Sootfur trekked on, trying to keep his pace as steady as possible. But he was growing rapidly tired, especially for the memories that these places carried about his previous apprentice. He kept his head low but raised his eyes to the distant sky on the horizon, wondering if Quietpaw was observing him from Starclan now. I bet that you can talk now… but I can’t really imagine you being a chatty type. You always loved silence, even though it was a curse for you.
He shook his pelt against the breeze and carried on, lashing his tail to clear his mind before stopping and addressing Oriolepaw.
”As you can see, this place is called Wisteria Falls.” He announced, his tail tip pointing to a peaceful waterfall crowned by wilted climbings that now only showed scrawny, dried twigs. ”A good place to hunt, if you can distinguish prey scent from the wisteria flowers during new-leaf. You should try, sometimes. It helps sharpening your nose skills.” He suggested the apprentice, knowing that Oriolepaw would be surely interested in this. He was always hard-working, and curious too.
Sootfur crossed the old, damp twoleg bridge that he had walked on so many times, signaling the orange and black tom to follow him. As they arrived on the other side of the stream, he sat down and again offered him some time to explore on his own the place.
After answering some questions, when Oriolepaw felt satisfied they set off again toward Muskrat Mire.
Final destination. Oriolepaw was a great apprentice and as a warrior, he would have been extremely pleased to have him as his apprentice. However, today the gray tabby just wished to call it a day and hide his muzzle in his soft, rabbit pelted nest and sleep for a whole day and night. The short tour was being more tiring than expected.
He turned with some effort and tired, half-closed eyes to the young tomcat. ”This is Muskrat Mire. As you can see, it’s marshland territory confining with Shadowclan.”One thing to keep your eyes open for trespassers, that’s for sure. He glanced seriously at Oriolepaw, pronouncing every word with enough weight that the apprentice could give them the right importance.
”And as if that’s not enough, here there is prey far more dangerous than mice and little birds. Muskrats are big rodents, with sharp teeth and claws. No apprentice is to hunt them without the presence and aid of a warrior. Not even one who has caught an owl on his own.” He gave him a soft, warning glance but turned away quickly, not wanting to cause further discussion about that topic.
Sootfur gave him again freedom to explore the place on his own for a little bit, this time following him instead of just waiting still. Better safe than sorry, right?
A bit more searching yielded more cobwebs, but he did notice it is considerably harder than it had been during the warmer months - not that Batblood had been sent on herb patrol before, but he had still stumbled into spider webs when he was alone outside, and more than once cursed out spider whenever he had found them creeping around in the warrior's den. Even such things as spiders seemed to dislike the colder moons, something Batblood was generally happy over, but of course, they would disappear just when he needed their webs.
He checked another tree hollow and managed to gather a third web, but the nasty surprise that followed was a small, eight-legged thing landing on his paws. A quick shake did manage to get the repulsive little pest off him, but Batblood was left with an uncomfortable sensation as he began to pad back.
He reunited with Sootfur near the bridge, and nodded when he saw the other tom had collected some webs as well... but neither of them had those flowers. Anyway, Sundust ought to be happy with this. "Let's head back." He mewed and moved past the warrior to lead the way.
Sootfur nodded and followed the Keeper out of Wisteria Falls, treading lightly on the damp forest floor with his tail carefully moving between twigs and bushed. If his tail brushed even a shard of bark, a lot of cobwebs would go lost and all his work would reveal useless.
He had to admit to himself that the silky, white thing wasn't very pretty. Soft, but reminded him too much of the ugly creatures that created them. Luckily they have a good purpose...
It was so weird to think that cats relied on such tiny insects for healing their injuries.
He walked behind Batblood in silence, feeling that the warrior wouldn't like to have a conversation with him at that moment. I hope this will do even without the poppy seeds. He thought with a prick of frustration. He hated not to find what he was looking for.
Sootfur waited patiently for Shrikepaw's strike with expectant eyes. At his signal, the apprentice bounced out of his hideout and... hit the tree! "Oh, Starclan!" The gray tabby quickly pounced out of the bush and hurried to the young tomcat, worried that he might have injured himself.
With a gasp of surprise (and relief), he found Shrikepaw sitting with the squirrel in his jaws. He looked a bit dizzy but fine enough.
He let out a long breath and sat down with him, deciding that they would take a short break to make sure that Shrikepaw was really okay.
"You got it, Shrikepaw." He replied with a warm smile, and chuckled at the memories or a very similar catch of his apprenticeship. "You know, I once hit a tree, too, trying to take a crow. It ended just like this, but from that moment on I became very careful of the direction I threw myself toward!" That hadn't been fun at the moment, but now the memory could make another young apprentice feel better after their little mistake.
Shrikepaw giggled, feeling better that Sootfur had made the same mistake when he was younger. The amusement was suddenly swallowed up with bitter disgust at himself. How could he be laughing when his mother was dead? He silently cursed himself. Wouldn't she like to laugh if she was here? But she wasn't here, she was dead and buried in the ground. His mood soured immediately, face resetting itself into a flat glare.
Shrikepaw turned away before he spoke. "Where to now?"
Flameheart hadn't planned on going on a walk until a little later, but she wanted to see what kind of skills Wolfpaw had to offer ThunderClan herself. She knew Sparrowstar probably knew what sort of skills this former outsider had, but was there any harm in double-checking? The young Keeper didn't really think so. Besides, she'd really just see where Wolfpaw was at in regard to his hunting skills. And who knows, maybe the young tom would be able to learn more than just how ThunderClanners hunted in the thick undergrowth.
"I know we didn't speak properly at the meeting, nor did I even give you a proper introduction to who I was- but I'm going to fix that. The name's Flameheart. I'm the youngest Keeper in ThunderClan, but you don't really need to know that. What you do need to know, however, is how to survive. One of the skills required is hunting. We hunt an assortment of prey such as squirrels, birds, mice, voles, and... that's about it. Why don't we do a little bit of show and tell, hm? I tell you what to track down and hunt, and you show me your skills. Do you agree?" she raised her brow and sat down on a smooth rock, eager to see how the young apprentice would respond to her challenge.
Sparrowstar might not agree with what I'm doing, but I have to see where he's at in regard to education and survival. ThunderClan depends on these future generations, and Wolfpaw is a part of one of those generations.
Flameheart broke the silence, and Wolfpaw snapped his gaze from the scenery to her as she spoke, and oh boy did she speak a lot of words. Sometimes Wolfpaw's brain still spun when trying to digest anything more than a few sentences at a time - he couldn't quite explain it. He knew all the words, they just didn't always fit together in a comprehensible sentence in his brain, and more often than not he found himself pausing for long moments trying to figure out what was just said. Either that, or he'd just nod along and hope whatever they said wasn't all that important. Unfortunately in this scenario, it was a question (he was pleased to note that he had grown quite adept at noticing the slight raise in tone that signified a question in most conversations - he himself was beginning to adapt it into his own cadence) and thus he needed to actually comprehend what was being said.
The scarred apprentice was actually quite interested to hear the kinds of things that ThunderClan hunted, and he took special note of each of them. Squirrels, birds, mice, and voles - yes, that tracked. Those prey items seemed to make up the vast majority of the prey pile, and Wolfpaw had been enjoying getting to eat something other than rats and crickets for the first time in a while. He wondered if prey was something that varied clan by clan, or if they all ate the same things. Did any of the clans eat rats and crickets, like he used to? The only guess that he could make was that RiverClan ate fish, judging off the fact that they knew how to swim, as explained by Orchidbriar.
The challenge itself sounded manageable - the only things Wolfpaw was concerned about was catching birds. There was the occasional blackbird or crow that came around the junkyard, but rarely so, meaning he didn't have very much experience catching them. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to distinguish the scents of things like squirrels and mice as well. "I think I can do that," he mewed. "What am I looking for first?"
__________________
“when you're with the right person, every place is a right place.”
— ocean waves, studio ghibli
profile image credits:
background image credits found in albums | pfp - fields of misteria
Sootfur's voice trailed off as he noticed the young apprentice's sudden change of mood. Did I say something wrong? He hoped not, but couldn't ask anything before Shrikepaw did.
"Uhm, right." He glanced around thoughtfully, trying to decide the best thing to do at that moment. It was surely getting late, but... there was still a hint of prey scent out there, and he didn't want to come back with only one piece of prey. Even though it was leaf-bare.
"I think I've found a mouse trail. Let's see what else we can find before it gets dark." The gray tabby signaled with his tail to Shrikepaw to follow and walked slowly, his back lowered so he would be less visible in the undergrowth.
After a few minutes he found a brown, plump mouse nibbling some seeds. He pounced on it in the way he'd been taught as an apprentice and killed it swiftly without it having the chance to run away.
Before picking it up, he told the young tomcat: "Let's head back now. It's too late to stay out anymore. Let's return to get your prey and then off we go."
Not a fabulous hunting patrol, especially if they were only two. But Sootfur was happy: they'd found some food in the harsh season, he'd helped the apprentice catch one on his own, and they hadn't encountered any muskrats today. Yes. A good day, after all.
»»————- ☀︎︎ ————-««
[ @FireSandwich (I'll report, you can just reply and be fine!) ]
Bumblebreak led Wolfpaw out to Giant's Rest, already scenting the air for potential targets. The sky was a mottled, suspenseful gray, and fat flakes fell from the sky in gentle clouds, flecking her back and the top of her head with white. It would be difficult to find anything in this weather and she could only hope Flameheart wouldn't hold it against her. She glanced down at the apprentice. "Let me know if you smell or catch anything. I'm going this way-" a nod toward the right, away from the fused tree "-to see if there's anything creeping about. Don't go too far."
With a nod she stepped away. Her paws were light and her surroundings were practically silent. The only sound was the quiet crunch of snow underneath her pads. There was a small hole tucked against one of the rocks, but it looked and smelled abandoned.
...Dammit. She really didn't want this to turn out a failure.
Wolfpaw followed behind at a tail-length’s distance, mouth parted slightly as he scented for prey. He glanced up as Bumblebreak began speaking, nodding to show he understood, and began searching a little ways away.
[ @dino. second post of his will be scenting and maybe catching something, and then we can report back o7 ]
__________________
“when you're with the right person, every place is a right place.”
— ocean waves, studio ghibli
profile image credits:
background image credits found in albums | pfp - fields of misteria
Wolfpaw followed behind at a tail-length’s distance, mouth parted slightly as he scented for prey. He glanced up as Bumblebreak began speaking, nodding to show he understood, and began searching a little ways away.
[ @dino. second post of his will be scenting and maybe catching something, and then we can report back o7 ]
bumblebreak === >
Mmmm... AHA. There, just a whiff of prey scent through the snow. It wasn't too far away, so she wouldn't have to ditch Wolfpaw. She dropped into a low crouch, snaking around the rock. A woodpecker fidgeted at the base of a smaller tree, where the snow was more or less cleared so it could get at the dirt underneath. In a flash Bumblebreak shot forward and pinned it to a thick root. A crunch of its neck was all it took to finish the job.
She raised her head to watch Wolfpaw, the large red-crested bird dangling from her jaws.
Re: Wisteria Falls
