Herondive Hollow

[gs29513]

A bit surprised to say the least by the question, since he had thought they were meant to be focused on hunting, Shrewpaw took a moment to answer, mewing Eight moons I think. He was something like twelve moons now anyway, and he became and apprentice at six, so that made sense to him. Looking around, since he wasn't sure what else he should really do at this point, Shrewpaw saw that Talonstone's gaze was also wandering, which was a little odd considering he had asked the question. But he wasn't going to say anything, since the other tom was opening his maw now to reply and he turned back. @bmkmb

[nocturnal]

// @gs29513

Eight moons... he decided that that was good enough. They were, indeed, going to be hunting. Only, he planned on taking a more unorthodox route in order to accomplish that task. Shrewpaw struck him as more mature than the molly apprentice, which explained why Talonstone chose him to stick around rather than Brackenpaw.

"I assume that you have never heard of flocking," the warrior meowed. He continued to scan the trees, thinking and calculating... if he strained his ears, he could hear the rustling of leaves, and sharp chirps of avians in the distance. Soon, the birds would leave the safety of the branches. They only needed to stand idly for a bit longer, and he could gather information from Shrewpaw in the meanwhile.

[gs29513]

Flocking? Shrewpaw had, indeed, never heard of flocking, but he was having a bit of a guess now, which wasn't anywhere near the truth. Is it maybe..........when a bunch of birds attack you? he asked a bit hesitantly, looking around nervously in case a bunch of birds were, indeed about to swoop down and attack them. Not that he didn't think he could beat them up, but if there were too many.....it could be scary. He could hear the birds now, chirping in the trees, seemingly quite a few of them as far as he could tell, which made him a bit more nervous, his claws sliding out as he watched Talonstone, who was not alarmed which calmed him down a little bit. @bmkmb

[nocturnal]

// @gs29513

...where a bunch of birds attacked you? Great Guardians, Talonstone possessed terrible luck where raptors were involved; an eagle assaulted him once, followed by a hawk and harrier, but never all three at once. The sheer thought of three snapping beaks and six hooked talons would make the fur of an average feline shoot straight up.

With an air of bemused amusement, Talonstone responded, "Flocking is the hunting of birds—not the act of birds hunting of cats. Lynx sometimes practice this skill, which is somewhat similar to hunting frogs. They attack while the entire flock rests on the earth, though avians tend to be smarter than amphibians. In the confusion of all the birds taking flight at once, one lucky feline may capture multiple targets. However, the hunter only has one chance, and flocking may result in injury while navigating in between wings and talons."

At that moment, the leaves rustled, and Talonstone shifted predatorially, his gaze flicking towards the alighting feathered creatures. "This skill is rare, even amongst the ThunderClanners who tend to hunt birds more often than others." He flicked his tail towards the flock and commanded, "Come. They will not flee until they sense we pose a threat." He planned on teaching Shrewpaw to flock, but as he mentioned earlier, they only received one chance. For this only, instinct rewarded much more than practice.

[Mango]

@Rani @Wolfgirl8 @Elementals

Stempaw growled softly at the intruder, she didn’t really care if it was Foggybrook. They had left the clan and therefore didn’t deserve to return, well she was a special situation kidnapped by twolegs, but no one else had that excuse,” A trespasser is a trespasser, even if it is Foggybrook.” she grumbled,” What would Dawnstar think if she knew you were chatting with a loner or rogue.”

[Wolfgirl8]

“I’m not chatting with one idiot I’m trying to find Foggybrook by calling out to her. Plus if it’s not that weirdo then we just attack,” Marigoldpaw snapped glaring at Stembutt. Perfect. A new nickname to add to her collection. After a moment the golden she cat added, “And if it is Foggybrook well she’s a clanmate. And it’s not like you can get mad at someone for going missing when you did for who knows how long! What’s your story huh?” For some reason Marigoldpaw felt defensive of Foggybrook/Weirdo...maybe it was because she was Shrewdorks friend?
( @Zesty Mango @Rani @Elementals )

[gs29513]

Relieved that they were in fact NOT going to be attacked by a flock of angry birds, Shrewpaw listened intently as he learned that he was in fact going to be the one doing the hunting. He was much more on board with that idea, since he was the one doing the whacking and eating. He hadn't really thought much about lynx before, but they were related to them so if the other cats could do it, so could they. They weren't even that much different, aside from the fact that they were a bit bigger and didn't live with other cats.

The comparison to frogs, who certainly did not have as many defenses or opportunities for escape surprised him, he had never found surprising them and catching them particularly difficult. Birds could fly though, so it was certain to be more difficult to catch them. Still the fact that there were two of them and quite a lot of birds made it likely they would be able to catch a few in short order, with a bit less time involved than they would stalking prey.

The mention of injury, meaning birds were dangerous to cats in a big group after all, unnerved him a bit but he slid up beside Talonstone as the warrior moved towards the flock. Moving a bit to the side, in the hope that the birds might be attack-able from multiple directions and confused, Shrewpaw was relieved to see that none of the birds had panicked yet. He hadn't moved forward, only sideways but he did so carefully now, only taking a few steps before stopping to wait for Talonstone to give him a signal. They probably wanted to rush at the same time, to give them the best chance of catching prey.
@bmkmb

[Elementals]

~Foggybrook~
A familiar*scent wafted through the air as her gift pile was almost complete. Her small warrior of Shadowclan. She popped her head out as she carried her haul of gifts with a weird kind of leafy container with a handle where she could bite on to carry around her gifts. The molly purred as she saw her clanmates. Oh how she should have listened to her first instincts when she thought she should go in that direction but nooooo she was a bit wonkers to think she should go down to the twoleg place. At least the weird scratchy leafy holder was able to contain the gifts she nicely tucked to the best of her abilities into leaves. Sadly, the medicine cats do it better and she wasted a lot of leaves trying to get them right. "OMIGOSH IT'S ADDERFANG! AHHHHH OI MARIGOLDPAW*WAS IT? AHHHHH!" Foggybrook hurried up smiling like a hedgehog with sticks and branches poking from her head.

{ @Rani @Wolfgirl8 @Zesty Mango }

[Rani]

Adderfang jumped down from her stump, b-lining it towards the (disheveled, covered in twigs, doing a bad job of representing shadowclan) warrior doing a worried scan over their condition as she passed the apprentices. The bulky molly wasn't exactly happy about the chattering between the apprentices, Stempaw was being an uppity hypocrite who was disregarding Adderfangs instructions but Marigoldpaw hit the first nail on the head so the warrior was happy to simply not scold the apprentices and let her fluffy aneurysm snipe for her and focus on Foggybrook. (But if her flicking tail gently brushed Marigoldpaws shoulder in a pat it was simply an accident).

"Foggybrook! Are you alright you've gone for quite awhile? Did you get attacked or something, you look.... well like a mess but I digress, whats that in your paws?" If Foggy had turned traitor Adderfang would take care of it but she doubted it, the young warrior likely been drawn away from the clan for some odd reason and then it'd be Dawnstar (or the new deputy's) problem to deal with, not hers.
@Elementals @Wolfgirl8 @Zesty Mango

[Wolfgirl8]

Marigoldpaw drew back slightly startled by Foggybrook. “Wow. You are a mess!” She breathed out taking in what Foggybrook was holding. Is that a....pelt? What in the heck!? This kid really is a weirdo! No wonder her and Shrewdork or love buddies or whatever.
( @Elementals @Rani @Zesty Mango )