Quote:
Originally Posted by Mystical
Mothpaw grinned, her calico pelt not even twitching as the grass brushed it. She didn't speak, even though Lynxpaw did she wasn't a naturally a cat that talked as much as her best friend. Mothpaw wasn't exactly sure how she was supposed to do the hunting crouch but she had seen apprentices practicing it, and she had play fought in the nursery, she had done something similar back then. Mothpaw crouched down trying her best to not brush the grass and make a noise but she did make a light rustling sound as she crouched. Her stomach was slightly above the ground, enough so that she could walk. She stuck her tail out straight behind her, and she focused her eyes through the grasses, and parted her jaws again, closing them a few seconds after. "Like this?" She asked hesitantly, afraid she was doing it wrong with her best friend watching, even though she knew it didn't really matter to him. He was helping her. The little calico she-cat shook her head as much she could without messing up her posture to clear her head of the thoughts. She didn't need to be worried about messing up. That was how you learned, her mother and father had told her many times. Well, mostly her father he was the warrior of the two anyway. She had always wondered why her mother wasn't a warrior and why she didn't have a warrior name, but she had never asked. It made sense her mother didn't give her warrior advice because she was a permanent queen, but Mothpaw wondered why. That was one of the reasons Mothpaw had been scared of not learning. She might have to go into the nursery and stay there the whole rest of her life when she was warrior-aged. Quickly the molly snapped out her thoughts as she smelled a shrew, and this time it was much closer.
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Lynxpaw watched as Mothpaw crouched, like a real mentor would watch their apprentice. He felt a little giddy inside that he was helping to train an apprentice, despite being one himself! The tom would had nod if he hadn’t heard the slight noise of the rustling from her crouch. Immediately, his tail went up.
“See. Right there. That’s an infraction.” He states to the calico. Lynxpaw approaches the Molly, nodding her limbs to place them in correct places. He continued to move them around until they were place how he liked them. After he was finished, he said,
“You cannot make noise while hunting. That rustling you did when crouching? That right there would had lost you your prey.” Lynxpaw told her.
“One important rule of hunting is to not make any sound. Ya hear me, Mothy? You can’t make any sounds! Prey have good hearing as much as we do!” Lynxpaw circled the she cat, analyzing her posture. The hunting crouch was a passing grade in his book and he gave an approving nod.
“That’s how you should crouch. It’s the number one crouch we use when hunting prey.” Now, that she was in a crouch, Lynxpaw imitated her move. Perfectly, he lowered himself into a silent crouch. The same way Hunterfang has taught him. Close to Mothpaw’s ears, Lynxpaw whispered,
“You hear that?” His ears wiggled upon a nearby noise.
“That’s a shrew. It’s close by.” He lifted his muzzle into the air, inhaling the scent of the creature.
“Lemme show you how a professional do it.” He winked, then silently he crawled forward, no noise indicating his movement. Lynxpaw has naturally short fur, so his belly fur had no problem with touching the ground. Lynxpaw has stopped to observe the wind. Windclan always had winds blowing through. The most important thing was for the wind to not carry his scent toward his target. Thankfully, the Windclan was blowing the opposite way, so Lynxpaw moved forward. Once he seen the critter, the tom’s eyes locked on it. The shrew had no clue that it was being pressed upon. Lynxpaw stopped a fox length away. He bunched up his muscles and leaned back so that he could deliver a good jump on his target. Lynxpaw leaped forward, claws outstretched. Holding his catch under one paw, Lynxpaw happily bent down to nip its neck to kill it. Once finished, Lynxpaw trotted back towards Mothpaw, his shrew dangling from his muzzle.
“I hope you were watching carefully,” Lynxpaw purred after dropping the freshkill on the ground. “Because now I want you to practice your hunting leap.” The toyger insists.
“Before you even decide to hunt actual fresh kill...why don’t you...” Lynxpaw paused. Just as Hunterfang had done with him a couple times, Lynxpaw tried to find a lone, lean stick that was perfect for hunting practice. As a young apprentice, Lynxpaw remembered how Hunterfang wanted him to continuously crouch and leap toward the stick, acting as if it were prey.
“Practice your crouch and leap on this stick?” Lynxpaw suggested. The stick was standing at an odd angle so Lynxpaw used his tail to straighten it out.