I barely shut my eyes when I felt a paw shaking me, I groaned and opened my eyes and saw my mentor, Hollywater, standing over me. " If the sun is up, '' she said, I groaned.
My sister was already gone and so was Reedpaw. "I've decided you should practice some battle training, Shrewfox and Brushfall ( Reed Paws new mentor) are going to come later and you're going to practice on Reedpaw", she said.
I got up, I was exhausted all I wanted to do was sleep, but I followed my mentor out of camp. She headed to a clearing, sunlight filtered in. "You should learn the basics first, wait I want to see how much you already know," said Hollywater, I knew the longer you take, the more planning your opponent can do, so I leaped instanaly, knocking Hollywater off balance and making give a shriek of shock, she probably thought I would take a minute first, she fell to the ground and I tried to pin her down, and she went limp, but without warning she pushed with all her strength and sending me tumbling across the clearing.
"That's not fair!" I said when I recovered.
"It is fair, cats will do that to you in battle that's why you cling on," responded Hollywater ``You did a good job though, you were fast and that caught me off guard," she added. I felt a little better about my defeat, after all it was my first time, do I think i'm going to beat a full grown cat the very first time? " You should learn what to do if someone tosses you onto your back though… ok try to leap onto me" she said, laying onto the ground exposing her red and black patched belly, I hesitated, how do I get around this? How would I block an attack like that? I glanced at how her legs were positioned, was she going to kick me away? That would work... "Don't sit there dawdling, you would never have this much time in battle," said Hollywater.
"If I attacked from the otherside her paws could still swat me away but it's better than being thrown across the clearing," my mind drummed on. I bolted towards her head and batted her hind legs away and then pinned her down.
Hollywater looked shocked "What?" she exclaimed. I got off her and sat down on the far side of the clearing.
Before Hollywater could speak my sister burst out of the bushes, with Shrewfox right behind her. "Hello," I greeted my sister, she gave me an uncertain look and turned to Shrewfox.
"Is Reedpaw coming?" she asked. I almost let out a hiss of frustration, but kept my mouth closed, and decided that if she won't talk to me I wont talk to her.
" He will come in a little while he had to do the Sunhigh patrol," Shrewfox responded calmly, "How did the training session go? I think my apprentice has a making of an exceptional fighter," He said turning to Hollywater, who was still sitting there watching,
"Mine too, she did an excellent job in practice this morning," replied Hollywater.
I wondered how my sister would do against me, did she do as well as I did? Shrewfox never just gave out compliments though he did not need to add the last bit so she must have done well, but not as well as me, what did father always say?
"Try to strike fast and strong and get done with it as quick as you can, you have more enemies than one," I remembered my dad's rich voice full of meaning and I felt grief crash over me. "Let's not sit here and talk all day," grumbled Shrewfox "Tsunamipaw and Hurricanepaw use what you know against each other… no teeth or claws! We are practicing not fighting but this is not a kitten battle ethier."
I stared at my sister who looked a bit nervous as she hesitated I took my chance and bolted, slamming into her and throwing her off balance, it sent her tumbling a bit and I pounced on her, but she squirmed causing me to lose grip, and I fell to the ground with a thump.
"Ow," I exclaimed in shock. When a head poked out of the bushes a blueish gray head with yellow, it was Reedpaw.
My sister who was about to pounce on me bounded over and said "Hello!"and I remembered my sister told me she liked Reedpaw when we were kits, despite him being 3 moons older and too big to play with us as my mother said when we were a moon old. He nodded his head toward her, and Brushfall came out of the bushes.
"Hello Hollywater, how's training your first apprentice going?" called out Brushfall from across the clearing.
"Allot of work, and effort," she said, choosing her words carefully. I felt a paw prod my side. I thought it was Hollywater but when I turned it was Tsunamipaw.
"Can we talk? They're distracted right now…" she mewed cautiously, her eyes full of questions. I glanced at her. The mentors would be done talking soon, and it seemed like they should not hear if they did would we be in trouble?
Aloud I replied, "Can it wait?" she nodded her head and walked over to Reedpaw. I could see them talking. We spent the rest of the afternoon training before going back to camp.