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The night air was cool in stark contrast to the heat of the season. The forest was loud with insects and the breeze shifting through the pine needles above the two cats as they silently padded through the forest. Cinderswipe had summoned Sparrowpaw from the camp, and Sparrowpaw was extremely excited. Finally, she would get to see more of the territory! She would be able to see the sights that apprentices had spoken about, smell the fresh air of the open woods, and feel the wind in her fur. When she found out what they would be working on, she felt the disappointment well up in her chest. She was to learn how to fight, like the proper apprentice she was supposed to be.

She knew it had been coming. Battle was a key part of warrior life for many, and it was vital for her to know how to protect her clan. She knew that her clan always came first and that she would need to unsheath her claws and rush into battle to protect it one day. She also knew how unnecessary fighting felt. If clans actually talked about their problems, if they could discuss not having enough prey and then trust that other clans would do their best to help where they can sacrifice the resources, then maybe the forest would be a more peaceful place. Maybe Treeclan wouldn't have felt like they had to take control of Deer Path. Maybe fewer cats would die pointlessly.

Life would be so much better if cats just talked to each other instead of relying on their teeth and claws to take what they wanted.

Sparrowpaw and Cinderstripe walked through the entrance that opened up into a wide clearing. The brown tabby could feel the plush orange pine needles beneath her feet as the pair walked towards the center. "What exactly am I learning again?" Sparrowpaw asked, her ears tilted forward. She hoped it was something that was more for self-defense, like how to escape grapples or avoid swipes. She didn't feel ready to learn ways to do damage and hurt others.

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Tags: nimble
Notes: I hope this works!
Day: Greenleaf Day 19

[nimble]

Cinderstripe had risen just before sundown, excitement stirring her from sleep earlier than usual. She'd busied herself with grooming her smoky black fur and had helped herself to some fresh-kill to pass the time, trying to practice patience. When at last the moon had risen, she'd gone to wake Sparrowpaw. The ceremony had been taken place at dawn, and most of the clan not assigned to day patrols had retired to their dens to sleep. She wanted her apprentice rested for her first night of training.

Sparrowpaw didn't say much as the pair of cats traveled into NightClan's forest, and Cinderstripe found herself wondering what was on the young she-cat's mind. She must be excited, she decided. When Cinderstripe was an apprentice, battle training sessions had been her favorite. Her mentor, Ashlight, had never been a cat to pull her blows, but no matter how tough their lessons, or how battered they left young Cinderstripe, she always looked forward to the next spar. The rigorous training had shaped her to be a fine warrior, and she was grateful. Still, she planned a different approach for her own apprentice.

“What exactly am I learning again?” Sparrowpaw asked. A purr built in Cinderstripe's chest, her expression warm as she met her apprentice's gaze. “I thought we'd start with some basic offensive moves,” she mewed, hoping to capture the young cat's interest. She turned to face the little tabby, studying her for a moment. While Cinderstripe herself was a rather large cat, it appeared that Sparrowpaw would grow to be fairly average size. Still, there was no reason the apprentice could not develop a powerful blow.

“When engaging an enemy,” the warrior began, “we can gain the upper paw by quickly putting them on the defense. We will decide how their paws will move; we will decide the direction of the battle.” Her tail tip twitched as she spoke, excitement glowing in her amber eyes. She had so much to teach Sparrowpaw! Moves to incapacitate enemies, ways to command the battlefield – the skills to defend her clan. The thought of one day fighting shoulder to shoulder with her own apprentice was exhilarating! Forcing herself to focus, she flicked her ears and instructed, “I want you to attack me – don't worry about the technicalities right now. Just follow your instincts.”

She crouched slightly in preparation, eager to see how Sparrowpaw would begin. Show me what you've got!

@owlishe

[Deleted]

Sparrowpaw fought to keep her face straight, excited even. Offensive Battle Training. Exactly what she didn't want. Actually, it was specifically what she was trying to avoid, or at least put off until she knew how to deal with it. But she could not run away, she could not lie and say she was sick, she could not hide or busy herself doing other things. Instead, she was in a scenario in which she had to not only get through the lesson without disappointing Cinderstripe but also do so well that they never had to do it again. And certainly, Cinderstripe was knowledgeable in battle. Otherwise, they would be hunting or tracking or sneaking or something that wasn't this. But even if they were doing something else today, they would just get back to this eventually. It was unavoidable.

Somehow, tonight, Sparrowpaw needed to avoid the unavoidable. She sighed in reverse in an attempt to hide it, taking a deep breath of air instead. There would be no hiding tonight, she would have to try.

"ection of the battle." Sparrowpaw suddenly realized she hadn't been paying attention. Her eyes refocused on her mentor, taking in the she-cat's twitching tail and forward stance. She really was excited, wasn't she? The brown tabby had some reservations when it came to others that enjoyed fighting. Her mentor's excitement made Sparrowpaw nervous.

She tried to give the impression that she was as excited and eager to learn, but her discomfort was not well disguised as Cinderstripe asked her to attack. Thoughts flickered through her head in an unfamiliar panic. Should I say anything? Does it matter what paw I use? I won't hurt her, right? I sure hope there were no important instructions in what she said earlier."

Sparrowpaw culminated all of her thoughts, worries, and expectations into a few movements. She waddled up to her mentor, her legs awkwardly straight in the places where they should be bending, and then reached up with her paw and swatted at Cinderstripe. Her technique was similar to what she would use if she were being pestered by a flying insect. Paired with this maneuver, she gave a wordless yelp, almost as if she were trying to use it to intimidate her opponent. Except it came out as pitiful, shaky, and hesitant.

"Hh-haahh!"

"I really hope this doesn't make everything worse," she thought, eyes wide, as she began to realize just how badly she probably did.

[nimble]

Cinderstripe had been braced for the little she-cat to come flying at her, already preparing praise for her apprentice's effort. She envisioned their first training session as an energetic affair, where Sparrowpaw would have the opportunity to try out whatever came to mind while she offered critiques and encouragement. In her mind, she'd pictured a young cat brimming with untapped talent and enthusiasm.

So one could understand, of course, why she was, er, caught off guard by the young tabby's stiff-legged advance. She blinked, her eyes wide and confused, and straightened up, leaning back slightly to avoid Sparrowpaw's paw. For a moment, she didn't know what to say, her mouth hanging slightly open as she attempted to find words. “Uh –” She blinked, realizing she'd been staring. Say something! “T-that was a good effort!” she tried weakly, not wanting to make the young cat feel bad. “But, um, let me show you another approach.” She regained her composure, moving around Sparrowpaw to stand at her side.

“Let's give this a try,” she mewed encouragingly, squaring her paws. Cinderstripe sunk into a crouch, glancing over to make sure her apprentice was following along. She leaped out of the crouch and bounded forward, paws outstretched as if she was reaching for some unseen opponent. She landed neatly in the pine needles, and turned back to Sparrowpaw, hoping she'd been paying attention. I'll just have to build her confidence! she thought, optimistic.

[Deleted]

Sparrowpaw felt herself blush underneath her brown coat. Embarrassment rose into her throat, where she silenced it. It seemed like her slack-jawed mentor, at that moment, had just realized that her apprentice was just as much of a disappointment as Sparrowpaw felt. "Maybe I am underestimating Cinderstripe," Sparrowpaw forced herself to think, focus on being rational. "After all, the whole point of having a mentor is to learn from them. There is no way in StarClan she expects me to know everything already." Even so, a small side of doubt still burned deep within the she-cat. Doubt that felt like she had already proven herself unfit to be an apprentice already.

Even if her mentor was not judging her for her ineffective advance, Sparrowpaw knew that her mentor's reaction meant that they had a significant amount of Offensive Battle Training in store. She would have to pretend to be interested, maybe that would make this lesson shorter.

She carefully observed Cinderstripe, scooting to the side to give her room to do whatever she was planning to do. "Let's give this a try." Sparrowpaw nodded. The apprentice did her best to mimic the dark she-cat as she lowered herself into a crouch. Despite her legs still being a little bit stiff, and her expression unconfident and nervous, unlike her mentor's relaxed form, she didn't look awful. It was a big step up from the waddle and swat. She watched Cinderstripe leap forward, noticing her outstretched paws. If this was a real fight, she would have claws extended, lit by the moonlight. She would also be colliding with more than just cool, night air. Sparrowpaw frowned, and instinctively froze up. She knew that this move would be something that her clanmates would use in battle. But if another cat, maybe a big TreeClan warrior the size of Cinderstripe, were to do this to her. That would be very, very bad. Young Sparrowpaw did not understand why any cat would ever want to do this to another cat if they would not want a cat to do it to them.

She suddenly realized that Cinderstripe was probably waiting a bit too long for her to try the move. She snapped out of her inner monologue and tried to remember exactly what Cinderstripe had done. First, she tried to loosen herself up and relax, just like her mentor had done, and then she leaped forward. She started to reach out her front paws as Cinderstripe had just shown her.

But it just felt so wrong.

Very briefly, her expression shifted. Confidence. What she was doing was right. She would not use this move to hurt others, no matter it's original purpose. She shifted herself in the air in a moment, changing her front paws so they were not posed to dig claws into a cat's pelt. In an instant her expression changed to panic, eyes wide, as her posture change had made her lose what had been a rather passable leap, and the ground was approaching her before she was ready to land. She managed to stop her forward momentum before she toppled end over end by sliding her front paws and digging her back claws into the ground. Pine needles flew up into her face and grooves in the dirt formed where she had dragged her claws through it. As she pivoted to face Cinderstripe, she gave her pelt a hardy shake in an attempt to remove some of the needles from her fur and only kind of succeeded. She looked at Cinderstripe with a half-hearted smile. "I know that the landing was bad, I think I messed up with my paws and I slipped or something by accident. But was my leap right?" She asked, hoping against hope that something about her failed attempt was passable in Cinderstripe's eyes.

She also hoped that Cinderstripe would not question that her poor attempt was all an accident. The only accident was that she did not land well. The clange of her trajectory was very purposeful. She had an inkling that if Cinderstripe had been paying attention she would have seen the change in Sparrowpaw's intention, and the following purposeful shift in her pose. Sparrowpaw just hoped that her mentor wouldn't call it out. She was fine being known as clumsy and bad at combat if it meant that she did not have to hurt anyone.

"I can try again, maybe!" The she-cat's ears perked up a little bit and she ran back to her starting place, dropping once again into a mildly uncomfortable but not horrible crouch. She looked to Cinderstripe, waiting for comfirmation that they weren't going to need to talk too much about how she messed up.
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Tags: nimble
Notes: Oof sorry it ended up so long, there is a lot of inner monologue I was not anticipating. ^^'

[nimble]

Sparrowpaw's hesitation was not something Cinderstripe had anticipated, when she'd planned their first days of training. She watched the little apprentice curiously, nodding encouragingly when the she-cat didn't make any moves. Slowly, the young tabby prepared for the pounce. Within the heartbeat she leaped in to the air, Cinderstripe could have sworn she saw Sparrowpaw's mind change three times. She came to an ungraceful halt, tumbling through the pine litter. “I think I slipped or something by accident.” Hm. No, that wasn't it. Cinderstripe padded up to her apprentice, using her paw to delicately flick away some pine needles that still stuck to her fur.

“You started out well,” she mewed kindly, “but I think you're in your head too much.” The dark-furred warrior sat down, wrapping her tail around her paws as she tilted her head to the side, considering. She was about to speak when her apprentice piped up, “I can try again!” I'll take whatever enthusiasm I can get!

“Absolutely!” the older she-cat agreed, watching as the apprentice bounded away. “This time,” she called, “try not to think about it too much – your instincts are where we begin.” She's a bright cat, thought Cinderstripe. It was no wonder she might be a bit intimidated to begin her training. She'll be NightClan's future; that could be a lot to think about. Perhaps she's realized how much her clan depends on her becoming a strong warrior. She felt a pang of sympathy before turning her attention back to the apprentice as she prepared to practice her leap once more. She'd have to find a way to assuage Sparrowpaw's anxiety. It was something she'd need more time to consider.

@owlishe