Morning Oranges [P]

[Dolomedes]

Morningpaw
He/him | TC apprentice | Moons: 6 | No purrks

“Well it didn’t so don’t get your fur in a twist! I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t have stayed if it were dangerous! Stars you would think I’m a kit fresh brought into life.” Morningpaw growled out and then pushed past the warrior after picking up his mouse again. What would he do with it while he hunts for more? He could surely hold more prey in his mouth. Annoying, he could just hide it somewhere or something right? Not like he was going to ask Orange Guy.

He threw the mouse down a little more harshly than necessary and shoved it under some bush next to him and made a note of which one it was. Ugh. Onto square one then. How to find prey that he needed. He almost turned around and asked Orange Guy before catching himself and instead huffing into the open air in front of him. If Orange Guy was good at his job then he would know what Morningpaw has been having trouble with. Yes, this was a test for Orange Guy’s being above the bare minimum for a teacher, not because Morningpaw is embarrassed and stubborn.

[ @/Dolomedes - Orangeblossom ]

[Dolomedes]

Orangeblossom
| He/him | TC warrior | Moons: 20 | No purrks |

The warrior stared in disbelieve as the apprentice wandered on by with more hissed words. This one was worse than his siblings but he knew there was probably a reason. After all there was probably a reason why he hasn’t seen this kid around camp at all in a couple moons. Though he assumed that was because of he wasn’t necessarily paying attention to the bi-colored apprentice. The warrior padded after the apprentice to make sure he didn’t lose him again. Morningpaw hid the mouse, before stopping and not moving. Just twitching and ear and his tail every moment or so.

[again, also my character but uhhh power play perms here for @/dolomedes]

Orangeblossom blinked and his previous concern and irritation fizzled away with confusion. What was wrong? “You alright? Why’d you stop?” The warrior was now went from confused to more concerned than ever. Was Morningpaw now feeling an injury or something and the pain got to him!? The warrior didn’t jump forward to inspect the bi-colored apprentice because that went so swimmingly last time. “Are you hurt?!”

[ @/Dolomedes - Morningpaw ]

[Dolomedes]

Morningpaw
He/him | TC apprentice | Moons: 6 | No purrks

Morningpaw didn’t roll his eyes but he certainly wanted to. “No. I’m fine. I’m just having trouble actually finding prey to hunt. Tracking skills are also pretty important, yeah?” Morningpaw couldn’t help the bit of defensive snark that made it into his tone of voice. This whole thing was starting to get more messy than the apprentice appreciated. It was supposed to be straight forward and quick. Learn how to hunt, hunt, then get back to camp and sleep. Ugh, the apprentice yawned while he waited for this warrior to realize his blunder. After all how can you hunt without finding the thing to hunt in the first place. That was pretty simple and common sense type thing.

Morningpaw turned and stared straight at the warrior. "So...? This is where you know, you teach me like you said you would. Unless I need to endanger myself more to do exactly as you asked again." The apprentice snarked with a smug little smirk on his muzzle. Ugh. This was so exhausting.

[ @/Dolomedes - Orangeblossom ]

[Dolomedes]

Orangeblossom
| He/him | TC warrior | Moons: 20 | No purrks |

Orangeblossom guessed that it was better than if he was hurt and just realizing it but Morningpaw was more annoying than any apprentice he has dealt with before. Pinepaw and Berrypaw had nothing on him, which wasn't necessarily good in this specific way. The warrior only sighed a small bit before padding up to the apprentice's side again and launching into an explanation of tracking and finding prey, which admittedly he should've mentioned before letting Morningpaw loose on the forest. Well you live and you learn. With Morningpaw you learn fast. "Well, I realized I forgot to explain that, but with the season I didn't think it would be a huge deal and was going to wait after you tried your paw at hunting some more but....well anyways! Point it tracking and generally finding prey during Greenleaf is pretty easy. You use all of your senses for finding prey!

Sight: It's the most obvious one, if you spot prey well then you found prey. But you can also look for signs of prey as well. Such as oddly moving shrubbery, or tracks in the dirt, or droppings. Those can clue you in on what's in the area and roughly if they are recent especially when paired with scent.

Scent: With scent, you can usually smell out trails, especially in wooded areas such as Thunderclan's territories. Prey scent holds longer here than it would...say the moor, because the trees prevent as much of a breeze, but also you won't be finding any super old trails. It's a good sweet spot. Usually the wind's direction will help you figure out where scents are coming from, if downwind then your prey is ahead, and if upwind, you probably won't scent it as well but it's behind you. Scent trails can also be found along the shrubbery but that's less useful, harder to fully tack based on them, at least in my experience.

Sound: Usually the less likely of the bunch. You can sometimes catch the sound of skuttling and skittering, sometimes munching, and wings and feathers fluttering. All of the -ings. These are usually very obvious and mean you are super close to the prey! You usually are already clued in to prey before you hear them. Though there are also other things you can use sound for like mouse burrowing! I'll explain mouse burrowing later. But yeah! Tracking! Any questions?" The warrior finished the long winded explanation and smiled at the apprentice as he awaited for any questions about the mass of information. That was probably a bit of a lot to throw at him all at once but Morningpaw was sassy but smart, Orangeblossom didn't think he'll have any troubles.

[ @/Dolomedes - Morningpaw ]

[Dolomedes]

Morningpaw
He/him | TC apprentice | Moons: 6 | No purrks

Morningpaw nodded his head a bit as he listened to the warrior rattle off about tracking and this was mostly straight forward. All of it made sense and seemed easy enough to replicate, perhaps Morningpaw was just so caught up in his own mind and being annoyed he didn't just think about the common sense technicalities and rather just his annoyance. Well, it would do him well to actual think for a few moments in the future then. "Thanks." The apprentice spoke shortly and after sparring a small glance towards Orange Guy, took off with the new knowledge. Ready to catch some more prey for his clan. Some that didn't require diving down a hole.

The bi-colored apprentice padded away and then after enough tail lengths, he lifted his muzzle up into the air, trying to catch anything on the breeze and determine which way it was coming from. Hmm.... oh wait!! There! He recognized this scent as a crow! It was one of his favorites off of the prey pi;e though it smelt much stronger and alive than it did on the prey pile. Makes sense. The apprentice trembled a bit in excitement, finding the prey was the easier part in green leaf though so he needed to focus and actually catch the crow before allowing any sense of pride into his mind.

The apprentice crouched down as he had practiced earlier and began to stalk forward towards the scent, he was downwind from it. It was super strong so surely the bird was just right up the way? At least that's what it felt like but what did Morningpaw know? Not nearly as much as he should, that's how much. Green eyes narrowed and he blinked before opening his muzzle again to re-scent the air. Yep, still up ahead. Ears swiveled a bit and he could now hear the slight tippy tappies of taloned feet on a log. Alright, just breath Morningpaw, don't screw this up! The apprentice paused as he started to feel like he was just going to scare it away if he got any closer and peered through the underbrush to try and determine where the crow was.

Up ahead, the black feathers broke out among the browns and greens of the forest. That's his target! The apprentice grinned and made a few, much slower and more calculated pawsteps forward. Then he shifted into pouncing position and leapt forward! The bird startled with a cry and it's feathers ruffled as it tried to take to the skies to escape the apprentice. Morningpaw though managed to scrape its wings and so it didn't get off a ground for a moment longer. It flapped its wings, and Morningpaw barely managed to readjust from his miss enough to batter his paws up to slap it down. When the crow hit the ground, Morningpaw was on it in a flash, delivering a death bite.

The apprentice lifted up with the still crow in his mouth. HAH! He did it!

[ @/Dolomedes - Orangeblossom ]

[Dolomedes]

Orangeblossom
| He/him | TC warrior | Moons: 20 | No purrks |

Once he had received the rest of Orangeblossom's guidance for hunting and tracking, Morningpaw set right off into the forest to try again at hunting. As much of a sass, that Morningpaw was at times he was dedicated it seemed to training at least. Orangeblossom gave a slight smile despite himself and set off after Morningpaw from a distance away. Planning to watch over him again and this time he wouldn't lose track of the apprentice down a rabbit hole like. Never again, his poor heart. It wouldn't do to go in to see Springlight after a heart stop. Scary things, those are, and he isn't even a medicine cat. Though he wonders what causes them? Just fright? The warrior didn't really care and rather focused in on what was ahead of him as the sounds of squawking and fluttering wings caught his attention.

Oh look at that! Morningpaw caught a crow! Nicely done, especially for his second prey, birds can be tricky for most hehe. The ginger padded up after the kill was secured and looked over the catch and the apprentice who seemed very pleased with himself which was nice! He certainly picked up the lesson very easily. "Good job! How about we collect that mouse of yours and then head back for the day?" The warrior asked and then waited for the apprentice to do so before leading them back to camp for the evening.

[ @/Dolomedes - Morningpaw ]