Hunting training! (Acro)

[Echo]

[Acro.]
For Med cat apprentice training
- Meetings with StarClan (0/2)
- Hunting training session (0/1) - this will be made 1 after training
- Combat training session (0/1)
- Medicine training sessions (2/4)
- Collect herbs (2/4)

Nightpoppy was walking around the clan camp, patiently waiting for her apprentice to wake up so they could start their first day of the hardcore training. She knew that it was going to be hard at first for both of them to wake up, so she was very patient.

[[Acro.]]

ooc:// Echo! I'm so sorry--I totally poofed on you. but I'm back!

Molepaw had been having a nightmare. He was alone in camp, and all around him cats were sick or bleeding, yowling for help, for relief... He called for Nightpoppy, but she never came, and he was left surrounded by mounds of cats who desperately needed him... And he was the only one who could help them.

When he awoke from this restless slumber, the young tom was relieved, though the anxiety from his nightmare still lingered against his pelt. Slowly, he got to his paws, stretched, and then exited the den to meet with Nightpoppy in the clearing. Spotting her easily, Molepaw approached and gave her a small smile. "Sorry. I overslept," he remarked, lowering his ears apologetically. "but I'm ready, now."

Was he?

Maybe, just maybe, if he just pretended well enough, it would eventually feel true.

[Echo]

Nightpoppy was happy when her apprentice finally walked over to her. Molepaw gave her a completely valid reason for being late. but then he said that he was ready and something odd flashed in his eyes. she gave him a confused look, but shook it off and started exiting camp. She would ask him later.

"It is completely fine that you overslept, it's only day 1." she said.

[[Acro.]]

Molepaw trailed after Nightpoppy. "Right. Day One," he repeated, almost to himself, reminding himself that this was "day one" of their sort of... accelerated training schedule. His paws began to itch with apprehension, but he followed dutifully after his mentor, a determination behind his dusty yellow eyes. He could do this. She believed in him, and so he had to believe in himself.

...sort of.

"So," he began, trying not to sound nervous as he swallowed against the dryness in his throat. "Where... will we be beginning, today?" The young tom had no idea what to expect from whatever it was Nightpoppy had in store for them.

[Echo]

"Well, I'm not very good at this stuff so I don't really know where to go to catch prey easily, so wherever we stop is where we will hunt. It could be really hard or really easy." She replied.

After a few minutes more of walking, Nightpoppy stopped and listened, hoping Molepaw would understand and do the same. She didn't hear anything, but she pretended that she did because she really didn't want to walk any further to find prey she probably couldn't catch.

OOC: lazy little cat I am so going to make her embarrass herself >>>>

[[Acro.]]

ooc:// Echo!! I AM SO SORRY. Not sure if you saw my status, but I started a new, second job recently, so I'm trying to settle into this new time commitment 8C

Also lol Nightpoppy is hilarious xD but it's okay because Molepaw is bad at this, too, so they can be incompetent together <3

"Well, I'm not very good at this stuff so I don't really know where to go to catch prey easily, so wherever we stop is where we will hunt. It could be really hard or really easy."

The young, mottled tom furrowed his brow but said nothing, never one for even dreaming of questioning his too-kind mentor. In any case, it actually made him feel a little better that Nightpoppy maybe wasn't the best hunter out there--it meant he could still be bad at this whole "warrior" business but potentially be a decent Medicine Cat. Maybe.

They walked a bit further until Nightpoppy stopped abruptly, Molepaw following suit and doing the same. He could tell she was listening, and so he mimicked her and tried to do the same, wondering if she could tell that he was only pretending and didn't actually know much about what he was doing. Before falling into the Medicine Cat business, he'd been through a paw-full of training sessions with the other apprentices, so he had basic knowledge... but those sessions had not gone so well.

With dusty yellow eyes, he looked up to his mentor, a question flashing behind them: "Hear anything?"

[Echo]

OOC: That's ok, I just thought you had lost the thread so I kept bumping it xD

Nightpoppy nodded slowly, seeing the questioning glance Molepaw gave her. but Nightpoppy was lying. She was listening to the sounds of the forest and trying to catch scent of something, but she honestly wasn't picking up anything. 'This is a good spot,' she thought 'Molepaw will have to work hard to find soemthing'

"Just listen really closely to any sounds you hear. If you hear something, sniff the air and try to track it. After that just tell me and I will show you the next step." She knew she should be trying to find prey first so she could show Molepaw, but this will have to do. Nightpoppy was bad at being a hunting mentor. She liked to stick to the herbs.

[[Acro.]]

"Just listen really closely to any sounds you hear. If you hear something, sniff the air and try to track it. After that just tell me and I will show you the next step."

Molepaw's brow furrowed, as it was apt to do, but he gave a quick nod and continued to concentrate on listening for... something. Now and again a bird or two would fly overhead and his ears would swivel upwards with his chin, but these avians were never something he'd be able to catch without first learning how to fly, himself. So he waited. And he listened.

...

And for many moments, he heard nothing but the flutter of wings overhead and the whisper of wind through the trees. but then, like some gift from StarClan, he heard the distinct rustling of tiny feet on the forest floor. His head spun on his shoulders, ears reaching desperately forwards. There, in the distance, a squirrel--StarClan, a squirrel!--was loping among some roots; searching, no doubt, for some long-lost acorn. Molepaw's jaws parted instinctively as he drew in mouthfuls of air, savoring the warm scent of the squirrel upwind. He glanced cautiously toward Nightpoppy, eyes flying back to his target moments later, afraid to look away for too long. "Now what??" his gaze was screaming, though he himself remained utterly silent.

[Echo]

Another questioning gaze was plastered on her apprentices face. "Now you are going to bunch yourself into the hunters crouch. I imagine you have seen other cats do this, but basically you're just going to gather your legs underneath yourself and silently walk towards the prey. When you feel you are close enough, pounce onto the critter and do anything you can to keep it there until it's dead." She whispered. Then Nightpoppy tried to figure out what her apprentice was smelling.
'A squirrel! How delightful! If Molepaw catches it it will provide a tasty feast for someone back at camp."

[[Acro.]]

ooc:// ...lol she's so bad xD

Molepaw listened raptly to his mentor but never took his eyes off of the squirrel in the distance. Hunter's crouch... bunch of legs... kill critter.

Got it.

With a tense nod, the tom swallowed dryly and began to stalk forwards. This seemed a bit familiar from his previous warrior-training sessions... but he still wasn't good at it. It seemed he had not improved with time. In his confused crouch-like stance, Molepaw continued forward, the squirrel in the distance either completely oblivious to him... or completely unthreatened. The young tom did not come off as particularly vicious. but still, he moved on, trying his best to ignore how cockily the rodent ahead seemed to be minding its own business, mocking Molepaw with its ignorance of him. 'Little foxheart,' the apprentice thought bitterly. 'I am dangerous! You should be afraid!' Yes, the mighty hunter Molepaw was a force to be reckoned with.

Except, that when he at last tried to pounce, he misjudged the distance and came up entirely short of the squirrel, scrambling in vain after it as it chattered away into the trees. The tom stood, ears down, defeated, and stalked back toward Nightpoppy with his eyes glaring at the ground. "...I missed," he mewed angrily, swiping his tail through the air with hot embarrassment.

[Echo]

Nightpoppy chuckled with understanding. "That's ok, Molepaw. You haven't done this in a while. This time I will try and catch something, and then you will try again." With that, Nightpoppy walked a little deeper into the forest and listened. This time she quickly picked up the sound of a critter.

Eyes and ears focused straight towards a plump mouse. A fine feast, now all she had to do was catch it. She gathered herself up onto her haunches and stalked slowly towards the prey. Everything around her had disappeared, it was only her and the mouse. She could not fail in front of her own apprentice. No, that was not something she was willing to do.

Once she felt close enough, she pounced and landed her paws right around the mouse. She heard it squeak and thought she had done it, she had hunted prey. but when she looked down she saw it scurry away. What had gone wrong? She forgot to use her claws. Nightpoppy was so used to being gentle and caring that she forgot to use her damn claws. She felt so stupid. So embarrassed.

but she put on a good smile and looked at her apprentice. "See? We all fail" she only barely managed to sound honest and cheerful about her mistake.

"Your turn"

OOC: I used damn even though they don't swear like that but I felt it was needed xD

[[Acro.]]

ooc:// ...Echo? c:

Molepaw could hardly believe it. Nightpoppy hadn't been able to hunt, either. His eyes widened as the mouse scurried away, his pelt prickling with surprise.

"See? We all fail. Your turn."

The apprentice lowered his ears. 'She missed on purpose,' he thought. She'd had the mouse in her paws--he'd seen it. She must have let it go to make him feel better about missing his catch. The young tome looked away. Well... it was at least sweet of her to try. "Okay," he murmured, setting back off to find something else he could fail at catching. It took some time, but, eventually, he caught sight of a small bird hopping around, only a few tail-lengths away. He immediately fell into a crouch and froze, the weight of his doubt pressing against his shoulders.

This bird was going to get away.

He was going to fail again.

Molepaw furrowed his brow and grit his teeth, charging forward with all his might. To his utter surprise, his claws hooked into the bird's wing as it tried to take off. He fumbled for a moment as the bird was pulled back to the ground; he hadn't expected to even touch it, and now he had only a second to figure out what to do. Clumsily, he brought down his other paw to pin the creature, and then he did the first thing that came to mind, which was to sink his teeth into its neck. It squirmed a bit more and he bit a bit harder until there was a quiet snap and everything went still. Molepaw stood up and stepped back, staring down at the little bird he'd killed.

The bird he'd hunted.

Wide-eyed, he looked back over his shoulder to Nightpoppy, speechless.