Mighty Is The Boulder, Stonepaw Training [P]

[zozelen]

stonepaw, she/her, 7 moons
riverclan apprentice
a pale gray she-cat with dull blue eyes.
40/100

Smart? Stonepaw had never been called smart before. She fidgeted with her paws, a little pleased with herself, but pushed it aside to focus on what Adderstrike said. Her mentor did sound serious, after all. Her words about honoring prey's life made sense. Without animals to eat, all the cats would starve. Food was something to be grateful for.

The apprentice figured that if she couldn't smell anything on the ground before, she probably still wouldn't. Instead, she raised her head to sniff the forest air around her. Hmm. It smelled like... well, what the air usually smelled like. There were lots of scents mixed together, so they all blended into the background, unable for Stonepaw to pick apart. But she needed to find something! To show that she could hunt for real!

Stonepaw's blue eyes narrowed, and she lowered herself to the ground as the apprentice stared out in front of her. Still trying to smell the prey, but using her eyes and ears as well. Stonepaw needed all the help she could get. She heard the wind blew through the almost bare trees, saw the grass and bushes in front of her, unmoving...

(stonepaw rolled a 15!)

Crack. Stonepaw could barely hear the sound, something like a small twig breaking. There was a small, stealthy rustle in the brush ahead of her, and before Stonepaw could even deduce what was making it she decided to attack. There was no time to wait, she had to take her luck and use her paws to catch some prey! Similar to how she caught the squirrel, Stonepaw's pounce was rushed- more like a chase than a stalk. Something about creeping up made her feel anxious, like it was going to get away any second. The gray apprentice practically crashed into the bushes, claws unsheathed, aiming towards the flash of brown in her vision. Though her technique was... a bit messy, Stonepaw somehow managed to come out of it with a rat in her paws. A particularly big, fat one. How did it get so big in the end of leaf-fall?! Maybe now that it was Riverclan's food, all the other critters would have more to eat, Stonepaw thought to herself.

"O-Okay... Done..." Stonepaw panted. Ugh. Her leap into the bushes didn't feel so good, now that she was back on her paws... And she might've gotten some pokey thingies in her pelt. Stonepaw picked up the rat with her mouth, showing it to Adderstrike. Stonepaw had a feeling she didn't use quite the right technique, but as this was her first hunting lesson, she didn't have much to compare it to. And she definitely did not check the wind like Adderstrike told her to. Whoops.

@Fish (sorry this took a while! feel free to attack me with bumps as well!!)

[Fish]

Adderstrike

Determined ⋆ Loyal ⋆ Lawful Good ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Killer Aptitude T3
“I can fix her!”
@zozelen

From a distance Adderstrike kept her watchful eyes on Stonepaw. She tried not to wince when she watched how hard the apprentice crashed into bush ahead. Though she soon hear the sound of fighting and Adderstrike couldn't help but wiggle in excitement seeing Stonepaw carry a limp and plump rat towards her. She padded over to them and gave their wild pelt a few quick lick. "Congratulations, that's very impressive! There are a few rough spots but you will get better with time. Look at what you have already done! After some practice you will be a hunting pro in no time!" She purred warmly. Adderstrike was so proud of her apprentice that she almost forgot that there was more to be done.

After complementing Stonepaw enough, she stood up and looked off to the distance and judged how far the sun had gone through the sky. She then silently nodded her head before looking back to Stonepaw. "I think we have enough time to go and check the borders before the sun goes down. Come on lets go." She said before trotting her way towards the thunderrouges border. The worst was going to be the first so she could deal with them for the least amount of time as possible.

Adderstrike made sure to keep a healthy distance away from the border line but close enough to get the scent of the rat. "See that river? That is considered our border line with Thunderclan, but lets keep our distance from it. We aren't on a border patrol so no need to make sure the scents are up to measure. Though take a moment to smell that scent. The piney one mixed with the heat of fur. That's the Thunderrat's scent." Adderstrike wasn't going to keep her disdain of other clan's hidden from anyone, but she would not info dump her hatred without being asked first.

[zozelen]

stonepaw, she/her, 7 moons
riverclan apprentice
a pale gray she-cat with dull blue eyes.
54/100

Stonepaw's ears shot up, startled, as Adderstrike gave her pelt a lick. So she did a good job, then... good. Right. When Adderstrike looked off into the distance, Stonepaw absentmindedly gave her fur a shake, as if she had gotten wet. The apprentice seemed slightly dazed.

Like her mentor, Stonepaw took a moment to gaze at the horizon. Sunset was approaching, and the blue sky was slowly turning gold at the edge. She could never see everything so clearly from inside camp. But out here, besides trees and distant hills, nothing stopped her. It was all so... amazing.

Lost in her admiration, Stonepaw almost missed what Adderstrike said. They'd be going to the borders? She felt a fresh rush of excitement, eager for even more new sights. But then, suddenly dampening her spirits, reason sunk in. Stonepaw... was tired. That shouldn't have been a problem for any other cat, she hadn't even been out that long, and tiredness was something you should be able to push through. But Stonepaw couldn't, at least not well enough. Just because she was an apprentice, that didn't change... it was a depressing thing to realize. Could she make it all the way to the borders and back again? Stonepaw had never walked that far before. She had barely even walked this much in a single day before. Everything suddenly felt so daunting, the new apprentice's throat went dry.

"R...Right," she mumbled, not able to get a word in before Adderstrike set off. She didn't want to disappoint her mentor. Would Adderstrike still want Stonepaw, if she knew that something was wrong with her? Maybe the warrior remembered enough about her to know how "sick" she was as a kit, but Stonepaw seemed better now. That's why she became an apprentice.

Should she have become one at all, if she couldn't make a single, long walk?

Stonepaw mutely nodded after Adderstrike explained where they were. In her thoughts, she hadn't even realized they reached their first destination. She was too busy worrying, any hopeful sparkle in her eyes lost. The exhaustion was creeping in, like a dark shadow looming behind her... she just wanted to go back to camp. Try and sleep, so she wouldn't crash.

Hopefully the next border wouldn't be too far.

@Fish