Fallenpaw's Training

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A white tom padded along the Fogclan border, his ears pricked for the sound of his apprentice coming to meet him. His light blue eyes focused on a bluebird, perched in the uppermost branches of a nearby elm tree. He blinked slowly, then looked away. That bird would be impossible to catch when it was perched on such thin branches. He continued walking, his maw opened just enough to let scents slip in.

After a while, his blue orbs landed upon a rabbit nibbling on a few blades of grass. The rabbit’s large ears swiveled, but he heard nothing as the white tom swiftly but silently approached him. In the blink of an eyes, the tom pounced, landing on the rabbit. Sparkgaze quickly killed the rabbit with a swift bite to the neck. As he stood up, he let the lifeless body crumble to the ground. He heard another cat slipping through the forest towards him. The tom’s maw opened slightly, and he recognized the scent. It was his apprentice, Fallenpaw. He sat down beside his catch and waited for her approach.

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw emerged from the undergrowth clearly pinpointed by her mentor. She was glad to have such a sharp one. She dipped her head and meowed, "Am I late?"

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The tom's blue eyes quickly focused on his apprentice. "No, you are not late." He meowed, smiling. "Well what would you like to do first?"

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw was glad to be punctual, hoping she had made a slightly good first impression. Excitement gleamed in her eyes but her body was not hopping around like a normal apprentice. She stood there with glittering orbs and posture held perfect, very much like a warrior...or what she thought one might hold themself. Her autumn-colored eyes blinked slowly as she realized she had understood correctly. Fallenpaw would pick her first activity!

"Well..." She meowed slowly, sorting through her priorities in her mind, "I really want to learn how to fight, but I think I want to learn how to hunt more. To taste the blood of my own fresh kill will probably be a great thing." She nodded decisively, making her statement clear that it was final. "How many different kinds of techniques can you teach me? I've heard there's sooooo many kinds of prey to eat, and seen the proof back at camp." Her tabby pelt bristled a bit as a sharp breeze ruffled her pelt, blowing it this way and that before dying away and letting it fall flat onto her skin again.

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Sparkgaze didn't answer her question right away, but instead opened his maw to take in the scents around him. Then he turned and looked at his apprentice and meowed, "There are many different kinds of hunting techniques." He paused, scenting the air again. "And it seems like the first one you will learn is how to hunt for mice. There is one right over there." He motioned with his white tail towards a tall patch of grass at the bottom of a tree. "I will go first." He whispered. "Then you can catch the next mouse. Always remember, you must walk very lightly when stalking a mouse. They will be able to feel the vibrations of your paws through the ground." Without another word, he turned in the direction of the mouse and began to creep over to it. He paused for a moment, then pounced. A few seconds later, he walked back over to Fallenpaw and set the mouse down on the ground beside her. "Now scent the air, and whenever you find a mouse, you can try."

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw, never having caught her own mouse, did not know very well what the smell was. But she had however eaten one before, and smelling the fresh blood from Sparkgaze's kill, she easily refresh her memory. Because of the nice breeze that had just blown past, she had no need to open her mouth but instead inhaled deeply, turning her head ever so slightly upwind. Scents burst into her nostrils, but she concentrated only on the mouse smell she got.

Turning her wiry frame, she stalked over to a line of tall browned grass. Slipping inside the grass, the stalks made a soft whispering hiss, luckily blending with a wind that rose for a moment to stir them. Silently she picked her way through the fronds and halted only when the grass before her twitched. She crouched for hardly a heartbeat and then pushed hard with her back legs, sending her body cannoning through the grass, knocking herself into the mouse. It squeaked in surprise, but the cry was only halfway from it's tiny mouth before Fallenpaw bit through the sour-tasting grass and into it's neck. She nudged the grass off of the body with her nose and grabbed the tender carcass in her teeth, carrying it proudly back to her mentor.

Seeing him do it had looked so easy, but it had been pretty new for her. Not too difficult though because she'd had so much pouncing practice on her idle days in the camp. She knew that rabbits would be harder, for she didn't have much stamina. Fallenpaw dropped the mouse at her feet and then licked the blood off of one, drawing it around her whiskers and muzzle to clean the scent off. "How was that? The grass was really dry but I was concentrating too much to notice if I made much noise."

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Sparkgaze smiled at his apprentice, his blue eyes gleaming. "That was very good." He meowed. "It took me a few tries before I was able to catch my first mouse. And you were perfect. The rustling of the grass when you walked sounded just like a breeze. The mouse couldn't tell the difference."

The clouds above the two cats began to darken as if night was closing in, although it was still early in the day. As the tom spoke to his apprentice, rain drops began to fall silently towards the ground. As they hit the tom, he flicked his ear, looking up at the sky. "The rain will hide the scent of the prey a little." He murmured, looking at Fallenpaw. "You probably won't have too much trouble though."

As he spoke, another cat approached the border where the Fogclan cats were holding a training session. Is was a Rageclan warrior, Hailwhisper. She crouched down quietly, watching the two cats with narrowed eyes as if waiting for one of them to make a move towards the border. Because of the rain, she went undetected by Sparkgaze.

"What else can you smell?" Sparkgaze asked his apprentice.

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw raised her nose to the air, feeling the raindrops falling onto her face and hanging on her whiskers. She couldn't smell anything through the rain though, and she lowered her head for a moment to shake it free of the droplets clinging to her face. Then she tried again, not quite willing to give up just yet. She opened her jaws this time, drinking in the scents of the once sunny day. The rain still covered most of the scents, and she could only smell immediately around them where there was nothing but dirt.

She closed her jaws and brought her head back to normal level, meowing slowly, "Well truthfully I don't really smell much." She admitted, "It's like the rain beat the smell of everything into the dust. But I bet after the rain you'll be able to smell everything from a mile away, eh?" Fallenpaw was a bit put out from failing to scent in the rain, but in the next moment a ferocious wind picked up that carried the falling water in crazy sideways frenzys into her eyes. It looked more as if it was moving horizontally now and not vertically. Squeezing her eyes shut until the howling wind died down a bit, Fallenpaw fluffed out her fur against the cold.

Her eyelids popped open and her eyes were a dark menacing yellow color. She moved closer to Sparkgaze and whispered to him, "That wind just alerted me of another cat not of Fogclan. Do you smell that?" Her voice was loud enough to be heard in her mentor's ear over the rain, but not loud enough to carry through the storm to the cat crouching in the brush. Fallenpaw knew well enough not to aleart her that she knew she was there, and so she did not even glance her way once but remained rigid with her neck fur begining to bristle upwards.

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At Fallenpaw's warning, Sparkgaze opened his maw to drink in the damp scents of the forest. He scented many things, mice, a few rabbits, the scent of the Fogclan border marker... and something else. A Rageclan cat. The white warrior's blue eyes showed no emotion as he whispered back, "That is Rageclan's scent. It will be the strongest at their border, but I suspect there is a cat watching us from just inside the border right now."

The fur on Sparkgaze's shoulders began to prickle as he thought of what he should do. "I just want you to continue training." He whispered to Fallenpaw, his voice barely audible over the sound of the rain. "If that Rageclan cat tries anything, you may fight her with me if you wish. If you don't think you are ready, you don't have to." With that, the white warrior moved away from his apprentice and scented the air as if looking for more prey.

Hailwhisper smiled from where she was crouched just inside the border. She could tell by the way the hair on the Fogclan cats bristled that they knew she was there. She crept forward even more until she was barely a pawlength from the border. Then she stood up, revealing herself to the other cats. "Hello." She meowed, her green eyes gleaming with mischief. She turned and began to walk along the border, being careful not to place one paw over it.

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw nodded at her mentor's words, her blood begining to pump faster in her veins. The truth was, living in Fogclan had made her quite happy to fight, but not unprovoked. So while she would defend herself readily from attack, she made no move towards the cat on the border. Because after all, though she was menacing, she made no move to step over the scent markers. As she meowed a greeting, Fallenpaw responded with a quick glance and no more.

Turning, she scented the air again. The rain was not falling any lighter though, so sighing she lowered her nose and closed her jaws. "I can't smell anything." She meowed bitterly. Her paws itched to go talk to the other cat, but she restrained herself, waiting instead to see what her mentor would do. Fogclan were no kittypets, they just weren't stupid enough to start a conflict with a strong clan.

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Sparkgaze turned to face the Rageclan femme as she meowed a greeting. "Hello Hailwhisper." He murmured, his blue eyes narrowed warningly. He forced himself to stay where he was, not moving any closer to the border in case Hailwhisper wanted to attack. He glanced sideways at Fallenpaw, as he heard her speak. "We can move to a different place along the border and see if you have more luck there." As he said this he turned and began to run along the border, away from the Rageclan warrior.

As the Fogclan warrior began to move, Hailwhisper began to follow him on her side of the border, her green eyes gleaming with mischief. As she ran she wondered how long it would take for the Fogclan cats to get annoyed and start a fight with her. Life in Rageclan had been pretty boring and uneventful lately, so she was looking for something to do.

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw was actually beginning to become amused by the mischevious warrior across the border. As she began to run with Sparkgaze, Fallenpaw followed. Her small paws drummed against the earth as she picked up the pace, her tabby and white fur beginning to blow behind her with the air pressing against her face. In moments, she was running with Sparkgaze on her right, and the Rageclan warrior on her left, not two foxlengths away.

Without turning her head to the side, Fallenpaw let out a sound that not many had heard since the death of her parents: laughter. Her head lowered, and her harks flipped back and pinned themselves against her cranium. Faster and faster she ran, clearing a fallen log in one magnificent bound. Her breath came easily, and running felt great in the cool, late-winter air. But because the border with Rageclan was so short, it wasn't long until a bend in the territories led the two paths running in two different directions.

Fallenpaw, almost as if by instinct, stopped just before this bend. She turned to look back towards the border at Hailwhisper. Her tail flicked sideways, as if in farewell, and then she turned and followed her mentor, continuing their patrol. Now stretched across the scent markers was a territory matched with the scent she recognized as Ashclan. She cast Sparkgaze a small smirk, almost wanting to look back over her shoulder at the she-cat that she knew must still be standing there. "That was fun." She said simply, her breath still coming in short, sharp puffs as her pounding heart regained it's former rhythm.

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Sparkgaze chuckled, his blue eyes shining. "Yes, it was." He murmured, turning to glance back at Hailwhisper. The gray femme stood at the Ashclan border, her blue eyes smoldering with anger. Her tail flicked to the side, like an angry snake. She blinked slowly, then dashed across the border and into Ashclan territory.

Sparkgaze gasped in surprise, coming to a stop. "Fallenpaw, get behind me." He meowed, placing himself between the Rageclan cat and his young apprentice. His eyes were no longer shining, but instead they were narrowed to tiny slits as he glared at the Rageclan cat. "What do you want?" He asked, the fur on his shoulders bristling

[Fallentear ||]

Fallenpaw looked at Sparkgaze and spat testily, "I can defend myself well enough." Her shoulder fur was spiked up with indignance as she looked back at the warrior on the border. She appeared to be Rageclan, but now she wasn't so sure. Fallenpaw knew she'd feel like an idiot if she parroted her mentor's words, so she merely kept quiet and awaited an answer, claws unsheathing just in case the unfamiliar cat decided to cross the Fogclan border. If she did, she'd show her that she could fight with all the strength of a Tigerclan warrior, when defending her clan.

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