**Blackfir**
@
Robin feather
The young warrior watched his apprentice with his full interest as he’d waited for Juniperpaw to answer. When the young apprentice gave his answer, Blackfir cocked his head slightly but couldn’t deny that there was a scent of squirrel, though there were others that seemed more blatantly. He brushed off the thoughts considering that the young tom wouldn’t have extensive life experience and squirrel could very likely be what he had most often encounter so he was quicker to recognize it. Then he threw mouse out as well and Blackfir’s ear twitched, a slight curious frown beginning to pull at his features. He couldn’t tell if the apprentice was just guessing at this point or if he actually picked out the scents of mouse and squirrel. He knew training meant from the bottom but he hadn’t realized what that truly meant. For now he decided it didn’t matter.
”I can pick up both of those so you’re likely on the right track. Watch closely to what I do.” He lowered himself into a compact crouch, keeping his tail straight behind him and completely still, his belly fur just hovering over the ground. He narrated his technique as he went in a breathy whisper.
”You have to be silent, every move has to be deliberate. Your crouch should be low and controlled. Be quick but more than that you must be conscious of every move you make. You can take a little linger if you’re quiet enough.” He took in another deep breath over his tongue and turned his attention towards the thrush.
”Bow you’ve just gotta locate your target, put yourself into position, and…” Lifting slightly to skirt around the brush until he got a narrow view of the slight bird perched over a small puddle, dipping into the water and thrashing about intermittently. He stopped, gathered himself, waited until the bird distracted itself with preening, then launched. His paws landed neatly on the bird and his bite to its neck was quick and swift, dropping it limp instantly. Blackfir lifted his catch and turned back to Juniperpaw, hoping the apprentice had witnessed it and thanking Starclan for not making him look a fool in front of his new apprentice.
Dropping the feathered prey at Juniperpaw’s paws, he mewed,
”Go ahead and get a good sniff, make sure to memorize it. This is a thrush. Knowing the prey you’re going after tells you what technique you need to use so it’s really important. Birds tend to get scared off easily but they’re also pretty easy to sneak up on if you’re quiet and put yourself behind them. Patience is important too since you need to wait until they start doing something besides looking for signs of danger before you make your move. Though if you mess up, they do generally fly just over the ground for a few tail lengths so you could still possibly catch them.” Picking the thrush up, he dug a hole and dropped it in, covering it with the fresh dirt before looking back at Juniperpaw.
”Burying it keeps it safe until we can come back for it so we don’t need to be dragging around all of our freshkill and reducing our chances of catching more. You wanna try now? Or do you want to watch another?”