The Makings of a Huntress

[Toodle]

Pigeonpaw paced across the clearing. The news of twolegs in the territory was still weighing heavily on her mind but Dawnstar was clear enough about her rules that apprentices would not be allowed out unattended. But she couldn't shake the urge that she needed to do something. Twolegs were threatening her clan and if she could make that threat disappear, it's the perfect opportunity to prove herself to Dawnstar and Batsong.

She glanced towards the camp's entrance, her pacing halted briefly. Nobody was likely to stop her if she just left now. But if she accomplished her goal then they'd definitely find out that she'd left on her own. But if she removed the threat then could they really stay mad at her? Would she still get in trouble? The risk was too great. She resumed her pacing.

@Ravensong

[Pitou]

@Toodle [Mind if I add Elmshadow and possibly Sunsetpaw to this? ^^ If not, Elmshadow can be busy^^]

**Cougarivy**

The pacing, the pacing...the crunching of the dirt underpaw and the constant movement, it kept catching Cougarivy's attention, pulling her out of her own day dreams. She finally snapped her head towards the movement, ready to snap at the restless cat to lay down until she recognized the fluffy grey pelt of her apprentice. Her irritation was instantly forgotten and she hopped to her paws, padding bouncily across the clearing to approach the young she-cat.

"Hi! Whatcha up to? You look a bit restless. Anything on your mind?" But even as the question was passing her lips, her mind was already moving on, "We never got a chance to practice hunting on our tour of the territory. You wanna do that now?!" Cougarivy hopped a little, already angling her body towards the entrance. She'd asked the question but she wasn't going to take no as an answer, she suddenly realized how pent up she was becoming having sat inside camp all day. "Oh!" she chirped. "Why don't we grab Elmshadow, see what he's doing and of he would join us. We shouldn't be going out just the two of us anyway." Cougarivy giggled.

[Toodle]

Pigeonpaw jumped as Cougarivy spoke up, pulling her from her thoughts. What am I up to? Does she see right though me? Does she know what I'm planning?.....Does she care? Maybe Cougarivy would come with her and then she wouldn't technically be doing anything really wrong. But if she brought it up to Cougarivy and she disapproved she had the power to put a stop to it as her mentor. What am I thinking about?! Her mind churned to come up with an answer but it was suddenly blank besides her desire to hunt twolegs. Luckily Cougarivy bailed her put by continuing on and suggesting a hunting training. Pigeonpaw nodded eagerly. Training, that'd help get her mind cleared and focused she was sure.

She froze when Cougarivy mentioned Elmshadow. She knew Elmshadow as the warrior who'd saved her when she was a kit and had left camp to train with Silentwhisper. He was a mystery to her, dark and ominous. But she nodded her head. He'd saved her once so he couldn't be dangerous, right? But her mind flashed with images of Elmshadow killing Silentwhisper. But he only did that to save and protect her. She realized she was still nodding and stopped, looking to her mentor for their next moves.

( @Ravensong adding Elm and Sunset is fine (: )

[Pitou]

@Toodle

**Cougarivy, Elmshadow**

Cougarivy smiled and purred then turned around and thought for a few heartbeats. She didn't figure Elmshadow would be in the warrior's den, not this late in the day. He'd spent the night with Goldenstep anyway as he'd been doing more often lately. It hadn't passed Cougarivy's attention that the tom had been distancing himself from her. She huffed, if he was with Goldensteo now then she was sure this would never work. But her wishes were realized as she noticed the grey tom walking across the clearing. A subconscious smile slipped across her face as she bounded over the empty space to hop in front of him.

She sat down, her tail wrapping neatly around her paws as she sat up straight with a wide smile. "Hi Elmshadow! It's been a whole. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were avoiding me." Before Elmshadow could respond, Cougarivy continued, "Luckily I do know you better. So why don't you come out with me and my apprentice? I'd love some advice on her training."

Elmshadow sighed and gave one last glance towards the group of cats he'd been heading towards before changing direction and walking towards the camp's entrance. "Well, let's get moving, see what your apprenticr can do."

Cougarivy shivered in her excitement then chased after Elmshadow, nearly forgetting to acknowledge Pigeonpaw. She turned quickly and flicked her tail for her apprentice to follow then padded after Elmshadow through the camp entrance. Out in the open of the pine forest, Elmshadow stopped and looked to Cougarivy who smiled giddily then turned to face Pigeonpaw. Cougarivy could smell mouse and thrush faintly. The first step to training hunting would be in the ability to identify prey and locate it by scent. "Can you smell any signs of prey?"

[Toodle]

Pigeonpaw watched the interaction between Cougarivy and Elmshadow from afar. Would he remember how he'd saved her from Silentwhisper? Would he recognize her? Would he look down on her for it? Still hold the whole thing against her? Pigeonpaw shook then scampered forward as she noticed Cougarivy motioning from her to follow the two warriors out into the territory.

As the two slowed and turned to her she lifted her nose to the air. The scent of pine filled her nose. She tried to focus beyond that and find the more underlying scents. She smelled Cougarivy and Elmshadow's familiar Shadowclan scent, then a mouthwatering scent wafted across her tongue. She tried to place it with the scents she recognized from the freshkill pile though they were slightly different than anything she recognized, the freshkill pile always had a tang of blood and coolness whereas these scents were more foresty and warm.

She took a deep breath, pulling the scents over her tongue. "I smell...mouse! And...and...I recognize the other one but I don't know."

@Ravensong

[Pitou]

@Toodle

**Cougarivy, Elmshadow**

The she-cat watched her apprentice mulling over the surrounding scents, glancing back at Elmshadow intermittently to gauge his reaction. She shivered proudly at Pigeonpaw's exclamation of mouse. She couldn't place the scent of what Cougarivy was pretty sure she'd picked out as thrush but that didn't bother her, this was her first outting to train hunting. She looked to Elmshadow who wore a blank expression, unreadable. She wanted Pigeonpaw to do well to prove her prowess as a mentor but she also knew her handling of teaching would show much more, so she focused on Pigeonpaw. "Very good!" she purred. "That other smell you picked out is thrush. They're both pretty stale, we should keep moving but keep your mind on that scent, if it starts to get fresher then we're heading in the same direction as the prey went and it'll be worth starting to track it. As is it could be deep in its hole and completely unreachable so it's a better use of time and energy to keep searching for other, more accessible, prey." She glanced at Elmshadow but his expression was still unreadable so she hopped up and started padding through the forest again.

[Toodle]

Pigeonpaw tried to keep her blue eyes away from looking directly at Elmshadow. His presence was both reassuring with the looming threat of twolegs but also imposing as she was trying to learn a new skill and Cougarivy continuously looking over to him. She tried to focus on what Cougarivy was instructing and nodded. Thrush, She made a mental note to try to store that smell for the future. Keep track of the smell and hunt it only if it gets fresher. She nodded.

She followed Cougarivy and Elmshadow as they trekked further through the forest. She kept her maw parted just slightly to keep track if the scent of the mouse and thrush as they walked. Ober a few paces she started to notice that the scent of the mouse faded away but the thrush, she couldn't be sure but it seemed to her as though the scent of the thrush was getting stronger. She trotted quicker to catch up to Cougarivy to whisper, "It's getting stronger, I think, the thrush, when do we know that it's close enough to hunt?"
@Ravensong

[Pitou]

@Toodle

**Cougarivy, Elmshadow**

Cougarivy walked, moving her body discreetly closer into Elmshadow's flank until her fur brushed his. But as soon as she felt her pelt tingle with excitement, his body moved away from her. Her blue eyes darted questioning over to him but his green eyes stayed glued to the forest ahead of him, unreadable. Her blood boiled. This had Goldenstep written all over it, she had to be behind this, why else would Elmshadow just stop talking to her? What had she said to him? What had she done? She'd never liked her former mentor and then, once Cougarivy had truly realized her feelings for Elmshadow, Goldenstep had become entertaining competition. But now, Cougarivy felt cheated and cheating wasn't fun, she didn't take well to things that weren't fun.

She was pulled from her thoughts just as she was about to boil over by Pigeonpaw's voice. She turned, momentarily shocked as she'd more or less forgotten the apprentice was still with them. She regained her composure and sniffed the air, sure enough the scent of the thrush had grown stronger. She smiled, her recent anger forgotten, and purred, "That's a good observation. Can you tell what direction the scent is coming from now?"

[Toodle]

Pigeonpaw lifted her chin slightly at Cougarivy's praise. She quickly turned her attention back to the scent of the mouse she'd stuck onto. She parted her maw and brought the scent in over her tongue. Slowly, she turned her head and started to notice a very slight difference in the strength of the scent in one direction compared to the others. She focused in on the direction the scent was the strongest and glanced towards her mentor.
@Ravensong

[Pitou]

@Toodle

**Cougarivy, Elmshadow**

Pigeonpaw took a couple heartbeats but ultimately seemed to hone in on the correct direction of the thrush. Cougarivy nodded then flicked her tail to motion for Pigeonpaw to take the first attempt. As far as she knew, the apprentice didn't have any training with hunting but she was curious to test her natural instincts.

Elmshadow saw Cougarivy give Pigeonpaw the go ahead so he turned silently and stalked around the opposite direction of where he judged the thrush to be. If Pigeonpaw made an attempt and missed, he'd be ready to finish it should it try to take flight away from Pigeonpaw's attack.