[Thistledawn]

Originally Posted by Lonestar23

Sometimes Cherrypaw's personality - not necessarily the whole thing, but parts of it - really ticked Blazingcomet off. He was the first tom to understand things like having a big ego, but now that he was getting older and his pride had been wounded some by the mess with his mate - or former mate - had definitely taught him that there was a lot he didn't know. A lot he had to learn. Someday his apprentice would learn the same thing. Blazingcomet set his frame and prepared for a charge from the fluffy white apprentice. A frown came over his features as he watched her weaving back and forth, changing directions every few seconds, and he would step a little to the opposite side of her attack, frowning the whole time, clearly disapproving of whatever strategy this was. What can she be thinking? With the way Cherrypaw was moving, her final attack would have less "oomph" to it. She was going to use up all her energy and time on trying to confuse him!

Blazingcomet was confused, alright, but not in the way that she had been thinking. He wasn't unstable - instead he was worried, that he had left something out in speaking to her. However, there was a chance that a younger warrior - one who was new out of training, or even another apprentice - would be easily tricked by her try. Blazingcomet knew that he, for one, would have been more confident that Cherrypaw was just being stupid and there was no strategy to her plan, and would have ended up being beaten by the fluffy apprentice. As she sprang through the air, it was only a fraction of a second - not enough time for him to move out of the way. Now, Blazingcomet's left paw was his twisted one. It wasn't strong enough to hold his weight, and it was a liability in battle. His shoulders, however, were quite strong - they had become that way through moons of training, running, fighting.

There was a scar on one of them - Blazingcomet couldn't always remember which, but he knew that it was there. Cherrypaw aimed for the limb with the twisted paw, giving him the chance to stabilize himself with his good paw. While the impact shook him - and momentarily caught him off balance, he was able to get himself back up with his right paw. "Good!" The tom mewed, a pleased tone in his voice as he settled, his defensive stance going down in a symbol that he was getting ready to say more. "But... I will tell you now that you made a couple of mistakes. First of all, it's fine to try and confuse your enemy - especially if they're young - but you won't catch an older warrior off balance like that. You're going to use your energy trying to weave back and forth and your final blow won't have as much power." He stopped, glanced at Cherrypaw to see if she was listening, and then continued.

"Secondly, you aimed for a weak spot - which was smart, and would be normally, but since I'm bigger then you - and my other leg was still good - I was able to catch myself. It might be a good idea to aim for a good limb instead... so, if you had aimed for my right leg, I probably wouldn't have been able to catch myself with my left. Does that make sense?" Blazingcomet turned his golden gaze down to meet Cherrypaw's, a little bit of worry showing in them. Was he overloading her with all of this information?

The apprentice was about to grumble something about an impossible task and not giving her much to work with, but she bit her tongue, knowing better than giving older cats any tongue. It wouldn't get her anywhere, even if she was right. She didn't want to sit through another lecture about respecting other cats. Cherrypaw already had other lectures to sit through. Anyways, Cherrypaw's idea wasn't that bad. At least she tried. The she-cat had invested herself in his attack and was genuinely disappointed when it didn't work. She paced in a circle a few times before she finally sat down and curled her tail around her paws. Alright. I guess it did have some flaws. By the time she'd reached Blazingcomet, she pretty much was exhausted. There was hardly any power behind her attack. Aiming for the wrong leg was just a stupid move on her part. She hadn't really been thinking that much about it. And anyways, she would've felt bad for using her mentor's disadvantage to her advantage.

"Okay, that makes sense." There was only a hint of frustration in Cherrypaw's mew. "Well then how do I take down a cat who isn't you?" Not every cat had a twisted paw. And if it weren't for the ginger tom's big disadvantage there wasn't any chance Cherrypaw would have tipped the tom over even slightly. Maybe she'd be able to get away with another apprentice, but a full grown cat with no physical disadvantages? No way was that going to happen.