A smile beamed from her as Hawkybites gave her a nod. Sure, he didn't compliment her performance, but... it was fine! He gave that nod and it meant she had done well ok!! Still though, she paid close attention to the advice he gave a few of the others, before aiming one last swipe against her tree, claws slashing over the bark. Then Hawkybites called for them again and she trotted back.
Ok so aim swipes on weak points, especially the face if the whole thing counted as a weak point. But what to do it someone aimed at her weak points? "I mean, get out of the way, right?" Yep, dodging (which was a fancier way of saying it but she had still be right ok!). She copied the crouch that Hawky was demonstrating, moving around a bit and repeating the movement until he called for their attention again.
Yeah the rolling seemed more difficult. Like, she had rolled around a bunch as a kit in the nursery, but not like battle-style rolling where you were supposed to immediately get but up again and fight and stuff. She lowered herself to the ground and rolled over. Not like it was hard, but she was still slow and getting down and rising up prolly took too long for a fast-paced fight. She tried a few more times, aiming to get the motion just right so that she could just jump back up right away, and maybe be able to roll right away without needing to lie down. Yeah! If she started the movement right off the bat instead of waiting to get down and all of that, she could drop low, and roll, and then push off the ground as soon as her paws were on the ground again, it wouldn't take as long! Like it was actually starting to feel smooth after a few tries.
Now to combining them! It wasn't too difficult once she got the general hang of the moves separately, and then it was just about getting the momentum just right.
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Open, I don't mind her interacting with other paws I just didn't have the braincells rn to respond to anyone in particular lol
It seemed the slashes across the tree were acceptable enough for the enforcer commander not to criticize her attempts too much - yet. He passed by, giving instructions and amending failures, she kept an ear out, listening to it all until he moved on to the next topic. Ankles. Flank. Shoulders. Ears. Face. ...Throat. The weak points of the body, the ones she had to aim for in battle. She had to memorise it, know, remember it and know to aim these places even when blinded. She couldn't fail.
Hawkbite moved on, posing a question to the group - some spoke out before her, however, and as Sleepypaw shared their answer she bothered not speaking, only giving a subtle nod as though agreeing to what seemed to be the right answer. And important lesson to cover indeed, she would require this knowledge in any future battles.
Carefully vibrant eyes studied Hawkbite's swift ducking movement, one that shan't be too difficult to cover - or so she hoped. Trying it felt odd, imagining a cat, an opponent, charging at her, ready to slash their claws across her face. The mere thought brought and indescribable rush through her veins, and swiftly, (with perhaps light hop in her movement), Sleepypaw swiftly switched from her standing position to low crouch, head out of the way and close to the ground, and sudden though perking up in her mind that this would be an opportune moment to slam into the top of an opponent's head if they were tricked into ducking this way.
Next came a hop, but most importantly, a roll. She briefly mimicked the hop, just to get the movement down, a hop out of the way but the most important was the roll. Having carefully watched the commander's movements, Sleepypaw let herself (albeit a little awkwardly, perhaps, she felt a little awkward) drop to the ground, careful to tuck in her paws and tail, using the momentum to roll away in what was... A rather uncomfortable manner and, truthfully, she found she could use more speed, especially when she finally found her footing again and slightly stumbled upon initially standing back up. Her first attempt lacked in grace, so to say, but the apprentice couldn't give up. She tried several more times despite the sting in her shoulders from all the dropping and rolling, but paying off in a more meticulous manner as her footing became all the more easy to find and practice allowed for an increase in speed, even if she wasn't where she wanted to be just yet.
Lastly came a combination of two, and frankly, she might prefer this one than the previous one. Ducking allowed her body to take less brunt when dropping to roll away, and she felt as though she had more strength in kicking off towards the side to accelerate her roll, using what was left of her strength to push herself back up several lengths further. She huffed, ducking and rolling to practice this move over and over again until the movement became like second nature, when vibrant eyes took notice of Rainpaw - one of her sisters - seemingly looking around; did she need something?
〚~Willow'Paw~〛
| 9 Moons | ShadowClan Apprentice | Female, She/Her | Purrks:
Kitty Soft Paws, Heightened Perception [smell]
[a small, fluffy tortoiseshell she-cat with pale green eyes and an atrociously fluffy tail]
Well, she wasn't a complete fail in how-2-murdr-some1 class.
Oh well would look at that, yippee
She was literally bursting with joy.
Willowpaw tried again, by that, she tried swiping again, and had to double try not going "screams and ah i dun't wana kill anyone :3 pwease let me goba ack and snooze pwease" but with a little more anguish and agony than necessary. Her claws dug into the bark, but it was almost identical to what she'd done before. Exaggerate her movements? Err, so. Exactly how does one do that? Her first thought was too try to stand on her hind legs to put more weight on her swing. Willowpaw reared up, feeling a quarter larger than her actual size. She stood straight for a moment. It felt wrong being this tall. Like the universe was going: ah ah ah, somethin's wrong 'ere. She scanned the tree bark in front of her for a brief moment, and then lost her balance. She was rapidly approaching the ground! AHH. SCREAM. THE BOAT IS TIPPING OVER. *SCREAMS*. It would be about 500% FULLY embarrassing if she toppled over in the middle of a battle lesson when she was fighting a TREE. 'No, universe. This time I go ah ah ah' She forced herself forward towards the tree, she hadn't gotten too far into the falling career. In fact, she was now into the "falling into trees" path. She felt her snooter bonk into rough bark, and she held back a cry of pain. Ok well this couldn't be for nothing, could it? She dug her claws into the tree, but unintentionally tore her muzzle down the tree along with her spikey-paw-adornments. She was then a puddle of feline at the bottom of a tree. Uh, hey universe could we rewind a bit-- "Ah ah ah" the universe responded smugly.
It thankfully didn't hurt too much, only got sore. Of course being sore was not appreciated and kinda sucked being honest. Willowpaw got up, but halfway to great amazing standing up, she remembered that the tree still apparently had her claws hostage. Her first thought was too brute force them until they were free, but only a few picoseconds, they went full Yoshi's Flower Garden style SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAereeeoa with pain. Why must the world be this way? And then she had a flashback from approximately twenty seconds ago. She should guide her claws out the way the came, and wow omg they wouldn't go SCREEEEEEEEE-. So Willowpaw did that, and temporarily felt like the stars had blessed her claws from pity. Wait pity? Did that mean she wasn't doing good at how-2-murdr-some1 class? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Her claws only gave a small spark of protest as she trailed back where both of her front claws had followed down. It was fairly hard, and the groove in the wood was surprisingly long due to her going zoooing style attempting transformation into a Twoleg ('Oh how well that went.'). When she was almost at the top of the lengthy claw-mark, she was trying to balance on her back paws once again, but this time without her front paw able to catch her. And then, finally, she was FREE FROM HER TORMENT! Womp womp. Now, back to the tree who would probably flex its epic battle scars to the others tree and they all go WooOOwwwoowowoww where'd u get taht one from? and trying to properly scratch it. This time, she only used one paw. Willowpaw put as much strength as she could in the swing, using her other paws to support it. She shut her eyes a moment before the swipe landed, worried how horribly she might fail this time, or if she'd accidentally trip and be sent to another dimension or something of the like. But nothing terrifying for how she looked socially (She guessed Willowpaw looked fairly clinically insane, stupid, full of herself, gluttonous and uncontributing and mentally deranged, along with just about every other negative adjective known to cat at the current moment), her claws only grazed through the bark. She felt her hopes spike. She wasn't completely let down by her inferior skills, as only a small groove was left by her claws. SCREEEEEE- She could've sworn she did it right that time! Where did the bark flying everywhere go??
She sighed. That'd have to do.
Because Hawkbite was moving on to dodging.
Weak points alright alright. Flank ear ankle etc etc. And- OH MA GAWD. One would most likely be like: uuuggh i wanna fight booo hiss we don' wanna dodge. But Willowpaw was feeling like jumping with joy. Yay!!! This was more like how-2-not-get-murdr class!..........uhm..........could you say that again?.................what? Ducking? Like, the bird? What did that have to do with fighting? Willowpaw turned around in circles, turning her back to Hawkbite as she checked behind the tree she'd used for training. Maybe Hawkbite saw a duck and got..... really excited? She glanced up, squinting as hard as she could up into the canopy. Rolling, mhm, mhm. She was still too busy glancing up in the tree, that she completely missed Hawkbite demonstrating both the moves. Surely there must've been something with that duck too make Hawkbite mention it aloud? Maybe it was a really weird color? Did ducks have symbolism to the Enforcer Comander? She was deep in thought. And then it hit her and she almost gasped audibly. It must be a code! Of course! Hawkbite was done demonstrating the ducking and rolling by the time her attention was turned back to him. Everyone else began rolling on the ground, but nobody was really doing what the code clearly meant. But she couldn't disobey the code. It must be followed at all costs, like the rules StarClan laid down for them but stricter and only decipherable by a few individuals. But if she proved herself to be one of those select code reading few, she would have to have her position in the clan secured. She would complete her apprenticeship in this one lesson. Everyone would praise her. She wouldn't have to worry about failing everyone every second of the day.
And so, she did what nobody had been able to do for years.
"QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!" She yowled at top volume, dropping down onto the grass and rolling around like her back was on fire and as if her life depended on it. "QUAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCK!!" Her voice rang out, loud enough to possibly scare all the prey from here to the Seastones. A grin filled her face, but she quickly beat it back down into the soulless stare that was necessary for the ceremony to complete. The corners of her mouth wrinkled with the effort of trying not to smile. 'Finally. I proved myself. I don't have to worry about being bad at stuff anymore'"QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACKITY QUAAAAAAAAACK!" Maybe.. Maybe even DAWNSTAR would approve of her! She could just imagine the menacing leader giving her her approval. Normally, that would've sounded like a fever dream. But now, it felt as if she could reach forward and trail her paws along the future.
Phase 2 of the ceremony commenced. Now she was allowed to smile and grin and do whatever with her mouth, but she wasn't allowed to blink and she had to keep rolling. Her maw was stretched wide in a large grin. Soon she could move onto phase 3, but she needed approval to reach it.
And there was only one other duck-coder in the clearing with her.
"HAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWKKBIIIII ITTTTTEEEEE!!!!! I NEED YOUR APPPPPPPPPPPROOOOOOVAL!" She shrieked until her voice cracked at the end.
Her bright future was ahead of her.
And her warrior name would be: Duck'Willow
But she really couldn't understand why Hawkbite wasn't called Duck'Hawk?
huh
that sure was weird
[ @SuspiciousMindz - Hawkbite! | @/other-apprentices - Apprentices at training // I figure they'd, you know, hear the probably deranged psycho rolling on the ground shouting about a random bird? ]
[ i had a thrill writing this >:3 also imagine being hawkbite rn wheeze]
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"We cannot change our destiny. We just have to have the courage to know what it is, and accept it."
Birdpaw
ShadowClan
she/her | 7 moons | 17/100
[Blue-grey tabby with dark blue overcoat, white underside and amber eyes] Purrks: Lyrebird's Lullaby [PERMANENTLY ACTIVE]
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Birdpaw listened eagerly as Hawkbite gave her some pointers. Oooooo yes okay, this movement felt much better! Birdpaw quietly tried a few times while Hawkbite went around to the other apprentices, practicing with both her left and right paws.
New lesson!! Birdpaw sat on her haunches and listened to Hawkbite describe the next move. Dodging, rolling, and a combination of both. Birdpaw studied his movements, though most of it went over her head. She tried focusing harder, but that made it impossible to listen to him! Birdpaw began to mimic his movements on her own before he was fully done speaking; the act of following his movements helped cement the ideas into her brain. Large amber eyes watched with unblinking focus as Hawkbite moved, the apprentice following his moves very slowly.
Once they were sent on their own, Birdpaw tried to complete the moves in haste, but found practicing without a target to focus on was difficult. Returning to her tree, Birdpaw pretended it was a giant warrior bearing out on her. She leapt out of the way as its huge (invisible) paw came crashing down, the ground trembling with its force. Another invisible paw swept at her from the side, and Birdpaw threw herself to the ground, kicking her back legs up and burying her head in her front paws so she rolled to the side, paw just barely missing her. The roll was sloppy, but she continued to try it until she could land on her paws whenever she sprung up. Ha! Take that, tree monster! Nothing could get her!!
Gracklepaw grinned at Hawkbite's praise. It was just a simple good job, yet it meant the world to him that an Enforcer would say that to him.
As Hawkbite made his way back to the center to give more advice and teach them more moves, Gracklepaw listened intently. Weak points. Now he really needed to pay attention. This would be important for both attacking and defending. If he knew where he weak points were he could be strategic with his attacks. He'd know exactly where his opponent would aim, and they'd predict where he would aim too. He'd have to be smart with his attacks.
As Hawkbite spoke and demonstrated the different dodging moves (dodging moves? is that what they're called?) Grackle would mimick him an in attempt to get them right. Ducking was probably the easiest, all you had to do was crouch down quickly. So he ducked a few times as he listened, since it wouldn't distract him from Hawkbite's instructions. Then Hawkbite moved onto rolling - which would be a little more complicated to do, considering he'd need more space and would probably get unfocused.
As they were given some time to practice, he did a few more ducks for good measure. This time he found a bush to duck under. By the time he was finished he was feeling a little sore, especially since he was practicing quickly, trying to replicate a real battle as much as possible. In a real fight he'd barely have time to think - he'd have to move on instinct, and dodge quickly to avoid the blown.
Then he moved onto rolling next. First he mimicked the way that Hawkbite hopped to the side, but that was too simple and didn't require much practice, so he moved onto rolling. He never thought that rolling could be used in battle before; The times Gracklepaw remembered rolling were usually in a pile of hay or catnip or something of the like. He practiced rolling a few times, rolling out of the way of some invisible warrior, and once he'd gotten the hang of it he'd moved on.
Next he began to do a combined version of the two, ducking then rolling away. He crouched down, repeating the familiar action, and then rolling to his side. It felt weird, so continually practiced. Practice makes perfect after all. He just couldn't wait to show off to Magpiepaw and dodge whenever she swatted at him.
. . .
i forgot about this - sorry for late late reply!!
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quick reminder that my characters do not represent my own thoughts and feelings! your characters are all absolute joys to read and roleplay with!
Bearsnout is a RiverClan Lionheart! If you need him, mention me! He is always open to doing any training with apprentices!
Hawk's reply is coming out soon, if you haven't replied already, please do! Especially if you took part in the raid! Without this completion, your character WILL be punished IC!
If you have replied to the recent defense post, disregard!
It seemed the slashes across the tree were acceptable enough for the enforcer commander not to criticize her attempts too much - yet. He passed by, giving instructions and amending failures, she kept an ear out, listening to it all until he moved on to the next topic. Ankles. Flank. Shoulders. Ears. Face. ...Throat. The weak points of the body, the ones she had to aim for in battle. She had to memorise it, know, remember it and know to aim these places even when blinded. She couldn't fail.
Hawkbite moved on, posing a question to the group - some spoke out before her, however, and as Sleepypaw shared their answer she bothered not speaking, only giving a subtle nod as though agreeing to what seemed to be the right answer. And important lesson to cover indeed, she would require this knowledge in any future battles.
Carefully vibrant eyes studied Hawkbite's swift ducking movement, one that shan't be too difficult to cover - or so she hoped. Trying it felt odd, imagining a cat, an opponent, charging at her, ready to slash their claws across her face. The mere thought brought and indescribable rush through her veins, and swiftly, (with perhaps light hop in her movement), Sleepypaw swiftly switched from her standing position to low crouch, head out of the way and close to the ground, and sudden though perking up in her mind that this would be an opportune moment to slam into the top of an opponent's head if they were tricked into ducking this way.
Next came a hop, but most importantly, a roll. She briefly mimicked the hop, just to get the movement down, a hop out of the way but the most important was the roll. Having carefully watched the commander's movements, Sleepypaw let herself (albeit a little awkwardly, perhaps, she felt a little awkward) drop to the ground, careful to tuck in her paws and tail, using the momentum to roll away in what was... A rather uncomfortable manner and, truthfully, she found she could use more speed, especially when she finally found her footing again and slightly stumbled upon initially standing back up. Her first attempt lacked in grace, so to say, but the apprentice couldn't give up. She tried several more times despite the sting in her shoulders from all the dropping and rolling, but paying off in a more meticulous manner as her footing became all the more easy to find and practice allowed for an increase in speed, even if she wasn't where she wanted to be just yet.
Lastly came a combination of two, and frankly, she might prefer this one than the previous one. Ducking allowed her body to take less brunt when dropping to roll away, and she felt as though she had more strength in kicking off towards the side to accelerate her roll, using what was left of her strength to push herself back up several lengths further. She huffed, ducking and rolling to practice this move over and over again until the movement became like second nature, when vibrant eyes took notice of Rainpaw - one of her sisters - seemingly looking around; did she need something?
Oohhh boy. Sleepypaw made eye contact. A mistake if she didn't want to be pestered by Rainpaw, herself! The black and white she-cat offered Sleepypaw a grin then bounded up to her. "Wanna practice!?" Rainpaw chirped, crouching down in her best battle pose. "I'll swipe first! You dodge!" the apprentice didn't give her sister any time to properly accept or decline before she'd gotten her paw aimed and ready to swing.
That was, until the noise from another apprentice caught her attention. Rainpaw flinched a little, turning to look at Willowpaw with a curious, but concerned glance. The screeching and the hollering made her fur stand on end. Was anyone else hearing this?! Was Willowpaw okay!? Should she go check on her?? Rainpaw's blue eyes darted from Sleepypaw to Willowpaw then back to Sleepypaw, wondering if her sister was seeing this too. First, the quacking, next the screaming for approval. "Is... is this normal?" She'd whisper in Sleepypaw's direction, keeping one eye on Willowpaw in case she came running at them with her crazy moves. Rainpaw was worried she'd have to demonstrate these new battle moves on her fellow clanmate.
Re: Battle Basics [Open to ShC]
