Sink or Swim [TRAINING]

The gray waters churned with foam, the river swollen by several days of ceaseless driving rains, half-drowning the tall arching reeds. Sleepywhisker stayed far from the torrent, walking among the shallow muddy pools with his apprentice trailing after him. It was a wet and miserable morning if ever there was one, but Leappaw would have to get used to early patrols with stiff frozen paws. It came with the new name.

He came to a pause, casting a glance behind him. "Be honest. Right now, are you cold?"

Leappaw was looking down as she padded forwards before meeting the eyes of Sleepywhisker, taking a moment to realise he asked her a question. "Y- I mean, are you?" She countered, a cool breeze hit her and her fur puffed up in surprise before she flattened it down again. She preferred walking alongside the banks, explaining her muddied paws and wet fur. Leappaw's eyes still gleamed with pride and it was obvious the sneaky Apprentice wasn't giving away anything.

"Freezing," he acknowledged with a nod, eyeing his apprentice. "But you're about to be colder. Walk with me." Sleepywhisker waded paw-deep into the shallows, the dark icy water swirling around his legs. "The other Clans suffer in leaf-bare and have to scrounge for crowfood to feed their kits. But our warrior ancestors knew better. We hunt and explore where no other Clan would dare hunt or explore." Now the water was lapping up at his belly fur and rising up over his haunches as he pressed up against the current. Not every RiverClan cat was born with fins for feet, and proper technique only came with practice and acclimation.

They came across a bend in the bank, where a gushing stream joined the main river. Sleepywhisker smoothly crossed the other side without a splash, paws just barely scraping the rocks on the riverbed, turning to face his apprentice on the other side to watch her crossing. These weren't the same gentle shallows back near the RiverClan nursery.

"W-What?" Her eyes widened. "I- That's a good idea but I don't like the idea of starvation..." She focused her eyes on the path in front of her. She calmly padded through the banks and when it almost swallowed her head she began to lift her legs off the ground to swim. She managed to scramble onto land, following Sleepywhisker towards the river. She watched him swim calmly across and she looked down at her webbed paws stained with mud.

"Woah..." She mewed slowly. Leappaw let one of her paws sink into the mud near the river before padding onto the stones. The bengal waded in slowly at first before she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and leaped through the water, she let herself relax, making her legs do all the work, she felt her paws- claws touch the riverbank and opened her eyes. She sheathed her claws and let herself swim closer. "That was scary." She mewed quietly. "I didn't like it..." She forgot about being cold as she lifted herself away from the river.

Once her paws touched solid ground, which was mud and stone she felt comfortable. "I didn't think I'd take a liking to mud." She mewed. Her paws touched the stone and the river seemed to have washed all the dirty mud off her paws, except for, well, the mud that was filling the gaps in between her paw-pads and toes. It felt nice and cool, even if it was freezing cold.