Quote:
Originally Posted by Thistledawn
Satisfaction bubbled up in Cherrypaw's chest as she watched her mentor shake his head. Perhaps her panicked movements didn't seem quite so panicked to her mentor. She half expected him to easily stop her paws and take her down with ease. The younger cat seemed to have surprised her mentor instead. Suddenly winning the first time didn't matter as much to her. At least she'd done something remotely right. Blazingcomet didn't even tell her exactly what to do. She had figured something out on her own. And on top of all of that, she felt contact after a few of her blows.
Cherrypaw wasn't surprised when her mentor began throwing around his own paws. Of course his movements were more calculated than hers were. After all, Blazingcomet had far more experience than Cherrypaw. Her mentor impressed her, as he always did. The tom seemed skillful in battle and the younger she-cat always felt motivated to meet his skill level one day. It seemed nearly impossible sometimes. She had to remind herself that she was still only 7 moons old. The she-cat was hardly anything more than a kit. She wished time moved faster. Or maybe she wished that training to become a warrior didn't take so long. She remembered what it felt like to be a kit wishing to move into the apprentice's den. Now she wished that she were a warrior already.
Blinking rapidly, the white cat tried to block her mentor's paws, ducking and shifting her body every once in awhile to avoid the blows she couldn't block. She tried to keep up for as long as she could, but the pace of the fighting was too fast for her. She felt herself tiring, her paws becoming more aimless and lost than they were before. What small amount of strength and force that they may have had before was now dwindling away. The only strength she was fighting with now was the false strength of pure adrenaline. Cherrypaw was panting as she tried to keep up with the older cat, but she was miserably failing. She tried to follow the ginger tom's paws with her blue eyes, but he was moving far too fast for her to make out anything more than an orange blur. Blazingcomet's blows began to land, causing the she-cat to lose her balance and her wit. |
The orange tom could feel Cherrypaw weakening as he kept up the furious onslaught, batting at her (lightly) with his paws, keeping up a high-energy speed, but careful not to be too rough. His eyes flashed as he determinedly drove her on, pressing as hard as he felt possible without hurting her too much. And then, eventually, when she did lose her balance, he pressed a little harder until he was eventually pinning her to the ground. "Good for your first time!" He complimented, panting a little bit as well. Blazingcomet was in his prime now, but even a warrior in their prime tended to get tired after struggling to fight for so long. A warrior in their prime was the cat that you could bet on to win a fight. Older warriors had more experience, but they were weaker - older apprentices/new warriors, well, they hadn't had as much experience and they were overconfident in their abilities.
Blazingcomet might have been overconfident at times, but at least when he fought, he knew what he was doing. Which gave him a reason to be confident in his abilities. "Ready to try again?" He asked, getting off of Cherrypaw and backing away some. His normally well-groomed orange fur was messy and looked as though it had been wind-blown in all directions. He awaited her answer, but backed up some just in case it was a "yes -" besides, they would be doing it soon anyways. If she needed a break she could have one, but he wasn't planning on waiting for very long. Once this training session was over, he would go to meet Petal... or talk to Gingerblossom, or if he could, Drizzleshard.
His ex-mate might not want to see him again, but the last time he had seen her (telling her that he was no longer sure if he was in love with her, and then her finding out about Petal) they had ended things on a rough note. He wanted to change that... at least end things on a more friendly note. Work something out so that they could maybe have some type of a friendship. That was what Blazingcomet really wanted, but chances were Drizzleshard wouldn't be quite as willing to cooperate with him as he was with her. She just wasn't the forgiving type of cat, or she hadn't been when he had tried to explain. Though to be fair - he doubted he would have been understanding if she had told him something like that.