ShadowClan Territory

[nocturnal]

They walked through the territory and Frostpaw began taking mental notes of their whereabouts. He still hadn't explored ShadowClan's forest before, nor had he been to the borders or the Waterbarn. Any plans of a tour had been delayed due to his mandatory one-moon-of-in-camp-duties-only restriction, and by the time he was free to leave camp, well...

Frostpaw froze in his tracks at Flintfreckle's request. The older cat wanted him to climb a tree? A tree? "Of course," the white apprentice responded. ThunderClan cats basically spent half their lives in trees. This would be easy.

With a signature smirk on his face, Frostpaw unsheathed his claws and used them to get a grip on the tree's bark. He expertly raced up the surface, then deposited himself onto a low-hanging branch and looked down at Flintfreckle, wondering whether or not his climbing skills were up to the ShadowClanner's standards.

@Ombre Party

[Pluto]

Flintfreckle frowned. Of course he knows how to climb trees. He thought, but nodded approvingly. “Then I’m assuming you can hunt squirrels and birds up there too. Come down, let’s continue. Have you seen the whole of our territory before?” Flintfreckle asked, half impressed and half hurried. He wanted to find a way to connect with his apprentice before the sun went down.

@bmkmb

[nocturnal]

Frostpaw leapt out of the tree when Flintfreckle said to, not bothering to care about his mentor's approval. Climbing wasn't that important, plus, it was absurdly easy and he already knew how to do it.

"I haven't," Frostpaw responded. "Do you mind giving me a tour of some sorts?" The white apprentice checked the sun's position then added, "That is, if we have time. I have not seen the Waterbarn, nor have I had a proper chance to visit the borders. Any other ShadowClan landmarks would also be nice to see."

@Ombre Party

[MEAT ANGELS]

@Shimm

Magpiepaw trailed behind his mentor, ears pinned to the back of his head. Lately, he hadn't been feeling himself. He had little appetite, and was always tired. Was that normal? It didn't matter, anyways. With all this battling, he'd be lucky to die before another one happened. Enough thinking miserable thoughts. Now's the time for me to focus. Magpiepaw put on a small burst of speed, coming up beside Foxwhisperer. "So, what's the plan for today?" Please be hunting, please be hunting..

[Sweetie]

The ginger tom acted as if his leg wound wasn't bothering him as he took his new apprentice out to the territory. Silver eyes looking at every nook and cranny to make sure not an inch of danger would appear.
"Hunting. Since I can't move as I used to, so until my injury heals you'll just have to listen to what I say as if your life depends on it." Foxwhisperer replied back as he slowed down and slowly sat down to face the younger tom. "First things first. What on Starclans name have you been eating? Have you eaten lately?" Looking the apprentice up and down with his silver eyes. Magpiepaw was skinnier than a starving rouge! "Long as I am mentoring you, you will eat three meals a day. Muscles and strength are a huge factor in everything you do." This was true since the fox-like tom was massive with bulging muscles under his dark ginger coat.
@TeamRiverRipple

[MEAT ANGELS]

@Shimm

Magpiepaw winced under his mentor's withering glare, glancing at his forearms. Was he really that underfed? "Whaddya mean? I ate a mouse yesterday, and the day before I- oh.." Realization dawned across the toms features, and he felt shame spread under his pelt. Nobody had told him he needed muscles to be a warrior! He'd assumed he was fine! How did he not realize it? Was he sick? Is there something wrong with me? "Muscles? N-Nobody told me.." Magpiepaw trailed off, remembering all the well-muscled warriors of his clan. Each could easily crush his skull between their paws. He should've realized. Maybe I should.. eat more? Maybe start lifting rocks? Would that help?

[Sweetie]

Originally Posted by Estelle

The apprentice was quite surprised to see Stormlily climb out of the tree, so that's where she was. The back tracking really did have her confused, but she supposed it would be somewhat similar when actually hunting. Nightpaw slightly lowered her head, a bit embarrassed to not have found her, but was quickly reassured by her mentor's smile "th-thank yo-u" she mew quietly, with a small smile of her own.
"w-will we tr-y this ag-gain or s-someth-ing el-else,?" the white molly lifted her mismatched gaze to look at Stormlily as she eventually asked the question, curious to know what they might do.
@Shimm

"Aww come on, you did great for a first-timer!" Stormlily chirped as she got close and bumped shoulders with her. "Yeah we'll try this again just not today. I think we got all of the senses basics down so tomorrow and be all about hunting technique." Her smile growing to encourage the small apprentice.

[Estelle]

Originally Posted by Shimm

"Aww come on, you did great for a first-timer!" Stormlily chirped as she got close and bumped shoulders with her. "Yeah we'll try this again just not today. I think we got all of the senses basics down so tomorrow and be all about hunting technique." Her smile growing to encourage the small apprentice.

Nightpaw returned her mentor's smile, feeling somewhat better by her words. Did she really do good? Hopefully.
The young apprentice nodded to Stormlily "al-alright" hunting technique- how exciting! She certainly was looking foreward to being able to hunt like anyone else, maybe she could even go out with her mother sometime, or a friend- that could be fun.
The white molly looked back up to her mentor, wondering if they were going back to camp now, or if there was anything else she wanted to cover.

[Moonraven]

Originally Posted by Salt

"Because, you caught a mouse on your first try darlin'!" Crocusblaze exclaimed with a purr, eyes gleaming with a mix of pride and happiness for the young tortie. "We can get into the nitty-gritty of it later on. All that matters here is that you've shown you've got a lot of potential," they told her eagerly. "If I'd sat there on my behind and done nothin' but criticize you, you wouldn't have caught it 'cause you would've been too busy second guessing yourself. Sometimes instincts and feelin' will do you some good on it's own."

The grey and white tabby cat gave a funny sounding little snort sound when Elfinpaw described her experience in the Medicine Den. It was all in good humor though. "Goodness, the world you're livin' in sure sounds interesting. You ought to tell me more about your flitterbugs and your waskerspurts n' anything else that might be plaguing you sometime." In truth though, it was more they enjoyed their apprentice's company and would like to get to know her better, and have a real proper friendship.

Their attitude was subdued quickly at her question about Clan fighting. A valid and thoughtful question, but one that didn't exactly fit with the vibe. Crocusblaze cleared their throat and took a moment to formulate an answer. "Well, I wondered about the same thing when I got here too...I was a kittypet, you know," they told her softly- but not the sweet kind of soft, it was that they weren't exactly sure where to begin. They thought her opinion on fights and hurting others was well-grounded and weighty, and they had the same attitude towards the warring of the Clans.

"I'm no expert so don't put all your faith in me here- but I think it has a lot to do with pride," they began gingerly. "To most ShadowClanners, it's obvious which Clan is the best, which Clan is the strongest, and which Clan has the most well trained and respectable members. You ask RiverClan the same question, and they'd say they were sure too. Same with ThunderClan and WindClan. And yet, they'd all have different answers. It's a real...us-against-them mentality, but for every different Clan they're the us and everybody else is the them. Get it?"

They shifted their paws a bit in thought before continuing. "Sometimes it isn't just about food or living space though, I can at least see why some of that stuff is worth fighting for. Without food, there's starvation and chaos and sometimes you can't afford to help anybody else without hurtin' yourself. But then there's other times- like what's going on these days- where it's just pride that's bein' hurt. You don't take our help or you break our alliance, so you're disrespecting us and therefore our pride, and you deserve to get hurt because of it." Crocusblaze made it obvious from their sarcastic tone that these were just examples, however it was more or less true. They didn't agree with these practices either way, but it was just the way of Clan life. Always had been, always would be, they suspected.

"I wouldn't recommend you go telling anybody this, but I'm personally not a fan. Sure I got the name Crocusblaze for somethin' and I do take pride in my fightin' skills, but I'm not a fan of it really. More a natural talent than a passion of mine. I don't believe that a popped ego is something to shed blood over, but it's just the way Clans work and I made the conscious decision to stay here and make this place my home. This just is what comes with Clan life, it's just a normal life hazard around here I guess," they told her. "Heh, sorry for soundin like such a downer."
@Moonraven

Oh! So she did do a good job! And she had a lot of potential!!! Oh boy, that sounded great! The small molly puffed up her chest a bit and grinned. Her mentor had a point, Elfinpaw probably would have second-guessed herself a lot more if she had been told what she was doing wrong right off the start. She still second-guessed herself a little after the catch, but not as terrible as it would be with the verbal criticism. She didn't follow the whole instincts and feeling part, but was just going to act like she today got it.
"World?" Her small head tips one way and the other, but she wasn't getting it. Was the world she lived in different from the one everyone else lived in? If so did that mean she didn't fit in here? She was pretty sure she was a cat, though maybe she was actually a fox or something and no one's ever told her? She was just raised among cats and so thought herself as one. That would be pretty sneaky! Having a fox fight in ShadowClan would be pretty helpful though. Maybe she'll ask some of her clanmates when she got home if she was really a cat or not.
"You were a kittypet!" exclaims the apprentice with shock. It didn't seem like something ShadowClan would do, take in kittypets, apparently they did... That was interesting and something new she now knew about them. She had billions of questions on what it was like being a kittypet but refrained since it might be rude and it didn't sound like something they wanted to talk about. Elfinpaw had memory loss so she had no clue if she had been a kittypet or not. All she knew was that she had been brought into ShadowClan, nothing more nothing less. No idea who her parents were or even if they were cats at that.
Her head rights itself as Crocusblaze explains more about this pride that every clan had. Yet another thing that Elfinpaw didn't understand. It was probably because she didn't have much pride, Elfinpaw cherished, and loved the simple things in life that others seemed to take advantage of. The trees, the scents, even the clanmates that took no notice of her. She enjoyed waking up every day and being able to eat the prey the fresh-kill pile. She didn't need much to keep her happy. Win or lose, so long as she was able to wake up and walk around she'd take it.
Elfinpaw was picking up that Crocusblaze didn't agree with this pride stuff either, but was making more sense of it then she was. "I don't get it. That sounds stupid to fight over." She hmphed to herself. She didn't like pride, why the heck did everyone need it if it was just going to cause them harm? She didn't understand why they needed mosquotos either, the brain sucking bugs that made cats stupid. Whoever created all of these unnecessary problems were meanies in her mind.
Her serious and thoughtful expression slowly melted back into a blissful one as they asked her to keep a secrete. "Okay, I won't tell no one." Elfinpaw beamed as brightly as the sun. "You're not a downer you're my mentor and friend." She purred, taking Crocusblaze's last words a little seriously. She wasn't sure what a downer was but it didn't sound nice. "Let's go home. My paw feels funny." She complained, ducking her head to sniff at her paw. It was throbbing, Elfinpaw would endure the waskerspurts if it meant her paw was okay in the end. "I learn to fight if I gotta," Elfinpaw would throw away her comfort in exchange for staying in ShadowClan. This clan wasn't the nicest, but this was where her heart belongs, she didn't want Icestar kicking her out because she wouldn't fight. She just got a nice mentor and was learning new stuff about them everything. it would be a shame if she had to leave now.

@Salt - we can wrap this up here if you'd like.

[nocturnal]

"Sure thing," Fallenheart agreed as he led the two apprentices out into the forest. Frostpaw trailed behind the enthusiastic warrior, wondering how his presence would affect their outing. The earth was mostly dry, yet somewhat soggy in some places where the remnants snow were still melting.

"So will we be hunting or is this something else?" Fallenheart asked mischievously. If he was remembering correctly, Frostpaw was originally from ThunderClan, so despite their almost identical looks, he and Nightpaw weren't related. Of course, they could be friends...

Frostpaw let the words sink in before realizing what they meant. "Hunting," he choked out quickly. He glanced at Nightpaw, hoping that she didn't mind his more or less frantic answer. @Estelle