Smoke and Mirror [Smokepaw]

As promised, Wolfblossom headed toward the makeshift apprentice den, calling out a soft yet cheerful greeting to the young she-cat as Smokepaw joined her. "Good morning Smokepaw," She was pleased to note that Stonepaw hadn't been in the den, and she hadn't seen Stormwatcher among her fellow warriors, so the two must be out already. Today though, the lazy warrior wasn't her main focus.

"We'll try and get a bit of hunting done today, or an attempt at it. Ground first, then the trees. First though, you need to know a few things before we head out." She mewed, and dropped into the hunter's crouch with her paws spread, belly lowered but not quite touching the ground, and with her tail, hips and shoulders lined up. "It'll feel a bit awkward, but keeping yourself lower to the ground and keeping your balance are important when hunting." She explained, "Where you step and where your shadow falls can alert prey to your presence just as much as scent or sight can. You have long fur, and it's easy to accidentally brush your tail against something like a twig or leaf."

"And the twolegs have been leaving traps where cats and prey alike might accidentally step on them. They're silvery things, with long, thin sticks woven together. I wish we didn't have to deal with them at all, but we do, unfortunately. So be extra cautious of where you step when we leave camp, okay?" She hated to think of the possibility of the young apprentice being caught in one of the traps, but it wouldn't be the first time. She wouldn't know what to say to Dawnfeather, if that happened.

Bright and early, Smokepaw had been preparing for training. She'd spent the better part of the morning grooming her fur to a sleek shine, to look perfect even though rationally she knew that she was probably going to get disheveled by hunting and sparring, anyway.

When Wolfblossom came calling, she bounded out and sat at attention as her mentor explained, observing as she demonstrated a proper crouch. Smokepaw tried to copy her as she continued with her precautions. Twolegs? Traps? These were both foreign concepts to Smokepaw, but if Wolfblossom said they were a danger, she would respect it.

"Why do they set 'traps'?" she queried.

"Good," Wolfblossom mewed, "Keep your paws evenly spaced. It makes balancing a bit easier."

"We don't know why they do. It's part of the reason we're living in fourtrees, instead of our own camp. Are you old enough to remember the earth trembling? There were a lot of fallen trees that made our territory unsafe, and then the twolegs showed up. They take cats who aren't able to get away from them, but some of them return weeks later." Dawnfeather had escaped them, and Wolfblossom hoped that meant there was hope for Crookedpaw. And Blackbear, who had gone off to try and find him.

Actually, Smokepaw was young enough that maybe she didn't remember. To the younger kits and apprentices this all must have seemed normal. It was a strange realization. "One day it'll be safe enough for us to return home." She hoped so, not that she would allow her private doubts to surface. "For now though... For now we make do with what we have. Fourtrees and Thunderclan territory are a bit different, but they aren't so dissimilar to our own territory. Not that we'll be near their border today." She added. She wanted Smokepaw to have the basics of hunting and fighting before risking getting too close to the border. All the clans were at risk right now, and they'd worked together in fourtrees, but Wolfblossom would not risk anything happening if it could be avoided. They'd have to branch out farther from the vicinity of fourtrees to hunt sooner rather than later, but it didn't feel right to bring an untrained apprentice onto another clan's territory.

"No, I don't remember that," Smokepaw meowed solemnly. She'd heard tales, of course, of the day the earth moved, but she'd been too young - perhaps even unborn, she wasn't too sure, since it had only ever been mentioned in passing, not in detail, in her presence.

As she followed her mentor, the young tabby pondered what it would be like for the very ground to shake beneath her paws. She glances down as they walked, her tiny, needle-sharp claws sliding out to test her traction. The rest of Wolfblossom's explanation was met with a dutiful nod. Fourtrees wasn't their home... she knew that... yet somehow, it didn't feel real, either. She'd spent every waking moment up until her apprenticehood beneath the shadow of those great oaks, but some day, they'd leave. A small part of her was excited to see where SkyClan belonged, but mostly, she felt sad.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Smokepaw looked up at Wolfblossom. "I'll never let 'em catch me, I'll hide in the trees. Have you ever seen a Twoleg climb a tree? Can we practice tree climbing today?"

She didn't remember, and perhaps that was for the best, Wolfblossom reflected. The fear in the eyes of the kits and apprentices who had vague recollections of it, of the chaos that had engulfed fourtrees had stayed with her.

"I've never seen them climb trees, no." She mewed. "And you'll learn that, too. I want you proficient on the ground first, though. It makes it a bit easier to learn, I think, if you have the basics of hunting and fighting first to know how to stay balanced when you're focusing on multiple things at once." Wolfblossom wasn't the most graceful in the trees, mostly due to her size and bulk rather than any failure on Ravenclaw's part in teaching her. She would do her best to give her own apprentice as much of an advantage as she could.

"Speaking of... Can you smell squirrel?" She asked, quieting her tone. The scent on the wind had been strong, so the prey was near by. She could hear movement on the ground, so it was time to get Smokepaw acquainted with real hunting. "Want to go after it?"

The swift diversion from Twoleg to squirrel was met with a sharp nod, and Smokepaw lifted her nose a bit, inhaling to try and bring in the scent that her mentor had pointed out. It took a moment to separate the squirrel from everything else around her, but eventually, she did, drawing back on memories of how the creature had smelled when she'd last taken some from the fresh-kill pile. "I got it!" she whispered.

She slinked forward, settling down into the position Wolfblossom had showed her, and crept towards where she thought the squirrel might be. She parted some taller brown grasses with her nose and peeked through... seeing the little gray creature among the roots of a tall tree. She calculated, noting the squirrel's most likely escape route and positioning herself to cut it off if it went that way. And then she went for it, darting out into the open in pursuit... the squirrel gave a chirp of alarm and dashed for the very tree Smokepaw had planned on. With a grin, she cut left sharply and was on top of the critter before she even knew it.

But then... there was the problem. Smokepaw had captured the squirrel, that much was certain, but as the thing bucked and writhed beneath her, chittering furiously between her paws, there was a growing concern. She had to kill it?! Nausea gripped her as tightly as her claws gripped the squirrel, and all she managed was a strangled, "Help!" over her shoulder.

forgot to roll

The member 'JJ' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 1

Wolfblossom held back, watching as Smokepaw stalked after the squirrel. She took her time, clearly considering her movements carefully, and Wolfblossom smiled to herself. Smokepaw was showing promise. She leapt for her quarry, catching it quickly... And Wolfblossom's head snapped up at the strangled cry for help over the sounds of the angry chattering of the squirrel. A predator or twoleg trap was her immediate concern, but a scent check showed neither, and from this distance Wolfblossom saw no trace of the silvery tendrils.

Launching herself forward, Wolfblossom leapt to her apprentice's side, concern softening her expression. "Smokepaw? Are you okay?" She asked, reaching out to swipe her paw across the squirrel's throat with ease. It didn't occur to her that actually killing prey was a problem as she glanced over the apprentice for injuries, or signs of the dreaded twoleg traps. There were none though, and that only made her confusion and concern grow. "What's wrong?"

The squirrel continued to struggle between her paws up until the point Wolfblossom hurried over and put it out of its misery. As its blood dripped to the ground, Smokepaw's eyes widened, and she took a step back, away from it, large round eyes looking up her mentor in a mixture of shame and confusion. "I... I caught it, and then-" she trailed off, looking away. Her voice was smaller as she continued. "I dunno... I guess I know we obviously kill stuff... and I don't mind eating prey, but. I suppose I didn't think about actually having to... you know, kill it?"

Her face burned with humiliation, and Smokepaw fell to her haunches, staring at the dead squirrel. "I'm sorry, I... it... it won't happen again."

Wolfblossom blinked at the apprentice's words. Smokepaw looked away, clearly ashamed and embarrassed, and Wolfblossom stepped forward, gently laying her tail across her shoulders. "I- Yeah. I suppose actually killing something is different than just taking prey from the fresh-kill pile." She murmured, "Take a moment, it's okay." The noise would've scared off any nearby prey, but Wolfblossom's concern was for Smokepaw. The silvery tabby was sweet and gentle, and hardly seemed to have a violent bone in her body. Warrior training... It would take work, but it wouldn't be impossible, Wolfblossom thought.

"If it helps... Killing prey quickly and cleanly is kinder to it. Taking lives is part of hunting, but we try to minimize their suffering, too." Perhaps it would be something to ask Dawnfeather for advice on. She was one of the kinder, sweeter cats Wolfblossom knew, even if she hadn't known her for long. Maybe her words would help a little, but then Wolfblossom had never been one to shy from doing the work herself. She wouldn't push Smokepaw before she had collected herself, however.