RiverClan Territory

[ponyapan]

Originally Posted by hxneysuckle

Stoatdance followed her apprentice, making sure to remain far and quiet enough so she did not frighten off the prey. Her paws were light on the ground, gaze focused on every movement Silverpaw made. Taking notes, planning future training sessions, and more, she nodded along with each of her apprentice's actions. She's doing well, Stoatdance thought, Not much that needs worked on, only building up the skill. Let's just hope that she doesn't have an accident. She frowned at the thought, staring at her apprentice with a worried expression.

--

She lunged forward and managed to swipe at the squirrel standing by the tree. The squirrel must have smelled her coming, because it had tried to flee before it had even seen her. Her first hit connected, but only barely, and the squirrel was moving towards the tree. Silverpaw twisted and reached for the squirrel, and it went with better accuracy this time. The squirrel was caught with the second swoop, before it had time to run up the tree, and Silverpaw picked it up.

Padding back, she presented the kill to her mentor and waited for her reaction. Silverpaw felt slightly conflicted- should she be proud that she caught it, or ashamed that it was so sloppily done? She settled for neutral, for the time being.

[The Cannibal]

Originally Posted by GrassRipple

" ok" she answered preparing to leave on her first patrol @The Cannibal

Originally Posted by ponyapan

@GrassRipple @The Cannibal

Stormlily merrily purred at the prospect of an apprentice getting to go on their first real patrol. I can almost remember it like it was yesterday. With a start, she realized she was thinking like an elder. Well, it would only be for all the better if I had the experience of one. Even if she wouldn't be an elder for a long while yet, she had learnt a thing or two during her time as a warrior. With the incident from last time freshly kept in mind, she gave a reassuring nod to the other warrior, before setting her focus on her surroundings. As of yet, everything seemed fine. Stormlily did notice a couple of fresh prey scents, but wanted to let the apprentice have their chance at it first.

"Well then go ahead and start naming things Honeypaw. There are plenty of scents out there even though it is leafbare." She glanced back at her apprentice as they continued to move further and further from camp, her paws instinctively taking her in the direction of the river. She had this territory memorized like the back of her paw, could practically walk it with her eyes closed. She wanted her apprentice to be like that. It was extremely helpful to have the territory memorized, especially if something happened. You needed to know alternate routes, specific hiding places, all those sorts of things. And with Shadowclan being a concerning enemy, who knows when they would issue an attack against them. Knowing your own territory was important.
As she waited for her apprentice to begin naming off the scents around them, Cobaltshade swept her gaze back and forth, one ear swiveled to listen to her apprentice, the other scanning the surrounding area for sound. Her own jaws were parted to take in the scents so she could properly correct Honeypaw if she smelled anything wrong, but also to ensure there were no immediate dangers for them. They would be reaching the river soon enough.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Casper

Pigeonpaw was ecstatic. At last, she could test out her skills! She was certain she was ready for this. She'd show Birchsnow how great at hunting she was, and then maybe she'd finally be able to get some battle training in! She wanted to leap for joy, but she forced herself to be still as she scoped out the horizon. She flicked one ear as she heard her mentor pad out of sight, to watch from a distance.

There! she spotted a gull, stepping gingerly on the cold sand, pecking at the ground for shellfish. It didn't look very big, but it would still be an impressive catch. She stalked towards it slowly, carefully...Agh! The bird had spotted her. But to her surprise, it didn't run away. And great StarClan, it was way bigger than she thought it was! It fluffed up its feathers and began charging at her, and as it did, Pigeonpaw yowled in fear.

It's now or never! She was not about to get her eyes pecked out by a stupid bird! once it got closer, she leapt at it. It flapped its huge wings, pummeling her as she clung to it, but the fluffy gray tabby knew where to strike. Using one of her double-wide paws to pin the bird's wing to the ground, she lunged at its throat and dealt the killing blow, not releasing until its wings had stopped beating. Pausing to gasp for breath, she whirled her head around to Birchsnow.

"I did it! I did it!" She meowed excitedly, her eyes full of fiery pride.

Birchsnow was actually enjoying this. Pigeonpaw was one of those rare cats that did not complain to her for no reason or whine about what she was being told to do.
With a silent, basically blank face the tri colored warrior watched her apprentice slide up too the seagull. What happened next would be amusing or frightening to some but Birchsnow just watched for things she could have the tabby fix for next time. Yet it was impressing. Taking down a gull in one try after it attacked you.
"You did." She nodded to the molly seeing something in her eyes that she couldn't explain. What was Pigeonpaw expressing now? It was not excitement but her eyes filled with it. "Well done, you dealt with that situation appropriately." Birchsnow added standing up. That was enough training for the day Pigeonpaw was already improving.
Swaying her tail the molly thought a moment. "We will go back to camp now. Hunt what you can on the way back." Birchsnow meowed waving her apprentice towards camp.

[tye]

Silence filled the air once again after taking in what the gingerhead said and gave it some thought. A visual of city cats and forest cats split down in the center as he filled in the cons and pros. Back 'home' they were vicious and greedy for survival and territory, it's any cats' game there. But here..it's confusing. The clans aren't 'vicious' per-say but stern and vigilant? And it's not for their own gain...it's more like teamwork or what he'd said that is, 'family'. He grouched at the word, trying to push back his kithood memories. Cold eyes and claws slashing down his body is still fresh in his mind. Any cat can flip a stick, changing into a backstabbing vermin without batting an eye. Even happy cat here. "Sure," he snorted. "Me? Heck no. It'll melt winter out and my fur along with it. I don't know how you're so cheery with this god awful weather over our heads," the white tom glanced back at the bush then at him. "And I'm fine," huffing, the warrior stood up shaking out his fur. "And we are not 'partners' or this 'friend' stuff. I don't need any of that, I've been doing good on my own. Got that, ginger?" Something irritated him whenever meeting his green gaze like a bad tick in the depths of his fur but he couldn't put a paw on it of why.

@xeno

[lio]

Originally Posted by ponyapan

She lunged forward and managed to swipe at the squirrel standing by the tree. The squirrel must have smelled her coming, because it had tried to flee before it had even seen her. Her first hit connected, but only barely, and the squirrel was moving towards the tree. Silverpaw twisted and reached for the squirrel, and it went with better accuracy this time. The squirrel was caught with the second swoop, before it had time to run up the tree, and Silverpaw picked it up.

Padding back, she presented the kill to her mentor and waited for her reaction. Silverpaw felt slightly conflicted- should she be proud that she caught it, or ashamed that it was so sloppily done? She settled for neutral, for the time being.

Stoatdance breathed a sigh of relief as Silverpaw came back to her safely. She hadn't even realized that she was holding her breath, hoping so desperately that her apprentice would not face the same fate as she had. At the memory, the she-cat's scar began to tingle, that single mistake from her own apprenticeship festering in the back of her mind.
Noticing that she was simply staring blankly, Stoatdance shook her head and smiled. "Good job, Silverpaw. You did very well." She stood, pressing a gentle nose to her apprentice's head and stepping away. "I believe it's time to head back to camp now. You've done a lot of work today and it's getting late. You must rest now. Great work today." She gave a nod of approval and began to walk back to camp, her tail swaying behind her.

[ You can do one more post if you'd like, but I think this is a good place to end it off! ]

[The Cannibal]

@tutler

The apprentice got moving finally, making one last snide remark to Fawnsqueak before they were exiting the camp. Cobaltshade said nothing as they left, but kept a close distance behind Spiderpaw, her eyes burning the back of her head. The second she tried to dash or do anything stupid, she would put her into the dirt. Eventually Cobaltshade would speak, once they were a good distance from the camp.
"Best take a good look at the territory now exile, it's the last time you'll see it without being in danger. I hope you know how to take care of yourself out there, because you're going to be alone. No warriors or apprentices to watch your back. No friends. No one to drive off the foxes that catch your scent. Maybe you'll have better luck at the Twoleg place, have them take care of you if you really can't cut it alone." There was no condescending note in her voice, just an older cat talking to a younger one. She wasn't trying to scare Spiderpaw really, but providing cold hard facts to maybe wake her up before they got to the border.

[ponyapan]

@GrassRipple @The Cannibal

Stormlily heard something from the side, and when she went closer she saw a thin mouse nibble on something, completely in his own world. She turned around and was about to signal to the apprentice to take the kill, but hesitated. While it would be a good experience, she didn't want to risk prey to be scared away during leaf-bare. Stormlily settled for doing it herself. The distraction made it an easy catch.

Stormlily gave a mrow of hapiness as they reached the river. She was already freezing her paws of, and was glad to get this over with. Noticing how quiet it was, she approached the stream a little and took a look. "Wow, it's frozen," she murmured in surprise. It was at least partly frozen, which she'd been told, but it was always strange to see the live water sitting so still. She wouldn't risk seeing how thick the ice was, and decided to hunt a bit further away. It felt like the longer she was out, the clearer were her breaths of white air to see. In the end, she managed to catch a bird, too, but then felt her enthusiasm slip away. She didn't sense much prey, but there was a faint smell of something else that she just couldn't reach, but was fine not to find out.

With a sigh, she stretched her legs that felt like they were frozen to the ground. Stormlily didn't know about the others, but she felt happy with herself. She raised her head and scanned the territory for the rest of the patrol. "Hey, I don't think I'll be able to find much more prey here. If you don't mind, maybe we can start wrapping it up?" she called without thinking. With a nervous twitch, Stormlily realized it might seem like she was being bossy, but she was really missing the warm den at camp right now.

[ponyapan]

Originally Posted by hxneysuckle

Stoatdance breathed a sigh of relief as Silverpaw came back to her safely. She hadn't even realized that she was holding her breath, hoping so desperately that her apprentice would not face the same fate as she had. At the memory, the she-cat's scar began to tingle, that single mistake from her own apprenticeship festering in the back of her mind.
Noticing that she was simply staring blankly, Stoatdance shook her head and smiled. "Good job, Silverpaw. You did very well." She stood, pressing a gentle nose to her apprentice's head and stepping away. "I believe it's time to head back to camp now. You've done a lot of work today and it's getting late. You must rest now. Great work today." She gave a nod of approval and began to walk back to camp, her tail swaying behind her.

[ You can do one more post if you'd like, but I think this is a good place to end it off! ]

Her mentor had hesitated before answering, which for one moment made Silverpaw fear that she'd failed in her mentor's eyes, but she soon disregarded that doubt. With the certification of a job well done, she felt the weight of her ambition and self-expectations fall of her back. She took a deep breath and smiled before following after her mentor back to camp.

(Great!)

[Dirtfur]

It felt like seasons to Dirtfur. Who knows how long the patrol dig up for. The patrol leader was tired and unable to see. He can only see the outline of the dirt and clawing and the holes between debris that was marked by the patrol's claws. The warrior didn't look back or check on his patrol members, not even once. The tabby tomcat just kept digging and digging until he could see- or feel- a clearing and emerging into another tunnel, the secret camp!
Did Lionstar really set the patrol on a mouse chase? Is this even the right tree-- the right tunnel? Slowly, more bad thoughts dug through the front mind of the uneasy warrior. Sooner or later, he will lose hope and give up the chase for that the mouse got away.
But, as if a miracle from StarClan, when jamming another dirty paw with claws into the debris, the whole paw absorbed into the earth. Then in a heartbeat, due to continuous events in digging, Dirtfur took another step and rammed into the debris as if also being absorbed. The brown tabby fell down and hit against the hard stone, making a groan out of pain.
When his pain is slightly gone, he hauled himself up. He adjust his eyes; this cave wasn't darker than the tunnel the patrol leader went through for that beams of light dappled the stone ground.
So this was the secret camp? He heard stories from elders that RiverClan used this, but it was foiled by a rainstorm and is now in ruins. The clan cats were lucky to make It out alive- at least some did.
Dirtfur examined the walls of this cave. Some were made of dirt and debris, others were made from stone. He could see maggots wiggling around and worms as well. He wriggled his nose in disgust; this place's scent is from the crowfood and the bugs.
When he observed every nook and cranny, stared at his patrol. His amber eyes sparkled with success and his tail held high. The cave's appearance isn't at best, but at least the patrol had finally found the underground camp they were ordered to find.

@x ghostie @SilentLamb

[wolfie]

dig. dig. dig. dig. dig. dig. worm? worm. add to army. dig. dig. dig. dig-.
the process continued in loop. the tunnels were starting to become stuffy and dirt clung to the apprentice's fur. he felt like he was being suffocated. considering he wasn't quite so prepared for tunneling-- it was a last minute choice and wormpaw was sleep-deprived. he felt like he would end up falling asleep in the middle of the process. yet, he found himself building an army.
everytime wormpaw was digging he would often find a worm, beetle, or such. he started to put them into his dirt pile he had made from digging, therefore naming them his army. as long as they didn't touch him, he was okay with his underlings. then he would go back to digging. dig. dig. di-- huh?
wormpaw lift his head, turning to stare at his mentor in confusion. he didn't blame the warrior if he was losing his sanity. if he had any left. his mentor was a bit insane from the start. "the dirt has finally decided to take you as the--" his voice trail off, tilting his head in confusion. his eyes shifted to the newfound scene. a gasp escape his mouth, staring in bewilderment and relief. oh thank starclan!
wormpaw left his army behind and cautiously ended the abandoned camp, a wide grin spread across his face. so many of his ancestors walked here before. history was built in the dirt walls. then he felt something scramble over his paws. wormpaw jump back, shaking his paw to fling the bug off him. "ewewewewew," he squeaked, glaring at the offender. how dare they do that to the dark lord!

@Dirtfur @SilentLamb