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[Uzu]

A small black and white cat hopped upon the rocks around camp, her eyes glittering in the sunlight, that had unusually managed to peek over the rocks, like gray pools. A small, amused purr came from the young apprentice, climbing until her paws hit a sand patch, and slipped back, pushing her down onto a lower rock.

Littlepaw looked down, letting out a soft sighing sound. Where she was positioned now, she would most likely find herself on the outside of the warrior's den if she fell. "Shame it's not the medicine cat's den, would save 'em a trip," she mewed playfully, looking around for another spot to jump, finding a small ledge, where she hopped, feeling her paws hanging over into the air slightly. It wasn't too comforting of a feeling, but she had gotten used to it with trying to find ways to get into small gouges in the rocks. Jumping down, she felt her feet lightly touch the ground, and began running towards the fresh-kill pile, however, stopped a fox-length away, and looked around.

"I'm bored now," she mewed, licking one of her paws quickly. Nobody seemed to be around to play with.

[Bronze]

The sleek black she-cat watched her apprentice from the shadows. Littlepaw must have something better to do than play around on rocks. She was about to come out into the open, but something stopped her. The apprentice had been working hard lately. Surely she deserved a time to play, while she was still an apprentice. In a few moons, she would be a warior, and games like this would be impossible. The young she cat got down from the rocks, and approached the fresh-kill pile. Rainstar heard her apprentice mew something. She jumped out of her hiding spot and stood before Littlepaw.
"Have the elders and queens eaten yet? You know you should bring food to them before eating," she told the smaller cat sternly. Despite her tone, there was an amused twinkle in Rainstar's eyes.

[Uzu]

A mew of surprise emitted from the younger cat, her eyes growing as large as the sun for a moment, and fluffed her fur. Littlepaw had been in her own world so long that she hadn't realized that her mentor had been watching her. A good question was how long she had been watched.

Embarrassment flooded over the apprentice, as she looked around nervously, "of course I fed them! What type of cat would I be if I... er..." her ears twitched, taking a look at the freshkill pile, realizing her words had gotten ahead of her. "No..." she finally mewed after a short pause. "I wasn't going to eat yet." Of course she wasn't going to yet, she still had a foxlength to walk to reach the food, then would have to find a comfortable spot to lay and eat. To her surprise and dismay, her mentor, and leader, had spotted her before she had time to get her food.

"Nobody sounds like their hungry," Littlepaw mewed, trying to find some way of defending herself. "Wouldn't it be unpleasant if I got them food, and woke them up from their naps? You know that elders don't like that. I might get snapped at!" she mewed, her eyes widening again. Of course, being energetic, it would never be the first time an elder had gotten frusterated with her for something. "And if the queens are busy trying to get her kits to sleep, I might just end up waking them up with the smell of food, and then there'd be crying kits! Me bringing them food might just cause madness!" the young apprentice exaggerated.

[Bronze]

Rainstar purred quietly. Her apprentice looked so startled, it was impossible not to be amused.
"Calm down, Littlepaw. I doubt you meant any harm," the leader mewed. "You know, You might be right. Let's give the elders and queens time to finish their naps. We can go practice your hunting, and bring something back for the Clan. Then you can eat. Would you like that?"
Rainstar watched the small cat thoughtfully. Despite Littlepaw's habit of not thinking things over entirely, she was the most eager to learn apprentice the clan had. She'd probably forget all this when she came back with a piece of fresh-kill in her mouth.
"If we go now, we can avoid cranky elders and all the...madness," Rainstar pointed out.

[Uzu]

Littlepaw's ears twitched at the word hunting, and her eyes sparkled with interest, "okay!" she bounded forwards a few steps, then back to stand alongside her mentor. The young apprentice still acted much like a kit at times, primarily when excited. She really couldn't wait to hunt. Maybe she could show off her skills to the leader! Even though really, her ability to hunt was no better than most apprentices, Littlepaw always thought too much and seemed to exaggerate the thoughts.

Her eyes widened more at the thought of cranky elders, "hurry! Before the madness! Freshkill! Everyone will be happy!" she mewed, her tone mixed with joy and fear of grouchy elders.

[Bronze]

She laughed softly at the younger cat's enthusiasm, and led the way to the forest area, deeper into TwilightClan territory. The apprentice would be behind her, most likely trying to match the leader's pace with her short legs. Littlepaw wasn't a bad hunter, but she could often be heard bragging to the other apprentices. Rainstar didn't mind Littlepaw's active imagination, but she did annoy some of the other apprentices to no end some days. Her thoughts went back to the present time when she arrived at the edge of the trees.
"What was the last thing you learned when we came here, Littlepaw?" Rainstar asked. hopefully the black and white she-cat was paying attention last time. Or rather, she hoped that Littlepaw remembered what happened, and hadn't forgotten while she was playing on the rocks above the camp.

[Uzu]

At some point during the walk, Littlepaw found herself behind her mentor, though hadn't really noticed when this happened. Thinking about it, she cursed her small legs, and hurried after as she realized she was slowing to mentally yell at her legs. How terrible it was that such an excitable kit had to practically stop to be upset with her legs!

As the question of what she had learned previously was asked, the black and white apprentice paused, thinking. "Uh..." she hesitated, "not to step on pointy rocks because they hurt and if you try to eat pincher-y bugs, they hurt?" her ears twitched. Thinking more, she really didn't remember, because, of course, she had been playing with a bug that later pinched her when she licked it. Of course, after that, she would never try to eat a bug again. Yuck! "Probably something... something about hunting... or something... maybe..."

[Bronze]

Rainstar cocked her head in confusion for a moment, then purred loudly. Only her apprentice would say something like that. Then again, maybe the other apprentices were like this. It came with their age, most likely. She arched her back and stretched, allowing herself a moment to absorb the sunlight before sitting down on her black haunches and turning her green gaze to Littlepaw.
"I should hope we were talking about hunting, since I was trying to teach you how to improve your stalking. Do I even want to know why you ever needed to be told not to step on or eat things that have sharp parts? Let's just see if you remembered more of what you did than what you heard." Her tone was reprimanding, but their was humor in it too. "There is a mouse in the ferns to your left. Show me how you catch it."
Littlepaw did enjoy hunting, Rainstar knew that. Her performance today would be good; the wind was blowing towards them, and this new-leaf was giving them plenty of prey to catch. The day would be good.

[Uzu]

Littlepaw couldn't help but feel embarrassment course through her body for a moment. Yes, no pointy stuff. Pointy wasn't a very good thing to mess with. She made sure to memorize this, because she knew she wouldn't think about it later otherwise. Regardless, the little cat probably would not think about it later when she found something pointy.

Biting back a purr, the small cat turned towards the ferns, and twitched her ear, to acknowledge that she had heard her mentor tell her the instruction. Quickly, the cat dropped to the ground, her belly hairs barely touching the dirt, and began to crawl towards the ferns. The smell of the soon-to-be freshkill was enough to make her wish she were eating it. Figuring her distance, she bunched up her haunches a little, and sprang forward, just as she realized that the mouse would have noticed her any second later.

Littlepaw felt her claws sink into it's lower back, as she had misjudged her jump, and moved her head forward, biting into it quickly to silence it before it had the chance to screech and alert any prey of the hunters. Lifting it, she turned towards her mentor, and cocked her head, waiting for the leader to tell her either that she did good or terribly bad.

[Bronze]

She nodded slowly as Littlepaw prepared to strike. She purred at the apprentice's success, then closed her eyes. That was her way to review the hunt in her mind, and to supply some constructive criticism.
"Your stance was wonderful, and you clearly aren't loud enough to alert all the prey from here to StarClan anymore. However, your jump was still a bit short. Fortunately, you did the right thing by killing it before it could do anything. You can still improve; none of us are perfect hunters by any means." Rainstar dropped into a crouch, and slowly came up behind a thrush. The bird was pecking at the ground, oblivious to its killer's approach. Suddenly its head was up, but before it could get off the ground, the black cat had struck. She put down the kill, and scratched some dirt over it, indicating that Littlepaw should do the same with the mouse.
"You always have to be faster with birds. Mice and voles are easier," she commented.

[Uzu]

Littlepaw purred happily from the praise for her stance. She was doing better! That was something to be very proud of in her case. The small cat watched her mentor carefully as she hunted the thrush, keeping wide eyes. Really, the little cat couldn't imagine being as good as a hunter as her mentor.

Watching Rainstar bury the thrush, she quickly did the same with her mouse, remembering after being instructed to do so. "Birds fly," she pointed out obviously, after the mouse left her mouth, and was being covered over by dirt. "So if you scratch one's wing, will it still fly off?" Maybe it was a good question, maybe it was a really stupid question. The young apprentice didn't really know. But she liked questions - so why not ask any that came to mind?

"Have you ever hunted a really big bird, Rainstar?"

[Bronze]

She smiled at the little cat's stream of questions. Some of the warriors found this annoying, but how can anyone learn if their questions are not answered?
"Flying makes them much harder to catch, yes. They have fast enough reflexes to escape about half the time. If you scratch their wing, they still might be able to fly a short distance, but that short distance might be just enough to get out of reach," she explained, remembering many birds flying into branches, and herself glaring up at them, forced to move on and try to get something else. "I've never actually caught any bird bigger than a crow. However, I did once try hunting a turkey. My mentor had told me not to even attempt it, but I didn't realize until it was too late that turkey's are much bigger close up." She purred at the memory. "They have feathers so thick and hard, it's nearly impossible for a cat's claws to break through. I managed to jump off its back before it started attacking me."

[Uzu]

Littlepaw thought of her dislike to the idea of putting so much effort into catching a bird only for it to escape moments later even if scratched and to get out of reach. Her tail twitched, as she imagined the birds mocking her, as she couldn't catch them in time.

Soon, hearing about the turkey, the young apprentice's eyes widened like discs. "Are they really that big? Are turkeys strong?" she found interest in the words that made the bird sound invincible versing a cat. "Wait... attack you? Did it try? Aren't you faster than it, if it's so big? I mean, big things don't usually move fast, right? Are their feathers like trees?" Certainly, the young cat's imagination was leading her to try to illustrate the large bird in her head.

Of course, the way she thought of the bird was not how it actually looked. She was imagining a bird the size of a tree with feathers made of bark and teeth that no bird held, jagged, looking far more intimidating than any of the foxes she saw at the gathering! She shuddered mentally, thinking of running into a bird like that.

[Bronze]

She shook her head and purred. The imagination her apprentice had!
"Turkeys are bigger than some foxes, but not nearly as dangerous. Their feathers are like any other bird's, only bigger. If you stay clear of them, they'll just carry on waddling around and pecking at the ground. I'd advise you to not anger a turkey like I did. It was too slow to catch me, yes, but it did make a weird, angry sound. No other bird sounds like a turkey," she meowed. She walked deeper into the forest, beckoning to her apprentice with her slender tail.
"Come on now. We should be getting more prey, not discussing turkeys," she told Littlepaw firmly. She spotted a squirrel sitting on a tree's roots. It wasn't big, but it would have to do. Suddenly it started climbing the trunk, too slowly to have seen the she-cat. Rainstar leaped up to it with a snarl, and smacked it off the tree. The impact snapped the little gray creatures neck, or maybe it was just in shock. Just in case, it was bitten in the spine, and carefully covered with earth.

[Uzu]

Littlepaw stared at the she-cat, listening. "So... no bark feathers?" she mewed quietly, "nor as big as trees?" her tail twitched, and a sigh of relieve fluttered through the air. "Good, I didn't want to be squashed by a big old bird!" she mewed.

She watched her mentor kill a squirrel, and stuck her tongue out in distaste. "Squirrels are so fluffy! It's like eating someone else's fur!" she mewed, scrunching up her nose a little, before looking around. She noticed a small thrush, and considered creeping towards it, however, instead backed up, and looked at her mentor, as if expecting another demonstration. Her tail twitched a little, and carefully padded away from the bird, in order to avoid hearing it's warning call to all other prey in the area.

Her ears twitched, but the only thing she could hear passed the buzzing of a small bug near her ear, was her own breathing. "I don't think that I can catch birds yet. Especially if a turkey tries to come to it's rescue!" she mewed quietly, shuddering at the thought of a mean, loud bird.