Windswept [Training]

Subject: Windswept [Training] Sat 11 Nov 2023 - 8:05

Nectarflower

Gender: Female
Rank: T4 Warrior

The sun rose almost sluggishly into the star-speckled sky and Nectarflower shifted in her nest, sliding a paw over her eyes to shield herself from an offensive beam of light. With a grunt, the tortoiseshell she-cat squeezed her eyes shut, determined to get a little more sleep. That is, until she remembered that she'd just received a new apprentice. Oh! And she was supposed to take said apprentice out for their first day of training! Green eyes snapped open and Nectarflower jumped to her paws, flitting into the clearing, her gaze roving the camp in search of Goldenpaw. Nothing. With a sigh of relief, she headed towards the apprentice's side of the camp.

Peering through the long stalks of grass that sprouted up around their nests, Nectarflower laid eyes on her newest apprentice. Moving carefully around the other sleeping bodies, she approached Goldenpaw, placing a paw to the younger she-cat's shoulder to wake her. "Goldenpaw, dear, it's time to wake up. I have a full day planned for you and I." She meowed softly before turning and picking her way back into the clearing, fur fluffed out against the cool air.

Hopefully, the moor would begin to warm up a bit more by sunhigh. No cat wanted to spend the first day of their apprenticeship in the bitter cold. The mere idea of leafbare and its even cooler temperatures made her shudder and, suddenly, she was clad to have been an apprentice during Newleaf. Well, no matter. With any luck, Goldenpaw's training would be swift and over with before Leafbare reared its frozen, ugly head.

Subject: Re: Windswept [Training] Sat 11 Nov 2023 - 9:30

Okay, so Nectar- Nectarflow, or whatever her name was- hadn’t made Goldenkit- Goldenpaw promise not to stay up late, and besides she hadn’t said ‘late,’ she’d just said ‘too late’ and left it at that, and really she was the mentor in this situation and she ought to know better, and…

Well, Goldenkit -paw- might’ve, uh, stayed up kinda late. Not real late, just kinda late, and even then it was debatable what even counted as late, and besides she was a WindClan cat! Staring up at the stars for hours was a respectable pasttime! Yeah!

At any rate, Goldenkit- oops, Goldenpaw- was still firmly and deeply asleep when the sun rose, fur turned to gold by the morning light, curled up next to Tallpaw in an incredibly fluffy ball. For a moment, it seemed as though Nectarflower’s voice had gone completely ignored, but then everything clicked and the large apprentice stumbled to her paws, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Right! That wasn’t Foxflower’s voice, and she wasn’t a kit anymore! She was an apprentice! Oh, yeah, this was gonna be the best day of her life so far.

With a bright grin, Goldenkit -wait, no, Goldenpaw, come on- followed Nectarflow onto the moor, tail twitching in anticipation. The brisk, cold air cleansed the last of sleepiness from her mind, a welcome tang against her eyes and ears that failed to penetrate her thick coat. The large apprentice all but bounced in place next to her mentor, practically running over with excitement. After all, out before her sprawled the vast moor, and the moor-wind sang in her blood, calling her to run and run and run, breach the horizon and climb up into the sky itself.

“What’re we doin’ today?” She chirped, voice perhaps a little too loud for how close they were to camp. “Can we learn to fight pleaaaaase?!? I tried to practice but the queens were all ‘nooooo, Goldenkit, you’re too rough’ but now that I’m an apprentice I can, right? Pretty please?”

She was certainly built for it, just barely shorter than her mentor with a well-balanced muscular frame mixed with characteristic WindClan height, but Goldenpaw sometimes still tripped over those oversized paws of hers, as if she had a growth spurt still waiting to happen. Hunting would be fine, she guessed, and some part of her knew that it made sense, but- but what she wanted to do was get out there, tear up the moor, outrun dogs and coyotes and foxes, throw herself into pitched battle with a RiverClan patrol and win.

Was that really too much to ask for her first day of apprenticeship?

Subject: Re: Windswept [Training] Thu 7 Dec 2023 - 21:01

Nectarflower

Gender: Female
Rank: T4 Warrior

Nectarflower held back a laugh as she watched Goldenpaw frantically get up, her green eyes glittering with a mixture of amusement and affectionate annoyance. The young apprentice had clearly forgotten her advice to get lots of sleep, but oh well. She'd just have to learn the hard way that staying up late was a dangerous game to play when there was a long day of training ahead. She'd never toyed around when it came to training though, looking back, she was a bit disappointed to have been so dedicated to training. Stars, she hardly knew any of her clanmates her age because of it. Hm. That certainly was disappointing - wasn't it?

Once Goldenpaw began to stir, the tortoiseshell she-cat turned and quickly made her way across the camp, leading the way into the vast moor of Windclan's territory. It was by no means a bright, warm day, but they would simply have to make do. The clan wouldn't stop being hungry just because the weather was poor. Especially not with the famine ravaging the clans. Besides, Nectarflower glanced over at her new apprentice, an amused purr rising in her throat, Goldenpaw didn't seem to mind.

The young she-cat seemed quite ecstatic to finally be out of the confines of the camp and, well, Nectarflower couldn't blame her. She'd felt the exact same way when she'd first become an apprentice! Windclan was, without a doubt, the closest of all of the clans to their home. They slept under the stars and the open sky and every breath they took was pure, unfiltered wind. The moor spoke to each and every Windclan cat, regardless of their heritage, in whispers and song.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing a content smile, Nectarflower turned to Goldenpaw, her tail twitching. Fighting could wait. With how scarce prey was, it was more important that Goldenpaw learned to hunt. "Another day. I'm going to teach you how to hunt first. The most important part of being a warrior is providing for your clan." She unsheathed her claws, examining them. "Any cat can draw blood - that's not what makes a warrior, though." Nodding to herself, the she-cat fixed her gaze on Goldenpaw expectantly.

"So, tell me what you already know." She sat down, tail curled around her paws, and tipped her head to the side curiously. She needed to know what she was working with. Goldenpaw, for all she knew, had absolutely no clue of the basics of hunting. And although theoretical knowledge would only get you so far, it was integral to learning the basics of hunting.

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