Softpaw's Training [P]

[Fits]

Heroneye
| she/her | RiverClan | Warrior |

Heroneye nodded in approval. She appreciated Softpaw’s willingness to take a slower approach for the sake of a better outcome; she had to imagine that most apprentices would have wanted to jump right in to hunting, whether they felt confident in doing so yet or not.

“Alright. We’ll practice some pouncing first. As for your paws, in theory, a cat with smaller paws would have a harder time retrieving fish from the water than one with larger paws, but I don’t think it’s anything to be especially concerned about. You’ll just need to be a bit more exact than the average cat is all,” Heroneye explained, her gaze flicking to the younger cat’s paws.

“For pouncing, you’ll want to be as close as possible to the prey without alerting it. They’re quite alert, so that will generally bring you to about as far as you can jump. And it’s important to do it in a single jump; every second spent rushing at the prey is a second it has to react and get away.” Heroneye turned her head, flicking her tail at a small, gray rock on the ground nearby. It wasn’t anything special, but it stuck out well enough.

“If that rock were a piece of prey, I’d start by stalking toward it.” By this point, Heroneye had actually managed to find a sort of teaching rhythm. Maybe this wouldn’t be a total disaster after all? In any case, she never even reflected on how strange she must seem, stalking after a rock like it’s a mouse or something. “Once I’m close enough, I get ready, and--” Heroneye lowered herself, eyes locked on the prey-rock, and surged towards it, trying to demonstrate how one should reach the prey in a single bound. “At this point, you’ll have to kill it. It’s generally preferable to do so by snapping its neck with your paws; most cats prefer their prey without any cat already having bitten into it.”

“If you’re ready,” Heroneye said, backing away from the prey/rock, “try it yourself. Once you’ve got that down, we’ll give real prey a try.”

( @SeonghwaBerry )