Favorite Former Apprentice [Pineblossom]

Moondancer turned away from the rest of the patrol as they returned to camp, dropping a lizard onto the fresh-kill pile. Her paws were muddy from the outing, and getting rid of the muck was the first thing on her mind as she made her way toward the shadows at the edge of camp. It just so happened that her former mentor's pelt caught her eye, and that gave Moondancer pause. She hadn't spoken to her much recently, had she? She was good friends with her mother and had been a good mentor... She ought to fix that. To keep up appearances, at least.

"Hi, I-Pineblossom." Nearly slipping on her greeting made her fur feel warm with embarrassment. The new name was something Moondancer hadn't gotten used to yet, having known her old mentor as Iceheart for so long. She wondered if the other she-cat was facing the same problem with getting used to being called something different.

"How're you?" Moondancer asked, lifting a paw and carefully beginning to groom the mud from it.

One paw cleaned, Moondancer continued in her brisk grooming, ears flattening in brief annoyance. Pineblossom's words were a welcome distraction though, and an ear twitched as the older warrior spoke. Bored? Moondancer couldn't imagine it, being in camp with little to do. At least she didn't have to worry about the copious amounts of mud that seemed to gravitate towards cats while out hunting, and she was sure Leopardsun was keeping her away from patrols out of kindness. "I'm not sure if I'd want to be on patrol, honestly. I've run into so many raccoons while hunting recently. The mud is bad enough without those beasts constantly finding a way to ruin hunting." The wounds she had taken in a recent fight were healed, but Moondancer found herself carefully grooming over the small scars left. Small scars, but they were one set of scars too many for her dark and silver pelt.

Moondancer purred at the praise. "I hope I am, I'm trying to be." She sighed. She'd also been given an apprentice, but to say Ivypaw's training had not been going well...or anywhere, really, was an understatement. For a cat who prided herself on her skills, it had been frustrating.

"It's hard to emulate another cat." Moonshine nodded. "Who was your mentor?" Moondancer had to admit to a little curiosity, "You were a great mentor, clearly you were taught well either way... Though I suppose being taught doesn't always translate to teaching, does it?" If that were the case, her training with Ivypaw wouldn't be a sore point.

"I thought Locustcall was a rogue. I didn't realize he was actually Shadowclan." Moondancer admitted, he sure seemed to act it, from what little she had observed and heard of from others. She listened as Pineblossom continued. Thalia wasn't someone she knew well either beyond the strangeness of her name, but that wasn't what interested her. How Pineblossom had approached training was more interesting, and some of it Moondancer had expected. "I agree with you. Trying to apply what I'd seen and heard on my own was what really made training stick." She nodded. "That helped far more than just listening to an explanation could, I think. Can't truly learn if you don't try things out for yourself, right?"