A/N: Training!
Chapter Two
Sparrowpaw was crouched low in the grass, gray eyes locked on her prey, pupils wide to catch every hint of movement. The muscles in her haunches tensed, and she carefully shifted her weight, tail held still and straight on the ground behind her. She slowly lowered her head, and prepared to pounce-
-Only for her prey to whirl around and lunge at her, making her yowl, startled, and suddenly find herself pinned, belly up, with her mentor's amused gold eyes staring down at her.
"You're getting better," Palestripe informed her easily, lifting off her and letting her up, which she did, ears pinned and head ducked, embarrassed. "But you made three mistakes that would have gotten you killed if I were an enemy. Do you know what those three mistakes are, Sparrowpaw?" The she-cat sat up, and looked around her, eyes narrowing as she examined her surroundings.
"…I was upwind," she said, reluctantly; Palestripe nodded. "Um… I hesitated too long…" again, he nodded, whiskers lifting, pleased with her understanding thus far. "And… Um…" she couldn't find her third mistake, and felt her shoulders slump dejectedly. Palestripe nudged her head with his nose, waiting patiently until she looked up. "I don't know what else," she told him unhappily, and he nodded with a reassuring purr.
"I would have genuinely surprised if you had figured it out," he informed her kindly. "You're a new apprentice, after all, and I didn't catch it in my own training at first." He leaned down, so that they were eye to eye, and suddenly, his warm gaze was serious and stern. "When approaching an enemy, you must always check to see if they're alone." On cue, a nimble gray Warrior slipped silently through the grass from the side, making Sparrowpaw twitch, gray eyes wide as the older she-cat nodded at her with patient, serious blue eyes.
"You didn't even notice Rabbitfoot laying in the shade to the left of me," Palestripe informed the young tabby, who ducked her head, mentally scolding herself for making such a mistake.
"Do you know what you should do, if you ever find an enemy in the territory, Sparrowpaw?" Rabbitfoot asked gently; Sparrowpaw hesitated, peeking up at her mentor and the other Warrior.
"…Get back-up?" she asked meekly; the pleased purrs she got made her lift her head again, though her ears remained pinned slightly in embarrassment of her mistakes.
"Very good, Sparrowpaw," Palestripe praised, relaxing the young tabby the rest of the way. "You should never go after an enemy alone. Not only could that enemy outmatch you and you won't know it, but they could have comrades nearby that would come to their aid." Rabbitfoot nodded seriously.
"It could also be a trap," she informed the younger queen, who looked up at her, ears perked. "It is a common strategy, which works rather well. A group of enemies will send a single cat ahead, and that cat will not try to hide that they are there. Instead, they will try and gain attention, so that they can turn and run, with their pursuers following right on their tail, and straight into an enemy ambush. Many cats in all three Clans have used it. It is an easy trick, that can, at times, capture even the most senior of Warriors." Sparrowpaw felt her eyes widen, surprised that such a simple trick worked so well. Palestripe nodded seriously, his long tail curling forward and surrounding his paws neatly as he sat straight and tall, his ears just peeking over the top of the tall grass.
"I've seen the trick used many times, especially by CreekClan and the Junkyard Rogues," he meowed somberly, as Sparrowpaw sat down, her own tail coiling around her white paws. "CreekClan patrols use it to lead enemies into the Deep Pool, or even the more dangerous of their streams. And the Junkyard cats have used it to lure rash Warriors to their dogs, to be torn to pieces. WoodClan uses it as well, though they tend to stay within the traditional ambush, they have been known to lead cats into Twoleg traps." Rabbitfoot took up the lecture.
"Our own Clan uses it as well, both the traditional and the clever sides," the gray cat told her. "I once saw a tom lead a group of WoodClan cats right into a ravine. He knew exactly where to jump to get to a sturdy root in the opposite wall, but the WoodClan cats didn't, and when they leaped after him, or fell when they tried to stop too late, they did not land safely. Some died instantly on the rocks at the bottom, but a few were unlucky enough to just be severely injured. If one of our patrols does not help them, they die of their injury, or infection, or starvation, none of which is a quick nor painless death." Sparrowpaw shuddered at the idea of being trapped, bloody and broken, at the bottom of one of their ravines, the corpses of friends, comrades, surrounding her, in enemy territory.
Unfortunately, the deep ravines and sink holes that liberally dotted all three Clan territories were a well-known hazard that took many cats lives each season. Add that threat in with the numerous dogs, freezing Leafbare, flooded creeks in Newleaf, as well as the other predators that lived in the territories, and it truly was no wonder that each of the Clans were so small, compared to the far distant Clans on the other side of the great mountains.
"Don't worry, Sparrowpaw," Palestripe soothed, mistaking her sudden shiver as fear about the ravines, rather than the realization that death literally sat around every corner for their Clans. "I shall train you and teach you everything I know, and so you will be better prepared in case of an ambush or enemy action, or even an accident, alright?" Sparrowpaw nodded, and the two of them bid Rabbitfoot goodbye, thanking her for her assistance in the training lesson, and her time in the lecture. Palestripe led Sparrowpaw through the tall grass, and far from the camp, aroun old stumps, rocks, and very carefully across a fallen tree bridge over one of those many ravines they'd spoken of before. The entire time, he was teaching her, pointing out different things along the way.
"Don't get too close to that stump. Do you see the dirt pile against its side? That's a Fire Ant colony. They are red like holly berries, and will swarm a cat if they're disturbed. Their bites feel like fire and burn horribly. Later, I'll catch one for you, and we'll take you to Rainstorm so he can make sure nothing happens. It is an unpleasant lesson, but getting bit by just one in the presence of a medicine cat is better then stumbling into them and learning the hard way. And yes, you have to get bitten. How else will you know the difference or know why to avoid them? All the apprentices have to go through it at least once."
"Be careful of these rocks during Greenleaf, Sparrowpaw. They're not as popular with snakes as the Snake Pit rocks, but there are occasionally snakes here, especially around the edges where they can hide in the shadows."
"Always walk on the bare patches of the tree bridge, Sparrowpaw. The bark is weak and falls off easily in most places. If you step wrong, and the bark falls, you may just be joining it at the bottom of the ravine."
On and on the lesson went, until they finally reached the edge of the creek that marked the farthest part of MeadowClan territory, where the smaller, secondary Warrior camp rested, used for patrols to rest after a border dispute, or if a cat got caught to far from the main camp when night fell. There were only three dens here, and each was small enough for two medium-sized Warriors to share, or a single large Warrior. One den was in the grass at the edge of the small rocky beach, an old rabbit den dug larger. Another was on the beach, under a large piece of driftwood. And the third was opposite that one, and was more an indention in the dirt beneath a mostly-buried boulder than a true den. Palestripe glanced at the sky, lifting his whiskers ruefully as he took in the low position of the sun.
"We shall have to stay here tonight," he admitted, squinting his gold eyes in the sunlight. "If we headed back now, we'd be caught by the dark halfway there, and traveling even in our own territory at night is ill-advised." A little unnerved at the idea of doing that, Sparrowpaw nodded her head in agreement with the plan, and Palestripe lifted his whiskers, eyes warm and fond. "Come on," he meowed. "I'll teach you how to hunt water prey while we still have sunlight." Sparrowpaw nodded, relieved both at the distraction from her morbid thoughts and at the idea of eating, as she had yet to eat since the vole just before sun-high. Eagerly, she followed her mentor to the water, unnerved by the strange, painful feel of rocks beneath her paws, digging into the still kitten-soft pads, making her wince slightly. Palestripe noticed and gave her a sympathetic look, though he thankfully, for her pride, didn't mention anything.
"Not many fish swim down this far," he informed her as they sat at the edge of the water. "Though you can sometimes catch them farther down, closer to the CreekClan boundary, we don't usually hunt them here, so not many Warriors know how to catch them." Sparrowpaw nodded, as it made sense. Why learn to hunt a prey you only see once every couple of moons? "Instead, we hunt the animals that come down to the water or live on the edges of it. Frogs, turtles, water snakes, bugs, and birds. You'll want to watch out for toads, though. They look and smell similar to frogs, and tend to be bigger and slower, but most are poisonous, and you'll end up dead of ill for days if you're unlucky enough to eat one." Sparrowpaw pinned her ears back with a wince. While Rainstorm was a nice enough tom, as a medicine cat, he was nearly as pushy as an over-protective queen with her first litter, and tended to scold a cat fiercely for any injury caused by lack of caution or play. The idea of having to be in his care for days for a simple mistake like eating the wrong prey, well…
It was a strong motivation to never make that mistake.
"Come on," Palestripe mewed; Sparrowpaw obeyed, absently noting that her mentor often used the same summons for her, or when he wanted her attention. Leading her to the Driftwood Den, the pale yellow tom leaped up onto the wood and turned, sitting neatly and looking down at his apprentice. Sparrowpaw blinked up at him, ears perking.
"We're going to practice your hunting crouches first," he told her. "It might come naturally to you, it might not. Some parts of the MeadowClan hunting is more instinctive to some cats," he meowed easily, before leaping over her and turning to the side. He fell into a crouch, and Sparrowpaw scrambled in the rocks to copy him. Once she was crouched, Palestripe eyed her from the corner of his eye.
"Move your right hindpaw forward a bit," he ordered, and Sparrowpaw obeyed quickly. Palestripe huffed softly, pleased with her stance, and rose to circle her. Sparrowpaw's ears perked up and she sent him a quick glance, before quickly settling back down, narrowing her eyes forward in concentration as she held the position. "MeadowClan Warriors hunt with lunges, speed, and stealth," he informed her, circling her again and absently nudging her right forepaw a little forward, watching her shift her weight immediately. "We are not usually good swimmers, or climbers, or jumpers, but, like most cats, we have the ability. Some are better than others, of course, but that is just natural." Sparrowpaw nodded slightly, to show she was listening, and Palestripe purred, falling into the same crouch right beside her, dwarfing her still young form. His whiskers lifted in amusement at this, before he ducked his head down closer to her, and began to murmur.
"A MeadowClan Warrior doesn't make a sound as we creep towards our target." He began to slowly creep forward, Sparrowpaw quickly following his example, pupils slowly widening as excitement made her slightly-pinned ears twitch. "We keep downwind, so our prey doesn't catch our scent." Remembering her earlier lesson, Sparrowpaw glared determinedly ahead of her, where they were moving towards the grass surrounding the small camp. "And, when we're so close that we can practically taste our prey in out mouth," Palestripe whispered, stilling, muscles tensing and head lowering, hindpaws shifting onto their toes. Sparrowpaw followed, and suddenly, the world seemed to disappear beyond her invisible prey, body going completely still.
"We pounce," her mentor hissed, and lunged forward, into the grass. Immediately, a small flock of birds took to the air, whistling in alarm, and Sparrowpaw's sharp hunting instincts clicked in reply. The apprentice lunged forward, landing on the small ledge where grass met rocks, and twisted, leaping high and far into the air, much higher than she'd meant to go, but closer to the birds than she'd thought she'd get. Indeed, her leap brought her right to one of the birds, a robin she saw, and she instinctively hooked her sharp claws into the bird, ignoring its shrieks as she pulled it close. For what seemed like ages, they were caught in midair, and Sparrowpaw felt a sort of serenity and peace she hadn't felt since her early days tucked against her mothers belly. Her whiskers were pinned to her cheeks, he fur ruffling in the wind, the taste of blood in her mouth as her teeth found purchase in the robin's neck…
Unfortunately, while her impressive jump had caught her fleeing prey, her moment of jubilant serenity was ruined when she landed in the creek.
As the dark, chilled water surrounded her, panic caused her teeth to clamp fiercely onto her catch, while her claws instinctively detached themselves, her paws flailing desperately in the water, trying to force her towards the surface. Just as her head broke out of the water, Palestripe was there beside her, grabbing her scruff firmly and pulling her towards the shore. Sparrowpaw coughed as best as she could without losing her grip on her kill, and was grateful when her paws touched the painful rocks, scrambling to stand and dash out of the water as soon as her mentor released his hold. She dropped her catch as soon as she was about two fox-lengths away from the water, gray eyes wide as she shivered. Palestripe purred his amusement, shaking himself firmly and sending water everywhere as he did so, gold eyes bright and amused.
"While I didn't expect you to nearly drown yourself," he purred, "I commend your determination to hold onto your prey!" Sparrowpaw huffed, shivering slightly and trying to ignore the itchy feeling of water droplets sliding down her body, heart still fluttering from the panic her dip in the water had caused. "And what a jump!" The pale yellow tabby tom exclaimed enthusiastically, trotting past her and her robin to another dead bird, his own catch from his original lunge, apparently. "I've only seen jumps that high from WoodClan cats! And even then, they're usually climbing trees to do it!" He looked very pleased with this development, before shaking himself out and lifting his whiskers happily in her direction. "Well, let's eat, shall we, Sparrowpaw? And then we might as well have a few swimming lessons so that this doesn't happen again, okay?" Ears pinning back, Sparrowkit nodded sheepishly before eagerly digging into her prey, relishing the warm meat, even if the wet feathers were disgusting as she plucked them from the bird.
"Done?" Palestripe asked, and, when Sparrowpaw nodded, nudged her toward the water. "Come on, then," he said, and she followed, hesitating at the edge of the creek. Palestripe didn't, however, and waded into the water until it reached his chest. He turned his blue eyes on her and sat down in the water patiently, whiskers lifted. "We're going to start small, Sparrowpaw, don't worry," he soothed, and the brown tabby reluctantly stepped forward, her white paws immediately being covered by the water. "I want you to only walk into the water until it reaches your neck, alright? This will get you used to the water and walking through it, which is all I want you to do." Reluctantly, Sparrowpaw obeyed, and soon was walking in the chilly water slowly, walking around in the water while Palestripe watched.
After she was completely comfortable with that, and the water didn't feel quite so chill, she turned her gray eyes on her mentor, ears arched forward curiously. He took that as the sign to continue and they spent the rest of their clear daylight on the lessons. By the time the sun had mostly disappeared beyond the horizon, Sparrowpaw could awkwardly swim through the shallow water, where her ungraceful bobbing occasionally allowed her to push her paws against the creek bottom.
Night found Sparrowpaw curled in her own nest in the Driftwood Den, Palestripe taking the Old Rabbit Den for himself, the two of them deciding to sleep separately so that their wet fur had a chance to dry. It was unnerving, at first, for Sparrowpaw. She'd spent her whole life thus far sharing a den with other kits, but now here she was, all by herself in a small camp that only smelled of faint traces of her Clanmates. Thankfully, however, the long journey and lessons had taken their toll, and she slipped into an exhausted sleep, wondering what the next day would bring.
A/N: Ta-Da! How was that one?
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