Tinypaw was excited to be training, especially after being apprenticed just a few days ago. He really liked his mentor, Moonwhisker, and was eager to train immediately. One day, he heard his name.
"Tinypaw! Let's go."
Tinypaw had jumped to his paws, leaving his nest a mess. He wondered what would happen today, since yesterday they did the territory tour. As he walked past the fresh-kill pile, he flinched. The apprentice had a feeling that they were going to add to that pile today. Moonwhisker was waiting by the entrance.
"Today, you'll be learning how to hunt."
That made Tinypaw's stomach churn. He didn't really want to do that, whatsoever. He simply followed out his mentor into the territory. He loved watching as the blades of grass tickled his sides, or even towered above him. It was amazing looking at the fields of grass at higher elevations, and the few trees that were widely spread out.
"Hunting is important, as you provide food for your clan," Moonwhisker started,
"But it takes a while for you to get it right, even with full instinct."
"Here's the hunting crouch," he said, crouching down, displaying the crouch almost perfectly. Tinypaw decided to try himself, and felt rather odd, taking several seconds to shift every paw and muscle to try to mirror Moonwhisker perfectly.
Moonwhisker continued to name all the facts and tips of hunting. Rabbits are fast, they usually feel vibrations well in the ground, mice can hear well, stay very quiet. Being downwind of your prey works best so they can't smell you, and avoid all obstacles. After that he explained how to quickly kill, leap and snap their neck, so on and so forth.
Tinypaw was scared to start, but after an order from Moonwhisker to try, he set off. He used his nose and tried to find a scent. He had no clue what it was, but it smelled familiar, like of the fresh-kill pile. He went in a direction, and realize he was quickly loosing the scent. He started running in another direction, panicking as he couldn't find where it was. As soon as it got strong, he realize something... must've been a rabbit, darted far, far away.
"You've got to be fairly slow and quiet at all times, even if you can't see the prey instantly," Moonwhisker corrected,
"Go on, try again."
Tinypaw nodded slowly, and tried finding prey again. It took several minutes, until he spotted... a bright orange and black thing? He was entranced by the creature, even though it was small. He started following it for a while, and decided it looked edible enough. He leapt high in the sky, trying to swipe at it. The tom ended up smacking it hard enough for it to spiral down from the sky.
I did it! he thought, picking it up and bringing it back.
It took a while for Tinypaw to notice, but the prey in his mouth.. kinda fell apart. He decided to go out again to find more prey. The apprentice opened his mouth, and searched for a while, smelling something else familiar. He crouched down and tried to go in the direction of the scent. It seemed to be a mouse, which he had spotted. There wasn't any breeze, so he simply watched his step until he was close enough, jumping at the mouse and squishing it, still aiming to bite it's neck. His ears folded back at how sad it looked, yet still picked up the mess of a mouse and brought it back, proud of his first catch.
The tom slept well, knowing more training was next.
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Tinypaw is owned by me!
Moonwhisker is owned by
StarGuardian-JinxFor Hunting Training assignment!
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