Wolfhive leaned in close and flicked his paw to bap Alpinepaw's muzzle. He noticed the stare, didn't understand it, but wasn't otherwise bothered. He chalked it up to her being a lil weirdo. "Well, today we're gonna fix that! Willow's Rise is a decent spot to hunt, so why don't you show me your best hunting crouch?"
Kestrelpaw was all too smug to be out on an outing with her singular parent. She had a stupidly big grin on her face, all but skipping alongside Mountaintalon. Lost in her own thoughts, her own world where her father was the sun she orbited around. To be the one her dad picked for an outing (there was only her and Warblerpaw anyway, but still!) was awesome!
Wait wait wait. . . Rewind. Her dad was apologizing? To her? For what? Obviously Mountaintalon had no faults whatsoever. "That's okay!" She responded cheerily, over the moon to be spending time at all with her father. Oooh, climbing. "No, I haven't done climbing yet. I'm done with everything else though!" Was she boasting? Yes. Looking for praise? Yes. Did she realize it? Pshaw, don't make her laugh, but yes.
Of course she would wave him off easily. If Mountaintalon knew only one thing about his daughter, it was that she was too quick to forgive. Too kind. In most cases, he would find a reason to scoff at it, but here, it made things much easier for him. They were more susceptible to molding if they never pushed back.
He made a humming sound in the back of his throat. "So you're nearing your ceremony? That's more than I can say for the rest of your siblings. The others have apparently found better things to do, and Warblerpaw..." Mountaintalon was more frustrated with Warblerpaw than the ones who vanished, to be honest. If his children were to stick around, he expected them to act like warriors. Kestrelpaw was doing it. It wasn't difficult.
He side-stepped the graves and approached a tree toward the edge of the clearing. "Keep your eyes on me," he rumbled. "I'm going to show you, and you're going to copy me."
He reached up, hooked long claws into the oak, and hauled himself up to a low-hanging, sturdy branch. With a critical expression, he looked down at Kestrelpaw. "Your turn. To the branch above me."
Alpinepaw blinked and recoiled into a sapling. The sapling broke in half, and she squealed like a scared kit. Alpinepaw stopped and took several deep breaths before proceeding to crouch.
Her belly was somewhat above the ground and her tail low to it. Alpinepaw's right forepaw was farther away than her left one. The end of her tail was slightly up. It was not often she would practice this.
Re: Willow's Rise
