This Won't Do - Hickory's training

Stormwatcher had not been well as of lately. Ever since the apprentice ceremony of Hickorypaw's where he nearly passed out from anxiety he had been in the strangest of feelings and places.

He felt so numb constantly and like he would get these random chills down his back for seemingly no reason. Food no longer seemed appetizing either something that used to would have been unheard of for him.

So the background for him going into this morning was less than pleasing and things just took a deep dive further into how this was going to go.

He already had a deep worry that somehow he would fail Hickory just as he had failed Blazepaw - his former apprentice lying dead with blood pooled around his limp body plauged at the warriors dreams and the already unwell tom was not helped by the lack of sleep he was now getting.

On top of all of this he was banned from having any alone time something he usually used to clear his head with - ever since his poor decisions had led to a one moon ban on leaving camp without another warrior he was stuck with a spiraling mental state with no way to pull up and no alone time to just chill.


When the morning light poured in he was for once suprisingly asleep. It was too good to be true as moments later sharp claws tugged at him and he jerked awake flailing and clawing at anything that was nearby.

He let out a screech of a feral hiss and growled scampering to his paws.

The bulky warrior had probably smacked half the denmates with all that. Among them his previous apprentice Stoneheart.

As the cobwebs of sleep rolled away his ears flicked hearing Hickorypaws words. Why that ungrateful little !!!

He stomped a paw down angerly and let out a long frustrated sigh.

He looked to Stoneheart apologetically "Sorry" he managed to grunt in applogy - a 'sorry' from storm was about as rare as a unicorn so she could take it or leave it but that was the most she was getting.

From his point of view, it wasnt even his fault his apprentice clawed him awake - soemthing they would be discussing very very soon.

"You- you're coming with us" he meowed to Stoneheart "Wolfstars orders he left out any details as to why those orders were in place.

Stoneheart did not need to know that he had crossed the border and beaten a riverclanner up.

He went out of the warriors den and found his apprentice. He gave him a cold long stare

"as your mentor I guess your first lesson is if you ever pull that foxdung again against any one of your clanmates again you will be cleaning ticks off elders till you become an elder yourself. That goes for today as well - I expect once our lesson is over the elders den taken care of by you" he snapped.


He awaited Stoneheart to get out here and once she was he nodded leading the way out.

"what a happy crew we are" he muttered under his breath.

Beneath all of his gruff he did care for his apprentices - both former and current.


He led them to a small clearing between all the many trees that littered their crowded land.

"hunting first. You learn Fighting last." he muttered giving a cold stare already expecting resistance to that. But his methodology was simple - in a worst case senerio if an apprentice was seperated from the clan he at least wanted them to be able to feed themselves. So hunting always came first with him no arguments or if ands or buts.

"show me what you know of the hunting crouch" he prompted the apprentice and stood back to let Hickorypaw show what he knew or not.

Stoneheart had already been awake by the time the apprentice had found himself in the warrior's den, grooming her thick fur. The returning humidity and heat of late newleaf was far from pleasant for the warrior, and while she didn't necessarily care about keeping up appearances, the feeling of her thick pelt sticking to her skin was uncomfortable.

As such, she paid little attention to the apprentice who had gone to wake his mentor... And nearly jumped out of her skin at the screech. Stoneheart laughed quietly to herself at Hickorypaw's antics, still... As amused as she might have been, having once been the lazy tom's apprentice herself, that couldn't be allowed to slide. "That was uncalled for. Your training would have begun shortly claws or not. Have patience, Hickorypaw."

A slow blink was all Stormwatcher would earn from her. Wolfstar's orders? Alright then. Probably to make sure the older tom wasn't sleeping on the job, though he'd been better about keeping up in more recent seasons. Surely it wasn't that necessary anymore? It wasn't for her to question Wolfstar's orders however, and so the she-cat stood and followed the pair from camp. She made no comment as Stormwatcher threatened Hickorypaw with the elder's den. That might do the youth some good. And it wasn't for her to interfere in the tom's training, so while Stormwatcher instructed the apprentice, Stoneheart took to the trees, pale green eyes watchful for both signs of predators and prey.

rolling for a cute fuzzy critter with long ears. Mistpelt I have the rage of Hickory, dont mess with me -_-

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 3

Stormwatcher flicked his ears at the apprentices words but said nothing and just simply sat and watched his apprentice go for the kill.

"Thank stars you were not this difficult" he muttered to Stoneheart his previous apprentice. Blazepaw had not been difficult either which made him miss his starclan apprentice even more now.

It seemed his apprentice finally figured out how to kill the rabbit and he gave a slight nod of approval - he was generally unmotivated to train this ungrateful youngster but he would give some small approval for catching prey.


It wasn't pretty but you got it done he thought to himself but decided that was too harsh even after all the nonsense this apprentice was giving him - he decided on saying :

"yeah... okay nice" he grumbled but nodded.

"You can be sure to feed that to the elders first when you go to pick off their fleas and ticks"

"Again" he muttered pointing his tail out back to the forest for Hickorypaw to go hunt again. He had decided that this mentorship would be one of much fewer words until Hickorypaw learned respect.


He and Stoneheart had gotten along okay and so did he and Blazepaw - Hickorypaw felt like a sandpaper rubbing against his pelt the wrong way in the most uncomfortable of manors - this was probably another Wolfstar plot to give them both 'development' or some nonsense he thought to himself rolling his eyes.

"we hunt more today, we will hunt again tomorrow and the day after that - once I think you are ready and have mastered hunting only then will you spar"

"He should." Stoneheart agreed, tone mild, "But that doesn't give you the right to barge into the den and disrupt others. Your mentor won't slack off, trust me." Because Wolfstar would have his hide for it... And Stoneheart too enjoyed prodding her mentor into doing things. Watching him grumble and complain was fun.

"Yeah, because I'm your favorite apprentice." Stoneheart joked, though fell quiet as the apprentice her mentor was currently training tried his paw at catching a rabbit. And succeeded.

"Wow, that was impressive. You don't see those on our fresh kill pile that often!" He might have been a brat, but deserved the praise.

rolling for squirrel

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

---

'Hunting Dice' : 7

Stoneheart leapt into the trees, moving more nimbly from branch to branch than her size might suggest as she stalked a sparrow. With one powerful leap and a snap of sharp fangs, the bird was added to their fresh kill, and she leapt down from the tree, giving her former mentor a smug look. Hickorypaw had found a squirrel too, it seemed.

"Good," Stoneheart nodded at the apprentice's second catch. He wasn't bad, though his temper was certainly sour. The clan would be fed, and that was what counted to the fluffy warrior.

Stormwatcher gave a flick of his tail as his apprentice eventually reappeared with the second kill, a squirrel.

Even he had to admit that was pretty darn good! A rabbit and now squirrel in the kiddo's first hunting run?! All to say he had the most mixed emotions of it all.

He hadnt wanted an apprentice to begin with still mourning Blazepaw's death and now that he had one it felt like they were suceeding at an alarming rate. His friend and deputy happening to be the father to this annoying brat certainly also made things even more interesting.

His previous apprentice seemed to be willing to dismiss Hickorypaw's attitude just because he caught prey with her happy meows of 'good'

He gave a long stare before just giving a simple nod. "Hmm" and flick of his tail that the apprentice could rest and be done with hunting for the day.

Well at least they will not starve if for whatever reason they get seperated now he thought to himself with a heavy inward sigh.

What to do about his attitude was something that he still was unsure of but he had some ideas for it as he thought about Hickorypaw's next upcoming lesson of sparing