[Fawn]

A whole season late! Was Lionstar playing a cruel trick on her? Was this just the nature of how things are? She couldn't recall another cat ever having to take on an apprentice that had lost a full season of training for one reason or another. Either way, the pressure was on.

It didn't help, either, that the she-cat Fawnspring was expecting to train looked more adolescent than kit. When getting her first apprentice, Fawnspring had always pictured a cute fluffy kitten that would gaze at her a little shyly, but she'd be able to see the eagerness to learn in the young cat's eyes.

The look Snowpaw was giving her now was... A lot closer to disinterest.

Fawnspring's confidence shrank up and tried to crawl under a nearby acorn top. The petite warrioress gently rolled one out of her path as she brought their party of two to a stop beside an oak tree. "The most important thing a warrior can learn is how to hunt. It's a skill that feeds others, not just yourself." Fawnspring smiled, trying to appeal to the she-cat's emotions. "Wouldn't you like to catch something for your mother and father?"

Please StarClan let that be motivation enough. It was no secret that Snowpaw was... well, fussy.

BlooRey DVD - 217 Words


Leaf-fall 9 Leaves are everywhere, and multitudes of prey have made their homes under the red-yellow layer.
Snowpaw's ceremony was Leaf-fall 2

[BlooRey DVD]

SNOWPAW

Oh Darling, You'll never guess

Mismatched eyes narrowed as a young white she-cat sidestepped a stray puddle. A quiet scoff passed by her white whiskers, Snowpaw obviously none too unimpressed with the scattered muddy detritus littering the ground. Every little shift of her weight caused the hideous mixture of dirt and water to squelch under her paws. Sure it hadn't actually rained in the last little while, but the earth wasn't dry either. And if it wasn't dry, then the StarClan awful dirt and mud could get onto her pristine white coat and actually get her... Dirty.

The thought alone was nearly enough to have her keel over.

Of course, she couldn't do that, for keeling over necessitated she actually get down. Into that, that, that... MUD. The silky white fur along her spine prickled in unease at the unwelcome mental image, and the apprentice had to make a conscious effort not to shiver and gag. Truly, it made her want to run back to camp and tuck herself away in the safety of whichever den her mother happened to be occupying. Not because Snowpaw wasn't perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She WAS. There was simply no one else in the entirety of TreeClan as talented with keeping her coat perfect as her mother.

A white tail tip twitched as an ear pivoted toward Fawnspring's voice. The petite warrioress was supposed to be teaching her how to be a warrior. Truly, she didn't care much about that. She just wanted to look her absolute best. However... Her different colored eyes narrowed in something akin to suspicion as her mentor spoke up. The slightest tilt of her head indicated her thoughtfulness toward the suggestion, one white paw lifted following a rather pronounced shake to dislodge a rather pathetic and soggy golden leaf.

"I suppose." She sighed heavily, looking toward the ground again with obvious distaste. "But daddy will be expecting only the best squirrel we can find. It is his favorite, after all. And I simply cannot serve him anything but the best! It would be a travesty, Fawnspring. An absolute travesty!" She liked that word. Travesty. Appleshade had taught her that one.

: Fawn : She is.... Yeah XD :

ELL

[Fawn]

An absolute travesty... right. Somehow when Fawnspring pictured Skyfall, he didn't strike her as the overly fussy type. It's as if the only thing she inherited from him is her appearance! That finicky little paw-shake was nothing but Appleshade. Fawnspring exhaled, smiling gently. "Catching squirrels can be pretty tough for your first outing. I'm sure Skyfall will be just as proud if you bring him a mouse his daughter caught herself!"

She could remember the warmth in her own mother's eyes the first time she'd brought fresh prey Moonfeather. That sensation of pride had filled up to the ends of her whiskers. Amberwing had been ahead of her, and brought their mother prey just as often as Fawnspring - probably more. But those days of competitiveness were over, or so she told herself.

"I know the ground's muddy," Fawnspring said, trying to keep the she-cat's eyes focused on her and less on her environment - at least for a few seconds. "But the trick to hunting is all about technique and practice. In order to practice, you need to have the basics down. I'm going to show you a hunting stance. Watch closely!"

Saving some drier patches of earth for Snowpaw to practice on, Fawnspring drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out as she set her body into the familiar stance of a hunter's crouch. Given Snowpaw's deep-rooted aversion to mud, Fawnspring doubted she had to tell the kitten to make sure not to crouch too low, and to be careful of the placement of her paws.

"Now you try," said Fawnspring, holding her position.

BlooRey DVD 266 Words

[BlooRey DVD]

SNOWPAW

Oh Darling, You'll never guess

For a brief moment, it looked as though she'd bitten into something sour. The corners of her mouth turned down in something akin to revulsion upon even considering not returning to camp with a squirrel for her father. In fact, she found herself rather appalled that Fawnspring was telling her no. She didn't care that squirrels were 'difficult' to catch, they were her father's favorite! She was willing to put in the work just to get something that important for her father. Fawnspring didn't think she was... Incapable, did she? The thought was almost enough to have her audibly gasp.

Smothering the alarmed twitch of her lip and burying it behind a mask of composure she'd learned from her father, the little she-cat stared evenly at Fawnspring as the older she-cat proceeded to demonstrate exactly what it was she expected Snowpaw to do. Critical eyes swept over the warrioress, beginning at her paws and ending at her tail tip. If you were to ask her, that pose was terribly inconvenient. It brought you so uncomfortably close to the ground, and who in StarClan's name would want to be close to THAT. Plus, it wasn't very flattering, especially not for a lady. What, with the way it crumpled you up like that?

Snowpaw's prized feature was her slim build. Surely doing that would just... Make her look short and stumpy.

With a twitch of her whiskers, she briefly considered just.... Not. But Skyfall would be disappointed in her, both for coming up empty pawed, and for disrespecting her mentor or something like that. And thus, with only a glint of a begrudging light in her mismatched gaze, Snowpaw slowly stepped onto a patch of earth that looked a fraction more welcoming, and began to spread her paws apart. A determined gaze flicked between Fawnspring and her own paws, doing her best to mimc what she saw.

It all felt a little strange. Her tail arced uncomfortably over her back, her head tilted so she could avoid being too close to the ground while simultaneously looking at what Fawnspring was doing. Overall, it was truly an awful position, and she would never recommend it to anyone. Claws flexed uneasily trying to hold her balance, which proved difficult with her hind paws a little too close together while her forepaws were too far apart. With a snort that somehow managed to still sound dignified, she announced.

"Well. I do not like that one bit. Can't you make it less..." Her eyes rolled as she attempted to grasp a more dignified word for how she was feeling. Giving up, she went with exactly what her heart told her. "Bleh?"

: Fawn : -facepalm- :

ELL

[Fawn]

Fawnspring

37 MOONS - SHE-CAT - TREECLAN

Can't you make it less...Bleh?"

Fawnspring stared. Less bleh? What did that even mean! Snowpaw was a very expressive (i.e. dramatic) she-cat, which made perfect sense given who her mother was. But never before had Snowpaw seemed so alien to Fawnspring as she did now. Bleh was a nonsense word, it didn't offer the petite warrior any real clues to what precisely Snowpaw disliked about her (admittedly awful) hunting stance.

With a nervous laugh, she shook off her temporary stupor. "Well for one thing, you can't curl your tail over your back like that, it ruins your balance. I know the mud is, ah...bleh--" she gave the she-kitten a pained but hopeful look, as if using a made-up word was her best bet at a peace offering -- "but it's important to do this right. Watch my paws again. Do you see how I've spaced them?"

Fawnspring felt her muscles smoothly contract as she crouched, and those many lessons with Maplebrook had been etched into her being like the rough texture on bark. Is it too much to hope that she might even enjoy this? Fawnspring eyed Snowpaw out of her peripheral vision, putting on a warmer smile. I just have to be patient. She's my first apprentice. My first chance to show everyone I am just as capable as Amberwing.

"Now you try," said Fawnspring, straightening out of her pose and slowly circling the pristine white she-cat to get a fuller view of Snowpaw's posture. Without thinking, Fawnspring reached out a dirty paw to correct Snowpaw's stance.

As we soared above the town that never loved me
I realized I finally had a family
❋

256 Words ❋ BlooRey DVD ❋ Sorry for the lousy post!