted to catch a rat, costing 7 stamina. Hunt was a success!

Rookfire:
SP: 53/60

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

It was a common thing for apprentices to be unaware of. Medicine cats too, Mistyfalcon had noticed. Their prey consisted of herbs, and herbs would stay put regardless of the wind bringing a cat's scent to them or a tail brushing against stray foliage. Rookfire recognized it at least, and Mistyfalcon kept back as he moved to hunt. He spotted the rat that the former medicine cat had chosen, and would keep out of the way while he went after it. Rookfire had clearly taken his advice to heart, that was good.

"Good catch." Mistyfalcon mewed after Rookfire had dispatched his prey. It would take him time to get used to things probably, but Rookfire was already showing that he learned quickly. Mistyfalcon turned, jaws slightly parted as he sought for his own prey. It took several moments to find another mouse, scrawny figure dark against the snow. A soft pop made him freeze mid-step, though he hadn’t stepped on anything and the sound wasn’t made by any of the pine branches above cracking under the weight of snow. It seemed too low of a sound for the mouse to hear at this distance at least, and so Mistyfalcon  carefully slipped into a crouch and stalked forward. Once close enough, the dark-furred tom pounced, teeth finding the mouse’s neck with ease and stood up, glancing towards Rookfire to check on his own progress. A series of popping noises as he stood... Definitely not from his joints. Absolutely not. And Mistyfalcon was going to ignore them. They would go away, just like the stiffness in his limbs would go away once he got moving.

As Mistyfalcon began searching for his own prey, Rookfire made sure to stay out of his way. The black tuxedo watched him stalk a mouse, getting closer to it until pouncing at it. When the ShadowClan warrior came down with the mouse, Rookfire immediately congratulated him. "Nice j-"

Did Mistyfalcon's joints just pop?

The ShadowClan warrior did gain a lot of injuries from ShadowClan's fight with Dawnhawk's rogues, and he seemed to be of the 'tough it out' type. Rookfire understood that mentality, but popping joints was more serious than what you'd think. "Hey, Misty, you okay?" He felt that Mistyfalcon would choose to deny that he was in any pain, especially when the Clan needed paws to hunt. However, Rookfire knew that Mistyfalcon needed to stay in camp for his own sake. "I think you need to get checked up by Basil again. Popping joints are no joke."

'Nice j-' Rookfire cut himself off, and Mistyfalcon's ears pricked. If he'd heard a predator or prey, Prey was scarce, and trying to catch it was much better than to continue talking if he'd heard something.

...Or it hadn't been prey. Joints popping? Was that it? "It's just from the cold, I'm fine." Mistyfalcon shrugged off Rookfire's concern. "Trying to get out of training already, Rookfire? Basilbloom has enough to worry about without adding trivial things." The question was more joking than serious, but the rest of his statement Mistyfalcon felt was true. There were plenty of clanmates more injured, and Basilbloom needed to spend time with her newest siblings and mother, too.

Rookfire scoffed. "It's not that, Misty!" he said with a laugh. "The training's awesome, and you're a great mentor!" The black tuxedo's cheery grin shifted into a serious gaze. "But I'm not joking around when I say that popping joints need to be checked up. Left untreated, it can develop into joint pain that could force you to retire early. I don't want that, you don't want that, and ShadowClan definitely doesn't need that." The black tuxedo twirled his tail around his paws. "So please, Misty, you need Basil to check it out. Maybe she overrules me and says that you're fine to help the Clan, but you need to get yourself checked out at the very least."

((OOC: Yes, Misty's trying to stall lol, whether you use the hunting system or have Rook drag him back to camp by the ear is up to you lol))

Mistyfalcon's ear flicked at Rookfire's words. He wasn't going to let this go, was he? Medicine cats were all stubborn. Too stubborn, really. Could he out-stubborn him? Unlikely, and he'd probably rat him out to Murkystar or Basilbloom, anyways. Though Murkystar probably already suspected, she'd been gracious enough to not call Mistyfalcon on it. Yet. Mistyfalcon really didn't think there was anything wrong, the stiffness really was just the cold... But if it would appease Rookfire, he'd oblige and see Basilbloom. And hope she didn't chew the rest of his ears off.

"Alright, alright." He muttered, "See if you can catch one more thing, then. You still need practice, and we're already here. I'll see Basilbloom later."

Rookfire didn't think that he convinced Mistyfalcon that it was a big deal, but at least Mistyfalcon agreed to get it checked out. The black tuxedo could have been reading the signs wrong, and maybe it was actually just stiff due to the cold. But the black tuxedo knew better than to push it and find out. "Okay, fine," he said. "I'll look for one more piece of prey, then we'll go back." The black tuxedo opened his maw, trying to detect the scent of any prey nearby. Maybe he wasn't too loud to drive away some of the prey, and there would be something in the area. Eventually, he caught the scent of a mouse. The black tuxedo began stalking it, making sure to keep his scent away from the mouse, and to-

CRACK. The mouse scurried away at the loud noise. Rookfire looked down at his paws, noticing that he failed to notice a tiny twig. "Fox-dung!" he said, sighing. "I messed up again!" The black tuxedo turned back to Mistyfalcon. "Well, it's time to go home now. We caught some prey, even though I messed up my last hunt."

OOC: I am NOT risking a predator encounter so im just... gonna have rook auto-fail his hunt.

Mistyfalcon kept back as usual to watch Rookfire's progress. He wasn't sure he'd convinced the former medicine cat of anything, but he was glad that he'd agreed to try catching one more thing at least and didn't seem like he was going to push the issue. Of course, luck ran out eventually, and this time Rookfire stepped on small twig, the moment of inattention all it took to have the mouse scurrying away. "Even the most skilled warriors miss. You caught something at least." Mistyfalcon responded. He sighed, "Alright, let's head back, then." Much as it irked him, he'd keep his word.