fool me again [private]

[Deleted]

Well, it seemed that Cinnamon's mentor really was gone. Or perhaps he'd just been assigned to train with a ghost? The youngster wasn't really sure, but it sucked either way.

He let out a yawn as he paced around the edge of camp. It was nearly sunhigh; everyone was mostly out training or patrolling. Which left only a handful of cats here. The elders, the queens and kits… anyone who didn't really have to do much. It was embarrassing to be one of the only apprentices sitting around.

Someone stepped into the clearing and Cinnamonpaw perked up. "Hi Whitepaw! You busy today?"

[Whitepaw]

Whitepaw padded out of the apprentices den with a yawn. He'd had a good sleep and a pretty fantastic dream. He was dreaming there was endless amounts of prey and he was eating a ton. Whitepaw's ears flicked when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him. It was Cinnamonpaw. "Nope, I'm free!" He replied with a smile as he wandered over to his friend.

"How have you been?" He asked.

[Deleted]

"Oh, thank CloudClan," purred the other apprentice. "I've been alright, only bored out of my skull. No sign of my mentor for ages," he reported with a sigh.

"We should do something today! Maplefrost keeps giving me these looks like he thinks I should clean the elders' den since I have so much spare time. Or - well, I guess not looks, he can't see, can he? But you get the idea. Wanna go on an adventure?"

[Whitepaw]

"Haha, happy?" He seemed relieved that Whitepaw's schedule was free for the day. He felt bad that the apprentice's mentor was gone. That must of really sucked. "Oh gosh.. I'm sure there are tons of other things you could be doing besides that." Whitepaw gave a laugh.

"Just pretend to look busy." Whitepaw nodded excitedly at the suggestion of an adventure. "Sure! Sounds good to me. I could use some fun." He flicked his tail. "Where we going?"

[Deleted]

"I think I made it too obvious that I've got nothing to do," Cinnamon admitted. "That old calico is still pretty sharp. And I do feel sorta bad, since his den's full of holes… but it's not really a job for one cat."

With a wag of his stubby little tail, the ginger-and-white tom started padding towards the camp entrance. "Uhh… I didn't actually have a destination in mind. How 'bout the TreeClan border?" he asked over his shoulder.

[Whitepaw]

"Holes? Oh shoot that's not good.. Maybe one of these days we actually do need to fix that thing up. It's the least we could do I guess." But that would be a job for another day. Today they would head off to explore. It was a day for adventure not work.

"Sure! Sounds fine." He grinned. "Lead the way!" He'd follow after his friend. "C'mon let's go." He was enthusiastic about their trip.

[Deleted]

Shrugging, the apprentice stepped eagerly out into the mountains. It was good to get some fresh air and he really hadn't had the chance to explore much, even though he was old enough to do so. He set a brisk pace towards the general direction of the forest but halted suddenly when the breeze changed directions.

"Hey, do you smell something weird?"

[Whitepaw]

"Smells like... a crow." He noted aloud. He'd never caught a crow before. Personally he wasn't sure how tasty they were either. They were birds and he typically preferred things like mice and fish but he would like to try one. "How far off is it.." He muttered, sniffing the air trying to figure it out.

"Maybe we could find it!"

[Deleted]

"Crow? That's a bird, right? Sounds like it'd be hard to catch," Cinnamon mused. He parted his jaws slightly in an attempt to get a better whiff of the scent.

Luckily he didn't have to try and track it, for a few moments later there was a flicker of movement on top of a nearby rock pile. "There it is!" he whispered excitedly.

[Whitepaw]

"It is!" He nodded. "They fly and unless they are on the ground it's impossible to get.. They also seem pretty big." He heard his friend whisper about the bird and he turned his head to see it as well.

"There is is! Should we try and get it..?" He wasn't sure exactly if they were just planning on staring at it or if they were actually going to attempt to get such a tricky bird.

[Deleted]

Cinnamonpaw nodded vigorously. "We gotta try," he replied under his breath. He'd never hunted before, but he could already imagine how pleased the Clan would be if he could only make his first catch!

Very carefully, he started tiptoeing towards the heap of rocks when the crow wasn't looking.

[Whitepaw]

"Okay!" His voice filled with excitement. He'd had little practice a well so this was going to be interesting. He followed after Cinnamon since he too had little idea of how to approach this. But he tried to keep as quiet as he could be. He could only imagine the looks from the Clan if they caught this!

They'd surely be praised and rewarded for it.

[Deleted]

The bobtailed tom froze when the crow ruffled its feathers, but it only lifted a wing and began preening. He let out a silent breath of relief. "You go on the other side," he whispered to his friend, then moved to flank the bird. It was pretty far off the ground but he figured he could reach it with a big leap, and Whitepaw could try to get it if he missed.

[Whitepaw]

He nodded to his friend and went for the other side. He'd make sure it didn't get away! He'd be disappointed if after all this they didn't end up getting it. He wanted to feel proud with Cinnamonpaw that the two had caught such a big bird. He listened to the advice and silently stalked his way to the opposite side of where Cinnamon was. He was ready in case Cinnamonpaw wasn't able to get it and if it decided to fly off.

[Deleted]

Now that it came down to actually catching the crow, Cinnamonpaw was nervous.

He hesitated just a tad too long - his quarry ceased its preening, looked up, and let out a startled caw. Cinnamon clumsily sprang for it as it was starting to take off. He snagged it by the wing with one set of claws, and for once he was grateful for his weight - rather than flying away with a cat clinging to it, the crow was being slowly dragged down despite its frantic flapping.

"Ack!" yelped the youngster as he continued to dangle in midair whilst getting a faceful of feathers.