Chapter Three
"Wake up lazy-bones!" hissed Wild as she nudged Cloverpaw awake. The gray she-cat rolled over and sleepily mumbled "Flinty I'm not done collecting the Rainbow Bears yet…" Wild rolled her eyes, she didn't have time for this. "I SAID WAKE UP!" she shouted and jabbed Cloverpaw with her foot.
Clover paw woke up with a start and leaped on Wild clawing at her with sheathed claws, before realizing what she was doing. "Oh uh sorry reflexis" Cloverpaw stammered as Wild got up. "It's fine" Wild said shaking herself "And besides it looks like your reflexes couldn't be bothered to unsheathe your claws"
Cloverpaw grinned sheepishly and said "So why did you wake me up so early anyway?" "If you're going to stay with me you need to hunt." said Wild. "Wait so I can stay with you?!" Cloverpaw said happily. "Just until I move on" said Wild "So don't get any ideas. Now let's go"
The cats exited the den and walked until they came to a grove of trees. Wild stiffened and dropped to the ground spotting a mouse, completely occupied foraging in the grass. "Okay" said Wild "See that mouse, I want you to catch it and show me what you've got."
Cloverpaw nodded and took of running at the mouse, who of course heard her and ducked for cover, leaving her with a mouthful of dirt.
"What was that!" said Wild angrily "Don't you know anything about hunting!?" "Well um… not really" said Cloverpaw pawing the ground sheepishly. "We'll um… in my old clan I didn't really hunt a lot." Wild just stared at the apprentice, realizing that this cat was going to be more trouble than she was worth before finally saying " Ugh… Fine I'll teach you." She walked over to Cloverpaw and dropped into a hunting position
"Okay so this is the Hunter's crouch, you get in this position whenever you are stalking prey." Cloverpaw imitated the crouch. Wild was impressed it had taken her a five tries to get the position right. "Okay" she continued "So next you approach your prey like this"
Wild moved gracefully through the grass without making and sound. Than turned to Cloverpaw and gestured for her to do the same.
Cloverpaw took off going much to fast, and made it about one fox length before tripping over her own paws. Wild rolled her eyes. Maybe Cloverpaw Wasn't as much of a natural as she had originally thought. "No, Cloverpaw" Wild said with a sigh "You need to take your time and focus on what your feet are doing" "Oh sorry" Cloverpaw blushed "I'll do better next time" "Just try make it more than six steps this time"
Despite her promise Cloverpaw didnot slow down the next time and ended up with a repeat performance. Wild had to demonstrate the crouch again and it took several tries before the apprentice was able to get it right. Then they moved onto pouncing ,with Wild setting up a stick marker that Cloverpaw had to land on. Her main pouncing technique was to sort of dash-jump forward to it. This made Wild sigh again "No Cloverpaw, that way will give the prey time to escape, unless their blind and deaf."
"We'll fine than." Said Cloverpaw. "How should I do of great and mighty one." Wild hissed a Cloverpaw "Listen do you want to learn how to hunt." Without waiting for Cloverpaw's response she continued "Use your back legs to jump higher, and land on the prey from above." Cloverpaw tried this method again, this time getting it right. "Okay" Wild said "It looks like you're finally ready to hunt without killing yourself."
So the two she-cats left to go try their luck. Cloverpaw somehow managed to mess up almost every time she hunted. First stalking the prey upwind of it, and then stepping on a twig.
Finally just as the sun was going down Cloverpaw managed to catch a small vole. It wasn't much but the gray she-cat was happy that she had done it, Wild had a thrush that she had killed in one of the many demonstrations that she had done for Cloverpaw. "It had been a lot of work." Thought Wild as she and Cloverpaw walked back.
But somehow seeing the apprentice so happy made it all work it. This strange new feeling confused Wild. In the Twolegs place her life had been a constant battle for the food scraps that her mother had managed to find with her three older brothers. She learned early on that to survive she would have to be tough and cruel. This earned her the name Wild, a name that she was proud of.
Wild also remembered the mysterious dream with the Long-haired white she-cat telling her to travel to this forest. And so she had come here a scrawny wild rogue who nobody loved and loved nobody. But there was something, something warm and comforting about Cloverpaw that made Wild feel like there was something more to life than just fighting.
As they returned to the den Wild snapped out of her reverie and entered dropping her kill, Cloverpaw did the same and eagerly dug in. When they had finished Cloverpaw looked at the pile of feathers from the thrush and said "You know where I was from we would take feathers off the birds we killed and use them to line our nests."
"Hmm" Said Wild "I guess we could try it." She assisted Cloverpaw as the small she-cat wove the feathers into the pile of moss that was Wild's bed. When she was done she stepped back and said "Well it looks like there's only enough feathers for your nest, could I maybe sleep with you just this one night?" She looked up at Wild with sad imploring eyes. "All right, but if you snore I'll claw you!" Cloverpaw ignored the threat and leaped in the nest, and rolled around.
"Wow it's so comfy" she squealed. Wild got down next to her and Cloverpaw snuggled close. Wild had to admit that there was something comforting about the little cat's warmth of her fur. I reminded her of her mother and something she couldn't name, but desperately seemed to yearn for.