Chapter 77: Skills of Yore
I somehow managed to pull myself free from my now sleeping best friend and my somewhat clingy mate. Dawn's light was shining through the den entrance, and at least one of us had work to do. Even though Cinderpaw ordered me to not fulfill my deputy duties, Fireheart was the one upset today. I was tired of sitting on my tail anyways. Thankfully, Whitestorm was out and about. He'd know what today's patrol schedule was. I padded over to him.
"Whitestorm, what's today's patrol schedule looking like? I'm thinking we can afford to lessen patrols around Riverclan for a while given Graystripe's choice." I mewed to the senior warrior.
"That sounds like an idea, but aren't you supposed to be on break from deputy duties?" He questioned me.
"I'm not supposed to, but Fireheart is not in a state to be issuing orders right now. He did just have one of his best friends leave the clan." I answered.
He looked at me, contemplating how to respond before saying. "Welp. I'll plan out tomorrow's patrols then. You are still on break until Cinderpaw or Yellowfang clears you."
With exasperation I replied, "Oh come on. I'm bored out of my mind here. At least let me do something."
Whitestorm cocked his head at me, clearly amused by my annoyance. "Well, you have an apprentice. I don't think anyone would stop you from taking them out for some training." He answered.
Finally, something interesting to do. I caught Ashpaw as he exited the apprentices den. "We're going out for training." I mewed somewhat excitedly.
Ashpaw's eyes lit up at that. "We are?! Yes! Finally! Not that Ravenwing's a bad mentor or anything, but he just doesn't get me like you do. So what'll we do? Battle training? Hunting?"
I let out an amused purr. It was nice to have an apprentice so devout. "How about an assessment? I'd like to see where you are currently in your training. We'll do hunting first."
Ashpaw bound off, excited to show off his progress to me. I followed after. I was soon silently stalking my apprentice as they went about making catches. One of which was a squirrel positioned a couple tail lengths up a tree. Ashpaw spotted it and blurred into motion, running up the side of the tree and snagging the squirrel by its tail before dropping back to the ground. It was certainly impressive and a feat I'd likely never pull off.
"You know, he's got a Skyclan build." A voice said from behind me.
I turned swiftly to spot the ephemeral cat Mapleshade. She continued on. "Not that I ever met one of them. They were gone before even my time, but I knew of them."
"What's this Skyclan you speak of?" I muttered while continuing to follow Ashpaw, knowing somehow Mapleshade would hear my question.
"One of five, now four. They were a clan specialized in traversing the trees. When their clan was crushed by the expansion of the Twoleg Place, a portion of their cats were absorbed into Thunderclan. They used to be our primary rival. Of course, the Thunderclan I see now does not look like the Thunderclan I used to know. In fact, you look more like the Thunderclan of old than most other cats in the clan. We used to be big ground fighters, only second to Riverclan in weigh, but we had more muscle." He answered while going on a bit of a tangent. After a moment, something seemed to come to mind in the ghost cat's head.
"You know, I still remember some old Thunderclan techniques that I'm not seeing taught now. I also know some of the techniques the descendants of Skyclan taught as well. If you desire it, I can teach you, and you can teach your apprentice." She offered.
I thought for a moment before accepting. New techniques couldn't hurt. If her assessment of Ashpaw was correct, my apprentice could tap into a skillset I never knew he had the potential for.
Soon, I called for Ashpaw to finish his hunt. We hauled back the prey he caught, a fair amount I might add, before we returned to the training clearing for a battle assessment.
Our sparring match began. Ashpaw was hesitant of me, likely knowing I could end the fight quickly with a clean blow. I held back, wanting him to make the first move. All the while, I could faintly see Mapleshade out of the corner of my vision. Finally, Ashpaw decided to attack, going for a leap to try and get up onto my back.
"Meet him in the air." I heard her mew, prompting me to try it.
I significantly outweighed Ashpaw, so my momentum ended up rolling him backwards. He landed on his back with me on top of him. He tried to turn over to escape me, but again I heard the molly's voice.
"Hit him with a stunner."
I met the demand, using my right front paw, I struck Ashpaw's temple, putting him into a daze and giving me enough time to correct my pin, my paws pressing his shoulders down.
"Round one goes to me. While it might have seemed clever to try and get on top of me right away, you were open to attack while airborne. Since I weigh more and I jumped second, I was able to completely control where and how you'd land. In the future, try and keep at least some of your paws on the ground so you can react. It may look more messy, but climbing onto your opponent is more viable than jumping unless from ambush." I instructed before stepping off my apprentice.
"Sorry Smudgefoot." Ashpaw mewed, tilting his head down in embarrassment.
"None of that. You are still learning. I'm also sort of cheating in a way." I replied.
"Cheating?" He questioned.
"Well, it's a bit of an odd situation I'm in. I managed to get a ghost of old attached to me, and she's been giving me instructions on how to answer you?" I answered.
"So, a Starclan cat?" He mewed.
"Not quite. She's done what we'd probably do in the worst case scenario." I replied.
Ashpaw nodded with understanding. "Bloody rampage. Definitely not Starclan… Can we trust her?"
I thought for a moment before answering. "Not yet, but we're testing the waters. She's a pretty old soul, and she claims you remind her of a clan of old called Skyclan, a group of cats who specialized in climbing and moving through trees. Do you want to see if their techniques would work for you?"
Ashpaw thought for a little while before giving me a nod. We did a couple more rounds before starting on the new training. I had Ashpaw practice climbing trees and walking on low branches so he could get used to balancing on them. I marked out points on the ground for him to jump to so he could practice precision leaping. Meanwhile, Mapleshade began instructing me on old Thunderclan techniques. One of which was using our body weight to simulate bad weather, potentially scaring prey out of their dens. It was a bit amusing to be stompy and have results come of it, not that I did much of the catching. Ashpaw, still practicing moving through the trees and precision jumping would often catch the prey by dropping right on top of it. Needless to say, we brought back plenty more prey.