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Within a moment of swinging his paw down, Puddlepaw felt the impact of his paw on Applehaze's head, and to his relief, it felt like a much less forceful hit on his end. Applehaze's approving and cheery reaction only confirmed this fact. Returning the purr with a smile, he waited to see what they'd be doing next. Now that he'd at least successfully learned a single move, the tom was beginning to feel slightly more assured with himself. As long as he listened carefully to all of his mentor's feedback, then maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. But the name of the next move caused his stomach to drop a little. The belly rake. If what he was imagining was correct, this would be effective, albeit grisly and a bit gruesome in his opinion.
Applehaze's explanation of the move was a slight reliever to him. It didn't sound quite as bad as he'd guessed. His wild imagination had conjured up a far worse prediction of what the move would be like than how it truthfully was.
Swipe at the opponent's belly with unsheathed claws in a real fight. But with sheathed claws during training. He repeated the direction a few times over to make sure he got it. It sounded wholly simple for such an effective sounding move. He knew how tender the belly could be, so the thought of getting it shredded open made him shudder a bit.
Now it was time for his mentor to demonstrate. He stood firmly planted on the ground as Applehaze slid underneath him, and braced himself for the move. It had been clearly stated that there would be no claws involved, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of apprehension as he waited for the warrior to start. And then the swiping started. Really quite painless due to the lack of claws--he no longer knew why he'd been so worried in the first place. In fact, it actually kind of... tickled a bit? This was supposed to be serious battle training, but the apprentice couldn't help but let out a giggle or two as Applehaze's paws swiped at his belly. By the time his mentor was back up, his vivid green eyes were glittering with amusement.
"Heh. It kind of tickled a bit. Though I'm guessing the real thing actually hurts a lot??" He couldn't imagine that claws in place of soft paws would feel any good.
"Anyways, should I give it a try now?"