Adventure Ahoy!

Mothpaw ventured out from the camp on his own, all his fellow apprentices were out training so he might as well try to make himself useful! He'd been away from camp by himself a number of times but rarely had he gotten the chance to fully explore unaccompanied by another apprentice or warrior. Which, sort of took the fun out of it? Sure, Leopardpaw was his best friend and everyone else was great! But... sometimes it was nice just to do stuff entirely on his own, without anyone telling him what to do!

He followed the river up towards The Gorge, no real destination in mind, just keeping a looking for prey... Or enemy cats! If the border was all secure then he'd probably just go practice his, frankly mediocre, swimming further down the river and when he was done, bring a fish back to camp.

Thornkit was very proud of himself, he had managed to sneak away and not get caught this time! He was finally going to have a real adventure just like the other apprentices . He stared wide eyed at the swaths of heather and gorse that lined the Gorge, his little paws slipping on the crumbling dirt under paw . He lifted his head and sniffed the air, there was another cat nearby ! An enemy ?! Or a friend ? He rushed towards the scent his dainty paws and powerful legs pushing him onward closer towards the scent .

“H-hey! Who are you?” He called out to the unfamiliar cat, he didn’t seem like an enemy, maybe he could be a friend! “I’m Thornkit!”

Mothpaw startled at the sudden voice calling out to him. His head wiped around, large green eyes searching for the source as his thick, pale golden fur started to bristle, was it an enemy?! Was he about to have his first real fight?! He caught sight of the small ruddy brown cat on the other side of the Gorge and immediately his fur lay flat once more. Oh! It wasn't an enemy, it was another cat! Probably around his own age!
It took a moment for what the other cat had said to process in Mothpaw's head. Thornkit. "Oh, hi Thornkit! I'm Mothpaw! I'm an apprentice and I'm patrolling!" He held his head up proudly. It suddenly occurred to him that it was a bit odd for a kit to be out on their own, "What are you doing?" he called back.

Thornkit’s ruddy orange fur fluffed up with excitement , bright green eyes flashing as he licked at his overly long canines, which poked out from under his lip. He was so happy to make a new friend . “Woah cool you’re an apprentice? Uh I was just exploring, I wanna have an adventure one day. And I decided to come look around, don’t tell anyone though they always get angry when I go off on my own, I can look after myself though .” He huffed . His feathery tail swishing back and forth . “.. maybe I can help you patrol?”

"Yeah! Being an apprentice is really cool!" Mothpaw chirped happily. He paused as he thought over his new friends' words for a moment, "Sure! You can help me patrol! And I'm good at keeping secrets so I won't tell anyone!" He puffed up proudly, "I actually don't think I have too much of the border left to patrol so once we're done we can do something else!" Suddenly he paused as a thought struck him, "You'll need to get over here to help me with the patrol. But... Where's a safe crossing spot?" His mentor had never actually shown him how to get across the Gorge, all she'd really said was that it protected them from Windclan...

Mothpaw looked around, trying to find a good place to get Thornkit across. He spotted an old fallen tree branch with some remaining sticks that should make it easy to grab onto, it was small enough that he should be able to move it but large enough to probably support the weight of the other kit. He managed to drag it over to the gorge and push it most of the way across, leaving just a small gap that would need to be jumped. "Hey, do you think you could jump on this branch? I can stand on this end to hold it in place so you can walk over!" He was very pleased with his brilliant problem solving skills.

Thornkit looked around for something to help him cross he wanted to go help his new friend and have a fun adventure , when Mothpaw, dragged over the branch, it looked slightly sturdy and the kit gave a nervous mewl as he crouched down trying to measure the jump. He crouched down and sprang forward with his strong back legs and half landed on the branch squealing when his hind legs landed in the water, he clawed desperately at the branch and managed to pull himself up, shaking a little he scrambled all the way across his fur puffing out . “That was scary!! But fun!”

Once Thornkit was safely across, Mothpaw tried to pull the branch back but instead lost his grip. It tumbled into the water below and was quickly whisked away by the river. Oh well, they'd worry about crossing the other way later. "I'll bet!" Mothpaw purred in agreement, "You get to do all sorts of fun stuff as an apprentice even though sometimes it's hard!" He looked around, "Oh, right, we need to finish this patrol and then I can show you other fun stuff!" Mothpaw started leading the way along the edge of the Gorge, he just needed to follow up to where the river first flowed into Riverclan territory and this part of the border would be secure!

Thornkit watched the stick get whisked away and shrugged, he’d worry about that later right now he wanted to go have fun with his new friend . “ really? Do you have to face dangers a lot? Like foxes or other cats ?” He asked him eyes wide with amazement as he followed him away from the George and deeper into Riverclan territory . Unaware of what he would be setting off between the two clans .

"That's what I've heard! I haven't actually run into anything I had to fight yet but when I do I'll be ready! That's why you have to patrol to watch the borders for enemies, we have the best hunting grounds so the other clans try to steal from us!" Mothpaw trotted along confidently, tail high in the air as he spoke.
"I haven't been an apprentice for too long so there's lots of stuff I haven't seen yet! Like otters! Apparently they're like really long brown cats with tiny ears that live in the water and steal our fish! They mostly ignore us but they can get nasty and they don't need to breath."
Mothpaw continued rambling as they reached the edge of Riverclan territory. "Well, this is where our territory ends! The river keeps going, probably all the way to Starclan!" He huffed and turned around to look at Thornkit, "Well, since patrol's done, we can go do something else now! Have you ever caught a fish? Or gone swimming?"

Thornkit thought Windclan had the best hunting grounds there was so much room to run and they were so close to starclan! Always under their sky. He listened intently trailing after Mothpaw, taking in everything he was saying. “Woah.. that sounds so cool I can’t wait till I’m an apprentice I’ll be the best patroller ever!”
He squeaked . He watched the river go on and on maybe it really did go to starclan that would be so cool.

The kit looked up Mothpaw with excited green eyes his fangs poking out of the bottom of his lip. “Ooh no there’s only a small stream in windclan and there’s no fish in it .. can you teach me to fish and swim?!” It would be a really useful skill to know
And he could show everyone else in windclan! He’d be a better warrior if he knew how to do things other clans did.

Mothpaw's eyes lit up, "Yeah! I'll teach you how!" He tipped his head to the side as he thought it over, "There's a nice, quiet spot downriver a ways. It's always hard to stay focused when other cats keep bothering you!" He set a quick pace as he headed towards a secluded section of river, eager to teach his new friend cool new skills.

Thornkit did his best to keep up, he still had another moon before he could become an apprentice but he wasn’t going to let his size slow him down . He followed his friend to the quiet area it was strange living so close to the water he wondered how these cats didn’t have fins like fish. “. What’s it like living in river clan? There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room to just run.” He said.

"Riverclan is awesome! Lichenstar and Wolfstorm are super cool and Leopardpaw, my best friend, is super smart! At clan meetings we all sit around the big Willow tree and either Lichenstar or Wolfstorm sit in up the branches to tell us stuff. I'm busy with training a lot because Minnowstream is an awesome mentor and she's teaching me all this cool stuff about how to be a great warrior!" Mothpaw looked over at Thornkit, puzzled, "Why would we to need space to run around? The river is always full of fish so we don't need to chase prey very much. And the other clans don't swim so the river protects us from them. I guess we can run if we need to but?"
The glimmer of the sun off the water caught Mothpaw's attention."Oh, right! Umm... I guess we can start with fishing? It's honestly really easy! He flicked his fluffy tail as he settled on a rock overlooking the river. Crouching down he peered into the crystal clear water, paw poised just above the surface."You sit like this and wait for a fish to come by. Then you just-" Mothpaw plunged his paw into the water, swiping at a fish...

In a remarkably smooth motion, Mothpaw scooped the fish out of the water and bit down before it could flop around too much, neatly depositing it on the rock. "Just like that!" He chirped.

The member 'Sleepykitty' has done the following action : Roll Dice

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'Hunting Dice' : 4

Thornkit watched him closely eyes wide when he somehow managed to scoop a fish a real fish from the water, he jumped back before pawing at the flopping animal on the ground in front of him, playing with it a bit. He still was a kit after all, and this small scaled thing was new to him.

Thornkit’s stomach growled and he leaned down to take a bite, finding the scales a little tough to get through but the actual meat of the fish was interesting, and surprisingly good. The taste was different from rabbits very very different but he liked it a lot . “Woah this is good!”

Mothpaw purred at Thornkit's reactions. He was a bit hungry after patrolling but remembered the clan needed to be fed first so he refrained from eating. It was a small fish and Thornkit was still just a kit, so it was fine for him to eat. "Yeah, fish is great! Do you wanna try to catch one?"

Thornkit"s eyes lit up at the thought of catching a fish, he finished the small fish quickly enough, swiping his tongue over his jaws, before joining mothpaw at the edge of the edge of the water, it flowed quietly here the cool water reflecting the harsh sun's glare and leaving dancing watery lights along the underside of the rocks that lined the edge.  Thornkit stared into the water as if it would tell him it's deepest secrets about fishing . " how do you know if there is a fish there?" he asked raising a paw to try and Dab at the surface a bit, the coldness was a shock and a welcomed relief from the sun's intense heat.

Mothpaw shifted to give Thornkit a bit more room on the rock, "The water is super clear here so you see the dark shape in the water as it swims by," he explained, tapping the gently rippling surface of the water. "You just need to react fast enough to grab it before it swims away! Sometimes in the shallowest water you can see tiny minnows but they generally aren't worth the effort it takes to catch them. They're barely a mouthful and they're way too fast! Mothpaw curled his tail around his paws. The direct sunlight was rapidly becoming uncomfortably warm on his thick coat but he sat patiently. They could go swimming after Thornkit tried getting a fish. Too much splashing beforehand would just scare away all the fish.

Thornkit watched the clear water before him determined to get this right, he was impressed by his friend's ability to catch a fish and wanted to do the same, he watched the water till a dark shadow  moved underneath and he quickly lash out with his tiny needle like claws extended to scoop out the fish. he hoped he did this right. he was fast but not fast enough the fish was a little quicker and swam away before the young tom could catch it. "oh no!" he mewled feeling embarrassed and disappointed in himself he hoped his Mothpaw wasn't mad at him. " I'm sorry, I was to slow"

The member 'Thornpaw' has done the following action : Roll Dice

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'Hunting Dice' : 6

Mothpaw watched as the fish darted away, "Oh, don't worry about it! Sometimes fish can be tricky. he soothed. His pelt prickled under the sun. "You're not even an apprentice yet so you have plenty of time to get better, and you'll already be ahead of the other apprentices! It's getting kinda hot in the sun though, I can show you how to swim instead! I'm not a great swimmer yet but even just splashing in the shallows will cool you right down!"

Thornkits eyes flashed excitedly, “oh yes! That sounds like fun! Maybe we can play moss ball in the water!” He suggested as his bushy tail curved over his back in his excitement, it was getting rather hot and the coolness of the water would feel amazing on his back and paws . “Let’s go!” He grinned .

"That would be fun! I don't get to play that kind of game anymore, the other apprentices all act like they're too old for it, but it's still a fun game!" Mothpaw hopped off the rock, leading the way to a sheltered section of river a short distance away where it broadened, slowing the flow of water and pooling in a shadowed, shallow area, perfect for splashing around. The bottom of the pool was a mixture of sand and smooth pebbles. Without hesitating, Mothpaw hopped into the pool with a splash, flopping onto his belly to roll over. Relishing in the immediate relief of the cool water.

Thornkit was a little hesitant but jumped after Mothpaw squealing in delight at how cold and refreshing the water felt against his fur. He padded around in the belly high deep water splashing about and pawing at some lose pebbles underneath , he wasn’t so much swimming as he was splashing around his body moving on instinct .

With a contented huff, Mothpaw sat up, fur dripping as he watched Thornkit exploring the water. He got back to his paws and waded to the deeper water, "Swimming well can be hard, I'm certainly not as good as everyone else but the basics are pretty simple," he mewed. "How Minnowstream explained it to me is that it's similar to running. You just keep your paws a bit lower so they don't come out of the water and you can steer by moving your tail!" He sank into the shoulder deep water, clumsily paddling to demonstrate the general technique.