Next Up Forever! [P]

[Fish]

Adderpaw
Determined ⋆ Loyal ⋆ Lawful Good ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Beefed Up T3
“One day I’ll be the greatest warrior of all the clans!”
@redshiftreign

So there Adderpaw was, almost done with her training when a wrench was thrown into her gears. More training needed to be finished before she could receive her warrior name. That was fine though, what could more training hurt?

Thankfully for her Eveningthaw was willing to teach her night hunting and advance swimming! How wonderful, if only she knew how to repay them.

"Good evening, Eveningthaw, are we ready for training?"

[redshiftreign]

@Fish

Eveningthaw was perched among the clearing, awaiting Adderpaw as he groomed his fur down.

As the nearly-warrior padded over, he gave a casual smile and got up, tail flicking languidly. Adderpaw was a good apprentice, dutiful and loyal to the code. She was exactly what Riverclan needed, and he wanted to get a shot to push her in the right direction.

"Good evening indeed. We certainly are," he gave a nod of acknowledgement then turned to pad out of camp, motioning with his tail for her to follow. "Let's start with swimming before the sun gets too far down. It's always good to know how to swim in the dark, though."

[Fish]

"Sounds like a good idea." Adderpaw said nodding her head in agreement. A soft purr rolled in her throat as she thought about taking a nice dip in the water. "Alright how do we start?" What could one possibly do more than learning how to keep their head above the water? The idea there was more peaked her interest.

@redshiftreign

[redshiftreign]

@Fish

The bulky white-and-black tomcat lead the way down the subtle slope of the clearing to cross into the territory. It was several heartbeats of a walk to the river, but not at all an arduous one. Though his pace was a little unforgiving, a little too quick- (a habit, begrudgingly, he had picked up from the object of his current fascination and hatred, the lost sleuth) -he wasn't sprinting. He'd just taken an affinity for the specific, harsh and efficiently long strides of the lost warrior that he stole the place of.

Once at the river, he dipped a paw in. With the greenleaf flash storms, it was pretty strong of a current compared to the more forgiving flow of leaffall and newleaf. "So, what we're going to do is practice swimming in stronger currents, and then we'll spar in the shallows and slowly move into deeper water until you're comfortable fighting while keeping afloat."

[Fish]

Adderpaw
Determined ⋆ Loyal ⋆ Lawful Good ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Beefed Up T3
“One day I’ll be the greatest warrior of all the clans!”
@redshiftreign

Adderpaw found it slightly annoying how fast the older cat was moving, she had so much shorter legs than an adult so she had to put some effort into not being left behind. Then again she didn't want to complain and be seen as not strong enough or mature enough for this training—or any other reasons an adult could come up with to stop the training.

Then they made it up to a river and while Adderpaw could see how the river was rushing she kicked a leaf in the water anyways to see how fast it went by. Seeing that she knew this was going to be a challenge and a small smirk came across Adderpaw's face. "Alright sounds good to me. Got any swimming tips for rushing water?"

[redshiftreign]

@Fish

See, this was where he fell short. Where his carefully crafted fabrication was a mere shell of what he aimed for. The abandoner, the sleuth, had the skills to demonstrate this with perfect poise and grace. Evenignthaw hated getting wet. Hated the way it soaked into his fur, clung to him, suffocated him. It made him feel disgusting. He'd have to spend the evening grooming after this.

Finally, he plunged chest-deep into the water and treaded it, "The faster the water moves, the faster you have to paddle to keep from moving. It gets tiring really quick, so stay closer to the shore until you're confident." he nodded, waiting for Adderpaw to join him. "Don't ever fight the current. You want to swim parallel to it if you're trying to get anywhere, then follow the shore. Trying to fight a river is always going to be a losing battle. Nature, just like justice, wins out. Right now, the water isn't too fast to swim against, but it's still a waste of energy."

He demonstrated a rather good attempt to swim upstream, not making much distance for all the effort he gave. He moved along to the bank, instead, "If you need to go upstream, get on the bank. If the bank is to steep, pull yourself along it upstream with your claws. You'll do better with your paws on solid ground. Streams of water are faster in the center and slower near the banks, too."

With the most simple tactics out of the way, he cleared his throat. "Once you've got that down, I can show you the skills that make us RiverClan. Not just any water-swimming fools.

[Fish]

Adderpaw
Determined ⋆ Loyal ⋆ Lawful Good ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Beefed Up T3
“One day I’ll be the greatest warrior of all the clans!”
@redshiftreign

Just like the nature of a fish, Adderpaw loved the water. It was where she felt most in one with her ancestors and if she thought hard enough on it she could see/imagine spirits swimming with her. Plus she really didn't care about grooming her pelt much, just enough to not get mats.

Quickly Adderpaw followed suit and purred a little in excitement of the challenge. "That makes sense." She said as she kept a steady and strong pace with her paddling while keeping in mind what she was told. Guiding her body parallel to the current she found herself slowly gaining pace yet it was tiring. Then came the second example. Now that was something that Adderpaw wouldn't have thought of on her own but it was a very clever idea. "The bank huh, let me try that out..." She said before swimming towards the bank.

Digging her claws into the muddy bank. It was a bit hard to move with mud to help her, till she noticed clumps of roots from the grasses and other plants. Sticking her claws into those clumps were far more secure and allowed her more leverage and ability to push further up the river. "I think I'm getting the idea of this, but can we do that? I want something more challenging, I want to be a Riverclanner, not just some cat that occasionally gets wet." Adderpaw said with breaks in between as she was a little more focused on swimming than talking.

[redshiftreign]

@Fish

Eveningthaw gave a curt nod of approval, wintergreen eyes appraising the apprentice with something akin to contentedness. Yes. This would do nicely. She was a quick learner, and dedicated. RiverClan needed more warriors like that- All she needed now was the skills to back it up, piety, and a black-and-white sense of justice.

Advanced swimming was a difficult topic to teach- more so for him than most others. How could the sleuth tolerate it? Horrible, disgusting little clever creature that he was. He felt suffocated under the weight of his wet fur, even underwater. Sticky, clinging, disgusting and vile. He would prefer mud. Or Blood. Or anything. But he had a duty to his clan, to the stars, and to himself.

"The river can be as unforgiving as the Stars' justice. You must be careful, and respectful, and alert. If you are stuck in a torrent while it's storming, or if you get swept up in a flash flood, you have to be able to think quickly and avoid getting caught on any oncoming debris." He kicked a long but thin twig into the water. It raced towards Adderpaw. "Dodge."

Then again.

And again.

"Now imagine that, but it's a whole tree, and the water is dragging you around and throwing you around, hitting you into just about everything. Not fun, hm? The best way to handle such situation is to find a ridge where you can get your paws down and sidestep any debris coming your way, or if you find a nook by the bank where the water flows past, to sit there."

moving on, he paddled out to join adderpaw. "the next two skills are best used in the ocean but i'll teach you them here to save us the walk. plus, the ocean is dangerous for apprentices. if we have time after hunting, i'll demonstrate at lionsbeach and you can try."

he nodded towards the direction the river was flowing, "imagine the ocean as a very big river that is constantly rocking back and forth. during the day, it's tilted forwards and the water reaches very high on the shore, but during the night, it moves further out and flows the other way. all the time, the water moves back and forth like very big ripples. you've seen the waves, i'm sure. well, each of those is as strong as this river is right now. and when they start foaming, they're even stronger and they can knock the wind out of you. you should also note what are called ripcurrents. for every wave that hits the shore, there is one that moves backwards into the sundrown. if you get caught in a ripcurrent for any reason, just like a river, don't fight it. swim to the side until you hit a wave moving towards shore." he paused, clearing his throat as he treaded water.

"so, if you're in the ocean for any reason, or the river is particularly turbulent, it might be easier to swim under the water. because water flows slower the lower down it is." he explained, then ducked his head under his water and with several long strides cross-wise to the flow of the river, he popped back up at the other side of the bank, a noticeable margin faster than if he had swam above the surface and with less drift. "the hard part is knowing where you're going. it takes practice to move through the water with your eyes closed, so i'll make sure you don't get swept away. close your eyes, but not too tight as to give yourself a headache, and just duck under and swim towards me. if the water in your nose gets uncomfortable, breathe out of your nose and just keep going but never breathe in until you're above the surface."

[Fish]

Adderpaw
Determined ⋆ Loyal ⋆ Lawful Good ⋆ She/Her ⋆ Beefed Up T3

“One day I’ll be the greatest warrior of all the clans!”
@redshiftreign

Adderpaw knew too well how unforgiving water could be, when she was a kitten the camp flooded and swept her into its cruel clutches but thankfully a warrior was able to snag her before—Adderpaw cast that thought away as she would rather not think on it too hard. And not a moment too late as a stick was hurdling towards her. Not sure what to do in this situation and caught off guard Adderpaw plunge underwater and held tight to the wall before shooting her head back up when she figured the stick was gone. Then another one came towards her and a quick kick off the bank pushed her closer to the center of the river but away from that stick. Then one more came towards her and the quick thinking apprentice dove under the water again. This time she clawed into the rivers bottom and pushed herself to the side to return to the bank before rising up again.

Complaints were not allowed as she asked for this challenge.

All this information was a lot to take in but she tried her best to swallow it all and remember it. Given it was life saving advice she needed to remember it, and maybe one day she would need to use it to save another's life as well. The current was weaker when further under water, Adderpaw didn't notice that when she dove underwater to avoid those sticks but next time she would make sure to keep a look out for that.

Then there was the next challenge.

"With my eyes closed? Why—I suppose if I get thrown in the water for some reason on a moonless night." Adderpaw reasoned to herself. Well here goes nothing. So the young apprentice plunged under the water with her eyes held shut, fighting against her brain to open them.

As expect she could not see anything, go figure. Now she needed to try and go towards Eveningthaw. He was on the other bank currently so she had to head right then she would get to him. Use your sense of touch for you can't use any other senses. Bottom walking. That's what Adderpaw started to do, in a sense. She dug her claws into the bottom and pushed off towards the right. Her body was light so it kept trying to float to the top so a few kicks brought her down again so she could kick again and again until she hit into the right side bank. Perhaps bottom kicking was a better term.

Surfacing again she found herself on the right side and a leap away from Eveningthaw. Good enough right?

"How was that?"

[redshiftreign]

@Fish

She was a quick learner, Eveningthaw had to give her that much. Perfect for his fast-paced, do or don't style of training. She was doing great, even.

Watching her duck under the debris, he nodded, almost proud, and then his gaze followed Adderpaw under the water as she moved towards him. Her question was a valid one.

"There are types of water you just can't open your eyes in. Like ocean water. You can't open your eyes in it, it's too salty and will damage them. Additionally, there used to be tunnels under RiverClan that we used. Some of them flooded, more collapsed, but if you ever found yourself down there or somewhere similar, you wouldn't be able to rely on sight. You never want to rely too much on any one sense. You could lose one at any time." He cautioned. Then, shaking the dampness from his head fur, he paddled over to Adderpaw.

"You're doing good. Now, I'll show you some basic water combat. I want you to try and stay balanced and afloat when I strike you."

With that being sufficient warning, Eveningthaw batted at Adderpaw lightly the first time, attempting to strike her shoulder. Then, the next time, he'd strike harder though not harshly until it was quite difficult to keep herself righted.