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[aciddwolf]

Water rippled around the large, warm rocks, glittering from the sunlight. Sitting on one of the rocks, a long, silvery cat was crouched, her eyes reflecting the light from small waves. Wait a little longer. Three, two... the cat thought slowly, and as her thoughts faded, a soft splash could be heard, and a fish found it's way through the air, landing with a gentle "thwack" on the warm rock.

Within seconds, the leader spun, and jumped onto the fish, digging her claws and teeth into it, until it stopped flapping around. "This fish... isn't big enough..." she mewed, as if unsatisfied with her catch, "but it will have to do until I can find a larger one," Dawnstar's ears twitched. She had been hoping to find a large fish that would be able to feed more than one or two hungry cats at camp, but this one was probably only large enough for two cats to eat. It was the best she could do until another fish came by, though, so she would have to deal with what she had.

Waiting for another fish, the WaveClan leader looked up, making sure no seagulls were eying her fresh kill, before hopping from one rock to another, until she reached the sand, fish in mouth, and walked into the shade of the nearest rock, her paws being slightly damp from the mud, where she dug a hole near a small gouge in the rock, and buried her fish, before jumping onto the rock again, hopping over to the final rock and laying down, staring down into the crystal-like water, waiting for another fish to pass by, while taking occasional glances back, to make sure no seagull showed up to take her fish.

[Jaqi]

The small cat trotted through the ground, weaving through the trees and bushes. He had his tail held high and his orange fur bristled with excitement.

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last time, Wingpaw had left the den without the elders permission, let alone his mentor. Today was his off day from training and he was supposed to be resting and regaining his strength from yesterday's fitness session, when Dawnstar demanded he run along the length of the WaveClan's borders five times. Thus at the start of the day, Wingpaw had indeed slept in later than he normally would, but once he woke, he found that he wasn't as tired as he thought he would be. Casually, the kitten had walked to the edge of their clan and kind of...vanished through a hole.

And now, free of mentors and elders, Wingpaw set out to do a bit of exploring. As he clambered around some boulders, he heard the stream and with it the scent of a fresh fish.
Cautiously, Wingpaw followed his nose and it led him to the rock where Dawnstar had, unknown to the young apprentice, buried the fish.

The kitten hadn't registered that there was another cat nearby and began digging the soil up for the fish excitedly.
Some cat won't be having their lunch today, he thought cunningly, feeling extremely proud of himself.

[aciddwolf]

Ears pricked, Dawnstar stared into the water, allowing the warmth of the sunlight and the rock sooth her. Taking a glance back to the area where she buried her fish, she spotted Wingpaw. It didn't completely hit her that there was a cat there, until she was staring back down, listening to the water lapping against the rocks.

After a moment, the leader rose from her position, hopping a rock towards the shore, to be in vocalization reach of the apprentice. "Wingpaw!" the mentor meowed sternly, "put the fish back," she meowed, sounding as if she was on the verge of punishing him. The silvery pelted cat hopped the remainder of the rocks, sitting on the one that was closest to the cat and her prey.

"Last I knew, you were sleeping in the apprentice den, and I had figured you'd also know better to pay attention to your surroundings. Certainly your running yesterday was enough to tire you out for a day, why aren't you?"

The she-cat's tail lashed impatiently, waiting for her apprentices answer, and reaction. Half of her mind told her she should have startled him, by jumping down and running a paw over his hind legs, as if a rogue, but didn't really have the patience at the moment to do so as by then, her fish could be gone.

[Jaqi]

Wingpaw had unearthed the fish when he heard the stern voice he had come to know so well in the past moon. Involuntarily, he froze, his teeth inches away from tearing open the flesh of the fish.
As Dawnstar landed on the rock closest to him, he straightened himself shamefully.
Of all fishes, this was the fish that his mentor had caught.
After the shower of questions, Wingpaw hastily placed the fish back into the small hole beside the rock.
'Well...I...I was just,' the orange kitten stammered, brushing the soil back over the fish quickly. He had learnt by now that his mentor had an uncanny way of knowning whether he was telling the truth or not. Wingpaw wisely decided to tell the truth.
'I wasn't tired, Dawnstar,' he said, his head hung low, not wanting to look her in the eyes. 'I left the den and wanted to explore, since I wasn't training today.'
Wingpaw's head sunk lower as he continued.
'And yes, I should've been more careful. I should've checked if there was another cat around. I shouldn't have took the fish without knowing who was around.'

The kitten paused, looking at the mound that hid the fish.
'I can help you fish Dawnstar,' Wingpaw exclaimed, suddenly excited again as if none of the fish stealing business had happened. 'I'm not tired. Promise.'

[aciddwolf]

Dawnstar stared at her apprentice carefully, "what would you have done if you had just found a rogue's fish? I could easily tell you that I wouldn't have an apprentice much longer," she meowed, her tail seeming to slow the pace of it's lashes, "if you plan to steal a fish, do so properly, and make sure it's not from your own clan that you're stealing."

"I'm sure the elders would have loved to have an apprentice help them out today," the leader mused, "using mouse bile to eliminate their bug problems, getting them new moss," a gentle purr emitted from the cat. She took a long pause, looking down at her apprentice, as if waiting to see his reaction to her thoughts. Surely, no apprentice would want to do those jobs. Then again, she wasn't really positive of how her apprentice would act towards her thoughts.

After seeing the kitten's excitement to the thought of fishing, Dawnstar shifted, looking towards where the fish was re-buried. "First, unbury the fish," she mewed. "I'm sure it's been exposed to the air too long now, I'd have to take it back to camp too soon for my liking or else it would start to smell like crowfood," her ears twitched, still not hearing any seagulls. "That's your meal, since you seemed to be hungry enough to want it before, and it's best for you to have energy to hunt... and a growling stomach will surely scare away any fish."

[Jaqi]

Wingpaw gasped when Dawnstar suggested he'd abandon him as an apprentice. The thought of loosing apprenticeship because of his selfishness and a fish was too horrifying. But when he realised that his mentor was only saying it to scold, he relaxed a little.

However he gasped even louder when she suggested he fetched mousebile for the elders. He remembered all too painfully clear the last time he was made to do that. Wingpaw had vigoriously washed his paws in the sea only to realise too late that there was a fragment of mousebile left in between his left forepaw. The kitten could still remember the bitter taste of the mousebile with his food and presently he opened his mouth and made a disgusted face as if to rid of the taste.
'But I..!' he started at once in protest, but again, Dawnstar had only said it to scold. The kitten shut his jaws, furiously wishing that his mentor would not change her mind.

Thus, he could hardly believe himself when his leader said he could finish the fish. A moment ago Dawnstar was suggesting to fetch mousebile, even threatening to cease being his mentor, but now he was given permission to eat the fish.

Wingpaw, for the second time that day, froze momentarily, before finding his sense and replying to his leader, 'Thank you Dawnstar! I won't let you down!'
The orange furball rushed to where the fish lay and bite of its tail, before gobbling half the fish down.
'I've left some for you!' was all he managed to say before he was on the rocks beside the sea. Wingpaw dipped his orange tip tail into the water and swayed it gently to and fro as bait, wondering if it would work, and gazed intently into the water for his first catch.

[aciddwolf]

The reaction of her apprentice was definitely better than she had expected, amusing her much more than she had been prepared. Of course, if she really were as mean as some cats and foxes would say, she would have immediately sent her apprentice back to camp to pick ticks off of the elders. With the young leader, she felt being lenient could always be a good thing.

A small purr rumbled in the she-cat's chest, thinking that her apprentice may have learned not to be as mouse-brained as his recent attempt at eating her fish without permission. Her eyes watched Wingpaw eat the fish, her whiskers twitching, approving Wingpaw's decision to leave part of the fish for her. Gracefully, the WaveClan leader jumped down from the rock, and ate the remainder of the fish, burying the remains afterwards, to show respect - and to avoid having her territory smell like crowfood. As she did, she hopped up to the rock again.

Dawnstar made her way to the rock that Wingpaw was fishing on, though sat on the opposite side of the rock, gazing into the water. "Are you certain a fish is going to want your fluffy tail for dinner?" she mewed gently, not really looking towards the apprentice, so as to continue searching for fish in the water.

[Jaqi]

Wingpaw looked up from the sea at his mentor's question.
'But it works,' he explained, his whiskers twitching in excitement, 'I've seen someone do it! At first I thought it might not work either, because the movement might scare away the fishes, but the fox I saw...'

The kitten trailed off.
He had said it. The one species that the clan is enemy to.
Wingpaw had sworn to himself never to tell anyone the fox he saw at the edge of their territory, for the fox was no older than a pup. The kitten had crept in between some bushes by the sand during one of his training sessions and had seen it fishing with its long bushy tail. The apprentice had shivered at the thought of the young fox going so far from the heart of its tribe to hunt for food at their borders. And just when the kitten was about to leap out and challenge the pup, the fox had dipped his tail into the sea. Curiously, the pup's patience was well awarded with a large fish. Wingpaw decided that since the fox was theoretically not in their clan area, there was no need to reveal himself.

Presently Wingpaw stood staring at the water, as if there had been something of great interest in the sea that was worthy of his notice, and kept his mouth shut.

[aciddwolf]

A chilly wind seemed to sweep over the rocks when Wingpaw mentioned a fox. Dawnstar's fur was ruffled by the cool breeze, as she sat in silence. Never had she heard Wingpaw mention a fox, nor could she think of a time that the young cat would have been around one. Thinking about it, she didn't even think her apprentice had attended the last gathering. It took the leader a moment to think, trying to recall if she had brought Wingpaw to the last gathering, but couldn't really remember the cats that went.

"Fox?" her eyes narrowed into slits. "When have you seen a fox fishing? Where have you seen a fox fishing?" the gray cat's ears twitched. Dawnstar hated foxes to an extent that surely other cats found ridiculous, and was rarely afraid to vocalize her hate unless on fox territory. Around camp, she rarely mentioned the foxes, but wouldn't be surprised if her young apprentice knew of her dislike of the species. Especially between WaveClan and the Eternal Smoke Tribe, as the fox there was especially irritating, and the clan behind her initial hate for the species.

"Dawnpaw, Dawnpaw!" a voice barked in her head, "you won't get caught! Come over here for a minute so I can show you something I found!" the cat's tail lashed, as she shook the thought of her worst day from her head. The day that made her trust lack towards those not of her clan.

"Foxes are not good news. You're to keep away from them unless at a gathering, keep that clear," she mewed sternly. "They are not your friends, and will hurt you. Why you were watching one fish is beyond me."

[Jaqi]

Wingpaw listened, half ashamed.
'But I - ' he defended, taking his tail out of the water. He was about to say that he was merely watching the fox and that the fox was not technically in their territory. But he knew his mentor was right.

The orange cat flattened his ears.
'Yes Dawnstar. I understand,' Wingpaw said, eyes on a length of twig, 'I won't do it again. The fox was just off the rocks by the river just before it enters the sea. But he wasn't in WaveClan territory.' He added quickly, looking at Dawnstar now.

'And really, if he was on our territory, I would've jumped out at once and challenged him. The fox was only a pup. I can take him on no problem!'

The apprentice's ears twitched in anticipation at the thought, wondering what it would be like to fight a fox.

[aciddwolf]

"Even a pup poses a problem. The risk of more than one," Dawnstar seemed fairly serious about this possibility. "Usually if there's one, there's another within hearing range of the first, mainly if they're young... oh, say apprentice and younger. A mere pup may seem easy, but it's not as much when a large warrior hears their apprentice crying for help," she shifted, "most mentors care enough about their apprentice that they'd do anything to protect them. Anything," she rose to her feet slowly, gazing out into the water.

Within seconds, the leader was no longer on the rock, but a short distance away, slipping into the depths of a wave. Only a moment later, her head rose to the surface, holding a decent sized fish in her jaws, as she quickly paddled back to the rock, scrabbling for a moment against the smooth surface, until she managed to pull herself up, and shake off, surely sprinkling water on her apprentice. Lowering the fish, she placed a paw on it's body to prevent it from any escape. "Foxes are brutal creatures. Their teeth are longer than ours, and most of them larger. Cats pose less of a threat to a fox than you may think. Take two warriors, one cat, and one fox and make them fight. I'd bet this fish that the cat wouldn't live another day unless someone stopped the fox," she signaled with her tail that she'd return in a moment, lifting the fish into her mouth again, hopping the rocks to return to the sand and bury her fish.

She quickly made her way back. "I know this because I've witnessed the brutality of a fox. Firsthand," a chill ran through her spine.

"If you want, I'll tell you a story about them after we're done hunting. Give you more thoughts about them. First, though, I want to try to teach you more about diving for your prey," she purred quietly at the thought of her apprentice getting his fur wet.

[Jaqi]

Wingpaw didn't take the subtle meaning about mentor's care towards their apprentices, as he was still too young to appreciate this, however he shivered at his mentor's next words.

'Take two warriors, one cat, and one fox and make them fight. I'd bet this fish that the cat wouldn't live another day unless someone stopped the fox.'

Was that really true? The pup didn't look that strong after all.
But his ponderings would have to take place at another time, for Dawnstar had said he'd be learning how to dive for his prey.

Wingpaw's fur bristled.
'Dive for my prey?' he protested, 'But Dawnstar, why do I need to do that when I can just catch them with my paw?'
The apprentice disliked getting his fur wet, despite being raised beside the sea. His fur was long and he hated the feeling of wet fur matted to his body. And when he dried, he looked like a little fluffed out orange furball.

He began to edge slowly away from the rock, hoping that Dawnstar would look the other way so that he can bolt off.

[aciddwolf]

A gentle purr rose into Dawnstar's throat, "good question. Sometimes fish don't come close to land and rocks. If you're in an area where either you can't reach your paw far enough into the water to reach the fish, they're just out of reach, or you're someplace where fish don't normally swim very close to a portion of land, you'll need to be capable of diving into the water to feed yourself - and the clan."

As if realizing what Wingpaw was doing, she shifted, as if ready to spring at him, and plummet them both down into the water. "If you don't want to, we'll have to another time, because the only way I'm letting you ever become a warrior is if you can get your fur wet. Waveclan's fur is good for this, even if you do look like a sheep-thing afterwards." Placing a paw forward, this was a good warning to the apprentice, "and one way or another, you're going to get wet. Shouldn't it be the way that we can catch more prey, rather than being forced in with your mentor?"

True, it may have sounded rough for a young cat like Wingpaw, however, Dawnstar knew that a WaveClan cat would be capable of swimming, and she wouldn't cause any direct harm to her apprentice. Especially because if she were the one pushing him in, she'd be able to pull him out if absolutely necessary. It was one of few ways she could think of to attempt to extinguish the fear of the young cat.

[Jaqi]

The apprentice considered his mentor's words about fishes lurking just out of reach.

'But what if -' Wingpaw began, but he never got to finish his sentence, for at that moment, Dawnstar pushed him into the cold sea.
His mouth had been open and he coughed as he swallowed the salty water. Paddling frantically, Wingpaw struggled to stay afloat.

When he was a kit, he had been gathered with the other kits to swim in a shallow rock pool supervised by the she-cats. So he knew how to swim, but he had always been the weakest swimmer out of all the youngsters. Thus he had grown to dislike it. Just as well his name suited his abilities as well, or lack of it.

Wingpaw forced his forepaws up and down in frantic speed, lacking the natural grace and ease of a normal cat like Dawnstar, and knew he was doing it the wrong way. After a few seconds, he had not managed to move an inch from where he had first fell into the water and half his head kept sinking downwards.
The orange apprentice lost sight of his mentor and began to panic, fueling his paddling speed even more and trying to turn in a circle at the same time.

[aciddwolf]

Dawnstar was just a short distance away from her apprentice as he hit the water, and shifted some. Watching her apprentice with surprise that he seemed to hold difficulty swimming. She, too, was in the water, paddling slowly to conserve energy, and watched her apprentice's panic.

After a moment of realizing that he was having difficulties swimming, the mentor paddled towards her apprentice, a nervous feeling biting at her. Maybe she had pushed him a little too far by making him go into the water without a choice. It made her feel fairly guilty, especially if anything bad had happened to her apprentice.

The young leader finally reached Wingpaw, pressing under the water to press her teeth lightly into the scruff of the apprentice's neck, and tried to pull his head up, to make sure that he could get air. After she would accomplish this, she planned on making her way towards the beach, where she would make sure the young cat was okay. Thinking about this, a wave splashed into her face, making the salty water burn at her nose and eyes a little.