I Can't Sweem [p]

[Mica]

Eaglepaw
RiverClan
she/her | 7 moons | 28/100
[Golden and white tuxedo tabby with green eyes]
Purrks: Dreamwalker, HK T2
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[Seabreeze - @Dolomedes ]
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Battle training with Morningmimic, hunting with Mistyshard, territory with Fadingsun, as well as more advanced training. Now the young apprentice was looking for swimming. She didn't like the idea of swimming, as her fluffy fur would take forever to dry, but maybe... maybe she would actually enjoy it. Eaglepaw had been trying to speedrun her training, ever since she found Rushwater's chain collar on the ThunderClan border. She hadn't mentioned it to anyone except Fadingsun and Dusklion, since quite frankly she didn't trust a single cat in this clan save for them. And even then, Dusklion was really pushing it. The only reason she knew was because she was there when Eaglepaw found it. But Eaglepaw needed to become a warrior as quickly as possible, if she were going to avenge find her father.

Eaglepaw was only going to train with warriors she trusted. Seabreeze was hopefully one of them. Morningmimic was a bit of a stretch, but he had been the first to offer when she asked for battle training, so she wasn't going to pass that up. Padding over to the newly named Lionheart, Eaglepaw gave them a smile. "Hiya! If you're not busy, wouldja mind teaching me how to swim?" She glanced away, a little bashful. "I've never tried it before, and I want to see what it's like now that's it's warm out."

[Dolomedes]

Seabreeze
He/him | Riverclan Lionheart | Moons: 17 | Purrks: Go with the Flow | The Collector | Ultimate Predator |
“Ocean waters rising above your neck
You feel the glass start to crack.”

Seabreeze was doing as he always did between work, which with his new rank has been less time than it had before, that being making sure that he was at least doing the minimum of keeping himself alive. Like eating and sleeping, all too boring things and all too annoying things. Especially sleeping, it was always a fun experience with him, first it evades his attempts at reaching it and then he has the same nightmare of drowning that he has had for moons. He almost wished to have a different nightmare, if only to get something different from the nightly drowning sessions. Speaking of drowning, or more so, the lack thereof, Seabreeze hadn’t really expected for Eaglepaw to suddenly be right in front of him talking about a swimming lesson.

“Umm, yeah, sure! I don’t mind. We could…head to Haven Springs?” While it wasn’t the best place to learn, Seabreeze didn’t really want to bring someone getting their paws wet for the first time to the river, especially around this time of year. With all the ice and snow melting and making the river more feisty. The linoheart got to his paws with a small grin, as much as his brain tried to get him to disagree, he enjoyed swimming and he liked being able to teach someone how to do so. It was, like, the only skill he actually felt like he was pretty good at. “I don’t think that we’ve properly met? I’m Seabreeze, though you already know that, just you know… formalities?” He offered awkwardly, not really sure how else to fill the silence as he led the apprentice from camp towards the hot springs.

[ @Mica - Eaglepaw ]

[Mica]

Eaglepaw
RiverClan
she/her | 7 moons | 31/100
[Golden and white tuxedo tabby with green eyes]
Purrks: Dreamwalker, HK T2
· · ────────────── · ·
[Seabreeze - @Dolomedes ]
· · ────────────── · ·
"I know who you are." Eaglepaw meowed abruptly, then cringed. She had been... a little on edge recently. She gave the lionheart an apologetic glance. "Sorry. Just nervous. Never swam before." Both a lie and a truth. She was nervous, but it had nothing to do with her lack of swimming prowess. She followed Seabreeze out to the springs, memories of the picnic sparking to life behind her eyes. She hoped they could do something like that again in the future.

Seabreeze seemed to be a respectable cat, and even with his promotion to lionheart he seemed to be just as cheerful and diligent as ever. She wondered how long he would last before falling into inadequacy just like everyone else.

No! She shouldn't think like that. Eaglepaw hissed under her breath, mentally berating herself for thinking so poorly of cats who had done nothing to upset her. The normally cheery and enthusiastic apprentice had fallen far from grace, it seemed. She lurked now, distrust in every movement and dislike in every glance. This clan had started to take its toll on her, just like everyone that came before her.

The young apprentice padded over to one of the pools, staring into the warm depths. A flicker of nerves--this time actually at the thought of swimming--crossing her face. She glanced at Seabreeze. "Okay... uh... 'ow do I begin?" Her lilting voice shook a little, expression bashful as she looked to the warrior for help.

[Dolomedes]

Seabreeze
He/him | Riverclan Lionheart | Moons: 17 | Purrks: Go with the Flow | The Collector | Ultimate Predator |
“Ocean waters rising above your neck
You feel the glass start to crack.”

Seabreeze nodded awkwardly and shuffled his paws beneath him as the apprentice immediately pointed out the faultiness of the greeting and his blue eyes shifted away, out towards the terrain around them as they passed through it to Haven Springs. Too many times he has been in Haven Springs recently. The picnic was nice and fun! Though the fight that he had with Frostmelt was still terribly fresh on his mind and the subsequential forced proximity between them again in Haven Springs was even more fresh. The tom sighed inwardly and pushed those thoughts away. He needed to focus on teaching. Seabreeze could teach alright, he has experience teaching swimming with apprentices and kits. “R-right, well umm, I know that you know me, I just… you know thought it would be polite, and umm, a good conversation starter? Well, it doesn’t matter.” He waved the social blunder away mentally and focused as the apprentice padded up to one of the pools and Seabreeze followed shortly, flicking an ear as Eaglepaw’s voice reached them once more.

Right, swimming, Seabreeze can do this. It was like the one thing he was actually good at and that meant it was like the one thing he felt confident in teaching, or at least he would be if he felt confident in the act of teaching itself. He wasn’t good with words and that reflected but it's finneeeee… probably. The lionheart peered into the pool and started to explain, “Well, keeping yourself above water is pretty instinctive but actually swimming isn’t too difficult once you practice a bit, it’s mostly experience rather than lessons.” He gave a brief overview before he stepped a paw of his own into the water and then padded the rest of the way in. He dramatized the way he was moving, kicking out with his back paws, while turning to make a loop with his front ones. “Most of your speed and the likes will come from your back legs, while you tend to use your front ones to keep your head up and to help you change directions.” He pulled himself out of the water near where Eaglepaw was standing.

“Like I said, it's mostly practice, for now you should focus on keeping your head above water before working on speed. I’ll be right here in case you need help but I’m sure you’ll get it down quick.” Seabreeze gave a small smile, almost able to forget his embarrassment from earlier.

[ @Mica - Eaglepaw ]

[Mica]

Eaglepaw
RiverClan
she/her | 7 moons | 53/100
[Golden and white tuxedo tabby with green eyes]
Purrks: Dreamwalker, HK T2
· · ────────────── · ·
[Seabreeze - @Dolomedes ]
· · ────────────── · ·
Oh stars, she had really messed up. Seabreeze seemed upset, and if Eaglepaw knew anything, upset cats were less likely to teach you. She opened her mouth for another apology, but he launched right into an explanation of swimming, as well as a short demonstration. She watched him intently, and all nerves dissipated almost immediately.

Eaglepaw, while a very paranoid and nervous cat nowadays, still had one distinct personality trait from her kithood. She loved learning. She loved watching, she loved copying, and she loved figuring things out for herself. The moment Seabreeze presented her with an opportunity to learn something she truly did not understand, her true personality began to shine through. Her form seemed to broaden as she no longer kept herself smaller, and her big tufted ears perked up, following his every word and movement. As he pulled himself up beside her, Eaglepaw was practically vibrating with energy. He had hardly finished speaking before she dove into the water, completely forgoing all pretense of dipping her toes in and walking in slowly.

Of course, without a single lick of training, there was a little flailing as the apprentice tried to figure out how to balance herself in the water. By the time she had managed to tread water effectively, she had swallowed maybe two mouthfuls of the warm water and gotten water in both of her ears. But she was swimming. She was swimming. More or less.

Eaglepaw angled herself to face Seabreeze, genuine kit-like excitement in her emerald gaze. "Look!" She crowed, voice a little hoarse from coughing. "I'm doing it!" She began to gingerly paddle, kicking out with her powerful hind legs and steering shakily with her front. She did a few circles, breaths sawing in an out of her as her body used muscles it wasn't used to using, before pulling herself up next to the warrior. She shook out her long pelt, but it did pretty much nothing other than get Seabreeze more wet. She looked up at him, eyes sparkling. "That's so cool!! How do you attack underwater? Can you fish while swimming? Can you look for shiny rocks under the water??"

[Dolomedes]

Seabreeze
He/him | Riverclan Lionheart | Moons: 17 | Purrks: Go with the Flow | The Collector | Ultimate Predator |
“Ocean waters rising above your neck
You feel the glass start to crack.”

Seabreeze didn't really expect Eaglepaw to just throw herself into the deep end, literally, and he panicked a small bit and went to follow behind swiftly to make sure the apprentice didn't drown herself right out the gate but she managed to balance herself so he paused, halfway in the water right behind her. Ah, okay, this was fine. His blue eyes watched as the apprentice fumbled a bit but got into a nice rhythm in a short time just as he had expected. He slowly took himself out of the water again and watched Eaglepaw do a circle or two before she finally spoke again and this time she seemed much more excited about things than she had previously.

The lionheart gave a genuine smile back, "You are! You're doing swimmingly!" He laughed to himself a bit at the pun. He was sure that Eaglepaw would be fit for an actual river in probably one or two more practices if only to build endurance and strength in swimming muscles. "In the river, there's a current, and early newleaf it's especially unkind as it takes a bunch of water from the snow and Frost though it should be calming right about now as well. Once you build a bit of endurance and strength, I think you'll do just fine in the river!" He offered as he watched her climb out and then shake right next to him, but he was already wet is he didn't mind much at all.

It was a nice change in pace, the lionheart thought, that an apprentice was so eager to know more. Sometimes it was a bit tiring to talk and teach to cats that don't seem super interested. It was like working with kits, not in a bad way, just in the amount of interest and questions that he got was a breath of fresh air. He grinned at Eaglepaw, "Well, I'm not sure about swimming and fishing, you would scare everything away. They scatter at the slightest of movements, that's why you need to move quickly when fishing. I suppose you can go diving for good rocks, you may need careful though, for rivers when the water is clean enough I don't see an issue but like Lionsbeach please do not." The first question was one that Seabreeze found himself taking an interest in after the raid on Riverclan... and it's been more moons than he already thought since then but it was an interesting thought nonetheless.

"For fighting underwater, it's definitely possible, and would probably be very effective against other clans. I haven't quite tried it out myself but I plan to. It would likely mean tugging others down under the water so you would need to be able to keep your breath and also build strength to be strong enough to do that. Certainly a good idea!" He purred a small bit happy to share some of his ideas and his passion for swimming with another cat. It made him feel like he was actually kind of okay for the time being as dramatic as that was.

[ @Mica - Eaglepaw ]