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Originally Posted by Rani

Mudhound
Thunderclan Hornet | They/them | 35 Moons
Bilingual T2 | Flock Together T3 | Rapid Recovery | Beefed up T3

To be fair to Daylightpaw prey would totally be fooled by the level of sneaky they'd displayed. Buuuuuut Mudhound was a cat so her out of place fur stood out amongst the brown and green, though she'd probably be a successful winter hunter that coloring was close enough to blend with snow.

"Daylightpaw by the bush! Spotted you!"


She'd made it almost within pouncing distance, so pretty close despite the ultimate fail and the tripod remarked on that with a "Youre very good! Bad luck this time, maybe experiment with draping some ferns over your back to be hidden, this method will even work on other cats and like advanced prey or predators so give it a try~" Other then that little tip Daylightpaw was well into warrior skill levels with hunting so could easily tap Mudhound next try.






Ooooh they had a grumpy! And a sassy too! It was understandable, they supposed it was reasonable to be unhappy with the swap into the 'lame' group, but also booooo! Mudhound could be cool too!


And they'd show it by schooling this sassy little bit. See, Blazepaw was ginger, a pelt color that shone against the green grass. And he hadnt been listening about the idea of trying out camouflage.



"Oh Blaaaaazepaaaaaw! I see yooooooooou~ Good job using the the shadows but with your pelt youre gonna need extra help to hide from a keen eye'd prey. Like a crow or large bird, theyre smart and will peck you like hell if you mess it up.


Same advice that Daylightpaw got goes for you, try and use leaves or mud or ferns to dull that color and give it another try. And in case you think its too much effort when a squirrel is dumb enough to fall for a normal stalk this hiding method works on cats too! So if you wanna try and sneak up on an enemy warrior Im pretty sure the same ideas apply."


Was this how shadowclan cats snuck around? If it was this simple Mudhound kinda wondered why everyone wasnt sneaky, maybe they should poke Bumble-sis to start training their warriors to be stealthy and turn shadowclans own tricks against them. That was off subject though and Mudhound tagged on another option.


"If that doesnt work distraction works for both cats and prey! You can chuck a little rock away from you to get your target to look away if theyre already on alert and if you got some nuts or berries you can use them as bait and catch the prey while its distracted eating! Isnt that cool, give it a shot!"







That.... That wasnt the response Mudhound wanted or a good one really. The hornet sighed again, trying to soften their tone. "But we're fighting Cherrypaw, we're hunting. And Ive seen you freeze up like this when just listening to meetings and in camp. This isnt just being afraid of fighting, this is just holding you back from learning and growing. If youre this afraid of something like hunting I dunno how youre gonna do anything ever in the clan." And if Cherrypaw couldnt learn to overcome what was holding her back then Mudhound didnt think there was much of a place for her in the clan. Clan life was too cruel to shelter such fear and hesitation, it'd only get Cherrypaw killed.


"Listen just for now put aside your fear best you can. We're only learning to hunt so think back on the instructions I gave and give me your best shot at sneaking up on me like you'd stalk prey."
This was above the tripods skill level to deal with, they'd ask Dizzlecloud if there was something that could be done for Cherrypaw later and maybe ask around if someone could do remedial classes with her to catch her up to her peers. However that'd require Cherrypaw to try and step up too, so her fate was in her own paws. Mudhound had said their piece and now padded away to continue to let cats stalk them (Cherrypaw included).






Sprucepaw had taken the advice and it'd worked. With wild abandon actually.


Upon his pounce on his mentor Mudhound let out a shrill and shocked yelp, one that'd accompanied a rather spectacular leap as the bush attacked them! EVIL BUSH! THEY WERE SENTIENT NOW AND OUT FOR CAT BLOOD AND- Oh it was Sprucy. Panting hard for a couple of seconds the hornets eyes were wide before it melted into a beaming grin, tail starting to wag.


"WOW SPRUCEY!!! YOU MASTERED THAT SO FAST!" Their little guy was always a good hunter when the world wasnt out to get him but picking up on the advanced ideas was super impressive! "You'll get any prey with that!! I bet you could even out sneak a shadowclan cat!" huh that was a thought. This whole lesson was basically like teaching them to be sneaky but instead of using it on prey shadowclan used it on cats. ....If the advanced learners were smart and took the lessons to heart this could easily be repurposed to ambush tactics.


Slightly scary thought that but Mudhound quickly moved on patting Sprucepaw on the head before purring at him for job well done.





Poppypaw was too cute! With an involuntary coo Mudhound reared up and applauded before toppling over due to single back leg, smiling all the while. "That looks really good Poppypaw! Thats exactly how its done! You look at the core ideas of how its done and then tweak and practice until its all yours and works for you!" Which was how Mudhound did it, their own disability altering their methods. With a final happy grin the tripod left her to try out stalking, happily being the willing target of trail.


Which was needed as Poppypaw definitely had more effort to put into learning then others to master it. Not her fault and she was persistent so the hornet had faith she'd get it. So Mudhound just let Poppypaw keep trying and figure it out, occasionally piping up with little tips when they saw her. Mostly minor stuff like "Make sure to watch for sticks! Bushes are your best friend and you can hide behind most everything if you need a moment to breath between sneaking." however there was one she might especially useful. "Poppypaw yanno you dont have to stalk straight up to prey? If you wanna zig zag around from hiding spot it can even conceal that youre stalking too, play to your strengths kiddo!"

----

Most cats had given it a shot and gotten advice by now so Mudhound just piped up, announcing "Alright take in the lessons given and you got one more change to give catching me a shot before we're moving on to a quick pouncing lesson! Then we're gonna wrap up on prey types (like birds see and hear but not smell and rabbits hear really well but dont see and smell as well) and Ill throw in some special tricks thats kinda advanced hunting! And to you sulkers in the group, even if you know hunting already think of it this way, ambush attacks are just cat hunting instead of prey~



Dont discount the ideas!"

Cherrypaw nods. "Ok... I'll do my best to get behind this fear..." She stands firm, ready to overcome her fear.