[lone]

Originally Posted by Thistledawn

Cherrypaw's white fur bristled for a moment. She didn't like being laughed at. But she did realize the hilarity of the situation and let her fur flatten against her body. Blazingcomet's laugh was infectious, causing the apprentice to giggle along with him. She could see the unmistakable glimmer of amusement in her mentor's eyes. She hadn't really meant to be funny, but she'd take it. "I'll hold you to that." Cherrypaw teased. "I'm gonna eat myself the fattest starling either of us has ever seen!" Her mouth watered just thinking about it. The apprenticed swiped her tongue across her maw hungrily. She wished she had eaten before she left camp.

A disappointing sigh fell from Cherrypaw's lips. Of course Blazingcomet would jump right into training. She'd been foolish to think anything else. After all, it was Blazingcomet's responsibility to train Cherrypaw. Anyways, if she didn't train hard, she might as well be a kittypet. She shivered at the thought. She'd never met a kittypet herself, but she'd heard the queens and elder's stories about the fat cats who lived with Twolegs. They were soft cats who lived without the Warrior Code. They weren't cats Cherrypaw wanted to associate herself with. She hoped she'd never even have to meet a kittypet.

"I'll try," The apprentice muttered as her mentor turned his back. She was doubtful she'd be able to correctly block her mentor on the first try. It'll probably take me a few hundred times to get it right, she thought to herself. Cherrypaw never considered herself very good at figuring out what to do without being told. She often tried to convince Blazingcomet to give her clear instructions before trying whatever move she was being taught. The apprentice was capable of mustering up some move to complete whatever task she was given, but it never felt right. Sometimes Cherrypaw would wonder if she just needed validation in order to do something.

The orange cat turned around and faced the apprentice's direction. He'd walked a couple fox-length away from her, hopefully giving Cherrypaw enough space and time to figure what in StarClan's name she was doing to do in order to block her mentor. When asked if she was ready, she shook her head no. The white she-cat took a moment to shake her legs and her paws, loosening them and warming them up for the training ahead. "Okay, now I'm ready." She mewed as she took on a defensive stance. Cherrypaw kept her eyes trained on her mentor, mentally readying herself for his attack.

"You'll be just as fat as it if you eat like that," The orange tom teased, before the mood grew more serious. Of course his mind was still partly on Petal and Drizzleshard and the complications surrounding them, but he'd seen less and less of his ex-mate recently and while he knew that it was wrong, Petal seemed like the best substitute for the lack of times he had seen Drizzleshard recently. He wanted to have a steady relationship, but it seemed like that was not in the future for the tom. Taking his mind off of his love life, the tom returned to the subject at hand. As Cherrypaw took on a defensive stance, the tom crouched down, getting ready to spring. "Remember, there's no guarantee that you'll get it right the first time. Don't be discouraged if you don't." With those words, the tom darted at her, eventually springing through the air to aim for her paws. Knocking her to the ground was his current goal, and from there, he would be able to easily pin her.

Once an opponent, especially a smaller and younger one was down, it was hard for them to get back up again. Even though he knew it shouldn't, this gave him some amount of satisfaction. It would show that he still had his mind in the right place. Blazingcomet would have to try not to get too involved in the current "battle," and he made sure to keep focused on keeping his claws sheathed. With his thoughts on his ex-mate and current flirt/interest, it was getting harder for him to focus on basic duties. Cherrypaw was not the least of the duties that he'd been ignoring recently. He'd also been ignoring other things, such as hunting and patrolling and things such as those. Besides, he really didn't want to be patrolling with Petal out there somewhere, and he wished he'd warned her that there could be patrols coming by when he went to meet her - he felt like he was the worst, doing something like that. His thoughts turned back to the subject at hand - the current fight.

Cherrypaw looked ready, and she had given herself some time... while that wouldn't be a luxury in battle, SkyClan was supposedly staying neutral in the tension between ThunderClan and WindClan, so she wouldn't have to worry about fighting for a while. Besides, even if they did end up getting involved, Blazingcomet's orders would be for her to stay here and forget about fighting for a while. She could stay with the rest of the younger apprentices - at just seven moons old, the tom doubted she was ready for a true battle anyways. He'd still been an apprentice during the Evil Era, and he could remember the terror of that. It had truly been a frightening experience for him, and he was glad he was no longer having to fight like that. Now the most excitement he got was from a training session like the one he was in currently.