She had not expected hostility to be the first reaction to her summons. She had expected excitement, gratitude perhaps. No, instead Tansyjaw received a snarling little fluffball who had taken umbrage at her use of sweetie. She sucked a quick breath in through her nose, composing herself. Her voice, previously warm, took on a harder tone.
No, you won’t. You will listen to my instructions, do your best to learn the basics of hunting, and hope Bumblestar allows you to become an apprentice. If it were up to her there’d be a class on etiquette before anything else. Perhaps she’d speak to the leadership about that.
Turning to Shockkit, also a bit irritating if in a different way, she mewed
We’ll be learning the basics of hunting. Crouching, stalking and pouncing and such. Just in case the seemingly incredibly excited Fawnkit hadn’t internalized that they wouldn’t actually be hunting live prey, she added
We’re not going to try on anything more exciting than mossballs for now, but you’ll have a head start when your mentors take you hunting for real.
Rolling a quintuplet of said mossballs into the center of their little kit corner, Tansyjaw made to start the actual instruction, regardless of any arguments they might raise.
Before you can even begin hunting, you need to get a good crouch. I want you all to try and copy me. Hopefully that wouldn’t be too complicated for their little brains. Tansyjaw dropped into her own crouch, keeping her front paws suitably far apart and her hind end appropriately situated above her front but not exceedingly high. Her tail was loose, not stiff, and hung down, although not far enough to touch the floor. Once they’d approximated it she’d offer some individual suggestions, and hopefully get them stalking around. That is, if the histrionic didn’t start again. @
Sleek @
Barnaby