weaselling your way to warriorhood {Private}

[Arie]

-- @Estelle --
{Will aim to keep the posts around this length, maybe a bit longer or a bit shorter, just so its easier for the both of us - won't want to rush it, but its also just nice to ya know, keep it moving?}

Weaselskip was up and early her tail twitching happily a bad habit the young warrior had. First real training session with Hailpaw. She was already a massive fan of the young cat and was excited to see where they would be going with their relationship as mentor and apprentice. Pacing around in the warrior turned around, waiting for her apprentice to show before remembering, SHE was the one calling the shots here, she was the one who got to wake up the apprentice on a daily basis early or late. Grinning mischievously she ran over to the apprentice den, grey fur and long legs flashing as she sped over there. "Hailpaw! Cute little thing! We're heading out to the moors! Hunting training for today!" She hoped her loud voice would reach the apprentice and then went back to her small jumps and hops in the clearing, her feeling of excitement still ever present in her blood. She was really going to enjoy this! Maybe she could teach Hailpaw how to swim too, would be something interesting the young apprentice could show her clanmates. Weasel herself had been taught by a Riverclanner after she had to deal with nearly drowning before hand. That had been an interesting experience... While contemplating all her ideas she hadn't realised that Hail had come out of the den and she brightened up. "You ready little thing?"

[Estelle]

( yup! Don't know of this is slightly long maybe- hope you don't mind if so, @Arie )

Hailpaw had been sleeping rather peacefully, curled up on herself in a nest somewhere to the middle of the apprentice den. It felt somewhat strange, not sharing a nest with her siblings and mother anymore, but at the same time pleasing. She finally wouldn't get accidentally pushed or slightly kicked whenever either was dreaming! Not that it often happened- but yknow. She did, however, have to admit that there was this one, or maybe a few, apprentances who seemed to be rather... loud sleepers.. but she'd just have to get used to it.
Either way, sleep had still come to her quickly and the young apprentice was quite comfortable until-- a loud voice resonated in the apprentice den. She grunted slightly, not wanting to wake up at first, but soon found herself lifting her tired gaze only to see Weaselskip pad away. Right. Training. The molly turned to give her long, slightly messy, silver fur a few in order for it to look more presentable and flat as it always did, then got to her paws and padded out of the apprentice den. Hopefully that call hand't woken up anyone else. Thinking of the call- Hailpaw got a small feeling of embarrassment as it finally hit her that Weasel called "cute little thing" to her, right where everyone could hear it. She didn't mind the nicknames, quite the opposite actually, and she had gotten called cute before, just never- never so loudly.. but anyway, Hail was somewhat glad that there didn't seem to be to many cats outside right now, or atleast not looking her way. Her fur wasn't exactly as neatly groomed as before, so maybe she'd have to try and wake up earlier in order to get the time to do so.
With those thoughts lingering, Hailpaw soon found herself next to her mentor "hi" she mew with a small smile, as the other seemed to be thinking. "yes" the apprentice answered, then followed Weaselskip into the territory. It was sooooo big, and she still found herself glancing to the sides as they walked, intrigued by what may be around them.

[Arie]

-- @Estelle --
{Its fine, I just don't want you to expect like 400-600 words from me lol, I might do, but please do not dare me... I cannot take it ahhahah}

Weaselskip took the lead, the new mentor acting like a damn kit herself. It was like she was the apprentice and Hailpaw the mentor and not the other way around. Tail twitching she sat down just outside of camp to tell her little thing a few basic things. "So there is a few things to know... Like clear up before we get started on our hunting patrol. Or hunting training as we're not exactly assigned out yet. But, here is camp as you know. Directly down that way, is our border with Riverclan. It is mainly a river and some cliffs that I would not recommend you go anywhere near alone, a warrior with you is the right approach to it. We're on quite good terms with Lionstar but I would not want to jump into the water to rescue you despite being able to swim... So please, Hail, if you want to keep me alive don't make me go swimming." She had to laugh a bit. Her swimming lessons were a fond memory of hers despite the pestering it had taken to even get the riverclanner to get them to teach her. "And down there," she pointed to their left, "in the far pine forests at the edge of the moors there is our border with Shadowclan... Would also not recommend going there... In truth just, don't go near the borders without another warrior alright?" She hoped the apprentice would actually be willing to listen to this. "And then between the two borders, just down a bit to the left, we've got Thunderclan's border... Where we could totally scare the living lights out of cats. They're not very observant those tree dwellers and that is the truth." With that now done and dusted she rose, shook her grey windswept fur and began walking down. "Let's head down and see what we can smell, what ya want to catch? Rabbits, hares, voles, lapwing?"

[Estelle]

(Don't worry, I don't go about and count the amount of words haha, just got those days where i'm feeling text-y and others where it's the opposite @Arie )

Hailpaw followed behind Weaselskip, only to find her mentor sitting down just outside of camp. So naturally she sat down next to her, offering a glance as the other started explaining. Her light blue haze followed in the said direction, to rest on the border with Riverclan. She was slightly surprised to hear that Weaselskip knew how to swim- as she hadn't expected for many WindClan cats to know so- but still gave a firm nod and figured it was rather useful her mentor knew how to.
Her gaze then switched to ShadowClan border- actually, wasn't half of WindClan in ShadowClan after the coyote attack? She had heard Icestar wasn't the friendliest of friendly.. or wait, wasn't it actually the deputy that brought them all there? She'd have to ask about it again to be sure. But either way, a nod still came with an "alright" wether she would really stay away from all borders without a warrior might only time know, but for now and the coming time she surely would.
And then came Thunderclan, where the other half of WindClan, including her, had stayed after the attack. In fact, it was while coming back from there that she had gotten lost for the first time- she still found it unbelievable that barely anyone had noticed that she was gone, or so she thought, and even less that noone seemed to have gone looking for her! She had been to the least that she got away with merely a muddy fur and a somewhat hungry stomach. But she was back now- so all was fine.
A light chuckle escaped her at Weaselskip's comment and the silver molly soon found herself back on her paws, following behind her just as before. "okay-.. lapwing perhaps?" she suggested at the question, Lapwing wasn't something she had gotten often, but knew it was rather tasty. As they were walking though, another question came to mind "since you know how to swim.., will you be teaching me hwo to too?" Hailpaw eventually asked, glancing to the older molly.

[Arie]

-- @Estelle --

Weaselskip was overjoyed by her apprentice's enthusiasm and flicked her tail happily as the apprentice mentioned lapwings. They were a nice treat to get every now and then, despite the fact that when she thought of birds it wasn't exactly...eating them, but rather a certain tiny cat resembling a bird. Shaking Moonbird away from her thoughts Weaselskip returned to her apprentice's last question. If Weasel would teach her how to swim... It was quite an interesting question, but then again she had let it slip off her tongue by mistake. "I am not sure. I don't think I technically could qualify as a swimming teacher, but if you're willing to go into the cold water yourself I am not opposed to trying to teach you, although that'll be when we know your hunting skills are on par." With that she headed further out, slowly increasing her pace from a steady walk to a steady run, feeling the steady ground underneath her paws and letting out a small comfortable sigh. She liked running, despite the long legs, too long legs she felt, often got in her way. She may be a mentor but she was also still young, barely more than 3 seasons out of apprentice hood herself. But then they approached the opening, flat moorlands to the west of the territories more towards the edges. This was where there usually was lapwings to be found. And she was right. There were lapwings. Gesturing to Hailpaw she began explaining the process. "So first, we'll need to settle down into a crouch, like this," she demonstrated it by sitting down on her haunches, her chest open and front paws light. "Since its birds they're gonna flee towards the sky so we need all the leg strength to jump up after them. Running these down is hard. So the idea is to jump up, using your hindlegs," she pointed towards her own tense hindlegs, "and then use your front paws or your mouth to bite or grab it and drag it down with you." She reached for an imaginary bird with her paws. "That is the most reliable strategy to go for it. Got it?"

[Estelle]

"alright" Hailpaw nodded. Jumping into cold water... didn't seem pleasing- mostly the cold part- yet it would be useful to know how to swim, although seen the words Weaselskip used, maybe she should re-consider it-- either way, like mentioned by the other, she should concentrate on her hunting for now. Swimming could come later, though preferably not in leaf-bare, that would be much and much to cold. The young apprentice couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at the thought of anyone that might be crazy enough to jump in cold water during leaf-bare, if the water wouldn't be frozen that is, she faintly remembered hearing some warriors speak about something like that.
Just as she did, Hailpaw noticed Weaselskip's pace quicken until it reaching a run. In order to not fall behind, she did so as well. With her shorter legs and, well, smaller height, her run was slower than her, or she'd have to quicken her own pace to stay at about the same tempo; but despite that, the molly still enjoyed the run.. It was something she didn't regularly do, or got to do, yet now found herself enjoying the feeling of the soft breeze brush past her long fur. It felt- free, strangely enough. Eventually her run slowly came to a walk, which ended in stopping completely, her light blue gaze switching over to Weasel who started explaining.
Her eyes found themselves observing the position of the crouch, the leg placement, how the front paws seemed nearly weightless as they got lifted to sky, while the back legs made a jump. Still staying quiet, she nodded along the process. This couldn't be to hard, right? "i think so," There was a short second of contemplation before dropping into a not so good crouch herself "so first a crouch- and then we jump" Hailpaw continued as she went over the steps. Naturally they weren't executed so greatly- to the contrairy actually- but in all honesty she had partly done so just to go over the steps to help her memorise them.

@Arie

[Arie]

-- @Estelle --

Weaselskip nodded at that. The apprentice lacked a lot in shape, technique, strength, well basically everything but she had the energy and the capacity and willingness to learn and improve and that was what mattered mainly to the blue ticked molly. The muscles and technique would develop with time as Hailpaw gained more strength from training. And well, if she was willing to train it would just go even faster. Inspecting the little apprentice's crouch, the molly nodded approvingly. "Doing good there little thing." Nudging her hind legs, Weaselskip began correcting her. "You need to tense your hindlegs more. I know you ain't got much muscle in there but we're jumping up high for the birds as they'll be fleeing. By sitting up straighter you'll be jumping up and not flat, giving you a better chance to catch lapwings but not other birds. Lapwings go high up, instead of low and fast." With that said she moved towards the grass and nodded. "Let's see you attempt it. I'll be here and will probably be able to catch it if you fail, but practice is the only way to learn. By failing you can realize your mistakes and thereby react to them and try to see where the problems lie." Pointing with her tail towards the open moor she said her last few words before letting the apprentice loose. "Gotta get as close to the bird as possible and then jump. I believe in you Hail, now do me proud."

[Estelle]

Hailpaw adjusted her hind legs, trying to tense them up more just as she was told. It became pretty obvious now that these things were much harder than she anticipated, meaning that she would have to train more as well. The young molly nodded slowly as she got out of the crouch and turned to Weaselskip "okay" she mew, glancing to the said direction. If she had to be honest, Hail was a little.. nervous to try maybe? She just didn't like failing, and defenitely not within the pressence of others, but what her mentor said did make sence. If she did fail, she could learn from her mistakes; yet that didn't the fact that she didn't want to.
With a last steady nod, Hailpaw looked over the moor until she saw what appeared to be a lapwing. It was fluttering around, then came to stand on the ground, clearly not yet having noticed the felines' pressence. The young apprentice kept her eyes on the little thing as she carefully approached it- birds always seemed to fly away so very quickly, so she figured that trying to sneak up to the lapwing would be her best shot. She was pretty light on paws, and light in general actually, so it allowed her to walk with quiet steps that wouldn't scare away the thing in first instance. Hail approached and approached, eventually lowering as to try to get less noticed- but when the bird suddenly seemed to want to fly away, Hailpaw dropped into the crouch and quickly jumped after it, quite spectacularly failing to catch the lapwing bird. She wasn't sure if the bird flew away because it had noticed her or because it just simply wanted to, well, go away. But either way, Hailpaw wasn't really happy about having missed it and potentially having disappointed Weaselskip, and so she turned to face the other, wondering if Weaselskip had really caught the bird just as she had said she might.

@Arie

[Arie]

-- @Estelle --

Weaselskip had pondered off into the grass and had made her way just to the edge as she watched Hailpaw jump up and sadly fail to catch the bird... But then again, there was a reason she was there. Waving her tail hastily she hoped the apprentice would watch how you did it properly, but she assumed that Hailpaw's failure was more to lack of proper muscle building rather than the technique as the apprentice just seemed to... not react fast enough. Which would all be built up with more technique. But as the bird flopped over head Weasel tensed her hindlegs and jumped up after it, managing just barely to stretch out her front paws in time and catching the wings. Landing back down, she took the lapwing in her jaws and headed over towards Hailpaw, dropping the bird. "You did good little Hail. As I said, don't be ashamed of your failure. I think the issue was that you lacked in reaction time, which will come as you get better and better at hunting. I'm proud of you for even getting this close. Your technique was on point." She curled her tail around Hailpaw and then leaned down and gave her a short comforting lick. She knew how it was all to well to fail in a hunt, but pushing and training was what had made her a great hunter despite not exactly being a great fighter. "You'll learn. And thats what matters."

[Estelle]

Hailpaw had turned around just in time to see Weaselskip jump up and catch the bird that nearly escaped. It looked so much easier when she did it- but that was probably the amount of experience the other may have when it came to hunting. Her thoughts faintly trailed of but were very quickly brought back as she was told that she did.. good? The young apprentice was surprised to hear so, to say the least. She had failed to catch the bird, so how could she have done good? Even if Weasel said not to- she still felt somewhat ashamed for her failure. If the technique was good, shouldn't she have been able to catch it? Or well-perhaps not if the reaction time was.. to slow. Which seemed to have happened according to the other. Either way, Hailpaw gave small nods as her mentor spoke, Notting that reaction time would be something she'd have to work on.
What Hailpaw didn't expect, was for a tail to be curled around her followed by a lick. She wasn't really.. used to comforting. In fact, she could barely remembered last time she got genuinely comforted or anything even close to it- but that didn't matter, there was no use thinking about it now. Light blue eyes got lifted to look back at Weasel as the molly pulled up a small smile "right" she mew, giving again a small nod followed by a pause before she continued "is there are specific way I could improve my reaction time?" if there would, it'd certainly be useful.

@Arie