Stagheart looked confused for a moment as Willowtail paused, but then saw her padding over to the medicine den. He smirked a bit to himself, knowing the fresh warrior was going to get last-minute support from her sisters. He padded behind, taking a brief seat behind them.
At Willowtail's call, Berrypaw popped her head out, giving her adoptive sister a beaming smile. "Oh! Willowtail! Today's your a-assessment, right?" She glanced behind her into the darkness of the sheltered medicine den. "Daisykit! C'mon 'n wish your sister luck! I-It's a big day today."
To Willowtail, Berry brushed by her flank in support. "You're gonna do great! I know it," she purred.
[ sorry for the delay!! i had to run like 2 events LOL ]
(Daisykit throw back )
Willowtail purred gently, licking Berrypaw's shoulder in gratitude and affection, she noticed little Daisykit wobble over, Willowtail tried hard not to wince as she saw the small, adorable kit coming towards her in a limp. Willowtail lowered her muzzle to Daisykit could bump her head against her muzzle, rubbing against her and purring brightly. "Good luck big sissy! Your gonna be soooooo cool when your a warrior! And, and then you can teach me how to be one!" Daisykit exclaimed, her tail quivering in excitement. Willowtail purred gently to her little sister, "Thanks Daisy, I'll surely bring you back some skills. If he lets me pass." Willowtail purred, glancing teasingly at Stagheart. Willowtail licked Daisykit's ears gently, pressing her muzzle against Berrypaw's ear gently. "Thank you" she whispered to Berrypaw, the thanks wasn't just for the good lucks. Willowtail's thank you was deep, she was thanking her for taking her and her little sister in, being there when she needed her most, taking care of Daisykit regardless of how tricky her condition was. Everything was lifted off into that thank you. Willowtail gave a gentle purr to the both of them and then turned to Stagheart with a gentle mew, "Lets get going shall we?"
__________________
Oceanstar is the leader of Beachclan, he has a semi-open den policy. <33 Mention me where ever just Vm me first Willowtail of Riverclan is Tier 3 Beefed Up and Agatha Kitty ! Both active<3 Blackberry is Moonclan's Medicine cat! He has a open den policy!! Softdove and Crowsong and the med cats of Treeclan and Fogclan, they have open den policies!
"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever" - Park Seonghwa @/Beanz is haunting my profile :sniffles"
lio lurked here, hope dropped a bundle of chocolates here
Rose littered this profile with flowers
]@/Beanz@/mars@/Merp Machine@/CrimsionOaks@/WCUEhoneyfur@/Hollyheartofthunder@/MaplestrikeWCUE@/constellation@/Snowyfeathr@/KestrelPaw@/Eucalyptuspaw @/rubberRatroom - "It's so preppy in here
Willowtail purred gently, licking Berrypaw's shoulder in gratitude and affection, she noticed little Daisykit wobble over, Willowtail tried hard not to wince as she saw the small, adorable kit coming towards her in a limp. Willowtail lowered her muzzle to Daisykit could bump her head against her muzzle, rubbing against her and purring brightly. "Good luck big sissy! Your gonna be soooooo cool when your a warrior! And, and then you can teach me how to be one!" Daisykit exclaimed, her tail quivering in excitement. Willowtail purred gently to her little sister, "Thanks Daisy, I'll surely bring you back some skills. If he lets me pass." Willowtail purred, glancing teasingly at Stagheart. Willowtail licked Daisykit's ears gently, pressing her muzzle against Berrypaw's ear gently. "Thank you" she whispered to Berrypaw, the thanks wasn't just for the good lucks. Willowtail's thank you was deep, she was thanking her for taking her and her little sister in, being there when she needed her most, taking care of Daisykit regardless of how tricky her condition was. Everything was lifted off into that thank you. Willowtail gave a gentle purr to the both of them and then turned to Stagheart with a gentle mew, "Lets get going shall we?"
[ sorry this took so long xD i tried to finish it yesterday then fell asleep LOL ]
Stagheart chuckled when Willowtail mentioned if he'd 'let her pass', thinking of how confident he was in her skills. He had no doubt his apprentice would do amazing, showing her growth and all that she'd learned and endured thus far.
Berrypaw heard the depth of Willowtail's thank you, and judging by the warmth and affection in the warrior's blue eyes, she knew it was for a whole lost of things. Things she'd felt for herself; a mutual kinship and appreciation, a familial bond that had formed between them especially during RiverClan's hardship. With a purr, Berry dipped her head, eyes glinting in fondness as she watched the two walk away with a soft smile on her maw. She gave Daisykit a flick of her tail, standing beside the fragile kit as Willowtail turned back to Stagheart.
The battle-hardened tom grinned a bit when Willowtail turned to him, ready to leave. He didn't get excited over much, but warrior assessments tended to make his blood burn with a certain adrenaline. Even if he wasn't the one being assessed (and the time he was had been many moons ago now), knowing he was now going to see the culmination of all of his efforts coalescing into one last show was rather daunting and engaging for a devoted mentor.
"Yeah... let's go," he agreed, nodding his head and heading off into the mountains with her. As they got further and further from camp, the older warrior eventually stopped at the foot of a waterfall that ran off into the forest below; at this point in the rocky slope, a widening pool and stream settled from the waterfall, with a few glittering fish visible in the clear waters. He sniffed the air for a moment to make sure any predators (or other interrupting cats) weren't present before turning to Willowtail.
"Warrior assessments test ya on everything you've learned, 'n everything it'll take to be a real warrior of RiverClan." His voice grew firm as he began explaining the severity of the assessment, holding the statutes of Clan life near and dear to his heart. "You've trained well, fought hard, 'n been through a lot... I know you'll get through it. It's just time to show me you actually listened to all my dronin'," he added with an amused glint in his piercing blue eyes.
Stagheart glanced towards the sky, clear and blue, the midst of greenleaf heat reaching them even on this tall mountain slope. Inhaling the fresh air, he let out a long sigh, mulling over a few options.
"We'll test ya on fishin', land huntin', battle trainin', 'n swimmin'." At the last one, he studied her for a moment, recalling the few times she'd attempted to learn to swim with him. He'd known she'd gotten help from elsewhere, but just prayed it would've paid off for today's test. Then he jerked his muzzle towards the small body of water beside them.
"There's some fishin' there... I'll stand back 'n let ya do your thing. Why dontcha get started?"
With that he slipped behind her and more out of view, not wanting Willowtail to focus on him nor his reactions — not that his stoic front would betray much. And thus, the assessment began.
__________________
*despite everything, it's still you.
Berryshine is RiverClan's medicine cat!
she and Cobwebfern have a semi-closed den policy.
[ sorry this took so long xD i tried to finish it yesterday then fell asleep LOL ]
Stagheart chuckled when Willowtail mentioned if he'd 'let her pass', thinking of how confident he was in her skills. He had no doubt his apprentice would do amazing, showing her growth and all that she'd learned and endured thus far.
Berrypaw heard the depth of Willowtail's thank you, and judging by the warmth and affection in the warrior's blue eyes, she knew it was for a whole lost of things. Things she'd felt for herself; a mutual kinship and appreciation, a familial bond that had formed between them especially during RiverClan's hardship. With a purr, Berry dipped her head, eyes glinting in fondness as she watched the two walk away with a soft smile on her maw. She gave Daisykit a flick of her tail, standing beside the fragile kit as Willowtail turned back to Stagheart.
The battle-hardened tom grinned a bit when Willowtail turned to him, ready to leave. He didn't get excited over much, but warrior assessments tended to make his blood burn with a certain adrenaline. Even if he wasn't the one being assessed (and the time he was had been many moons ago now), knowing he was now going to see the culmination of all of his efforts coalescing into one last show was rather daunting and engaging for a devoted mentor.
"Yeah... let's go," he agreed, nodding his head and heading off into the mountains with her. As they got further and further from camp, the older warrior eventually stopped at the foot of a waterfall that ran off into the forest below; at this point in the rocky slope, a widening pool and stream settled from the waterfall, with a few glittering fish visible in the clear waters. He sniffed the air for a moment to make sure any predators (or other interrupting cats) weren't present before turning to Willowtail.
"Warrior assessments test ya on everything you've learned, 'n everything it'll take to be a real warrior of RiverClan." His voice grew firm as he began explaining the severity of the assessment, holding the statutes of Clan life near and dear to his heart. "You've trained well, fought hard, 'n been through a lot... I know you'll get through it. It's just time to show me you actually listened to all my dronin'," he added with an amused glint in his piercing blue eyes.
Stagheart glanced towards the sky, clear and blue, the midst of greenleaf heat reaching them even on this tall mountain slope. Inhaling the fresh air, he let out a long sigh, mulling over a few options.
"We'll test ya on fishin', land huntin', battle trainin', 'n swimmin'." At the last one, he studied her for a moment, recalling the few times she'd attempted to learn to swim with him. He'd known she'd gotten help from elsewhere, but just prayed it would've paid off for today's test. Then he jerked his muzzle towards the small body of water beside them.
"There's some fishin' there... I'll stand back 'n let ya do your thing. Why dontcha get started?"
With that he slipped behind her and more out of view, not wanting Willowtail to focus on him nor his reactions — not that his stoic front would betray much. And thus, the assessment began.
(Sobs /silly it's okkkk, good job lol. my turn for a long post hehe)
Willowtail waved a final goodbye to her dear sisters, following Stagheart they reached an intresting looking waterfall...ish spot. It was pretty..and...... pretty loud. Willowtail heard what they were doing from her mentor, "fishing....landing hunting, battle training, and swimming...." Swimming. Gosh, Willowtail had been getting help, half from Stagheart and some from Duskleaf as they'd formed a good friendship, as well as some good advice from Dusklion whom she'd earned the nickname, "Tails" from. Willowtail closed her eyes and thought, murmuring to herself once Stagheart disappeared, "Start with land hunting..... then go into swimming.... then while you fish let your fur dry... then battle training." she murmured. Wondering if she would pass, or If her little..... schedule of practices would be good enough.
Willowtail set off, her paws lightly touching the ground as she scented the air, her long tail reaching way up above her, suddenly freezing her round blue eyes narrowed into slits of coal, and concentration. Willowtail walked forward a few, cautious and deathly quiet steps. There it was, a plump water vole that was nibbling on..... Starclans knows what water voles ate. Willowtail twitched her whiskers at her own thought and stalked forward each grey paw touching the ground lightly, her ginger stripes rippiling along her pelt as she watched the water vole, Willowtail noticed It was in a bed of those annoyingly crunchy leaves, so climbing onto a tree trunk, she seemed to disappear even from Staghearts sight (Agatha Kitty :3 ). Suddenly leaping out from a completely different tree and catching the plump water vole between her paws, biting down on it's spine. Willowtail purred at her catch as she placed it down to scent for anything else. Confusion spread across her face, an alive water vole.....? But didn't she just kill it?? Looking down to her prey and then looking around, Willowtail realized she'd made a dumb mistake, of course there could be more Water voles! Willowtail covered her water vole in leaves as she crouched, stalking forward, there must be a nest with how many water voles were confidently roaming around with or without cat scent.
Willowtail's eyes narrowed once more as she stalked, oh ho! Look at that! Two water voles for the price of one! Hah! This'll be easy. Willowtail flexed her usually fur hidden muscles for a moment, due to her little body and lots of movement, she had some pretty impressive muscles for a she-cat, Daisykit had noticed them and always raved about how she wanted big muscles to. Willowtail flicked her ears, letting the thoughts flood away as she watched the Water voles, leaping forward, Willowtail purposly landed on her stomach, by doing this she got winded but ignored it and grabbed one vole with her forepaws, biting it's neck and dragging the vole from underneath her with her now open paws to bite it's neck as well. Sitting up to catch her breath, Willowtail padded back to her other vole, uncovering it she brought it to the shore side, creating a small hole and placing them inside she buried them.
Willowtail stared at the water, she assumed she would just have to swim back and forth a few times...... maybe swim up stream and down stream to make her strength in the water known and trust worthy. Willowtail inhaled, her tail waving anxiously behind her as she dipped a paw into the water, oh good. This part was shallow, stepping in with a little bit of confidence, Willowtail gulped, she'd always had this funny little side step she did when she entered the water, doing her side-step the water easily reached her belly fur, Willowtail waded in carefully, not going sideways anymore as she gently felt the water lifting her, swim swim swim swim swim SWIM!!!!!!!!! You can SWIM Willowtail! You've done it before you can do it now!! If you don't swim you'll fail! You won't be a warrior like Brightnight wants you to be! Willowtail lifted her muzzle gently, pushing off as she evenly and strongly swam to the other side, deciding to test herself she walked a bit down stream,entering the water there she swam upwards and then straight back to the other bank..... once again testing herself she walked up wards on the bank, leapt in from there and came out..... with a fish? It was a small carp but she'd managed to land on a fish, she'd gripped it with her claws and brought it back, she even seems surprised with herself as she snapped it's spine in her jaws and placed it beside her buried vole pile.
Fishing had started she supposed, Willowtail figured sense she'd found the fish so easily uptop, that's were she'd start. Sure enough there seemed to be a few fish who'd returned to the spot, Willowtail took a few steps back to shake out her short fur, it would dry fast in the gentle breeze. Willowtail used the advantage of her long tail for balance as she leaned over the water, keeping one paw up and her shadow off of the water, Willowtail spotted a fish close and kept her gaze locked on it, snatching her paws down she flung one fish onto the bank, accidently yanking out a minnow with it which hit her in the face and caused Willowtail to fall backwards. Thumping on the ground gently, Willowtail sat up and hissed at the fish. "Dang it leave me alone! You....you... fish!" Willowtail meowed, slapping the fish with a paw and putting it into the pile along with the carp she'd found. Perhaps one more fish and she'd...... no! Her big fish slipped back into the water! Willowtail realized as she scooted back to the water's edge. "My fish....." she pouted.
Narrowing her eyes she tried a bit farther down the bank, perhaps another big fish would be down there? No.... only tiny fish.... but whatever feeds the, OH MY STARCLAN THAT FISH IS PERFECT! Willowtail's eyes widened as she ran towards the middle uper part of the bank.... this would be a hard catch as Willowtail had to either jump in the water or be in the water.. and Willowtail would rather stay out of the water as much as possible.... so jumping it was. Willowtail sighed gently, she crept to the edge of the water to asses her jump... it wasn't to far.... oh! There's a better was to jump, Willowtail ran her paws down the sides of the short bank, dipping them into the water as she used her hind paws to grip the edge, pushing off with her forepaws then her hind paws sent her a bit farther than a normal jump would've, she landed just short of the fish! Dang it! Willowtail wanted.... no needed to catch this fish! It was huge!... in a good way! Willowtail swam after the fish, as her paws hit a rock on the floor she leapt over the water, her eyes lighting up in excitment and fear as she landed in the water, swimming down to where she'd seen the fish swim into last second, she swam down and wrenched her paws in.... she had to get this fish! Willowtail was still under water as she grabbed the fishes gills with her paws, leaning down to grab it's spine in her jaws and bite down hard, being under water her lungs started to burn. Finally! The small snap was heard, Willowtail brought her head back up to surface, a massive fish in her jaws. Well.... had she overcome her fear of drowning for a fish..... yeah. Was it worth it.. hell yeah!
Willowtail swam back to shore with the fish in her jaws, she crawled back onto shore and collapsed, heaving for breath with a proud twitch of her whiskers. Willowtail kept laying as she assumed Stagheart would come to check on her, Willowtail shook out her fur and sat up, catching the final bits of her breath as she called out. "Stag-" She coughed, intterupting herself which was a bit annoying to the she-cat. "Stagheart! I did...... I think everything besides fight training!" She called, laughing gently to herself as she kept trying to catch her breath.
__________________
Oceanstar is the leader of Beachclan, he has a semi-open den policy. <33 Mention me where ever just Vm me first Willowtail of Riverclan is Tier 3 Beefed Up and Agatha Kitty ! Both active<3 Blackberry is Moonclan's Medicine cat! He has a open den policy!! Softdove and Crowsong and the med cats of Treeclan and Fogclan, they have open den policies!
"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever" - Park Seonghwa @/Beanz is haunting my profile :sniffles"
lio lurked here, hope dropped a bundle of chocolates here
Rose littered this profile with flowers
]@/Beanz@/mars@/Merp Machine@/CrimsionOaks@/WCUEhoneyfur@/Hollyheartofthunder@/MaplestrikeWCUE@/constellation@/Snowyfeathr@/KestrelPaw@/Eucalyptuspaw @/rubberRatroom - "It's so preppy in here
(Sobs /silly it's okkkk, good job lol. my turn for a long post hehe)
Willowtail waved a final goodbye to her dear sisters, following Stagheart they reached an intresting looking waterfall...ish spot. It was pretty..and...... pretty loud. Willowtail heard what they were doing from her mentor, "fishing....landing hunting, battle training, and swimming...." Swimming. Gosh, Willowtail had been getting help, half from Stagheart and some from Duskleaf as they'd formed a good friendship, as well as some good advice from Dusklion whom she'd earned the nickname, "Tails" from. Willowtail closed her eyes and thought, murmuring to herself once Stagheart disappeared, "Start with land hunting..... then go into swimming.... then while you fish let your fur dry... then battle training." she murmured. Wondering if she would pass, or If her little..... schedule of practices would be good enough.
Willowtail set off, her paws lightly touching the ground as she scented the air, her long tail reaching way up above her, suddenly freezing her round blue eyes narrowed into slits of coal, and concentration. Willowtail walked forward a few, cautious and deathly quiet steps. There it was, a plump water vole that was nibbling on..... Starclans knows what water voles ate. Willowtail twitched her whiskers at her own thought and stalked forward each grey paw touching the ground lightly, her ginger stripes rippiling along her pelt as she watched the water vole, Willowtail noticed It was in a bed of those annoyingly crunchy leaves, so climbing onto a tree trunk, she seemed to disappear even from Staghearts sight (Agatha Kitty :3 ). Suddenly leaping out from a completely different tree and catching the plump water vole between her paws, biting down on it's spine. Willowtail purred at her catch as she placed it down to scent for anything else. Confusion spread across her face, an alive water vole.....? But didn't she just kill it?? Looking down to her prey and then looking around, Willowtail realized she'd made a dumb mistake, of course there could be more Water voles! Willowtail covered her water vole in leaves as she crouched, stalking forward, there must be a nest with how many water voles were confidently roaming around with or without cat scent.
Willowtail's eyes narrowed once more as she stalked, oh ho! Look at that! Two water voles for the price of one! Hah! This'll be easy. Willowtail flexed her usually fur hidden muscles for a moment, due to her little body and lots of movement, she had some pretty impressive muscles for a she-cat, Daisykit had noticed them and always raved about how she wanted big muscles to. Willowtail flicked her ears, letting the thoughts flood away as she watched the Water voles, leaping forward, Willowtail purposly landed on her stomach, by doing this she got winded but ignored it and grabbed one vole with her forepaws, biting it's neck and dragging the vole from underneath her with her now open paws to bite it's neck as well. Sitting up to catch her breath, Willowtail padded back to her other vole, uncovering it she brought it to the shore side, creating a small hole and placing them inside she buried them.
Willowtail stared at the water, she assumed she would just have to swim back and forth a few times...... maybe swim up stream and down stream to make her strength in the water known and trust worthy. Willowtail inhaled, her tail waving anxiously behind her as she dipped a paw into the water, oh good. This part was shallow, stepping in with a little bit of confidence, Willowtail gulped, she'd always had this funny little side step she did when she entered the water, doing her side-step the water easily reached her belly fur, Willowtail waded in carefully, not going sideways anymore as she gently felt the water lifting her, swim swim swim swim swim SWIM!!!!!!!!! You can SWIM Willowtail! You've done it before you can do it now!! If you don't swim you'll fail! You won't be a warrior like Brightnight wants you to be! Willowtail lifted her muzzle gently, pushing off as she evenly and strongly swam to the other side, deciding to test herself she walked a bit down stream,entering the water there she swam upwards and then straight back to the other bank..... once again testing herself she walked up wards on the bank, leapt in from there and came out..... with a fish? It was a small carp but she'd managed to land on a fish, she'd gripped it with her claws and brought it back, she even seems surprised with herself as she snapped it's spine in her jaws and placed it beside her buried vole pile.
Fishing had started she supposed, Willowtail figured sense she'd found the fish so easily uptop, that's were she'd start. Sure enough there seemed to be a few fish who'd returned to the spot, Willowtail took a few steps back to shake out her short fur, it would dry fast in the gentle breeze. Willowtail used the advantage of her long tail for balance as she leaned over the water, keeping one paw up and her shadow off of the water, Willowtail spotted a fish close and kept her gaze locked on it, snatching her paws down she flung one fish onto the bank, accidently yanking out a minnow with it which hit her in the face and caused Willowtail to fall backwards. Thumping on the ground gently, Willowtail sat up and hissed at the fish. "Dang it leave me alone! You....you... fish!" Willowtail meowed, slapping the fish with a paw and putting it into the pile along with the carp she'd found. Perhaps one more fish and she'd...... no! Her big fish slipped back into the water! Willowtail realized as she scooted back to the water's edge. "My fish....." she pouted.
Narrowing her eyes she tried a bit farther down the bank, perhaps another big fish would be down there? No.... only tiny fish.... but whatever feeds the, OH MY STARCLAN THAT FISH IS PERFECT! Willowtail's eyes widened as she ran towards the middle uper part of the bank.... this would be a hard catch as Willowtail had to either jump in the water or be in the water.. and Willowtail would rather stay out of the water as much as possible.... so jumping it was. Willowtail sighed gently, she crept to the edge of the water to asses her jump... it wasn't to far.... oh! There's a better was to jump, Willowtail ran her paws down the sides of the short bank, dipping them into the water as she used her hind paws to grip the edge, pushing off with her forepaws then her hind paws sent her a bit farther than a normal jump would've, she landed just short of the fish! Dang it! Willowtail wanted.... no needed to catch this fish! It was huge!... in a good way! Willowtail swam after the fish, as her paws hit a rock on the floor she leapt over the water, her eyes lighting up in excitment and fear as she landed in the water, swimming down to where she'd seen the fish swim into last second, she swam down and wrenched her paws in.... she had to get this fish! Willowtail was still under water as she grabbed the fishes gills with her paws, leaning down to grab it's spine in her jaws and bite down hard, being under water her lungs started to burn. Finally! The small snap was heard, Willowtail brought her head back up to surface, a massive fish in her jaws. Well.... had she overcome her fear of drowning for a fish..... yeah. Was it worth it.. hell yeah!
Willowtail swam back to shore with the fish in her jaws, she crawled back onto shore and collapsed, heaving for breath with a proud twitch of her whiskers. Willowtail kept laying as she assumed Stagheart would come to check on her, Willowtail shook out her fur and sat up, catching the final bits of her breath as she called out. "Stag-" She coughed, intterupting herself which was a bit annoying to the she-cat. "Stagheart! I did...... I think everything besides fight training!" She called, laughing gently to herself as she kept trying to catch her breath.
[ big post incoming hehe ]
Stagheart had been silently following Willowtail, keeping to the shadows and watching his former apprentice's every move. The water vole luck and her little trick with the tree had honestly baffled the tom, despite his gruff hesitance to admit it. And the way she'd pulled that little stunt... he chuckled lowly to himself at a decibel only he could hear, whiskers twitching in pride. Yeah, the kid had been good at hunting, he'd figured that out pretty quick. So he wasn't surprised when she easily aced that part of the assessment.
He'd been holding his breath for the water, picking up on her slight hesitance and that funny little side-step she'd adopted anytime she'd enter the water... and to his pleasant surprise, she managed to take off after that through the water. Despite the little twitches of her body language that had initially conveyed discomfort, Stagheart found himself following the long-tailed she-cat just out of sight, proudly noting her even and strong strides. Thank the stars, she'd finally learned to do it... her confidence could use some work, but that would be something she'd get over time. As long as she was able to swim as well as that little display, she passed for sure.
Not to mention that Willowtail came up with a fish on her last little push up the stream, and he almost scoffed to himself in amusement at the events that followed. He had to bite back a genuine laugh (a rare feat for the tom) when he watched a small minnow, of all things, be the catalyst for her to stumble back and let her bigger fish wriggle back into the safety of the waters. It was a bit of a clumsy moment, but at the same time, it'd been because she'd hooked two fish, so... he supposed he could look past it for the unlucky luck. Besides, the new warrior hadn't let it stop her, immediately going with determination for the next water prey, which was the true heart of a warrior in Stagheart's mind.
Adding onto the heart of a warrior, Stagheart couldn't help the sharp inhale of surprise and instinctive concern that rattled him when he watched Willowtail suddenly dive into the depths, raging for some fish she'd seen. Immediately his muscles had tensed, nearing the water's edge, getting ready to jump on in there himself; he could still remember all those moons ago, when she'd slipping right past him and gone tumbling down the river, nearly drowning. It would've been his fault, he would've blamed himself forever...
...But thankfully, he'd had enough faith in her to wait, and it'd paid off. Willowtail soon reappeared with a rather impressive catch in her jaws. His fur lay flat again as an involuntarily sigh of relief left the battle-scarred tom, padding up to meet the exhausted but triumphant she-cat. At her call, he let out a low chuckle, padding up to hover over her as she sprawled out.
"That... was really somethin', kid," he purred, unable to hide the pride and pleasant surprise in his stark blue gaze that gave more depth to his words. "You 'bout scared me half to death, disappearin' under the water like that, but look at ya... you know just what yer doin'," he mused, prodding the bigger fish with his large paw, a smirk on his maw.
"Really, though... you did amazin'. Huntin' was near perfect — darn impressive, I'd say," he added with a glint flashing in his eye. "'Specially with that little stunt ya did with the trees and the flop to get the vole. And swimmin'... you looked strong 'n confident while you were in the water. Your initial confidence could use some work, as I could see a bit of hesitation... but it weren't enough to stop ya. Honestly, workin' through that showed more promise than anythin' else... though you swam just fine, too."
He paused, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, before smirking again. "And fishin'... heh, that clumsy moment with the minnow makin' ya lose the other fish sure was a sight," he teased gently, flicking his tail as he spoke, knowing she could take it. "But ya recovered, 'n got an even better catch. Your technique was fine, just... make sure ya look out for the other critters in the water before ya go lashing into it, yeah? Try 'n fish too quickly without lookin' near somewhere like Lionsbeach, 'n you're bound to get a pincher or urchin on ya..."
Stagheart's tone was lighthearted as he cocked his head, humming in thought, continuing his report. "Mmm, 'n like I said, that last display... you did real good, kid. Even better than I coulda hoped." The words were genuine, the pride leaking through even despite his usual gruff tones. Besides, Willowtail could read him well enough by now, he reckoned.
Hoping his spiel allowed her time to catch her breath, the large tom then scooted back to allow a few tail-lengths between them, slowly lowering himself into a battle-ready form. That small smirk on Stagheart's maw was still there as his whiskers twitched.
"Now... last part of your assessment. Then maybe I'll let ya pass," he mused with a hint of a tease in his tone, referring to her words from earlier to Daisykit and Berrypaw.
"Come on at me — claws sheathed, of course, 'n don't make me hafta go to Berrypaw. But don't hold back. When yer ready... lemme see what you've learned."
He silently wondered what her approach might be, remembering her previous strategies since he was the larger, stronger opponent (and far more experienced). However, Willowtail was fast and quick on her paws, and quite creative when it came to decisions and strategies in the moment. He had no doubt that she'd surprise him. Keeping himself firm but loose enough to move in the blink of an eye, Stagheart's eyes narrowed into focus, tail lashing as he analyzed Willowtail. He had easily melted into the look of an experienced, battle-hardened warrior the moment he switched gears; this would be his favorite part. Sparring often was.
And he had a feeling his former apprentice would pleasantly surprise him, as she always had.
__________________
*despite everything, it's still you.
Berryshine is RiverClan's medicine cat!
she and Cobwebfern have a semi-closed den policy.
Re: Willowpaw's Training! [p]
i had to run like 2 events LOL ]
Berryshine is RiverClan's medicine cat! 
]