Acorns to Cedars [C]

It was so exciting! Acornstem knew that one day she would be getting an apprentice - it was a right of honor after all but she didn't expect it so soon! ...Despite the fact that she had been a warrior for moons already. But, ah, time seemed to past quickly when having fun and despite all of the hurdles that seemed determined to sour her experience, she was having fun as a warrior. The warrior sat near the entrance of the camp, tail curled around her paws as she smiled softly to herself as she waited for her apprentice to arrive. She was already making plans of how to go about training Cedarpaw - maybe touch the basic of hunting today, maybe even make sure that he could protect himself just in case... But she would also see what he wanted to focus on - she wanted to make training as fun as it could be for him and that meant focusing on what he wanted to excel at as a warrior!

Acornstem's ears twitched as Cedarpaw pushed his way out of the camp entrance, quickly sitting up with a smile. "Good morning!" she chirped, clearly a morning cat as she jumped to her paws. "And yup, just a bit thought!" she explained as she turned - quickly taking the lead in padding further from the camp as she continued to speak. "I thought today we could do a little bit of training for both hunting and maybe a bit of sparring. See where your strengths lie and what you enjoy about both!" she rambled, tail swishing back and forth in excitement of her own. "Training and improving can be hard at times, so I want to make sure its something you enjoy! So start with basics, see how you do, and make a plan from there! But we can start with hunting if you want! That was what I was planning to start with anyways but its even better if that is what you want to do!"

Acornstem didn't catch how overwhelming she was being - after all, she was just being her normal excitable self! Her ear twitched as Cedarpaw spoke - hunting would be their first plan! "Sounds great!" she hummed, glancing around to focus more on the smells around her now that she knew what the plan was. "Sparring is a lot - I actually found I rather enjoy it, honestly that fact was a bit of a surprise to me, but its certainly not for everybody! Hunting is fun thought, it always feel good to bring back prey for the queens and elders," she added with a purr.

She soon came to a sudden stop thought as a smell caught her nose - a squirrel. She swished her tail for Cedarpaw to likewise stop as she scanned the undergrowth, trying to pin-point where the prey was hiding. Finally she spotted the bits of brown fur blending in among the roots of one of the nearby trees. "Over there," she whispered, dipping her head in the direction as she tasted the air - they were upwind, good.

"When it comes to hunting, locating your prey is only the first task. Catching it is next - you want to be mindful of your positioning. To not be downwind, to know where to put your paws to avoid making sounds - watch out for loose twigs or leaves," she murmured as she glanced around but it seemed the two of them were in the clear. She dropped into a crouch, tail low to the ground but not enough to catch on anything. "Your crouch is important - you want your weight to be even on your paws, to be low enough to not draw attention but not so much that your fur is catching on things. Then, you approach as close as you dare...And then leap."

With that, she started to pad forward - mindful of where she was putting her paws as she tried to close as much distance as she would dare before finally she was content. Shaking her rump to shift her back paws into leaping position, she bunched up her muscles before leaping - paws outstretched as she came down on the squirrel. It didn't know what was coming as her paws landed on it - it barely getting a squeak out before she broke its neck and held up the limp squirrel for Cedarpaw to see. She padded over with a proud smile, dropping it once she had reached tail-length away from Cedarpaw. "And that is how you hunt! Explanations are well and good, but you truly learn by doing so I want to see you give it a go! See what you can find and try your paw at it - we can see where we need to focus our training once I see your in action."

Acornstem attempted to catch a squirrel and succeeded, costing 3 stamina.

Acornstem:
50/50 HP
117/120 SP (-3)

OOC: Alright, hunting! For start, I'll just link the hunting system here. The hunting system itself is rather basic - whenever you want to use it, you decide what you want to catch, hit preview on your post and go down to the dice roll option beneath the edit spot. Have Dice Roll #1 set to Hunting Dice, then send your post!

One thing that should be noted that if somebody posts before you, when the site asks if you want to edit your post - its best to agree to edit it even if you don't have to and reset the dice back up because otherwise it cancels it which can pose a problem. But that tends to be a problem in big fight topics, not hunting ones. Just something to note.

Based on what you are hunting and what you roll, you can see if you succeeded or not. I'm having Acorn go for a squirrel and because the season is currently Newleaf on the site, that means if I roll a 1-6, I catch it! 7-9 is a failure, but the hunting requirement is still counted...10 however means a predator appears and the hunting attempt is nulled when it comes to counting as a requirement, but whoever rolls the 10 gets to decide which one appears so its easy to just pick a low-health one if you don't actually want a big fight. (Another thing to note, predators can be chased away at half health which is why its extra useful to just pick one with low health.)

Another thing to explain - in each Clan territory is sub-area which has different bonuses. For ThunderClan, hunting in Stony Hollow adds a +2 success range to any  hunting attempts. So if we were hunting there, I would actually be able to catch the squirrel with a 1-8! ...But we aren't, we are in regular ThunderClan Territory. Other such places is Beech Copse for RiverClan, The Tunnels for WindClan, The Pine Grove for ShadowClan and Moonlit Creek for SkyClan. However the bonus cannot go past 9 - rolling a 10 is always a predator.

...Hopefully that makes sense?

Oh! Another thing - you can stop your post with the attempt to catch, then go back to edit it to mirror if you succeeded or failed once you know your dice roll (such as I did for this) I will admit that sometimes if I am feeling extra lazy, I will write a barebone one-sentence post just to get the dice roll first and then write the proper post afterwards with the knowledge of what I got (thought I do often list what I am hunting in that barebone post just to keep me honest)

The member 'Honey Badger' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Hunting Dice' : 5

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

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'Hunting Dice' : 5

Acornstem settled down next to her squirrel as Cedarpaw turned to try his own paw at it, watching him with keen eyes as he picked his way carefully through the undergrowth until he spotted a bird. His crouch could do a little work but it was still impressive for a first attempt - and good enough to work with, but there was always room for improvement. She watched as as he made his leap, waiting the couple of heartbeats before he lifted his head with a magpie hanging limp in his grasp.

"Good job!" she purred as she jumped to her paws, leaning down quickly to grab her squirrel as she trotted to close the distance between them. "Your hunting crouch was excellent for a first attempt - you might be a natural hunter!" she meowed as she reached him, dropping the squirrel once more to speak without fur muffling her words. "Of course, there will always be tries where your prey gets away for one reason or another. Don't let those discourage you when they do happen, everybody misses prey - even those who might claim themselves the best hunter in the forest," she added with a small laugh.

"Now, we can continue hunting if you want or-" she cut off suddenly at the sound of a rustling behind her, causing her to turn her head towards the source with a frown. For a heartbeat, she assumed it might be another squirrel but it sounded...Louder than she would expect. Another cat? ...No, the rustling didn't sound right for it to be that. "Cedarpaw, stay close to me," she meowed as she scanned the undergrowth, mouth open as she tried to pick up the scent of whatever was near. What was it...?

Acornstem didn't answer right away as her eyes remained focus on the undergrowth until finally she caught it - a glimpse of grey and black fur. Her mouth was parted as she took a step forward - finally recognizing the smell for what it was. "Its a raccoon," she murmured. "It can be dangerous if it catches you unaware or if its a pack of them - but I think..." She motioned for Cedarpaw to stay where he was as she drew closer - her pawsteps quiet as she could manage as she tried to sneak up on the raccoon.

She wasn't as lucky as she was with her squirrel as suddenly the raccoon spun with a chattering hiss - claws slicing in the air as she quickly drew back. The strike managed to catch her cheek, scattering blood to the forest floor before but she wasted no time in leaping forward as her paws rammed into the raccoon's shoulders and sent it crashing to the ground. With deft paws, she rolled it to pin its paws beneath it, claws sinking into its back with a growl of her own.

Wild Raccoon used Quick Swipe on Acornstem, dealing 8 damage and costing 10 stamina.
Acornstem used Leap and Hold on the wild racoon, dealing 8 damage and costing 15 stamina. Wild raccoon is stunned for 2 turns(s)

Acornstem:
42/50 HP (-8)
102/120 SP (-15)

Wild Raccoon:
12/20 HP (-8)
110/120 SP (-10)

OOC: Combat! The battle system can be a little confusing at first. Link to the Battle System and lets see how I can explain this... I guess we can start with what I did for my post - because I chose to force the raccoon encounter, controlling it has fallen onto me. You just have to worry about Cedar's actions - the raccoon would get its turn the next time I post. If you had rolled the 10 on hunting, controlling the predator would fall on you (but if you are uncomfortable/unsure about doing that, you could likely ask another person in the topic to take over controlling it).

For Acorn's turn, I chose to spend my action on her using a special move to pin the raccoon - meaning it will lose its next turn (thought if it was a cat, it could try to break free with Duck-and-Twist!) This is also a move that requires a roll to see how well it does - instead of using the hunting dice, you use the effect dice. Each special move cannot be used on the same target twice (so if this battle stretched out, I would not be able to leap-and-hold it again but could use other special moves - granted there is a standard or situational move I use in between those turns. Can't stun lock opponents.

For how much damage you deal, you always need to remember what rank you are - which will also tell you what abilities you can use! As you climb the ranks, more and more abilities will be open for you to use (so if it has a damage listed for your rank, you can use it! If not, its a no-go and gotta wait!)

Battles become a game of using your resources wisely - knowing when to take a chance on rolling the dice (literally) or sticking with safe damage. Of course, its all in good fun even when big Clan vs Clan battles happen! Friendly spars are also a good way to get a grasp on the system because its a full fight to either side hitting 0 HP so you get more chances to try different moves but there is no true risk to it - just your cat is tired out when your HP or SP hits zero!

Its also seen as a common courtesy to also list the HP/SP of those in the fight with you but is not truly needed - you could just keep track of your enemy health and your own cat health! When it comes to a big battle, you just need to list those actively fighting at your side/against you instead of everybody partaking in the battle. Just those being effected by your actions, so to speak. I...Hope this is enough? A lot of rambling to be sure, but its hard to explain the system I feel - mostly when I am so used to it so I don't consider it being hard to grasp at times.

The member 'Honey Badger' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Effect Dice' : 5

Acornstem blinked as a flash of fur caught her attention - Cedarpaw had rushed up, quickly weaving around to give the raccoon a slash. As her gaze followed the blow, she took notice that he had missed the raccoon's eyes. For a brief second, she was confused...Before her face softened, claws digging once more into the raccoon's back before she leapt free. She planted herself between it and Cedarpaw as she bared her teeth and swiped at the air - the raccoon getting the message as it pushed itself to its paws and disappeared into the undergrowth with a terrified chatter.

A sigh escaped her as she raised a paw to rub against her cheek, frowning as she drew it away to see the blood staining the fur. She would have to make a visit to Fawnshine and Echopaw after this - while the scratch itself didn't feel that much - it was shallow...There was no telling what the raccoon had stuck its claws into. The risk of infection was there. She turned to look at Cedarpaw with a soft smile. "That was good work - striking it quickly like that. With any luck, it will know better to stick around on our territory...But I'll be sure to tell Mottlestar and hopefully a patrol can make sure it leaves our territory for sure," she meowed, sparing a glance back at the undergrowth where the raccoon had fled. Part of her wasn't sure that letting it go was the smartest move but...Killing a predator when it wasn't her or a Clanmates' life on the line was... Something she wasn't sure she had the guts for.

"...We should head back to camp, I need to get my scratch tended to and I think that was enough excitement for your first trip out of camp."

Wild Raccoon is pinned and cannot attack.
Acornstem continued to use Leap-and-Hold, dealing 8 more damage and costing an additional 15 stamina.

Acornstem:
42/50 HP (-8)
88/120 SP (-15)

Wild Raccoon:
0/20 HP (-8)
110/120 SP