Training the New Apprentices, Wing, Brave, Star, Shadow

[Maplepaw]

Shadowstripe led the apprentices and Braveheart around RiverClan's border, pausing in the midday sun. "Smell anything?" He asked casually. RiverClan scent markings were fresh, and he narrowed his eyes. If even one warrior set foot on his territoy...

His tail flicked as he dismissed the thought, amber eyes returning to their normal size as he examined his apprentice. Starpaw had a reputation for being smug, disrespectful, and having a sharp-tongue. Shadowstripe nodded thoughtfully; nothing he had never dealt with before. Although he had to admit, Starpaw was the first to have all of these traits in one apprentice.

Wingpaw followed Braveheart, wondering how he;d baby her. He'd most likely hint at something I didn't notice instead of coming right out and telling me about it, Wingpaw hissed to herself moodily. But she kept a happy face as she followed the warrior's to RiverClan territory borders.

"Smell anything?" Shadowstripe asked, turning to Starpaw. Wingpaw bit her lip, knowing the answer. But she wanted to see how Starpaw would react to this. She'll bite his tail off and send him running back to Ravenstar, The light-colored apprentice decided, smirking inwardly.

[Hazelmist]

Starpaw lashed her tail angrily at the question. "What kind of question is that?!" she spat, still violently flicking her tail back and forth.

"No mentor ever asks that question without smelling something themselves! Can't you be a bit less predictable!" Her tail motion softened just a bit, but only to preserve her energy; she was probably going to need it, by the way things were looking now.

"Yes, mentor. I smell RiverClan," the apprentice mewed in a mocking tone, still staring holes into him. "Happy?"

[Maplepaw]

Shadowstripe ignored teh apprentice. Let her tire herself out. I wasn't made deputy for nothing, he thought. "Very good," he mewed in praise. He'd find out why she was so... difficult sometime that it was only them, not with Wingpaw and Braveheart around.

"Keep a lookout for prey as we're on the patrol," Shadowstripe ordered, "When we're back you can bring it to the elders." With that, the deputy broke into a fast trot, sniffing the air for any strange scents.

Wingpaw narrowed her eyes. Why hadn't the tom lashed out at Starpaw like every other ShadowClanner had? Oh well, the apprentice decided, He'll break soon. No warrior can stand mentoring Starpaw forever. Wingpaw looked sympathetically at her friend, wondering if she'd ever become a warrior.

Oh please StarClan, she begged, Let her find a mentor that she can finish her training with!.

[Hazelmist]

Starpaw grinned widely at the tom's indifference. It amused her greatly that he was able to stand the heat. But for how long..?

She padded around, sniffing for any more scents. It seemed like all ShadowClan prey was dead! Then, she heard a deep croaking sound. She whipped around to see a frog, staring into outer space like a rock.

Eww, she thought, disgusted. I don't know why the rest of ShadowClan likes this stuff.. But she crept up anyway, which wasn't too hard because the frog was staring straight at her and not even noticing.

Stupid frog, she thought, jumping on it and snapping its neck with no resistance. Figures.

[Maplepaw]

Shadowstripe nodded, his amber eyes glowing with pride in spite of himself. "Well done, Starpaw. I understand that you enjoy hunting alone?" He asked, tailtip twitching in impatience. With Nightstorm on the loose, the deputy didn't like to leave his clan for long.

Wingpaw purred in amusement at the frog's stupidity as well as Starpaw's disgusted look. She had never been a big fan of frogs, the she-cat remembered, sighing. She didn't mind frogs, but nothing subsituted for the great taste of birds and other things with meat on them.

A twig snapped to her left, and Wingpaw whirled her head around to see another frog hopping away. Startled, a mockingbird worm-hunting flapped its wings and began to rise. Smirking, Wingpaw leapt forward, pinning it to the ground. You'd be better off if you'd stayed put, imbecile, she teased it, cutting its throat with a long foreclaw.

[Amberfoot]

Furypaw stalked through ShadowClan territory alone, sniffing the air and keeping his sharp eyes on the lookout for prey. His ears pricked as he heard a very faint rustle, and the frog that had leaped away from Wingpaw while she caught the mocking burd hopped out.

It landed on a small twig, in plain sight but made no move. Furypaw stared at the frog with an odd look. It just stared back with it's blank eyes. He dropped into a hunter's crouch and carefully pawed his way silently over to the statue of a frog, who still just stared at him with a look that said nothing. He bared his teeth and lunged, cracking the frog's neck with his jaws instantly. It fell limply to the ground, never worrying about death. He snarled. "Stupid frogs!" He thought, when he heard more rustling to the side of him.

Turning, he quickly snatched his frog up and stalked around the bush, peering around the clearing where he saw Starpaw, Wingpaw, Shadowstripe, and Braveheart. He stalked over to the roots of a tree, tossed the frog over lazily, and buried it in a no-effort-intended way. Afterwards, he sat down facing the group, eyes lazily narrowed a bit. He quickly groomed himself before staring at each of his Clanmates. "Hello." He finally meowed.

He lifted his head up, jaws open, and sniffed again. He smelled and heard a robin overhead, it's pretty bird-call of a tune filling his ears. They twitched, and he looked up blinking to see a robin floating around above. He watched it for a while until it flew down and into the tree he had just buried his frog under. "Ick, frog's are gross." He thought irritably, then made his eyes follow the robin into the tree and smirked happily. He wanted to show every cat how good of a hunter he was! Just like his mother!

Furypaw unsheathed his long claws, turned, and started to dig them into the large tree. He lifted his hindpaws with ease and dug their claws in as well, starting to completely lift himself onto the tree's smooth bark. He climbed to the lowest branch and easily padded onto it, perching and looking high into the sky at the next branch where the bird perched itself. He carefully maneuvered closer to the tree's trunk and scrambled up to the bird's branch, watching it hop away to the skinny edge.

Furypaw dropped into a smaller form and started to stalk a little closer to the bird at the pace of a snail, teeth bared and eyes on his prey with determination shinning in them. Silently he continued closer and closer to the bird until he was almost right next to it, the bird's back to him and chirping away, oblivious to the danger so close to it. He wiggled his haunches and licked his lips, lunging and landing on the bird squarely, easily snapping it's neck with a single swipe of a claw.

Smiling mischievously, satisfied, he scrabbled back down expertly from the large tree. He leaped back down onto the marshy ground with the bird in his jaws, turned and buried it quickly. Stalking over to the group, he smiled nicely. "Nice day for a hunt." He mewed, hoping that Shadowstripe and Starpaw especially were the impressed ones! His chest fur bristled barely in a little bit of pride, but he licked it down and gave them a cool look.

[Hazelmist]

Starpaw nodded to her mentor. "Yes, that's how I go about it," she mewed, yawning. "If you want something done right, better to do it yourself."

She suddenly seemed to notice Furypaw, and licked her front paw. "Eh, depends on what you call a nice day," she mewed, yawning lazily once again. If this tom wanted a compliment on his 'terrific' skills, she sure wasn't going to let him have it!

[Maplepaw]

Shadowstripe purred in satisfaction at Furypaw. "Nice catch, Furypaw," he mewed. His amber eyes gleamed as if he were the apprentice's mentor. Then he returned is gaze to Starpaw. "Hunting alone usually brings the most prey. Smaller groups make less noise and aren't easily detected with a weaker scent," he though aloud, ears twitching with agreement of Starpaw's preffered hunting style.

[Hazelmist]

Starpaw was caught off guard by the deputy's compliment. She shuffled her paws, and then instantly reprimanding herself for it. "Thanks, I guess," she mewed, watching an thrush intently. "I'll go do some more of it, then."

She padded up to the tree it was resting on and jumped, digging her claws in. The apprentice was determined to do better than any tom could do. Starpaw jumped up to the next branch, and then to another, and another.

Finally reaching the branch she was aiming for, she glanced down. It sure is a long way down.. probably a few fox-lengths she thought, for it was, but shook it out of her head the moment she thought it. This was her chance to prove herself to those goody-goodies down there. This was her chance to show them what she was made of.

Crouching, Starpaw crept over to the robin, when suddenly, the robin's head swiveled over to stare at her. In a split second, its face filled with alarm, and started to flutter away. Panic flooded her own thoughts, as she looked down at the ground.

But she leaped out anyway, practically flying with the bird. And she instantly regretted it. Oh, StarClan help me! she thought frantically as she started to plummet down to earth.

[Maplepaw]

((Um... is Furypaw supposed to save her? It's Fury x Star, right?))

Shadowstripe's head whipped up into the air, his amber eyes widening. "Great StarClan," he gasped in horror, watching his apprentice plummet to the ground. ShadowClan's deputy dashed to the tree, scrambling up to the first strong limb.

Positioning himself under Starpaw, he unsheathed his claws to grab Starpaw, opening his jaws and calculating where her scruff would be. Don't panic, he calmed himself, exerting all his panic to his tail which was lashing wildly. His hind claws dug grooves into the tree limb as he braced for her impact.

Wingpaw screeched in fear and surprise, darting under the tree where Starpaw would've fell. If Shadowstripe missed... well, Wingpaw didn't want to think about that.

[Hazelmist]

(It doesn't matter who saves her. I wasn't even thinking about that, strangely enough. But yes, it's Fury x Star.)

Starpaw shuttered at the thought of being caught. How unheroic. Just as she had pretty much lost all hope and was wiling to let herself be embarrassed like this, she noticed a stray branch just coming up. She reached out with her claws and grabbed onto it, ignoring the impact that attacked her front side.

Analyzing the tree bark, the apprentice tenderly placed a paw into it. It seemed steady enough. The branch creaked. She didn't have much time to decide.

She dug in her second group of claws, just in time for the branch fell to the ground, landing with a thud. Carefully placing her paws, she inched her way down.The moment her back paw touched the ground, she let out a sigh and jumped down.

[Amberfoot]

Furypaw blinked at Starpaw, who was showing that she didn't really care how good he was. Giving her an indifferent look, not really caring, her licked his paw once. Smiling at Shadowstripe when he praised him. "Thanks." He meowed, and was quiet until Starpaw started to climb the tree. He watched as she leaped, and started to crash down to the ground. "Starpaw!" He yowled in surprise.

Dashing over to where Shadowstripe was, he also unsheathed his claws and narrowed his eyes, deciding how he could catch her if Shadowstripe missed. Digging his claws into the ground, he sighed in relief when she caught the tree and carefully climbed down. He sheathed his claws and narrowed his eyes in concern. Although concerned, he wasn't about to show it for the apprentice.

[Hazelmist]

Starpaw gazed around at the other cats, all seemingly speechless. "What're you lookin' at," she meowed, standing up. "Well, gotta go find that stupid bird of mine."

The she-cat scanned over the bush for a moment, then suddenly reached out with expertise and snatched it out. Shaking it to rid it of the leaves, she glanced over to the group, waiting to see how they'd react.

[Maplepaw]

Shadowstripe narrowed his eyes at the apprentice, leaping down from the tall branch in one leap. He turned his gaze to Starpaw. "Don't ever try that again," he ordered, keeping his voice steady. But then he nodded, acknowledging her kill. "Bury it, the elders will be happy for some soft bird-meat."

Wingpaw turned her pale eyes over to Starpaw with a smile. Amazing, she mouthed, eyes shining with excitement. She sat down, looking to see how Braveheart would react. He had been daydreaming a lot lately, not speaking a word.

[Amberfoot]

Furypaw's ears flicked, and then he watched Starpaw catch the bird. Blinking, he paused before meowing. "Nice catch." He kept his jaws opened and sniffed, trying to find more prey. He picked up the scent of lizard, and immediately dropped into the Hunter's Crouch. Stalking forward, he glanced around and kept sniffing until he located it.

Crawling forward, tail lowered but still hovering above the ground, he stared directly at the lizard and growled very faintly. It was turned and relaxed, unaware of the danger it was in. Leaping, he caught it easily and dragged the limp lizard body back to where his bird and frog was, near the others. He dropped it, quickly burring it. But he doubted they would find any, if not much, more prey.