Go the Distance [SHC EVENT]

[SuspiciousMindz]

Pineclaw

The tabby tom's ears swirled towards Elmshadow with interest. A hike? What an interesting thing to do, but Pineclaw was all for it. The warrior got to his paws quickly and padded towards Elmshadow and the gathering cats, eager to hear what the warrior suggested.

[Pitou]

**Elmshadow**

Green eyes narrowed slightly as he gazed out over a rather meager gathering of mostly warriors. He was acutely aware that he had four apprenticed kits and only one stood before him and his own apprentice didn't see fit to show up. His lip twitched slightly but he moved on quickly. If other warriors and apprentices chose to sit out a training opportunity then they didn't have the drive to stand out anyway; he simply expected better of those associated with him and his blood.

Elmshadow jumped down, landing nimbly on the packed dirt of the clearing. Without a word, he split through the small group and padded out the camp entrance. Dusk was quickly gathering and he knew he was preparing for a long night. Participation was a necessity for clan life to continue on smoothly and a simple appearance was not enough and would not be tolerated, not by him, not any longer. As soon as his stubbed tail was clear of the barrier, Elmshadow jumped into a run over the fallen layer of pine needles and through the thick, rough trunks of the towering pine trees, in and out of the growing and deepening shadows. If the cats who had decided to attend couldn't keep up then they didn't deserve to be tested at all.

A dead pine, split down the trunk as though by a massive falling rock sliver, loomed up ahead. Elmshadow didn't slow until he took a flying leap and landed in the nook where the two halves of the tree met. Turning, he looked down at the gathered cats. "Dusk is an ideal time to find and catch many furred preys. You have until full dark to bring me something with fur - vole, mouse, mole, even groundhog kits if you can find them." Elmshadow settled in, finding a comfortable place to sit in the tree as a signal for the cas below him to begin.

[Elmshadow's next post will be on the morning of March 24]

 

@SuspiciousMindz @GoldenDays @poppy. @Lightningpelt @NinjaBloss @Skycloud @~Oakpaw3441~ @Hopeless @LeoDaLeaf

[IcarusUntamed]

~Oak’paw~

Oak’Paw scrambled down the path, admittedly he was struggling to keep up. It was his first time out of camp, his mentor was in exile right now so he hadn’t been able to go out.
But he was able to keep up, even if he was in the very back. He glanced around at the other apprentices, sad there were only a pawful of them.
Okay. Time to test his natural abilities, he had no training so he had to rely purely on instinct.
He held his nose to the ground as he attempted to sniff for anything that smelled like the prey on the fresh kill like, his tail subconsciously lifting up high as he did so. The scents of the forest were strong but not overwhelming it would only take an hour or so to be able to ignore it and look for other scents.

[Orion]

|| centipedepaw & hornetpaw || open

Centiepedepaw and Hornetpaw were dragging old bedding out of the elders' den when Elmshadow stalked into camp—not because they'd been punished, but because the boys had both noticed a little extra crankiness among the venerated retired warriors and thought: hey, might as well. It wasn't an enjoyable job by any means; Hornetpaw wore a disgusted expression despite him being the one to suggest helping, and Centipedepaw kept dropping his bundle of moss to yawn, clearly wishing he had something else to do. The boys had hoped their mentors would've found some activities to keep them sharp... but luckily the antisocial siblings knew how to take initiative.

At Elmshadow's call, the brothers dropped what they'd been carrying and exchanged a glance.

"What's going on?" Centipeded signed, having missed reading the warrior's muzzle. "What did he say? Pike? Shrike?"

"Hike," Hornetpaw signed back. He gave a roll of his bright aqua eyes. "I guess Elmshadow thinks we need the exercise?"

Centipedepaw huffed, shrugging at his dark russet brother. Both of them were awake; they could use an excuse to leave camp and stretch their muscles doing something other than cleaning.

Several cats ran forth to join Elmshadow. The apprentice siblings kept mostly to themselves; since kithood they'd failed to make many friends, preferring their own company—especially considering most had no clue how to communicate with Centipedepaw, and apparently didn't feel like trying. Nevertheless, they tried not to act too unfriendly toward their fellow apprentices... Centipede nodded his head at Oakpaw and Nettlepaw, though he stuck close to Hornetpaw's side. Sunsetpaw had joined, predictably. Would they bother to chat? Would they ignore everyone? Would anybody even notice if the brothers got bored and slunk back to camp?

Elmshadow led them all to a split pine, leaping atop it to address them again. Hornetpaw rushed to situate himself between the warrior and his brother so he could translate for Centipedepaw; annoyance tightened his expression when some cats darted into the underbrush before he could finish signing.

"So... anything furry?" Centipede signed, his face an unimpressed mask. "How does Elmshadow expect us all to bring prey back when so many cats are disturbing the environment?"

"You don't think we can accomplish such a simple task?" Hornet replied, arching a brow. "Our only competition is the other apprentices... we got this."

With a flick of his ginger tail, Hornetpaw signaled his brother to follow him into the long grass. The siblings had developed their own personal method for hunting: Hornetpaw would pinpoint the location of their prey, and Centipedepaw would go in for the kill, dispatching their target with brutal efficiency.

The Deaf brother's smoky pelt blended brilliantly into the evening shadow, leaving only his pale face and the white bob of his tail visible as he stalked onward, following Hornet's trail. It was clear that Hornet had found something; suddenly the ginger tom dropped to the dirt, posture rigid, fiery hackles raised. Centipedepaw breathed deeply through his mouth... vole. Perfect.

[Apollo.]

~WhiteRose~

The tall white cat padded out of the camp with the small group, they noticed that ElmShadow [ @Ravensong ] seemed to be annoyed with the little amount of cats who showed up. What did he expect? He's not DawnStar or ShadeStorm, and its almost moon high, most cats would rather sleep than hike. I mean- some cats have dawn patrol- WhiteRose thought as they slipped into the undergrowth along with the other cats.

ElmShadow wasn't the nicest cat, at least that was WhiteRose's opinion, they noticed that he was training his kit's in hunting and fighting not too long ago and when one was attacked by a bird twice its size he hardly batted an eye, actually he seemed to want to let the kit try to fight it. The white cat shuttered as they remembered the little kit running and hiding behind him, covered in bleeding wounds. They shook their head getting the crying kit out of their thoughts.

They blinked as ElmShadow leapt up onto the split tree, like he was a leader of some kind, WhiteRose let out a small sigh of irritation, as he spoke. What was going to happen to the caught prey? Most of us have already eaten, and it's early newleaf- we shouldn't hunt too much or we will drain the territory of all the prey, plus, most of the prey out will be kits. Not much food and we would be better off letting them grow up.. the tall cat directed their attention to the undergrowth as cats began to disburse to look for prey, may as well.. I don't want to get in trouble with DawnStar. although I doubt she would actually care, she's too busy with ThunderClan right now. they thought and swiftly trotted across the pine needles.

Before long the white cat spotted a young squirrel, odd to see it in a place like this.. they normally live in oak forests- not pine- WhiteRose just figured that it came from ThunderClan territory, and began to stalk it carefully. The squirrel's ears twitched and they pounced, killing it swiftly. They lifted up the limp squirrel gently and mumbled "Thank you StarClan for this prey.." before beginning to pad back towards where ElmShadow was sat in the split tree.

On their way they spotted two apprentices talking with each other, WhiteRose guessed they must be related as they looked somewhat alike, they both disappeared into the long grass before the white cat could figure out who they were, but they had a hunch. The two toms could be Centipedepaw [ @xath ] and Hornetpaw [ @/xath ], they wondered if they should go with them, just incase there was a snake hiding in the grass.

So WhiteRose placed their squirrel down near the base of the tree, nodded to ElmShadow "Im going to make sure those apprentices don't hurt themselves, I'll be back shortly." before trotting in the direction of where the young toms had disappeared.

[Ian]

The only indication Badgerscar gave to show he had heard the instructions was a twitch of his ear before he was off, stalking silently through the undergrowth. His brown pelt helped him to blend him as he slipped from shadow to shadow, ears pricked and whispers quivering for the scent of prey.

He ignored the sounds of a frog hopping and the fluttering of bird's wings a little ways away, neither of those had fur like Elmshadow had demanded. Maybe he would have time to go to the border, kill a cat from a different Clan, and bring it back? They technically had fur. The large tabby's tail twitched in amusement at the thought before he focused back on the hunt in front of him.

His ears swiveled in the direction of a soft scuffling and Badgerscar froze in the shadow he was in, straining to make out what made the noise. He parted his jaws to draw air over his scent glands and recognized the smell of a mouse. Perfect! The tom smoothly dropped into a hunting crouch, placing one paw lightly in front of the other so the mouse would not hear him coming.

It took him longer to get into a prime position to pounce than it would the average warrior, but that was because of his large size. He had to avoid things that lighter cats could step on without making a sound that would snap or crunch under his heavier weight. With a slight wiggle of his haunches and tensing of his muscles he leapt, landing squarely on the mouse and killing it with a bite to the back of the neck before it could even squeal.

Picking up the dead creature in his mouth he turned and bounded back towards Elmshadow, not caring to be as silent as he had been going out. If he scared the prey his Clanmates were hunting then that was their problem, they should have been faster. Badgerscar stopped once he reached the spot where they were supposed to meet and sat down, setting the mouse at his paws before beginning to groom his pelt as he waited for everyone to get back so they could continue.

[Pitou]

**Sunsetpaw**

The golden apprentice watched her father. His expression rarely changed from that of mild irritation but the slight narrowing of his eyes didn't go unnoticed. Sunsetpaw watched him mildly; an irritable Elmshadow was not one she wanted to cross, as long as that irritation wasn't directed at her. She was here and she never knew her father to lash out unfairly; his style was more indifference. She got started quickly as Elmshadow took off through the forest though she found it frustratingly difficult to keep up. She'd had enough freshkill since she'd returned from her time stuck in a hole and she had finally managed to banish the persistent thirst, but her ribs were still poking out of her pelt and her stamina seemed to drain so much faster. She also hadn't ever noticed just how prickly the ground in Shadowclan's territory was. Her paw pads were healing well but the new growth was soft and tender. Regardless, she put her head down and pushed through it all, trying to focus on what lay directly in front of her rather than her aches and shortcomings or how much further Elmshadow would run them.

When Elmshadow came to a stop, Sunsetpaw let herself noticed how labored her breathing had become even with just that short run. Elmshadow got right into it. She gave a short nod, whether her father cared to be looking at her or not. She turned and stalked through the elongating shadows, pulling in her breath slowly in an attempt to get it back under control. When she was finally confident that she could be silent, she parted her lips to bring the scents in over her tongue. There were too many cats around. So she quickly stalked through the forest until she put a comfortable amount of distance between her and the group of cats, parting her lips again. Quickly she picked up the scent of...she wasn't actually sure. It smelled earthy and cool. She lowered herself into a hunter's crouch and pinpointed the location the scent was coming from. Positioning herself carefully downwind, she turned her sights on a rustling brown rodent. At the sight she recognized vole, a normally ground-dwelling rodent. She stilled her body then slowly stalked forward. She stopped briefly before bunching her weight into her back legs and launching herself at the unsuspecting prey. Her front paws landed on it squarely and she followed it quickly with a killing nip.

She sighed quietly to herself. This is going to be a long night. It wasn't necessarily regret for deciding to join but it was just beginning to dawn on her how taxing this excursion would be on her dwindled body. She shook off the doubts, mildly realizing that those too were a new occurrence, before trotting back through the forest to drop the vole on the pile Whiterose seemed to have started. Then she found a spot at the base of a tree and started grooming her paws in an attempt to alleviate some of the discomfort.

[Glitch_Candle]

~Cactuspelt~ The black she-cat scrambled to the shadowclan/thunderclan border. She would find plenty of voles there. She looked around. AH! there one was, but she didn't know how to hunt unfamiliar prey. she chased it, but it was so fast. It ran into ThunderClan territory. So much for that. but there was a hole in the ground! ThunderClan is wierd, even if she wasn't in that territory. She tried digging some things up. There was a tiny furry animal. She didn't know what it was, but she brought it back to Elmshadow. @Ravensong (Cactuspelt caught a groundhog kit, but didn't know what it was.)

[Hopeless]

~ Nettlepaw ~

Hunting seemed to be the first objective. Not something that she would have expected to be included on a hike, but it was about moving around, so she supposed it would fit. The bigger problem was that Nettlepaw had yet to learn the proper technics of hunting. Owlfeather had shown her many things. How to skin her prey, fighting moves, and even revealed to Nettlepaw the place Owlfeather had in her youth used as a running track, but hunting was something that she was expected to learn from her mentor. Her now missing mentor. But Nettlepaw was a competent cat, she could some basic things, just not the specifics that could make her truly skilled in the field.

So when Elmshadow gave them the green light to go, Nettlepaw swiftly disappeared into the shadows. Something with fur... A mouse or vole would be the easiest to catch since they were rather simple things, but a part of Nettlepaw still urged to find something... better. A groundhog kit would look nice to drag back, but also very unlikely for someone with her skills to track down and kill.

Lightly, without so much as a sound, the lithe apprentice moved through the dark marshland, until a vague, still every faint whiff of prey came floating towards her on the dusk breeze. She determined it to be a vole by using her memories of eating them before. Not the best prey she could find, but something she was more than happy with. Now she simply needed to catch it, the harder part she suspected.

She dropped into the best hunting crouch she could manage on her level - which wasn't quite as fluid and smooth as she would have wished, but good enough - before starting to creep towards her prey, carefully avoiding all the pine needles and dead leaves that might give away her presence. It was digging on something, maybe some food it had found, Nettlepaw really wasn't sure, but it meant it was distracted. Perfect. She gathered herself and prepared for her leap, weighing back on her hind paws to test before pouncing right towards the vole. While hunting wasn't something she had had a proper lesson in, her mother and she sure had trained to prefect Nettlepaw's leaping technic and all that now started to pay off as she landed on the vole. She quickly dove down to snap her prey's neck, and as she gazed down on her catch she could honestly say she was a little proud.

She turned to head back, returning only moments after Badgerscar came thundering through the forest like the clumsy idiot he was.

[Hopeless]

~ Owlfeather ~

The group of gathered cats wasn't huge, but Elmshadow seemed to still feel the need for something to lift him up. No matter. Prey with fur was what she had to catch. Owlfeather had hunted at night too many times to count, and this time would be no less successful if she would have been alone that was. She did not feel like getting bothered by anyone else, or her catch being warned of the cats roaming the marsh by someone making too much noise. Not everyone in Shadowclan was as incompetent, but a good portion were the types that wouldn't care if they scared away someone else's prey, even if that meant less food for their clan.

So when Elmshadow told them to go, she was among the first to slip away, and as the darkness swallowed her, her pupils dilated, quickly adjusting to the gloominess as so many times before. It did feel a little strange to take orders from a cat she had been used to mentoring, but that had been a long time ago, nothing she should think of any longer. Instead she focused her full attention on hunting, soundlessly moving like a huge shadow through the marsh while mentally scrolling through a list of all the different types of prey with fur on them. There were the few Elmsahdow had mentioned; vole, mouse, groundhog and so on, but a few others, though most rarer and hard to both find and slay.

But then an opportunity she hadn't expected to get presented itself to her. Because though the trees her sharp eyes could glimpse something more. A still white-coated little bunny (the literal kind, not a Windclanner) seemed to be moving around. Rabbit was a type of prey she had barely considered seeing as how unlikely it was for her to find on this deep into the marshland, but she most certainly wasn't complaining.

Falling into her normal habit she dropped down and didn't hesitate any longer before begging to stalk the rabbit. Before it had noticed anyone else was there, she pounced and landed on the prey, swiftly snapping its neck, picking it up, and heading back to wait for the night to fully get here.