[Dust]

Originally Posted by BluBunny

Ratpaw followed behind his mentor, his pelt seemed a bit cleaner and his eyes shone with a bit more happiness. Now that he had his close friend, Twanypaw and his mentor Bagderbite, his life felt like it was improving. He took more time to clean himself, it felt less depressed and he didn't take his mothers words as harshly as he did before. He was still pretty small and his pelt hung from him, he hadn't quite filled in any muscles or fat yet. His hazel hues looked around the territory, he hadn't really been out too far in the territory. He was taking notes of everything around him.

He stopped after he noticed the glance his mentor gave him. His ears perked as he listened to her carefully, he was excited to start to gaining some muscle. He twitched his ears at the mention of Riverclan, he had heard some tensions were running between the two Clans. While he had been observing the territory, he hadn't paid much attention to the scents around him. The young tom lifted his muzzle into the air and took in the scents around him. He could smell what he thought was mice, but it smelt a bit fresher then the mice in the fresh-kill pile.

His tail lifted into the air as he tried to detect other scents, he could smell his fellow clanmates scent but he couldn't pick out whose scent it was. He could easily smell his mentor, he could smell other faint scents but they seemed old so he shrugged them off. "I think I smell a mouse nearby, it smells kinda like the mice in the kill pile, except fresher and warmer. I smell some Shadowclan scents, but I don't think that matters." He chuckled a bit. Another scent whiffed across his nose, he couldn't place it and his hazel eyes landed on his mentor. "I smell something else but I can't place it. It smells like the mice, but different." He mewed.

"Maybe squirrel...?" She mumbled quietly to herself. Matching her apprentice's gaze, she nodded in agreement before continuing. "Squirrel." They did have relatively similar scents, but squirrel always smelled a bit more musky to Badger. Although it wasn't really her favorite prey, she did prefer mice above all, squirrel was too chewy for her, but not bad. Nodding quickly, she flicked her tail in a the general direction of where the scent lingered. "First things first, Do not expect to catch something on your first try. All my old apprentices expected too much and were sorely disappointed when they realized that it's more difficult than they thought." Badger's tone was a bit harsh, but she stopped and took a moment before continuing. "You've been much better than all those apprentices so far though..."

She offered an encouraging smile before quickly parting her jaws again, "Anyway, you aren't half bad at scenting so lets get down to the basics. We're going to track down and hunt the mouse ok? Follow my lead." Badger crouched down low to the ground, her muscles rippling against her black pelt as she glanced at Ratpaw to see what he was doing.