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Boring, boring, BORIIIIING. That's how it felt staying in camp. She hadn't been out since her last patrol, and it was eating away at her. She needed to get out! And! She needed to learn! As did her littermates - she could see Coldpaw in the clearing, and she just had to be bored too.
Nothing a little pestering couldn't fix. All she needed to do was pick a cat, any cat, and get 'em to take the two for a lesson. Her eyes skimmed the clearing, searching for her victim. There were a decent few cats about, though none really stuck out to her - except, maybe - who was that? Was he not the uh... The uh, the really important guy - the whatsit-thingy. Hm. No better way to find out than to ask. "Psst, Coldpaw." She started, "come with me! I'm gonna grab a guy, and he's gonna give us a lesson!" Uh, of course, that's a totally normal thing to throw that on your sibling out of the blue - duh.
She trotted up to the tom, as if she knew him already, "Hello!" She greeted him with a wide-eyed grin. "Would YOU like to give me and my sister a lesson? Please? OH And. What is your name?" Perhaps she was still learning social cues. Or perhaps this was a totally normal and non-questionable way to greet a new cat. Shrikepaw thought the latter.
Hawkfur
WindClan Fury
he/him | 61 moons
[Russet tabby with tuxedo markings and sky-blue eyes] Purrks: Flock Together T3, Killer Aptitude T1 Header by @/wingnettle
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ The Hanged Man ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
· · ──────────────· ·
[Shrikepaw - @sleepyyjax ] [Coldpaw - @Estelle ]
· · ──────────────· ·
Hawkfur looked down as a grey scrap of fur called for his attention, his fluffy chest framing his white muzzle. "Oh hey, kiddo!" Shrikepaw, if he wasn't mistaken. With Coldpaw nearby, somewhere. Twilightstar's kits. He'd forgotten they were apprentices, but it seemed like they were looking for... "A lesson? Aw well sure, mate. What do you want to learn? Er, anything except tunneling. And I'm Hawkfur." He smiled blithely at them.
Coldpaw
[ 7 moon | She / Her | Wc Tunneller Apprentice | Heightened Perception: Touch ]
A lesson? Her head turned around hearing the familiar tone of Shrikepaw's voice from over her shoulder, alerted to follow after her sister's pawsteps. "He-hey -- !"
She called after Shrikepaw, stumbling in her path as she tried to keep up with the canon of a sibling. Her paws trotted over the ground, feeling the wild patter of her sister's paws and a deep voice nearby. She appeared next to them, ears angling left and right to catch their words. Well, she wasn't one to complain about a lesson.
Hawkfur. The name sounded familiar, she might have heard it around before, but his distinct scent didn't ring any bells (except for maybe a flourish from that one apprentice she met, but Coldpaw pushed it to the back of her mind). What training? Her ear turned towards where she assumed Shrikepaw, pausing a moment before giving her own input. "...I could do with hunting."
Deadmoon had taught her a crouch, and mumma was teaching her some basics in battle, while Vinesmoke ensured she knew the territory and her tunnelling - hunting would be nice, assuming Shrikepaw shared the sentiment.
Coldpaw
[ 7 moon | She / Her | Wc Tunneller Apprentice | Heightened Perception: Touch ]
A lesson? Her head turned around hearing the familiar tone of Shrikepaw's voice from over her shoulder, alerted to follow after her sister's pawsteps. "He-hey -- !"
She called after Shrikepaw, stumbling in her path as she tried to keep up with the canon of a sibling. Her paws trotted over the ground, feeling the wild patter of her sister's paws and a deep voice nearby. She appeared next to them, ears angling left and right to catch their words. Well, she wasn't one to complain about a lesson.
Hawkfur. The name sounded familiar, she might have heard it around before, but his distinct scent didn't ring any bells (except for maybe a flourish from that one apprentice she met, but Coldpaw pushed it to the back of her mind). What training? Her ear turned towards where she assumed Shrikepaw, pausing a moment before giving her own input. "...I could do with hunting."
Deadmoon had taught her a crouch, and mumma was teaching her some basics in battle, while Vinesmoke ensured she knew the territory and her tunnelling - hunting would be nice, assuming Shrikepaw shared the sentiment.
Looks like she'd judged well, this guy seemed nice.
Oh! And yes, she needed ot choose something to learn She hadn't even thought that far. But, Colpaw mentioned hunting, and, well, that sounded ideal. "Yes! Hunting! I wanna hunt rabbits!" She'd done a little bit of hunting, on patrol with Dapplebreeze and Cottonpaw, but uh... She hadn't caught anything. More so jumped about and hoped for the best - her hope somehow working when she scared a toad right into the older apprectice's paws. So, she'd be very happy to learn the proper skills. Especially when it came to rabbits. Toad was nice, but rabbit was so much nicer.
Hawkfur
WindClan Fury
he/him | 61 moons
[Russet tabby with tuxedo markings and sky-blue eyes] Purrks: Flock Together T3, Killer Aptitude T1 Header by @/wingnettle
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ The Hanged Man ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
· · ──────────────· ·
[Shrikepaw - @sleepyyjax ] [Coldpaw - @Estelle ]
· · ──────────────· ·
Delight filled Hawkfur's posture, and he hummed happily. "You came to the right cat, kiddos! I'm something of a rabbit expert myself." Unless they were in tunnels, then that was Crowtooth's thing. He was a little worried about teaching Coldpaw--he'd never taught a blind apprentice before. He tried to think about what would be different beyond lack of sight. She could probably focus on vibrations and scent, though it would be difficult to guess the rabbit's movements... hm. Maybe he wasn't the best tom for this... No! He needed to be more confident in himself. He was over fifty moons old! He could teach two apprentice rabbit hunting--he'd done it enough before.
Hawkfur lead them out into the territory, chattering away about rabbits and how to catch them. "First thing you gotta know is the difference between rabbits and hares. Rabbits live in groups in burrows and warrens, while hares live alone above ground in little divots. Hares are much faster, and won't hesitate to give you a good whack to the face." He thought of Blazingstar and his tragic, avoidable end.
"Let's see what we've got here..." Hawkfur scanned the moors, half looking for the telltale dips of burrows and half looking for twoleg traps that might catch them by surprise. They were clear on the latter, which eased some of his anxiety. "I want you both to see what you can scent. Because rabbits live underground, they can be a bit difficult to scent. But if you find a burrow..." his gaze darted to a shallow dip on the hillside nearby. "you'll be able to tell. Lots of rabbits in one space, very smelly."
Clearing his throat to command their attention, Hawkfur dropped into a hunter's crouch. "Take a look at my legs, mates. See how they're shoulder-width apart? You've done crouches before yeah? Well it's super important to be able to launch right into a run when you see a rabbit. I want you to pretend I'm a big juicy rabbit you spotted, and come out of your crouches to chase me down, okay?" Sure they could practice on the rabbits in the burrow, but why waste the opportunity to actually catch something?
Hawkfur trotted a few fox-lengths away, settling down and doing his best to look rabbit-like. Then he raised his tail to give the apprentices the go ahead. This was either going to be very fun, or end in a trip to Lightningstorm with a pulled back.
She gasped. A rabbit expert! She’d picked a rabbit expert, look at that! Her picking skills must be super good then - or maybe she was just lucky. Or REALLY good at knowing who the super important guys of the clan were. Which, was probably the same thing as being good at picking, wasn’t it… Well, she was over the moon whatever the case! “Let’s go Coldpaw!” She gave her sibling a nudge with her head, then sprung off after Hawkfur.
So! First things first, there were two kinds of rabbits. Rabbit rabbits, and not rabbit rabbits. Hares (the not rabbit rabbits) seemed awfully lonely, living all my themselves in divots - even the name sounded lonely! Rabbits, however, seemed much more fun, living in groups like WindClan. Wow, maybe they even had rabbit clans! She wondered if hares could be hunted, or just rabbits? The two couldn’t be all the different, right? But, she didn’t think she’d ever seen a hare on the fresh kill pile.
She sniffed the air as instructed, hoping to pick up something more than she had on her other trips out. She’d gotten lucky on her hunting patrol, and managed to spot a squirrel without having to smell for it. Whenever she tried to look for scents, she got a little confused with just how many there were. She couldn’t quite figure out what she could smell, so, she opened her mouth to try and catch a bit extra. Then - there it was! Yes, there it was! Clear as day! “Oh yeah, I do smell them! Kind of… Earthy? And yummy smelling?” She nodded at his comment about them being smelly - now that she understood which of the many surrounding smells it was, she realised just how strong it was.
Enough of that though!! They were about to get onto the real part of the lesson. The bit where they got to do stuff! She inspected Hawkfur’s legs carefully, then copied ad best she could. She’d seen a few cats do hunting crouches, and Crowtooth had taught her how to do a battle stance, which couldn’t be all that different. She placed her paws shoulder width apart, and kept her knees nice and bouncy.
Then - Ooohhhh exciting!! They were gonna chase Hawkfur!! Oh-oh- but she had to stay still until it was time to go. He walked away, for what felt like millennia, but in reality was only a few seconds. Then… He raised his tail! Shrikepaw bolted, sprinting toward him, as fast as her paws could possibly carry her. Constantly zooming around camp got you some good practice!
Faster than rabbits!
