claws unsheathed [p]

[Beaan]

cloverpaw
cw; grief

the brown tabby apprentice trailed after dawnstar as the leader led him out of camp. he didn't like being out of the territory often, after being carried away by that weird creature. at least this time cloverpaw knows how to fight if they need to. the half-blind apprentice looked around the forest, puffing up their fur. it was a lot colder now - although cloverpaw had been born in the cold seasons, she could hardly remember it. the scarred apprentice came to a halt for a moment before opening her jaws. "teach," the tabby tom said bluntly, flicking a tattered ear. the sooner he could complete his training and pass his assessment, the better.

[ @Undertaker - apologies for the bad starter !! ]

[Undertaker]

@Beaan
Dawnstar fights off a yawn while her pelt twitches from the temperature change. It's a far colder outsider than it had been inside her den. She listened to Cloverpaw's paw steps as she trailed behind the leader. Once deep enough in the territory, Dawnstar sits down and raises a whiskered brow at the demand to be taught. It was hard getting used to this former blabber mouth speaking so little. She couldn't say she wanted the old furball back, but it wouldn't hurt if he talked a bit more and formed actual sentences.

"I can't teach you anything until you find me something to teach with. Go fetch me something furry to instruct you with." Dawnstar meowed, nudging her chin towards the trees. "Don't stray from my sight, I don't need you carried off by some bird again."

[Beaan]

cloverpaw
cw; grief

shadow fiend is active several times in this post, signaled with the italics and underline

alright, slight problem. he didn't know how to hunt. but, he would try. "don't know how. don't blame if no prey," he said, saying each word one at a time. the scarred brown tabby glanced over to the area the leader had pointed out. the apprentice melded with the shadows, once he had started to search for prey. cloverpaw parted his jaws, trying to see if he could scent anything. After a bit, cloverpaw spotted a mouse. being able to blend with the shadows would probably help him out in this case.

[roll: 4, 3, 13. fail]
they stalked over, green eyes narrowing. once he was close enough, he leaped out, but made a crucial error. they had tripped over their own tail. so instead of leaping out and landing on top of the mouse, cloverpaw just stumbled to the ground, letting out a small hiss. curse his long tail. his green eyes glanced back over, only to find the mouse gone. great. just great.

the tabby tom got up once more and headed in a different direction, hoping they haven't scared off all the prey. the tom emerged from the shadows, figuring he didn't really need to do that until he had spotted some prey. after a bit, cloverpaw caught the scent of a shrew. alright, a second chance.

[roll: 6, 9, 14. fail]

cloverpaw once more became one with the shadows that littered the forest, creeping up on the shrew with a sloppy hunter's crouch. they made sure that their tail wasn't in the way before leaping. he closed his half-blinded eye, adjusting his paws before leaping out. it was set up to be good, but the tabby apprentice fell short on the leap, landing right in front of the shrew. it darted off, and the apprentice slammed their paw down, attempting to catch it as it ran, but it was no use. they silently cursed. another good piece of prey. gone. but they weren't going to give up just yet. third times the charm, right? plus, he wasn't going to go back to his leader empty-pawed. cloverpaw cast a glance in dawnstar's direction before heading off a little ways from where he was, searching for something they could catch.

[roll: 7, 8, 19. success]

after an even longer time searching, cloverpaw came across a squirrel. very scrawny, only a bit bigger then a kit. could probably feed just the apprentice at max. but it was prey, and cloverpaw wasn't going to give up. he narrowed his green eyes, slowly making his approach. he slowly made his way to the squirrel, inch by inch, and stopped a few tail-lengths away. he had to get this right. dropping down into yet another very sloppy hunters crouch, and leaped. he landed on the tail, claws digging in. he let go for the tiniest moment as he tried to position himself for a killing bite, and the squirrel bolted. he was so close, and wasn't going to let this get away. the brown tabby raced after them, outstreching a leg and bringing his paw down on it's back. quickly, cloverpaw delivered the killing bite to the neck.

he had done it! cloverpaw picked up the scrawny thing and trotted back over to dawnstar, a hint of pride in his eyes, but no smile. he dropped it at his feet and glanced back up to the leader. "there," he stated bluntly, nudging his catch over to dawnstar. the pathetic catch was good enough for cloverpaw himself, especially considering he had no prior hunting training.

[ @Undertaker ]

[Undertaker]

@Beaan - Cloverpaw

Dawnstar's ears went back against her head again when she heard Cloverpaw still didn't know how to hunt! Seriously, she wasn't training the furball if he didn't know how to hunt first. There was no point in it. Hunting was a primary skill that needed to be learned within the clan, flaying was an extra. Did he not learn anything from their last failed lesson?

The leader's tail lashed viciously back and forth as she shot an irritated glare at that apprentice. Her annoyance grew as she watched him attempt to hunt and make mistake after mistake. She's never seen a cat trip over their tail when hunting. This was proving to be a very frustrating show. Her stealth didn't seem to be that bad, but his hunting crouch was atrocious. Each failure was another lost prey that could have filled a clanmate's belly.

By the time the apprentice finally caught something, Dawnstar's lips were curled and her fangs were peeking out. A loud growl rumbled from the back of her throat sounding like thunder rolling through the sky. "Even though you caught something with such sloppy movements, do you know how many mouths could have been fed with what you lost." This wouldn't have been as big an issue if it wasn't so cold out. Prey couldn't be wasted in leafbare.

"You could have waited for me to instruct you instead of going off on your own. You also should have told me you couldn't hunt before asking to learn how to flay. If you can't hunt then you should not be learning something as advanced as how to skin prey you can't even catch." Perhaps she was being too harsh on the apprentice, but she had rubbed the clan leader's fur wrong.

"Hunting is not a game, Cloverpaw, especially during leafbare when every piece of prey counts. I should have you go without prey for two days for your stupid antics." She took in a deep breath and released it in a loud huff. She reaches out a massive paw and digs her equally as large claws into the tail of the squirrel he caught. It would do but Dawnstar would fix his mistakes first.

"We're working on hunting first." She orders after calming down a bit. "You have excellent stealth, your ability to blend into the shadows is impressive. We need to fix your hunting crouch and your tail. I've never seen a cat trip over their tail when hunting before. When you drop into a crouch you want to set all your weight on your haunces, this way, your paws have no impact on the forest floor. Your tail needs to be lifted out of your way, but not high enough that you attract attention to it or it's brushing your surroundings, keeping it stiff and straight behind your works. You need to make sure that your front paws are even and don't put too much weight on one side or the other otherwise your crouch becomes lopsided and your leap is off. And put more strength in your hindlegs if your leap comes up short when pouncing."

Dawnstar grabbed the squirrel Cloverpaw had caught in her maw and padded several tail lengths away from the cat. She dropped the deceased prey in front of her and sat a few whiskers lengths behind it. "Try dropping into a hunting crouch and pouncing on the squirrel. If you fall short or bump into me instead of landing squarely on the squirrel, we're doing it again."

[Beaan]

cloverpaw
cw; grief

the tabby sat silently as the leader growled at her, going on about how that prey could have ment life or death for cats. cloverpaw couldn't care in the least at the moment, but the tom sat silently, portraying no emotion on his face. the leader started explaining how to hunt now, and cloverpaw cracked a small smile at the note of his excellent stealth. dawnstar started explaining the hunters crouch and how to leap for the prey. the half-blind apprentice, once the leader finished speaking, dropped into a hunter's crouch. they made sure their tail was slightly above the ground, and evened his front paws, just as dawnstar had instructed.

[roll: 7. success!]

cloverpaw slowly stalked closer to the prey. once close enough, the tom sprang forward, propelling himself with his haunches and landed square on the prey. they let out a low purr of satisfaction and looked up at the leader. the tabby sat up straight and licked down some of his ruffled fur before looking up at the leader. that was good, right? "good?" they asked, tilting their head to the side.

[ @Undertaker ]

[Undertaker]

@Beaan - Cloverpaw
Apprentices these days show so little respect for important matters like hunting. It was hard not to feel like her words were going in one ear and out the other when Cloverpaw simply sat there and stared at her blankly. It was like she was talking to a wall. You know what she didn't care so long as he put in the work to hunt properly. They'd have problems if she heard any more about her scaring prey off when hunting.

Her eyes followed Cloverpaw as they did as intrusted and performed a far better crouch and pounce than when they first started. "Yes, much better. When you hunt from now on remember what you're taught. You'll be in trouble if I hear you're chasing prey off." She warned and then padded over to the lousy squirrel they had caught.

"Come here," She urged the apprentice with a quick ear twitch. "Hopefully you didn't damage or rupture any organs inside." Dawnstar nudged the squirrel towards Cloverpaw. "I'm going to explain how to skin and you're going to do it." She told him.

[TW: semi-detailed gore explanation]

"Lay the squirrel down on its belly, and use whichever forepaw you're most comfortable or dominant with to cut. The other forepaw will hold the squirrel still by holding the legs or tail firmly. Unsheath one claw and make an incision along the spine, from the shoulders to the hips. The cut only needs to be skin deep, so very lightly, any deeper and you'll hit some organs and that will cause... problems."

[Beaan]

cloverpaw
cw; grief, minor gore and skinning

the tabby apprentice showed a glint of pride in his eyes as dawnstar dubbed his crouch and leap acceptable for hunting. they nodded at dawnstar's words - they didn't plan on scaring off prey in the first place, but now that they knew how to hunt, it shouldn't happen again.

now the leader moved onto flaying, and cloverpaw prepared to follow dawnstar's instructions. the half-blind cat held down the squirrel by the tail with their left paw. she unsheathed a claw on her right paw and lightly cutting the squirrel from the shoulder to the hips as the leader instructed. the apprentice made sure that it had broken skin and no further. she looked over at the larger tabby female, awaiting for further instructions.

[ @Undertaker ]

[Undertaker]

@Beaan - Cloverpaw
She observed as the apprentice followed her instructions, flaying took great patience and good paw control. One wrong nick and you could ruin the entire thing. She was very pleased to see that Cloverpaw didn't cause any issues, Dawnstar wondered if she would still be able to do this so carefully if her grief hadn't drastically changed her personality.

"Next is peeling off the pelt and detaching the extra limbs from the fur. Start slowly peeling from the back, if you notice the skin catching you'll want to gently wiggle your claw between the flesh and pelt and it free. Cut the hip joint, detach the hindleg bones, and snip the tail with your claws or fangs. From there you can pull the skin down to the forelegs, make a cut at the shoulders, remove the forelegs from the body like you did the hindlegs, and pull the skin past the neck towards the head slowly, you don't want to tear it. Depending on how good you are with your claws, you can cut the ears, eyes, and nose off the body, or forgo it and carefully pull the pelt off without doing it. And there's your pelt." She finished.