[Thistledawn]

Originally Posted by Lonestar23

The amount of spirit, and utter determination in his apprentice's voice made the young warrior glow with pride. Before he'd had an apprentice, he had never understood why older warriors - even cats his age - would talk about how pleased they were with the way their apprentice was turning out, and how amazing it was that such a young cat was able to go on for so long. To be quite honest, he'd found it boring. He'd never joined in the conversations when it had changed to things like that, and had always found a reason for a subject change. Blazingcomet was a master at manipulating conversations, he could change the subject from one thing to another in a matter of minutes without it seeming too quick or too strange. He could also talk for hours without getting bored of a topic, depending on what that particular topic was.

Flirting, for instance (in particular pointing out a she cat's physical flawlessness and the perfections in her personality) was something he could do for hours on end without ever growing tired of it. It didn't hurt that the cats he was normally flirting with had the greatest reactions. He had grown quite fond of a few of his targets, Drizzleshard in particular to begin with... No! No, please, I can't focus on that right now. His mind had traveled off in all directions, as he tried to concentrate on the subject at hand, which was training Cherrypaw. She could have a lot of spunk and talent, if she would focus it on training instead of whatever else she did. Dramatizing things was what she seemed to focus most of her talent on if Blazingcomet was being honest with himself. Of course, she had gotten back up and was ready to try again. "Now, focus only on me. Nothing else, okay? Maybe even move a second before you think you need to." The warrior had found that tactic to be particuarly useful when he was dealing with faster warriors.

He loved seeing the look of utter disbelief on their features that a cat with a twisted paw could maneuver so easily. He knew it was hard to believe. But Blazingcomet had had his whole life to figure out alternatives, and while his paw made his running look quite a bit awkward, he was still fast. And he could move with a speed (not grace) that impressed other cats, easily. Crouching down, he got ready to spring, carefully shifting his weight so that his leap would be angled correctly. Once he was sure that he was ready, he got a running start and sprang towards Cherrypaw, silently praying to StarClan that she would see his movement coming. It was basically the same movement as before, because he wanted to show his apprentice that sometimes, cats would try the exact same thing if it had been effective the last time. And he wanted to show her that she could easily stop it - did that ever come up in battle.

"I got it, I got it." Cherrypaw meowed impatiently, her blue eyes blazing. She felt ready for this. Her white paws couldn't stay still. They wanted to strike at the ginger tom. The younger cat just wanted to go at it. But she knew Blazingcomet was right even if he was just telling her something she'd heard before. She wasn't truly focused the last time. The white cat had been caught up in her own thoughts. Last time she'd been relatively focused on the battle, but she was thinking too much about it. Cherrypaw groaned internally. Could she reach the medium between not thinking and thinking too much? There I go again, the apprentice thought. It was too easy to think too much. Even when she was thinking about thinking. Nothing else, she echoed. The she-cat closed her eyes and made everything go blank. When she opened them, she trained her eyes on her ginger opponent. "A second before I think I need to." She repeated as if she were confirming something important.

The younger cat was more prepared for her mentor's quick movement this time. She noticed that his take off seemed very similar to what he did before. He was going easy on her, but she wasn't upset about it. She wanted a challenge, and using the same approach was a challenge enough for her. She wanted to use her strength to push the tom away, but Cherrypaw was far too little to push away a full grown cat. Maybe she could have managed to push him away if she too had gotten a running start, but she'd stayed put so far. There was another way she could use her small size, however. As her mentor drew closer, Cherrypaw ducked under his chest and tried to escape through the spaces in his legs. The she-cat hadn't moved too late, like she did last time. The apprentice tried to time her movement as perfectly as possible so that if anything, she were a heartbeat or two too early instead of late. She stuck close to the ground, but kept herself light on her paws.