@Beaan
Dawnstar fights off a yawn while her pelt twitches from the temperature change. It's a far colder outsider than it had been inside her den. She listened to Cloverpaw's paw steps as she trailed behind the leader. Once deep enough in the territory, Dawnstar sits down and raises a whiskered brow at the demand to be taught. It was hard getting used to this former blabber mouth speaking so little. She couldn't say she wanted the old furball back, but it wouldn't hurt if he talked a bit more and formed actual sentences.

"I can't teach you anything until you find me something to teach with. Go fetch me something furry to instruct you with." Dawnstar meowed, nudging her chin towards the trees. "Don't stray from my sight, I don't need you carried off by some bird again."

@Beaan - Cloverpaw

Dawnstar's ears went back against her head again when she heard Cloverpaw still didn't know how to hunt! Seriously, she wasn't training the furball if he didn't know how to hunt first. There was no point in it. Hunting was a primary skill that needed to be learned within the clan, flaying was an extra. Did he not learn anything from their last failed lesson?

The leader's tail lashed viciously back and forth as she shot an irritated glare at that apprentice. Her annoyance grew as she watched him attempt to hunt and make mistake after mistake. She's never seen a cat trip over their tail when hunting. This was proving to be a very frustrating show. Her stealth didn't seem to be that bad, but his hunting crouch was atrocious. Each failure was another lost prey that could have filled a clanmate's belly.

By the time the apprentice finally caught something, Dawnstar's lips were curled and her fangs were peeking out. A loud growl rumbled from the back of her throat sounding like thunder rolling through the sky. "Even though you caught something with such sloppy movements, do you know how many mouths could have been fed with what you lost." This wouldn't have been as big an issue if it wasn't so cold out. Prey couldn't be wasted in leafbare.

"You could have waited for me to instruct you instead of going off on your own. You also should have told me you couldn't hunt before asking to learn how to flay. If you can't hunt then you should not be learning something as advanced as how to skin prey you can't even catch." Perhaps she was being too harsh on the apprentice, but she had rubbed the clan leader's fur wrong.

"Hunting is not a game, Cloverpaw, especially during leafbare when every piece of prey counts. I should have you go without prey for two days for your stupid antics." She took in a deep breath and released it in a loud huff. She reaches out a massive paw and digs her equally as large claws into the tail of the squirrel he caught. It would do but Dawnstar would fix his mistakes first.

"We're working on hunting first." She orders after calming down a bit. "You have excellent stealth, your ability to blend into the shadows is impressive. We need to fix your hunting crouch and your tail. I've never seen a cat trip over their tail when hunting before. When you drop into a crouch you want to set all your weight on your haunces, this way, your paws have no impact on the forest floor. Your tail needs to be lifted out of your way, but not high enough that you attract attention to it or it's brushing your surroundings, keeping it stiff and straight behind your works. You need to make sure that your front paws are even and don't put too much weight on one side or the other otherwise your crouch becomes lopsided and your leap is off. And put more strength in your hindlegs if your leap comes up short when pouncing."

Dawnstar grabbed the squirrel Cloverpaw had caught in her maw and padded several tail lengths away from the cat. She dropped the deceased prey in front of her and sat a few whiskers lengths behind it. "Try dropping into a hunting crouch and pouncing on the squirrel. If you fall short or bump into me instead of landing squarely on the squirrel, we're doing it again."

@Beaan - Cloverpaw
Apprentices these days show so little respect for important matters like hunting. It was hard not to feel like her words were going in one ear and out the other when Cloverpaw simply sat there and stared at her blankly. It was like she was talking to a wall. You know what she didn't care so long as he put in the work to hunt properly. They'd have problems if she heard any more about her scaring prey off when hunting.

Her eyes followed Cloverpaw as they did as intrusted and performed a far better crouch and pounce than when they first started. "Yes, much better. When you hunt from now on remember what you're taught. You'll be in trouble if I hear you're chasing prey off." She warned and then padded over to the lousy squirrel they had caught.

"Come here," She urged the apprentice with a quick ear twitch. "Hopefully you didn't damage or rupture any organs inside." Dawnstar nudged the squirrel towards Cloverpaw. "I'm going to explain how to skin and you're going to do it." She told him.

[TW: semi-detailed gore explanation]

"Lay the squirrel down on its belly, and use whichever forepaw you're most comfortable or dominant with to cut. The other forepaw will hold the squirrel still by holding the legs or tail firmly. Unsheath one claw and make an incision along the spine, from the shoulders to the hips. The cut only needs to be skin deep, so very lightly, any deeper and you'll hit some organs and that will cause... problems."

@Beaan - Cloverpaw
She observed as the apprentice followed her instructions, flaying took great patience and good paw control. One wrong nick and you could ruin the entire thing. She was very pleased to see that Cloverpaw didn't cause any issues, Dawnstar wondered if she would still be able to do this so carefully if her grief hadn't drastically changed her personality.

"Next is peeling off the pelt and detaching the extra limbs from the fur. Start slowly peeling from the back, if you notice the skin catching you'll want to gently wiggle your claw between the flesh and pelt and it free. Cut the hip joint, detach the hindleg bones, and snip the tail with your claws or fangs. From there you can pull the skin down to the forelegs, make a cut at the shoulders, remove the forelegs from the body like you did the hindlegs, and pull the skin past the neck towards the head slowly, you don't want to tear it. Depending on how good you are with your claws, you can cut the ears, eyes, and nose off the body, or forgo it and carefully pull the pelt off without doing it. And there's your pelt." She finished.