The Golden Apple (Twix)

[Isilme]

A cold breeze entered the warriors den carressing her short white fur and making the female shiver in her sleep, yellow opened to see the warriors den still full of sleeping bodies, it was early, way too early to be up and walking around but the cold was not allowing her to sleep anymore, leafbare would be a pain to the short furred she cat as usual, Goldenflight sighed and got up to groom her fur before going outside, with silent steps she walked to the noticiable smaller prey pile and grabbed a mouse, today she had to give Applepaw that tour, the female ate as if she had nothing else to do all day before approaching the apprentice den and finding the ginger tom. "Hey, you, wake up" She said poking said cat not very gentle at all, she just hated mornings, Goldenflight stopped staring at the smaller cat and sighed. "Get ready fast or I´m leaving you behind, I will be waiting at the camp entrance, don´t, be, late" The female said the last part very paused so he would get the message and walked ahead to wait for the apprentice.

Twix

[Twix]

Applepaw awoke to a paw jabbing him in the side. He barely blinked his eyes open, prepared to complain at one of his denmates, but he held his tongue when he saw who it was. It was Goldenflight, his new mentor. She.. didn't seem very enthusiastic. There was a soft ache where she had just pawed him. I wonder what HER problem is. but he didn't dare ask. He quickly made his way to exit the den. Don't be late? I'm too excited to be late! He glanced over at the freshkill pile. It was pathetically small. That was understandable since the hunting patrols hadn't been sent out yet, but there was probably very little prey to find in the forest. He decided against eating. Save it for someone who needs it more than me. Instead the ginger tom quickly groomed his long fur, it took awhile but not too long, he hoped, and then he got to his paws and went to meet Goldenflight at the camp entrance.

[Isilme]

The female waited not very patiently, even one small minute looked forever for her, yellow eyes stared the ginger form until finally it started to make his way to her side. "Took you long enough" Goldenflight huffed and started walking ahead not even looking back to see if Applepaw was following her steps. "I don´t know why we even need to make this stupid tours, I would prefer to just get over this and teach you to fight and hunt, we need hunter with leafbare coming but nom instead I get to show you around." The female complained, she wanted to go and scream at her aunt face, Goldenstar was such a soft leader, she stayed silent until she spotted the bubbling pool, the female actually liked that place. "Let´s just get this over it and start the good stuff, this is the bubbling pool, the water is always warm so if you ever feel like swimming in middle of leafbare come here, if you go to the river you will freeze, got it?" Goldenflight said looking to the ginger male.

[Twix]

Applepaw's ears flicked backwards at her impatient retort. He didn't think he took that long.. did he? but he had to just sum it up to Goldenflight's generally bad mood. Whatever, I guess I'll just deal with it. The white she-cat darted off in a random direction. Well, random to him, since he had no idea what was which way. This was his first time out in the territory, after all. but she still seemed to be complaining about anything and everything she could. The ginger tom bit back a sharp response of his own. There was no option for him other than just to deal with it. He had to just about run to keep up with her, but soon she came to an abrupt stop in front of him. So much so that he almost ran straight into her! Once he got his bearings again he finally saw what Goldenflight was trying to show him. It was a pool of bubbling water, with a small bit of steam coming off of it. He could feel the warmth in the air around it, and made a mental note to come back here sometime to enjoy it for himself. He nodded quickly to his mentor to show he was listening before the she-cat set off again.

[Isilme]

The white she cat couldn´t help but feel like a fool talking alone but again, if he didn´t wanted to talk it was totally not her business, "So, up next we have the boggy land, we are only going to get close, I don´t feel like getting my fur dirty and besides we could be swallowed and die and I just don´t like the idea of dying in such pitiful way." Goldenflight kept chattering as if the apprentice was actually responding to every of her comments. "That place is really mud and wet and like I said it can actually drag you down and then you drown, it´s not pretty so be sure to avoid going there unless it´s extremelly necessary, actually just never go there and make sure to warn any fools who try to, even loners, no one deserve to die that way." Soon enough the swamp like place became visible but the warrior stopped a good distance from it, she just hated that place more than anything else on the whole clan, even more than Goldenstar. "Hope you were actually listening this time." She murmured glaring daggers at the place before getting up to move out. "Any questions?"

[Twix]

Applepaw followed behind his white mentor as the two cats stopped on the edge of a marsh. His green eyes stretched wide as he stared at the mud and water. "So.. cats have died here?" He could understand why she didn't want to get close to it. He didn't either, that was for sure. He pelt pricked uncomfortably at the thought of a cat being suck downed into the swamp, drowning under mud and water. It was like something from the horror stories the elders told the kits, an attempt to keep them close to their mothers and in camp. but his sudden fear was replaced by anger when he heard the hostility in her voice. "I HAVE been listening! Just because I don't SAY anything back, doesn't mean I wasn't listening. You're my MENTOR. I'd be mouse-brained not to listen when you say something." Why did he have to be the one stuck with such a bad-tempered mentor? His head drooped and his tail dragged in the grass behind him as he followed after Goldenflight. I wonder what my siblings are doing..

[Isilme]

The female huffed with the apprentice reply. "Well you could at least say SOMETHING if you are listening!" She said before starting to walk again, such a rude cat! Why she had the worse apprentices?! The warrior knew the way well enough to not pay attention to it but reach the destination anyway, but this time she stayed silent, no point in talking when others didn't wanted to listen right? Wrong. "We are going to the river roots now, it's a good place to fish but it's better if you don't try to swimm here, as the name suggest there are a lot of roots and if you get stuck underwater you will die." Goldenflight said when the place came into view, she didn't had any trouble to reach one of the roots near the water and settle there. "Now we will try to catch something, let me teach you how to know when a fish is there or not." The female waited the apprentice to approach before starting to talk again. "It's not very difficult, you just need to stay very quiet and watch the shadows and water movements, try spotting a fish and show it to me." She said and then waited for Applepaw to do something, or maybe he wouldn't listen to her at all, heh.

Twix

[Twix]

"I just did say something," the ginger tom muttered under his breath. As he followed her this time, his paws kept getting caught on brambles and undergrowth, not watching where he was going. He was too busy staring at his paws to look ahead. He didn't want to see Goldenflight's white pelt anymore. He felt anger, resentment, and disappointment every time he had to. Why does she have to be so angry? Can't she see I am listening? Finally they came a stop beside the river. His ears twitching and a small nod of his head was the only indication he had listened to her. He wasn't dumb enough to ignore what little she was going to teach him, but he didn't bother to say anything in response this time. He was pulling a few thorns from his forelegs before he went to join her on the roots of a tree that overhung the water. I don't see how this place is so deadly. Do cats just die everywhere, all the time?

He shuddered at the thought, causing his fur to bristle along his spine. He pushed it away. It has to just be Goldenflight trying to scare me. I can't believe cats have really died all over our territory. Finally his eyes focused and her order finally got through to him. "A fish.. that seems easy enough," the tom whispered, mostly to himself. He doubted she really cared about what he had to say. Instead he looked down into the water, watching closer for any sign of movement.. finally he caught sight of a shadow moving beneath another nearby tree root. He stuck out a paw and pointed at it. "Is that one?" he asked carefully.

[Isilme]

The female had been watching too, paying attention to see what the apprentice was seeing, otherwise she probably would miss the fish, the she cat liked to climb trees and hunt birds, water wasn't really her thing, her eyes focused on the shadow Applepaw was pointing too and she nodded. "Well done, that is indeed a fish, go ahead and try to catch it, we will train fishing in the river too but now is a good chance to give it a try." The female said wraping her tail around her body, she was not really looking foward for swimming lessons but well, no choice on this matter, Goldenflight waited patiently while her apprentice tried catching the fish, they still had quite a few places to visit but the day was just starting anyway.

[Twix]

He nodded reluctantly while never taking his eyes off of the fish. It swam through the water, eventually moving closer towards the ginger tom and the surface of the water. The early sunshine caught on it's scales and Applepaw saw a gleam of light, and he quickly dabbed his paw into the water quickly. Claws unsheathed as he tried to hook the fish, but when he pulled his paw out of the water, all he brought out was water. He growled under his breath. "Maybe you should actually show me how it's done.." Then I might actually have a chance at catching something, instead of just telling me to try. Though he didn't honestly expect it to be this hard. Who knew fish were so quick? He shook his ginger paw and sent droplets flying everywhere.

[Isilme]

Goldenflight just observed a little amused as the apprentice failed to bring the fish out of water. "Don't worry Applepaw this is just your first try, if you had done it I would tell Goldenstar to make you a warrior already." She joked and then walked ahead motioning for the apprentice to follow, they were going to the shallow pool now where she would be teaching the ginger cat to swimm at first, but with leafbare the place was usually dry that didn't stopped them of visiting, they didn't had to walk long before the river became visible but it took quite a while to reach their destination. "So, do you know how to swimm?" She asked looking back to the apprentice without stopping, they reached the shallow pool a few minutes after that and as expected it was dry at the moment. "Here is the shallow pool, the river flood this and make a safe place for swimming, we will be spending a lot of time here before going to the river." The warrior said not showing any particular interest in the place.

[Twix]

Applepaw was still annoyed with his failure at hooking the fish, but gave a small smile in return to her joke. "Too bad I didn't catch it then. I'd be the smallest warrior anyone's ever seen!" He gave a small laugh and his negative emotions faded as if they were carried away by the wind. At least, for now. He followed closely behind the white she-cat as they made their way towards the river. Once the flowing water came into view, he could feel the essence of sadness in his heart and his green eyes clouded. This is where Sheepflower had died. Or so, that's what he was told. I wonder what she was like? His mind seemed to drift for a moment and he realized his paws had stopped moving, and he was standing silently, staring down at the moving water. Only until he heard Goldenflight's voice did he finally get pulled back to what was going on.

He ran quickly to catch up to her as the two of them reached the Shallow Pool. He looked down at the small pool of water and gave a little nod, memories flooding back to him of when Fallenstorm had brought him and the rest of his siblings here as kits. He had been determined to be the one to teach them how to swim, just in case anything bad had happened. Applepaw wasn't the best swimmer, but he wasn't bad at it, either.