[Quasar]

Originally Posted by Rani

The small tabby nodded dragging herself out into the deeper water. She really didnt need to go out very far to be in as proportionally deep as Snowfern, being so much shorter but in an effort to be close to her mentor she accidentally bounced off of the watery bottom to be just a little to deep. Willowpaw's head dipped under the surface with a surprised yelp as she found the bottom much deeper than she's been expecting it and suddenly she was submerged.

What had Snowfern said? Right! Churn your paws for you life!
Frantically moving her large paws Willowpaw beat and thrashed, paws kicking up silt off of the bottom until her head just barley broke the surface. As she gasped for air the molly panicked, forgetting that her mentor was there to save her if she started drowning, thoughts racing. Sure she was padding and saying (kinda) afloat but this was taking too much energy! She wouldn't be able to stay up for long and soon enough she'd grow tired and sink again! And drown! This was her first time in the water she didn't know how to swim to shore! Think Willowpaw think!

As her head dipped under the choppy surface once more the tabby thrashed trying to regain her buoyancy, limbs flailing, body wiggling, paws flexing wide....
And suddenly she had shot up to the top like a cork. What? When just a second earlier she'd been struggling to keep a nose above not she was easily keeping an entire head?! All she'd done was flex open her paws! Her well webbed paws? This was something she'd never noticed about herself before and the bobtail looked quietly between her submerged padding legs and Snowfern in shock.

The whole disaster had happened in the span of only a few seconds.

(Just a bit of explanation Willowpaw is an american bobtail a cat noted to love water and have naturally large partially webbed paws to help them swim. Willow is just stupid and did not notice her paws were like that until she was in over her head.... brain empty no thoughts and I love her)

(and here you can see the full extent of Snows self-doubt and paranoia. Willowpaw is her light at the end of the tunnel <3)

Snowfern watched quietly as Willowpaw took a couple steps forward, holding her breath and watching for danger. Drowning was a huge risk when it came to swimming, and she frankly didn't know if willowpaw would be able to get it right off the bat. however, she was still there to help, right? So that mean - hypothetically- nothing should go wrong. Right. Well, nothing seemed to be going wron- NEVERMIND. RED ALERT, RED ALERT, THINGS WERE GOING WRONG.

An audible gasp escaped her as she watched willowpaws head dissapear under the surface of the water, her eye wide in fear. Her paws felt rooted to the ground, and for multiple moments she stood there, frozen. What was she supposed to do?! Think, Snowfern, Think...what did Creekleap do when she saved that drowning apprentic- OH FOR STARCLANS SAKE JUST STOP OVERTHINKING AND SAVE HER! She snapped back to reality and jerked forwards, her heart pounding as she surged towards her apprentice. She was so focused on reaching Willowpaw that she didnt notice the deep hole in front of her, and before she could reach Willowpaw, her paw got caught in it for a split second, which completely stopped her in her tracks for too long. What bothered her the most was how she was right there. She was just within reach of Willowpaw. Just as she freed her paw, she saw a head shoot out from the water, and her heart almost stopped then and there. Wha- when- HOW?!

Her jaw hung agape as she stared flabbergasted at the apprentice, almost mirroring the look of shock on Willowpaws face. ¨...how- how did you do that?¨ she said after a moment of silence. She took another step forward, bringing her to stand next to the other she-cat. Staring down at her paddling legs, she started to softly smile, a look of relief on her face ¨What a way to learn, huh?¨ she mewed, turning her gaze to willowpaw.