"Russetfur!" a sharp voice came from a fox-length behind her. A half-eaten lizard tail dangling from her mouth, the warrior whipped around. "After the battle with WindClan, you offered to train Whitepaw so she can hunt and defend herself. Littlepaw says it's time she got out of the medicine den, so it's time we took you up on the offer. Take her hunting with Nightpaw today, okay?"Raggedstar asked her, then whisking away without waiting for a reply.
She wolfed down the rest of her lizard and went to the apprentice's den. "Nightpaw?" she called, and a pair of eyes opened and gleamed tiredly back at her from within the shadows. "Get up; you're having a special hunting assignment today." The black tom scrambled to his paws and stumbled over to her, blinking away the sleepiness. "Whitepaw's going to learn to hunt with her eye, and we're going to help her. You'll have to use everything I've taught you about hunting, and catch something to inspire confidence in her."She said the last bit a little jokingly, but it would probably work.
The pair made their way to the medicine den, where Whitepaw was sitting, perhaps quivering a little, in wait. She smiled when she saw them but was too shy to say anything. Nightpaw dipped his head with an easy smile and greeted her. "Hey." Breaking the awkward silence, Russetfur gestured with her muzzle to leave and the two apprentices followed her out of camp. When they reached a particularly wet part of the territory, with a few saplings growing there, the entourage stopped.
Looking at Whitepaw, Rusetfur asked, "Did your mentor ever take you here, Whitepaw?"
Timidly, the apprentice shook her head no. "Littlebird and I focused on battle training mostly." Russetfur dipped her head, unsurprised. With the battle with WindClan so dark above their heads, it was less than shocking that everyone was doing battle training at the time.
"Okay, Nightpaw. What's special about hunting here?" Russetfur asked, quizzing him.
Pausing to think for a moment, he answered slowly, "There is a lot of prey here, because of the water, and the insects attracted to it, as well as all the mud and young trees for shelter, but it can be dangerous because you could get sucked into the mud. And the trees and bendy because it's so damp." He finished with a smile.
"Yes, yes, yes, and yes, but you're forgetting something. Beware the heron and the raccoons." Nightpaw sighed, and Russetfur fixed him with an icy glare. "It's very important. The heron has killed cats before, and you could lose every last piece of your prey before the day is out to the raccoons. Do you want that?" Taking his silence as agreement, she continued. "Like I said. Now, because it's still not prime weather, the heron probably won't give us too much trouble, but you're going to be the prey-guard for the first bit, Nightpaw. If you see a raccoon, let me know so we can fight them off. Them, because where there's one, there's more."
Turning to the female apprentice, Russetfur advised, "I'm not going to bog you down with a bunch of information, since you learn best by just doing it, but since your eyesight is halfway compromised, your depth perception will be off and that makes pouncing on prey further than a tail-length away a real pain in the tail. You'll have to rely on your other senses particularly your hearing, to determine where the prey is. You should still keep your eye open, though, to make sure you aren't jumping into a puddle of muddy water."
Whitepaw dipped her head. "Okay." she said determinedly and sank into a hunting crouch. Looking intently through the grass and sedge, the apprentice spotted a small blackbird. Ears pricked forward, and her mouth open to taste the air. Quickly scanning the space between herself and the bird for hidden dangers, Whitepaw slunk forward silently. When no more than a tail-length lay between them, the white-furred apprentice put her weight on her back legs and sprang for the bird. Giving a loud alarm call, the bird flapped away the second the she-cat reached it, leaving her with a mouthful of tail feathers.
"That's all right, Whitepaw. I didn't catch anything my first time." The apprentice walked back, muttering, "But it's not my first time. I've been an apprentice for longer than any of the others."
Nightpaw stepped forward and laid his tail on her shoulder. "You lost an eye, Whitepaw."
The normally mild apprentice simply shot him a hostile glare. "You think I don't know that? You think I don't know that I'll never be as good as any cat, that I'm not a burden to ShadowClan because I'll never fight or hunt as well, just eat prey and have to be protected and waste herbs? You think I don't know that I'd be better off dead; and that most of my Clan feels the same way? You'd be wrong." she snapped, tears forming in her single eye.
Nightpaw opened his mouth, a little hurt, to apologize, but Russetfur cut him off. "Whitepaw. You are not and will never be a burden to the Clan. Any one of us would give our lives for you in a heartbeat, one eye or two. Maybe one day you will hunt and fight as well as any other cat, that's why I'm doing this. If I didn't believe you could do it, I wouldn't have offered to train you. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and focus on training." She reprimanded before adding with a light, teasing tone, "And you know Cedarheart doesn't think you'd be better off dead." Her brother had always displayed a shy affection for the white she-cat, and had been almost as devastated as Whitepaw herself after the battle with WindClan. Both of them were too reserved to really approach it, but they both liked each other since kithood.
Flushed, Whitepaw ignored the last part and said meekly, "Can we do some battle training now?" Nightpaw grinned in anticipation when the dark ginger she-cat dipped her head and headed for the training area. The two apprentices shared a glance before stepping after Russetfur. Nonchalantly, the black tom walked very close to the she-cat, in case she were to stumble or fall. In the end, it was both unnecessary and Whitepaw picked up on it, but they reached the area without quibbling.
The trio came to the dry clearing of grass sheltered by the Burnt Sycamore's branches. "Okay. Whitepaw, you're older than Nightpaw, and therefore bigger and stronger, but you're out of practice and only have one eye. Nightpaw, you're probably a bit faster, maybe, though Whitepaw's a she-cat so it won't be by very much, but you've got all your body parts. Keep your claws sheathed and don't hurt each other. It might seem simple but Foxheart ripped my face open in a training session so things do happen. Be careful. And now... fight. Don't worry about fancy moves just yet, I want to assess your skill."
Circling each other and waiting for the first rush, the apprentices locked gazes. Finally, Nightpaw flung himself forward only to feint back, but Whitepaw was raring for a fight now and slammed into him, chest to chest, and knocked him off his paws. In the figurative blink of an eye, he was back up and slithered between the she-cat's paws to escape her grasp. Before he fully got away, Whitepaw twisted and grabbed his scruff with her jaws, using it as leverage to jump to his side. She put all her weight on her back paws and reared up to use a crushing move, but he crouched,swift as a rabbit, and head-butted her exposed belly, making her tip backward and crash to the ground.
Not finished yet, the snowy she-cat appeared stunned but the very nanosecond that Nightpaw attacked, she came up snapping, eye aglow with the adrenaline of the fight. Escaping her whirling paws, Nightpaw balanced on his front paws and used an explosive back kick, which caught her in the chest, and she half-careened over before regaining her balance. Both cats were panting heavily now, but Whitepaw sprang at him regardless, cuffing the side of his head whit a not-so-gentle foreleg. Taking advantage of the power behind the paw-blow, Nightpaw's head jerked to the side and continued to twist below and he clamped his jaws around her paw with an unrelenting grip, his head twisted upward and Whitepaw balancing on three paws. With a surprised yowl, she jerked back but was unable to free herself until she retaliated by using the slippery dry grass to flip onto her back and kick him, hard, in the stomach. The wind knocked from his lungs, Nightpaw automatically let go.
Shaking her paw once in relief, the white-furred apprentice lunged for him again while he was incapacitated and trying to breathe. He had recovered enough to roll out of the way, and Whitepaw hit the ground where he had been. Getting the oxygen back into his lungs, the black tom reared up to grapple head-to-head with the she-cat, until she managed to twist her back leg between hers and he fell back to four paws. Quickly, Whitepaw swung her head down and grabbed hold of his scruff, tipping him to the side with some effort. Before he could get up again, Russetfur called a halt. "That's enough, guys."
They stopped immediately, their ears pricking up and smiles forming on each of their faces. "Do we have to?" Nightpaw asked, a bit laughingly.
Russetfur rolled her eyes. "Yes. Whitepaw- you seem to remember your training perfectly, as well as being quite good in skill naturally. I think you could have done better, though. And I'm not talking about your eye. I think you, as you are now, could have fought harder. The same goes for you, Nightpaw. You were both holding back a bit, which is good because you don't want to hurt each other but you could have gone a little harder than that. Also, Nightpaw, you keep letting her get a hold on you; she is bigger than you, so you have to dodge and run and jump over lunging and pure power attacks. Whitepaw, don't be afraid to do the same." She instructed, and was glad when neither of them took offense at her advice.
"Now I'm going to attack you, Whitepaw. I'll keep my claws sheathed and I'm not going to break your skin, probably, but past that I will not be holding back so you'd better fight as hard and as best you can." Nightpaw backed away, and the two se-cats faced each other. Their mouths turned up in fierce smiles and their gazes lit with the fire of anticipation, with a twitch of Russetfur's tail, each lunged at the other.
A/N: Yay, a filler chapter! Ha ha this does hold important poo that will be used later, but I do admit that it probably wasn't the most interesting thing in the world. The next chapter brings some changes, and also a time-warp! Yay, doesn't everyone just love time-warps? Anyway, I would really appreciate some feedback on this chapter; I didn't get any reviews for the last chapter so I don't know what's going on in your guys' heads! Also, should I or my buddy Coalstar, who expressed a possible interest in this, or us together, do a story on Whitepaw? Not right now, naturally, I have too many stories going at once anyway, but eventually? The next chapter is already in the works, and will almost definitely be up before the week is out.
