Quote:
Originally Posted by Thistledawn
Cherrypaw squirmed underneath her mentor's paws. She felt the earth rubbing against her pelt, soiling her pretty white fur. It didn't feel good to lose even when she knew she would, but Cherrypaw felt more determined now. A new sense of inspiration flourished inside of her. It was the small things in life that did this to her. She'd been winning the battle for a heartbeat, and that was enough for now. Blazingcomet was still above her, panting a bit. His praise felt good, especially when she thought she deserved it. The apprentice was breathing heavily too, taking a moment or two to regain her breath and her strength. That first fight had surely sapped Cherrypaw's physical strength. Being on 7 moons old, her endurance wasn't the same as a fully trained cat's. Impatience prickled at her paws once more. She absolutely couldn't wait to be a warrior of SkyClan.
"Let's do this," The she-cat mewed with spirit as Blazingcomet's weight lifted off of the smaller cat. The white cat shook the dirt and other objects from her fur, then looked up to her mentor with bright blue eyes. She hoped that this training session ended on a good note. She wanted to take some good news or something to brag about back to the apprentice's den where surely some apprentices must be napping or chatting. Impressing and trying to outshine the other apprentices was something Cherrypaw looked forward to. She was young and small and not taken seriously by other cats. She hoped that sharing her accomplishments would impress them, making them forget just how young and inexperienced she was.
The apprentice took on the same defensive stance and watched her mentor. She'd have to figure out how she was going to beat Blazingcomet this time. Her last move had come to her in a panic and wasn't calculated. She'd barely had time to think any of her blows through. The she-cat wondered if perhaps she could use the same move again. Maybe her mentor would expect that from her. Or maybe he expects that I know he expects that from me, so he thinks I'll use a different move, and I'll surprise him with the same one. Her head whirled. No, she thought. I'll just get tired again. I want to win. Cherrypaw hoped this time would be different. At the very least, she wanted to do better than last time. The white cat craved more praise from her mentor. The slight taste of it wasn't enough for her. |
The amount of spirit, and utter determination in his apprentice's voice made the young warrior glow with pride. Before he'd had an apprentice, he had never understood why older warriors - even cats his age - would talk about how pleased they were with the way their apprentice was turning out, and how amazing it was that such a young cat was able to go on for so long. To be quite honest, he'd found it boring. He'd never joined in the conversations when it had changed to things like that, and had always found a reason for a subject change. Blazingcomet was a master at manipulating conversations, he could change the subject from one thing to another in a matter of minutes without it seeming too quick or too strange. He could also talk for hours without getting bored of a topic, depending on what that particular topic was.
Flirting, for instance (in particular pointing out a she cat's physical flawlessness and the perfections in her personality) was something he could do for hours on end without ever growing tired of it. It didn't hurt that the cats he was normally flirting with had the greatest reactions. He had grown quite fond of a few of his targets, Drizzleshard in particular to begin with... No! No, please, I can't focus on that right now. His mind had traveled off in all directions, as he tried to concentrate on the subject at hand, which was training Cherrypaw. She could have a lot of spunk and talent, if she would focus it on training instead of whatever else she did. Dramatizing things was what she seemed to focus most of her talent on if Blazingcomet was being honest with himself. Of course, she had gotten back up and was ready to try again. "Now, focus only on me. Nothing else, okay? Maybe even move a second before you think you need to." The warrior had found that tactic to be particuarly useful when he was dealing with faster warriors.
He loved seeing the look of utter disbelief on their features that a cat with a twisted paw could maneuver so easily. He knew it was hard to believe. But Blazingcomet had had his whole life to figure out alternatives, and while his paw made his running look quite a bit awkward, he was still fast. And he could move with a speed (not grace) that impressed other cats, easily. Crouching down, he got ready to spring, carefully shifting his weight so that his leap would be angled correctly. Once he was sure that he was ready, he got a running start and sprang towards Cherrypaw, silently praying to StarClan that she would see his movement coming. It was basically the same movement as before, because he wanted to show his apprentice that sometimes, cats would try the exact same thing if it had been effective the last time. And he wanted to show her that she could easily stop it - did that ever come up in battle.