Training [Closed]

Meadowgaze stirred from her nest, lots of thoughts running through her mind. She had been given an apprentice, and the pressure to teach them well had been weighing heavily. It had taken her so much time to plan out exactly how she wanted to train them. In all honesty, the she-cat felt bad for taking so long to figure out exactly what she wanted to do. How she could pass down her knowledge as a warrior to her apprentice, and allow them to flourish as a member of the clan. But after what felt like an entire moon of thought, it finally was decided. Hunting first, then running the moors, then battle. All of it would help her apprentice become one of the fastest cats WindClan had ever seen!

...Or so she hoped. It was hard not to be anxious about having an apprentice, as it had been so many moons ago she had learned the ways of the warrior. “Harepaw, are you ready?”

Harepaw heard the call of her mentor, almost immediately perking up. She got to her paws quickly, trotting over to Meadowgaze enthusiastically. "Yes! Of course I am!" She purred, her tail waving side to side.

Her eyes were round and shone with excitement - she could still scarcely belive she had become an apprentice. She inwardly promised herself that she would make her mentor proud of her. "What are we gonna do first?"

The short wait made Meadowgaze quite enthusiastic and actually take a breath of relief. Letting the nerves relax from her body, the she-cat allowed her posture to become much more friendly towards the young apprentice. "Today, I will be showing you how to do what every warrior and apprentice can do to help out their clan. I'll be showing you how to hunt~!" There was an enthusiastic, almost kit-like chirp to her own voice as she signaled Harepaw to follow her outside of the camp.

"First off, what all can you tell me about WindClan's territory?" Her question was asked gently. She wanted to know just what all Harepaw had learned about before teaching her. It wouldn't make much sense to tell her things that she already knew, and it wouldn't make sense to expect her to know something that she didn't.

Harepaw followed along slightly behind Meadowgaze, a bounce to her step as she excitedly looked around the area. Her whiskers twitched as she breathed in the scents of WindClan territory. Looking to Meadowgaze upon hearing her begin speaking.

"Our territory is wide open with lots of grass!" She replied, glancing around the area for more information to try and impress her mentor, but her mind wandered at how big the territory was compared to the camp she was so used to seeing, voicing her thoughts as she did. "I just didn't know how big it was!"

A gentle, motherly chuckle sounded from the she-cat at Harepaw's amusement. It certainly was large, and she had been just as impressed. "Very good~! WindClan's territory is very open." She gave a nod of approval, a smile gracing her maw as she continued to walk deeper into the territory with her apprentice by her side. The cream-marked she-cat eventually slowed her pace, looking around the lands. "Because our territory is so open, we have to be very quiet when hunting our prey. We don't have trees to hide us like ThunderClan or SkyClan. But, we do have taller grass to hide in." She mewed. Her otherwise quick speaking voice had slowed to make sure she didn't rush any important information to tell to her apprentice. "Watch me for a moment." She said with a nod, taking a few steps away so that Harepaw could see her full frame.

Crouching low to the ground, Meadowgaze slowly stretched one leg in front of the other. Her eyes moved from watching her own paws to the land right in front of her, and the she-cat made sure to balance her tail just above the ground. "When stalking prey, it's important to try and be as quiet as you can. Watch where you set down your paws, and make sure your tail doesn't drag too low on the ground - even just the tiniest swishing of the grass could scare your prey away." She spoke much more quietly - as if she was hunting. With kit-like energy, she then stood back up. "You try now~!"

Harepaw watched intently - Meadowgaze made this look way too easy. When it was her turn, she attempted to copy Meadowgaze's posing from memory. She lowered herself to the ground, making sure to keep her tail off the ground - though definitely overshooting how far off it needed to be by a large margin.

Harepaw took a deep breath, slowly trying to creep forward like Meadowgaze had, one paw in front of the other. She was wobbly, but managed to avoid stepping on dry grass and keep noise to a minimum, save for the unbalanced wobbling and the grass movement it brought.

Hesitantly, she looked to Meadowgaze, hoping she did okay. "L-Like that?"

Even though the apprentice was shaky, Meadowgaze had to admit, she did a very good job. It certainly would take a bit of time to adjust to the balance that all cats needed to be perfect hunters. But a prideful nod came from she she-cat as she motioned towards Harepaw's tail. "Almost perfect! If you would've lowered your tail a little bit more, you wouldn't have been as shaky - think of your tail going more as a..." She paused to think for a moment, the warrior's tail moving in different places to best come up with a way to describe. "Think of your tail going straight out from your hindquarters. That way, it won't stick out, but won't hit any grass."

The warrior took a quick moment to breathe. Had she instructed her apprentice wrong? No. It was a bit of a learning curve for both of them - and she also knew it would make her a better warrior being able to best describe how to do things. It would all be okay. The personal nerves Meadowgaze would be battling would in no way harm Harepaw's training, the she-cat made up her mind.

Her expression perked up at Meadowgaze's prideful nod - she did good! Harepaw listened to her mentor's instruction intently, nodding as she did so. She adjusted her tail, sticking it straight out behind her, holding her pose. She glanced over her shoulder, checking where her tail was positioned before moving her gaze back to Meadowgaze. "Better?" She asked carefully, not daring to move in fear of falling onto her side.

Inwardly, Harepaw was hopeful that she was actually doing okay - she's not a kit anymore, she reminded herself, so it was important to be perfect, or at least near it, after all, she wanted to be the best in the Clan.

Meadowgaze studied her apprentice's frame intently, making sure her face looked as if she was looking at every tuft of fur her apprentice had. In truth, she wasn't, she was just messing around a bit. But Harepaw had in fact followed her instruction perfectly - her hunting stance looked great. "Yes, exactly like that!" She nodded enthusiastically. More and more, Meadowgaze was growing sure that it would be a good day for the both of them.

"So now that you know the hunters crouch, you'll use that to stalk your prey. If you keep low like that, and move forward quietly, you'll be able to get close enough to pounce right onto your catch and they won't have a chance to get away." She explained, once more demonstrating what she meant by moving forward silently on her paws while still being low to the grass. "Of course, there are other ways to hunt - some WindClan cats prefer to simply out-run the rabbits. But especially during leaf-bare, it's much easier to sneak up on them. Would you like to try and catch something?" She felt her apprentice could certainly do it.