Rabbit Running(Private)

[gs29513]

Deadmoon really should have gotten around to this sooner, but better late than never. Or whatever. She had definitely been procrastinating her apprentices hunting training to a degree, because she knew she would have to teach rabbit hunting first and that would be embarrassing. And painful. And difficult. And she would hate every second of it. But it had to be done, because rabbits were, like it or not, the most common prey in the meadow and made up the majority of Windclan's diet. Deadmoon was a fan of them herself, when they were left on the fresh-kill pile and she had brought in enough other prey to feel comfortable nicking one. So she had to teach Mintpaw and Duckpaw how to hunt them, and could move on to stalking prey afterwards. But for now, rabbits.

Mintpaw! Duckpaw! We're going rabbit hunting! she yowled, perhaps more loudly than necessary. Whatever. It wasn't like she was yowling for no reason, so anyone she disturbed could deal with it. It was PRODUCTIVE yowling, so she could get away with it. For sure. Once the apprentices gathered she would take off into the territory at a decent but not fast pace, assuming they would be smart enough to follow her. @Partypooper @Marycat006

[Marycat006]

Duckpaw heard her mentors yell and scampered over. It was hunting training! She was pretty sure that she would enjoy this. ¨Alright! Please stop yelling,¨ she joked, plopping down near where Deadmoon was.

She enjoyed eating, and hunting was a necessary part of that, so Duckpaw was pretty sure that she would find hunting interesting. She hadn't met the other apprentice before, had just seen them around, but she was hopeful that they would be a good training buddy. Even if they weren't, it would be fun and important to learn how to hunt for herself.

@Partypooper @gs29513

[gs29513]

After waiting for what seemed like an age for Mintpaw to appear, Deadmoon was forced to conclude that her second apprentice had no intention of showing up. Perhaps glow was out with another warrior, on patrol or something? Or perhaps glow was simply dead asleep? Regardless, Deadmoon wasn´t feeling in the mood to go hunting for glow, and so turned to Duckpaw with a shrug and a huff of I wouldn´t yell if apprentices weren´t prone to dallying about. It wasn´t her finest comedic work, but it would suffice for the moment. It seems Mintpaw isn´t joining us today no DUH fool so we´ll head out by ourselves, alright? It was a rhetorical question. Deadmoon didn´t really care whether Duckpaw was alright with going hunting. They were going hunting either way.

With this instruction given she strode out into the territory, moving into a jog which stretched her legs a bit but should be fairly simple for anyone with four fully functional legs to match. Duckpaw might not be fully up to shape yet, but she should still be able to manage, and it would improve her fitness a bit. Once they were out into the meadow a fair ways, she turned to her apprentice. Right. First, I want you to scent the air, and see what you can smell. Before we can actually catch the rabbits, we need to have an idea where they are. She herself could smell a few in the vicinity, two downslope toward the sun, away from the camp, and another upslope parallel to the camp, roughly a right angle to their current position. She wasn´t expecting Duckpaw to identify all of them, of course, there were probably a few Deadmoon hadn´t scented in their area. One or two would suffice, and then they could move on to the basics of pouncing before going after something. @Marycat006

[Marycat006]

Duckpaw followed her mentor, quickly stretching before bounding after her mentor. She was pretty excited to go rabbit hunting. She liked eating rabbits, so hopefully she would like catching them. And if she caught them, she could eat them! Well, after she brought it back to camp. It would be bad to eat it here by herself. At the meadow, she deeply inhaled several times, trying to smell where the rabbits were hiding. There would be at least a couple here because they were in the meadow, and Duckpaw could definitely smell something, but she couldn't really pinpoint exactly where it was.

After a few more sniffs(during which she was sure she looked very silly), Duckpaw had a rough idea of where there might be a rabbit. ”Is there one… over to our right?” she asked her mentor, motioning with her nose vaguely rightward and hoping that she got it right. Maybe it wasn't a rabbit. Maybe it was just grass. Even if it was just grass(or something else stupid), she had a one out of four shot at getting it correct, because there were only four directions. Maybe she’d get lucky and guess where one was. She glanced towards Deadmoon to see if she was right.

@gs29513

[gs29513]

Duckpaw seemed intent upon her task at least, inhaling great gusts of air which tempted Deadmoon towards giggles, though she resisted. Character growth! She wasn´t laughing at her apprentices ALL the time, just SOME of the time. This was probably the part where she thought someone would be proud of her, and she considered it for a moment. Who´s name would take that spot though? Rookscreech? No, Rookie would giggle alongside her. Snowybreeze? He had been fine with her idiocy, for some reason. Stars, she really needed to talk to him. She was a mess, that was for sure. Wolffang? Not a chance. He NEVER would have laughed, made a joke of, an apprentice. A model warrior, her brother. Of course he was. Breezefeather, too, was a good warrior. A good adult. He was dead, it didn´t really matter if he was proud of her anyway. It shouldn't, anyway. Starclan had never done anything for her.

In the midst of her interminably wandering thoughts, Duckpaw had actually managed to locate a rabbit, or the general direction of one anyway, and so Deadmoon was forced to refocus. Tragic. There is, indeed, a rabbit to our right. she mewed, nodding with a hint of pride slipping into her voice. For all her occasional buffoonery, Duckpaw could, apparently, be more competent than Deadmoon herself had been as an apprentice. Before we go after it, I want you to practice your stalking a bit. Stalking isn´t the most important part of hunting a rabbit, if it were she´d actually be able to catch the stupid things but you need to be stealthy enough, and get close enough, that you can run the rabbit down before it reaches its burrow.

Some cats (Crowtooth) were brave, and knowledgeable, enough to enter the tunnels in pursuit, and Deadmoon had received a lesson in their navigation once or twice as an apprentice, but they weren´t for new apprentices at all. Best to keep Duckpaw in open air for now. What I want you to do is copy me as best as possible, creep around here. If you think you´ve got the hang of it at some point, try lunging on me. Pounce, whatever you want to call it. Pretend I am a rabbit and ´catch´ me, without actually biting my throat. She would like to survive this lesson, ideally. With instructions, perhaps overly complicated, given, she dropped into her own crouch, padding about with her tail low and paws quiet. @Marycat006

[Marycat006]

Duckpaw watched what her mentor was doing intently, before dropping into a very rough imitation. She dropped down too far, and was basically lying down on the ground with her paws in front of her. After trying to move, and realizing that she couldn't because of how far down she was, Duckpaw raised herself up a little bit. A part of her really wanted to grab that rabbit, but she understood that if she even tried, that rabbit would be in its burrow before she could move a whisker. So, ‘catching’ her mentor seemed a good alternative. Besides, knowing that there was a rabbit somewhere was the first step to catching one, so she was doing alright.

While pressed down to the ground, she started to slowly make her way to where Deadmoon was. Slowly. Very slowly. This doesn't seem very efficient, she thought to herself. How in Starclans name did cats catch anything if they had to move this slow? She had hardly moved at all. At this rate, the rabbit would have died from old age by the time she got there. Then, Duckpaw had a Thought. Maybe she could go a little faster. She tried to go a little faster. That seemed to work better. She was going faster. Duckpaw thought she looked foolish. Then she stopped thinking. She started to go in very slow (but not as slow as before) laps around the area.

After a few laps, Duckpaw thought that she had the hang of it. That she had mastered stalking, in fact. She was probably ready to catch that rabbit-certainly ready to ‘catch’ Deadmoon! Duckpaw started to stalk towards where Deadmoon was doing a very good job at pretending to be a rabbit. A very big rabbit. Im gonna get ya, Im gonna get ya, Im gonna get ya, she thought to herself. Maybe mumbled it under her breath, but she was sure Deadmoon couldn't hear her. Probably. She was close now - a few more paces, and she could make a leap. Duckpaw was focused. Intently focused. Nothing else existed but her trying to catch this ‘rabbit’. She took a step.

And stepped on something that snapped. It was not at all a quiet snap. She was very sure that not only did Deadmoon hear it, but that rabbit from earlier probably heard it too. If that rabbit was even still around. Duckpaw looked up wide-eyed at Deadmoon.

@gs29513

[gs29513]

(AAAAHHH DUCKIE IS SO FREAKING CUTEEEEE!!)
It took Duckpaw a minute to get going, but once her apprentice got her paws in a decent position and began creeping around more quickly, Deadmoon paused her own demonstrative sneaking to watch. It was a work in progress, but that was fine. Nothing was tooooo out of line with her positioning, and Deadmoon was a great believer in letting the kinks work themselves out rather than forcing everything into place too soon. Better to let the kid have a go at actually catching something and adjust from there, with a bit of confidence and, ideally, a catch under her paw.

Then Duckpaw began creeping towards her, and Deadmoon was only slightly alarmed by the fact that she was about to get jumped. Only slightly. She turned resolutely away, to better play the part of unsuspecting prey. But no sooner had she averted her gaze than it was drawn, somewhat unwillingly, back to Duckpaw. The snap of a stick was a rare thing in the meadow, but Duckpaw had evidently managed not only to find a stick, but to step on it. It was highly likely that the rabbit previously in their area had gone, and Deadmoon the 'prey' had been thoroughly alerted. Although, this did provide an opportunity to correct the one folly of this exercise. Duckpaw would not be stalking all the way up to the rabbit. Rather, she would be approaching within a few foxlengths, ideally between the critter and it's burrow, and then running it down.

Once she had gotten her VERY strong urge to laugh under control (occurrences of Murphy's Law would never not amuse her) and let out a singular snort, Deadmoon opened her maw to give meaningful direction. This is the point at which you run at me as fast as you possibly can and hope you're faster. she mewed with a bit of a teasing tone. Though Duckpaw WAS probably faster than her already. Ugh, such a fun thought. Well, at least she could always argue that she had handicapped herself to make things a bit easier for the apprentice this time? Knowing the prey in the area had already gone, Deadmoon had no qualms about taking off running almost as fast as she could (still an attainable speed for Duckpaw to overhaul) in a random direction, tail streaming out behind her as her uneven gait beat it's way along the grass. @Marycat006

[Marycat006]

(DUCKY IS NAUGHT BUT A FOOL)

Duckpaw was frozen in place for a second as her mentor took off into the grass. Then, she realized what was happening and began to run after her. Gotta catch that..rabbit, she thought to herself, bolting towards her mentor so that she could ‘catch’ Deadmoon. They were similarly matched in terms of speed, but Deadmoon had quite a few seconds head start, so Duckpaw had to put a pep in her step to catch up. Being stealthy didnt matter now-all that mattered was catching Deadmoon! She had (probably) lost one rabbit, but she could still catch this one!

“I’m gonna get ya, I'm gonna get ya, I'm gonna get ya!” She playfully taunted Deadmoon as she chased her. Deadmoon might have had a head start, but she also had a bad leg. Duckpaw had a slight qualm about using that to her advantage, but then she decided that she was having fun and should stop thinking. She focused intently on catching Deadmoon, speeding up until she was just a few hairs behind her.”Im gonna get ya!” she shouted. As she advanced on her mentor, Duckpaw thought to herself. This was pretty fun! She actually really enjoyed this!Then, she stopped thinking about anythng but catching her ‘rabbit’. Her head was empty, she had no thoughts. She only existed to catch Deadmoon. Now, Duckpaw understood why so many Windclan warriors and apprentices kept talking about how fun it was to hunt. She didnt think she had ever had this much fun in her life!

It took a while, but eventually Duckpaw was so close to Deadmoon that she felt like she could leap and ‘catch’ her successfully. “I’m gonna get ya,” she yelled once more as she prepared to jump. She leaped. She soared through the air, fully intent on landing square on Deadmoons back.

She did not land square on Deadmoons back. She barely landed on Deadmoon.

Instead, Duckpaw managed to land somewhat on her hindquarters, almost sliding off and hitting the ground. She grabbed one of Deadmoons legs and wrapped her paws around it, determinded to not let this ‘rabbit’ go. Not the masterful takedown that she had envisioned, but it would do. She clung to Deadmoon’s leg so that she couldnt be shook off. Then, she took her paw and smacked Deadmoon on her shoulder, because she couldnt reach to her head. “I win!” she said, still not letting go, slightly hanging off of the side of her mentor. “I’m the winner!”

@gs29513

[gs29513]

Stars damn it, the kid WAS faster than her. Deadmoon did her best to keep ahead of the apprentice, because she would need to get up to at least this speed to actually catch a rabbit, but with every passing moment Duckpaw pulled closer and closer and closer to her, until she could practically feel the apprentice's breath on her heels. She wasn't quite sure how Duckpaw was managing to chatter even as she ran about over the moor, she herself was panting a bit more than was seemly, but the child did seem to have something of a gift for gab. An ability to chatter on and on and on in an endearing manner, which had not stopped now even during an ostensibly focussed exercise designed to turn her into a useful member of Windclan.

Deadmoon did manage to drag enough air into her lungs to toss a somewhat challenging (and untruthful) No you're not! back behind her, but beyond that she focussed on running. Stars she hated this. She was probably going to be all sore afterwards too, because she avoided it when possible. Ugh ugh ugh and ugh again. Sometimes, she was fairly certain she was in the wrong clan. Not that any other clan would be more amenable to a cat who couldn't run well and wasn't particularly strong, Twilightstar was the nicest of the leaders and Windclan was generally the most welcoming about things like that. So perhaps, if not in the right clan, she was in the best option. Most of the time she just settled for hunting....other things.

And then she was dragged out of her circular, self-pitying thoughts by a thump, as her hind legs buckled with the sudden addition of a whole cat on top of them. Duckpaw slid somewhat down her haunches, but wrapped herself enough around Deadmoon's legs that she couldn't shake her off easily, and was forced to slow down as a paw swung up to slap her on the shoulder and the victorious crowing began. Eventually coming to a stop and turning to bat away the irritating paw, Deadmoon snorted at the sight before her. Duckpaw was draped all over her like an annoying limpet, covered in dirt from being dragged a short distance but smirking like she was the best warrior ever.

Sure you win. she mewed indulgently, patting Duckpaw only slightly condescendingly on the head. You took down the big 'ol grumpy rabbit. Shaking her hind leg a bit more forcefully, just to ensure the leech detached itself relatively promptly, Deadmoon decided it was time to get on to the actual, real life hunting. She didn't really want to real-life demonstrate, she'd just suffered a tackle to give Duckpaw an idea of what was going on after all, so she figured she'd just......send the child off to see what she could do. She had enough enthusiasm that a failure now wouldn't crush her the way it might have done to Snowy, so there was little danger in this approach. At least as far as Deadmoon could see. Alright, I want you to have a go on a real rabbit now. There should be some a bit farther away from camp they surely hadn't scared ALL of them off and I'll let you lead the way. Once you scent one you can start stalking till you're relatively close, ideally between it and it's burrow, and then run it down. Alright? That should be enough instruction to give Duckpaw a chance anyway. @Marycat006

[Marycat006]

Duckpaw was very proud of herself. I have succeeded! I caught the rabbit! she boasted one more time, for good measure. After thoroughly removing herself from her mentor's leg, and shaking off a bit of the excess dirt and dust, she raised her head to see if she could sniff out any rabbits. She hadn't been the quietest when she was ‘stalking’ and then chasing Deadmoon, but there were probably one or two rabbits out there, just waiting to be caught. She took a sniff. She smelled….a lot of dirt. She sneezed. After using her paw to clear away excess dirt from her nose, she tried again.

Duckpaw thought she smelled something. It smelled a whole lot like a rabbit. It smelled to be in her general left. So, Duckpaw headed to her general left, glancing behind her intermittently to make sure that her mentor was following her. Every so often, she stopped and took a few more sniffs, just to make sure that she was still on the right track. She was pretty sure that she still smelled it. She hoped she was right, because she didn't want to lead her mentor and herself on a wild….rabbit chase. She was about 98% sure that they were getting closer.

Then. She saw it.

Not a magnificent rabbit by any means. It was a fairly normal weight, not incredibly plump, but it had some meat on its bones. It was the regular bunny fur color. It was eating the grass that all the other bunnies ate, with its little eyes focused on the grass it was munching on. But Duckpaw had smelled it, and she had managed to not scare it away immediately. She was DETERMINED to catch it.

Duckpaw moved into a stalking pose, slowly inching forward. Im gonna get you….I'm gonna get you… I'm gonna get you…. she thought in her head. If she said it out loud, the rabbit would hear her and run away. The rabbit was facing the other direction, unaware that there was something hunting it. Duckpaw got closer and closer, slowly and slower. She wasn't making a sound, like she had before. She was going to learn from her mistakes, and catch this rabbit! She was very close now. Only a leap away-

The rabbit moved. Duckpaw froze. It turned, slowly, still chewing on some grass, until it was facing Duckpaw. It looked right in her eyes. You don't see me, Duckpaw thought. I am very well camouflaged. GO back to stuffing your face with that tasty tasty grass, rabbit. The rabbit looked at her a moment longer, as if to consider pretending that DUckpaw wasn't there (despite her being in plain view) before running full force at Duckpaw.

Duckpaw was startled, and sort of jumped away. It took her a second to realize what was happening. That was all the time the rabbit needed. It ran to her right, and by the time Duckpaw was chasing after it, it was already in its burrow, safe from her. Duckpaw glanced into the burrow, and was met with two tiny reflections of light. The rabbit's eyes were full of mockery, and hate. Duckpaw wanted to reach in and swipe it out, but she was a) not meant to go in the burrows b)the rabbit bolted away, deeper into the burrow. Duckpaw pulled her head away, and sat down next to the opening of the burrow. Defeated. But, she would try again. She would catch that very rabbit one day.

She turned around to where Deadmoon was. I didn't catch that one she called to her mentor. Should I try again? Maybe that was it for today. She kinda hoped not. That was fun. She liked hunting rabbits, and she was certain that she would like to catch them even more! She waited for Deadmoons response.
@gs29513