Mouse murder (Private)

[gs29513]

Busy busy busy. Stop thinking stay busy. It was a shame, really, that it had taken Wolffang's death to make Deadmoon a productive member of Windclan. She hadn't been a slacker before, no, she had been someone who could be counted on for patrols and to get her apprentices trained eventually. But she also hadn't had a giant, emotional canid snapping at her heels, pushing her forwards and forwards and forwards. Do more do more do more, because if you stop to think you'll drown. Drown in the why's and how's and who's, the sadness and regret and ANGER that she couldn't just HAVE THIS. No, Rosebriar had to KEEP ruining things. From beyond the grave, from the Dark Forest where she should be safely locked away. But she kept coming back, kept causing problems, couldn't let Deadmoon alone.

She was somewhat aware that she was not the reason Rosebriar had done what she'd done. Twistedpaw wasn't either, as tempting as it was to blame the apprentice for abandoning her brother to die. She did blame her, really. She had the sense not to lose it at her, to scream or cry because that would mean she would have to formulate what to say and that would involve thinking about the fact that Wolffang was gone. Probably for good this time. One resurrection, one second chance, wasn't unheard of. Two would be almost impossible, that was infringing on leader territory.

STOP. THINKING.

Shaking her head a bit too hard and probably killing off several brain cells in the process (though maybe that was for the best), Deadmoon wiped her traitorous eyes which had begun to leak just a bit and strode into the apprentices den with verve. The first apprentice she laid eyes upon was Wildpaw. Looks like he would be her distraction for now. WILDPAW! she boomed, voice a bit strangled and forced but certainly loud in the confines of the den. We're going hunting, hurry up. she mewed, before turning on her heel to stride out. She needed a head start, and she needed to get her stupid eyes under control. Wildpaw would just have to keep up as she made her way to her favorite little thicket, stopping just short of it and taking a few deep breaths. Hunting. This was what she was good at. This was her THING. Deadmoon was calm. Definitely. @Dolomedes

[Dolomedes]

Wildpaw
| He/him | WC Apprentice | Moons: 6 | Purrks: None |
“That’s it!? But I want to play!!”

He was so BORED!! There was NOTHING to dooooooooooo! Ashcloud was busy on a patrol that Wildpaw just couldn’t go on for some reason which was super unfair! And now he was left to his own devices confined to camp, like he was type of kit. Wildpaw isn’t a kit! He wasn’t anything like a kit! Besides his teeth, mama says his teeth are just slower grow in and that’s normal but not super common. The apprentice moved his tongue in his mouth to press on one of his sharp kitten teeth and it wiggled a bit but it was no where near our when was so annoying because he just wanted his big kit teeth already!! So stupid and so unfair!! He frowned and stared up at the ceiling of the apprentices den. There wasn’t even anyone in to annoy learn from.

And so, poor Wildpaw was forced to simply rot away in his nest forever bored and forever neglected. The apprentice twisted and flipped onto his other side, staring longfully at the entry of the den. Then his amber eyes moved downwards at his paws. He flexed it, watching his claws unsheath, and then sheath as he relaxed it. Then again. The buzzing was so LOUD! He was losing it! Actually losing it and he couldn’t just sit here otherwise he was going to explode. His eyes began to mist and sting for some reason in a fit of unexplained rage he threw himself at his nest. Digging his claws into the moss and couple of tawny feathers and just ripping and tearing because the buzzing was so impossibly loud that it was screaming and tearing at his mind and he needed to move or else his heart was going to stop and the only thing that was heard over the buzzing was his heart and the blood rushing in his ears and if they stopped then Wildpaw was going to-

He blinked. Amber eyes taking in the carnage that was before him as though a new person. Hm. Well oopsy Daisy! Looks like he accidently did the bad thing again. He wasn’t supposed to do that but it wasn’t his fault! There was nothing to stop him from being bored and while normally being bored just meant finding something to do, in this case their was nothing to fall back on and that meant there was nothing to make him not feel crazy! Oh, he really did a number on his poor nest. But hey! At least he didn’t hurt anyone or any other nests for that matter! Wow! Gold star for not completely it. He’s bitten mama more times than he can count, and other kits, but usually there was less tolerance for that. But mama says that it’ll be easier because know he’ll have work for him to keep away the buzzing but she’s a liar because there was nothing to do. He was bored.

Fast movement flashed in the corner of his vision and the apprentice looked up and over, expecting it to be Ashcloud or mama coming to tell him off for being crazy. But he can’t help it when the buzzing got to loud and he needed to do something otherwise his head was going to explode and his heart was going to stop. But instead, it was Deadmoon. Oh! Yes!!!!!! Yes!!!! Wildpaw was up on his paws before the warrior could even finish her sentence and that was great because she didn’t even wait at all! Yes a warrior that wasn’t slow!! He didn’t like slow!! Slow was better than not moving but running and fast was the best!! Fast and running until his heart was pounding and alive and loud in his chest! He took off and tried his best to keep up with the warrior and eventually they stopped at a thicket thing! This wasn’t a place that he’d been before! Not that he’s been many places at all but you know!

Wildpaw heaved a few deep breaths, holding them for a for a few seconds each in his chest where they burned! Yes! This was what he wanted to do! But then the warrior was stopping and not moving or even talking. What? No this was boring he wanted to do more running! “What- why’d we stop?! I wanna run, run, run! I’m not all done! Are you really boring like Ashcloud, I don’t want boring I want to rip something up! We should do battling or-or something! But not stopping- anything but stopping.” He would do anything but stop, they should walk and talk not stop and talk and lecture and boring boring boring! Wildpaw was getting so tired of being bored that he was- “Ahh!” Wildpaw growled the short noise of pure frustration. He hated days like this. They were the worst days. He aggressively shook out his fur and then did so again. Before finally his amber eyes flicked back to Deadmoon.

[ @gs29513 - Deadmoon ]
Header base by Skyler Starling
Design by @/spider.

[gs29513]

Dear oh dear, this apprentice was wild. Deadmoon supposed it came with picking the one literally named WILDpaw to take out, but it might not be a particularly pleasurable experience for either of them. Her because she was going to have to deal with an apprentice who appeared more hyperactive than even Owlkit, and Wildpaw because she was liable to snap like a stale breadstick. Normally patience for young cats was one of her better traits, but right now, patience was likely to be extended to a very few. Wildpaw was already pushing her towards the edge, loud and demanding and out of control. Deadmoon did NOT want to deal with trying to teach him right now.

Fine. she spat, tail lashing. We'll go a bit away so you don't scare all of the prey off if he hadn't already, quiet clearly wasn't in his vocabulary and you can run until you've tired yourself out. Stalking away at a pretty quick pace, Deadmoon made her way to the top of a small, circular rise. She could see pretty well down in on all sides. They weren't near a border, nor were there any scents of predators. As long as he stayed in eyeshot, it should be safe. She didn't particularly want him to be actually ripping anything to shreds (that sounded a bit insane, honestly, as did his frustrated growling), and she wasn't going to switch to battle training. This was to suit her, not him.

And so, Deadmoon found a spot to watch while she let the kid run. If anyone else came upon them it would probably look a bit wild, but she didn't particularly care. Criticizers would get a tongue lashing. Whilst up there, along with keeping an eye on the territory around them, she yelled down at him. It was mostly useless drivel, but it was nice to yell a bit, even if it wasn't about the thing that really required the yelling. Your stride should be longer! Keep your tail lower to the ground! For Starclan's sake, watch where you're going! Don't step in a hole and break your paw! Hopefully he'd be tired out enough to shut up and listen soon, and then she could show him the hunting crouch. She could make him run about in that too, to get faster for stalking and whatnot. Wildpaw was getting on her nerves, but he did also give her more to think about than the average apprentice training session. Wasn't that what she'd wanted after all? @Dolomedes

[Dolomedes]

Wildpaw
| He/him | WC Apprentice | Moons: 6 | Purrks: None |
“That’s it!? But I want to play!!”

YES!! This lady was already a million times better than his mentor!! Ashcloud would’ve been like, ‘stop acting dumb, stupid idiot! Listen now!’ And whatever. At least, that’s how it sounded to him. But Deadmoon says that he can run and that he doesn’t have to stop until he’s ready and now he won’t explode while trying to learn to hunt because he felt like the buzzing was going to take his thoughts and then he attacks Deadmoon or something in a fit of uncontrolled rage. He didn’t like hurting others, that’s why he didn’t like staying still so long that he literally can’t help himself from doing so. Even though mom says that he is perfectly in control and that he’s being dramatic. Wildpaw wasn’t, sometimes he feels like he’s genuinely going to die, or cry, or hysterically sob into his nest. Very gross things.

But the point was! Deadmoon allowed Wildpaw to run out his energy and the apprentice wasted no time at all doing so! While he didn’t really enjoy being yelled at, he didn’t not listen for once, because he was allowed something that he liked so that meant he was willing to be a bit more patience about something he didn’t. So he lengthen his stride and he made his tail stay lower. He was doing so awesome!! Like a real Windclan cat!! Let’s gooo!!!! He whooped as he gave a short leap, landing heavily on his paws but used the momentum to shoot up into another leap into the air! This was much more fun than any lesson he’s done with Ashcloud! “You catch birds like this right?? Can catch vultures and other birds!!” He spoke excitedly as he crouched down on his landing and after wiggling his haunches shortly he shot into the air again, twisting slightly to throw his forepaws up higher before dropping to the ground and shaking out his fur.

Amber eyes moved from the pretend bird in the sky back towards the warrior that brought him out here. Well, Wildpaw understood the importance of fun! And hunting was the fun that Deadmoon wanted to have so Wildpaw would be slightly more willing to listen! “Okay, so what was it that you wanted to do? Hunting? Well- I’ve practice hunting in camp when I was a kit. I was all like-” The apprentice dropped into a very awkward hunting crouch, “Wah-shoom!” The apprentice offered the dramatic sound effect as he pounced forward. It’s as sloppy and left his crooked, but it was great in the eyes of a -overly confident- apprentice.

[ @gs29513 - Deadmoon ]
Header base by Skyler Starling
Design by @/spider.

[gs29513]

Stars above this kid had WAY too much energy. But at least the running seemed to stop the random aggression. Deadmoon just didn't want to hear any more of that. Because, well. Having a volatile apprentice running around wasn't particularly fun for anyone, and if he had to run to not attack her......then run he would. It was probably fine. Wildpaw probably wouldn't actually attack someone. But Deadmoon really, really didn't want to end up in a fight with her own clanmate. Also making him do work when she didn't have to brought her some sort of perverse pleasure, even though he seemed to be enjoying his mandated exercise. He was jumping around and everything, clearly not suffering as much as she would like.

He did, however, offer her a golden opportunity to be a bit grouchy. Was this how you caught vultures? Absolutely not. Deadmoon huffed, as the apprentice showed off his bird catching 'skills'. That's how you anger vultures and hawks. Then they pick you up with their talons and kill you. The air swatting might be useful for going after smaller birds if you'd missed your initial stalking pounce, but that was about all she could think of. Regardless, she wasn't going to encourage it. If it were her jumping about the most likely course of action would be a bad fall and a broken bone. But no, the snotty little apprentices (and just about every cat in Windclan) got to go flying around at lightning speed, and be perfectly fine.

And now she was grumpy again. Extra grumpy, even. At least Wildpaw had tired himself out now, and was showing off a truly TERRIBLE approximation of a hunting crouch. She laughed, rather derisively. And what exactly did you catch with a crouch like that? was the scoffed accompaniment to her mirth. She had briefly forgotten how unstable Wildpaw had seemed, and was immediately regretting her choice to indulge in her little moment of scathing humor. Then again, this kid shouldn't be entitled to special treatment and her being overly nice just because he was going through it. She was going through it too, and she wasn't getting accommodated. As a warrior she probably had more responsibility for dealing with her own issues and whatnot, but whatever.

Shaking her head to refocus and dropping into her own crouch, Deadmoon was very prepared to dissect everything wrong with that of her student. Your weight needs to be more on your hind paws than your front ones, to allow you to pounce better. Keep your tail low but not touching the ground. If it sticks up you'll be spotted, if it drags you'll be heard. Hind paws should be tucked under you, front paws a bit extended. All of this was second nature to her now, but it was initially a bit awkward. Hopefully he got it quickly, because she didn't really want to deal with him going nuts again. Once he got something even passable she was probably going to send him off to crouch around a bit, pounce, and then throw him into the thicket. Even if it wasn't perfect he should be able to contribute something, and Deadmoon would like to see anyone else do better teaching him something that required so much patience. @Dolomedes