[lone]

Originally Posted by Nighty

Rusticash was impressed, she seemed to be improving quite well, especially since she was bashing herself for not being good at this type of maneuvers. Sure she had messed up, he would forgive one simple mistake, right? Not! Every mistake made, was one more moment of failure. One more moment of weakness. He had to be strict. He had to be tough. No surrender, no defeat, fight till the end, never give He would not take pity on Clawpaw, even if she only messed up once. As he liked to say, pity is not allowed, pity allows for weakness. And he could not afford to be weak, so neither could Clawpaw. That was why he would push so hard, why he pushed her, why he pushed himself. He had goals, and he knew he could leave no room for mistake. He had to get everything right. He had to train her up, make her perfect, make her so that when the time came, nothing could be messed up. It had to be perfect, then he could say it was a mere accident and misunderstanding between the two of them. Halestar might be live it, but it was worth a shot, and the only one he could see. He had to get this right, and as of right now, it was resting in how well he was training the apprentice.

Turning back to her and dragging his consciousness away from the depths of his mind, he watched her. Maybe this time she could get it. Maybe...come in...perfection! Not. She tripped, again. She had seemed distracted that time. Maybe she needed inspiration to do it right. Pinning his ears back, he rose to his oaws, his wel muscled frame stalking frustratedly over to the apprentice. "What was that? You looked like you weren't even trying!" He hissed angrily. He didn't give her the chance though to respond. "You need motivation to run faster, jump higher, get better. Let's just say, you're not becoming a warrior until you get this down. You will have to pass my test, and in that test, I have the ultimate test for you. One that will prove your loyalty to me, and to the Clan. One with at will show your true strength, but you are going to need this skill." He said, looking down at her oaws. "This time, I want you to do the same loop, but this time there's a twist. I will be following you. I will pace myself. I will follow your every move, even the jump. I will be chasing you. You mess up and trip, and I catch up, I'm attacking, no claws sheathed. Full force, coming down. If that hapoenes, you could choose to run, or choose to fight; I suggest you not mess up though. Begin." He spat.

The feline was partly stunned. True; she had messed up, but at least she was trying. Oh well. He knew best... at least, she wanted to believe that he did. If he was doing this for no reason, she would be severely angry. But, hopefully there was some sort of strategy in all of his madness, some sort of idea to this plan. If she did slip up... he would attack her. And she guessed that a warrior like him, who was older and more seasoned, was better adapted to fighting. She could hold her own against an older, experienced warrior, but not for very long. If only he was weaker, or younger... she would be able to kill him, though. Most other apprentices and weak or young warriors were easier to fight, and she had killed more then one while fighting against SkyClan.
A pleasurable experience, but not one that Clawpaw wished to go through again. She hadn't liked being beaten. She hated the feeling of being pinned, beaten, and knowing that she wouldn't give up-- Clawpaw would rather die then admit that she was beaten, but right now? She was afraid she might not have a choice. Shrugging, the feline slowly began to run around, wondering if he would really carry out his threat. Slowly, she gathered speed until she was running as fast as she could, trying to avoid getting hurt by darting quicker, speeding up to the best of her ability, running as fast as she could. Her sides heaved with exertion, but she didn't dare slow down. Or look back. Clawpaw wasn't necessarily scared of him, yet right now she feared for her life.
If Rusticash really were to attack her-- there was always the chance that she could die. And if she did? She wouldn't be getting a do-over at life. Clawpaw didn't necessarily not believe in StarClan... she believed in them, alright. Believed that they were real. But she chose to turn her back on them anyways, thinking that they were just for the weaker members, that they were something to blame things on or to believe in when things got rough. 'StarClan will save us,' words that had been spoken so many times the white she cat was sick of them. Where was StarClan, hm? Right now, while she was trying to get better. They weren't helping her. They were probably watching and laughing, and the thought made her grit her teeth. StarClan was weak as well.
They were just a bunch of old, stupid, dead cats who she didn't need. Who she would never need. She was absolutely sure that Rusticash was chasing her. The white feline got ready to change her course and did so, dreading the upcoming jump. Maybe he was going slower. Maybe even if she did trip, she'd have time to get out of the way. Clawpaw jumped, leaping over the branch as though she had been doing so easily her whole life and as soon as her paws touched the ground, continued to run. She didn't even stop to see if she was supposed to continue. Just in case he was still chasing her, waiting for her to make some mistake so he could pounce.