Training Breeze(p)aw

[Shiverwind]

Shiverwind sat near the camp entrance, waiting for Breezepaw to show up. He groomed his chest fur in silence, ears listening for her approach. When Breezepaw did show, he nodded out of camp.

"If you'd like, w-w-we can take things a bit slower s-s-so you can look around. Still, training is important. W-we-we'll work on huntin', mostly."

He waited for her response, watching her.

[Breezepaw]

Breezepaw had woken up slowly, but as she gently lifted her eyelids, she remembered she was an apprentice! She'd have a mentor to teach her all sorts of cool things now! She instantly was yanked out of drowsiness, and she was ready to go! She bounced up onto her feet, and she dashed out of the den. She looked around and saw Shiverwind near the entrance. As she dashed towards him, she followed him out of camp.

"No way! Let's go, full steam ahead!" She chirped excitedly.

[Shiverwind]

"A-all righty, then." While Shiverwind was still stammering, the rest of his body language showed that he was calm. Padding off in the direction of the Treeclan border, he kept checking back for Breezepaw. Realizing that she seemed fairly fast, he picked up the pace and entered Bluebell Copse, glancing around at the intense ocean of blue flowers, nose wrinkling at the scent. It wasn't that he hated bluebells, he just... Wasn't a big fan of them. Perhaps I shouldn't have come here to teach her about hunting. Oh well, it's not like I'll be teaching her to pick up prey-scents just yet.

Shiverwind poked around and came to a particularly bare spot in the blooms, sitting down again. "I-I suppose you've practiced crouchin' down n' huntin' leaves as any other k-kit w-w-would, right?" he asked, fighting the urge to sneeze.

[Breezepaw]

Breezepaw thought the stammering was starting to get a little annoying. Was this going to become a pattern? If so, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to learn anything. "Do you always stutter?" She asked impulsively, as she followed Shiverwind through Iceclan territory. She widened her eyes, looking around the flowers that surrounded them in the area they'd entered. It was so many! She'd seen flowers before, sure... But not this many! The scent was pretty strong, but after getting used to the quiet scents of camp... This was more like a new experience she was eager to have.

"Well, yeah! Like you said, everyone does that!" She pointed out.

[Shiverwind]

[ if the stuttering is annoying i would gladly cut it so it's easier to read! ]

Shiverwind's white and grey fur fluffed up a little, "I-I've always stuttered since I was a k-kit." he said sharply, "it's just a n-natural thing I do. Dunno w-why. It could be w-worse."

He licked his pelt a few times to smooth it down, "All right- l-let's see the crouch y-you used." Shiverwind didn't particularily like the apprentice's attitude, but he was sure he was probably somewhat rude during his training sessions, too.

As he waited, he succumbed to the inevitable sneezing fit, though he managed to bottle it up to just three sneezes before regaining his composure and watching Breezepaw again.

[Breezepaw]

((Nah. It's cool. Breeze just lacks a brain to mouth filter.

Breezepaw tilted her head again. "Huh. I guess so." She remarked dubiously, not quite being able to imagine something worse. She guessed if Shiverwind couldn't help it, maybe he was really cool and brave but it was hard to tell.

"Okay!" The young apprentice chirped. She instantly dropped down into what she thought was an okay hunting crouch. In actuality, her paws were a little too close together, not promoting movement all that well. Her tail was laying on the ground as well, which would prove to be a bit noisy while moving. 

[Shiverwind]

Shiverwind gave her a disappointed look. "I-I see." He stood up and padded over to her, circling her. "...I've seen worse, I g-guess. All right." He stopped in front of her. "To s-start, your tail's on the ground. You're s-supposed to be holdin' it up like this." He dropped into a proper hunting crouch, his tail hovering above the ground.. "The idea's for your p-p-p-prey to not know you're there. No drawin' attention. No sounds. Prey ain't too dumb. Y-you gotta be in control, too. Notice how I'm crouchin' d-d-down." He sounded almost.. agitated.

[Breezepaw]

Breezepaw felt her ears getting hot at the look she received from Shiverwind. "I-It's not like I was supposed to come into this with a perfect crouch!" She suddenly got defensive. Every word of criticism she received felt like a blow at her skill. She was about to say something, but managed to bite her tongue. Mostly metaphorically, but a little literally as well. She refused to say anything more, lest she start screaming at her mentor. She, however, raised her tail and tried adjusting herself to match her mentor's stance. She spaced out her paws a little more than she had before.

[Shiverwind]

[ So sorry for the late reply! I had a particularly bad spot of negative emotions, couldn't bring myself to do much. Once again, I'm sorry! ]

Shiverwind felt his heart drop when she got defensive. He hadn't trained anyone in a while, was he really this snappy before? Of course she wasn't supposed to come into this prepared, why had he been so harsh? Nothing would get done if they were both angry at each other.

He took a deep breath to calm down, and instantly regretted it, going into a very violent sneezing fit, getting out of his crouch so he could sneeze without toppling over. Embarrassment made his pelt feel scorching; this was probably the most unprofessional he'd ever been in his life.

"A-all right-" he began when he felt as though he was done, "I'm sorry, I haven't had an apprenti-" he sneezed again and shook his head desperately to clear his sinuses. "-ce for a long time, kinda forgot kits don't really c-c-care about learnin' crouches right-" another, final sneeze.

The grey-and-white tom took a moment to regain his composure. "That looks better. Let's see the stalkin' part." He searched around briefly, finding a withered flower and nudging it over about six feet away from Breezepaw, fighting the urge to sneeze again already. Was he allergic? He surely hoped not. "This is your p-p-prey. C-creep up on it."

[Breezepaw]

Breezepaw stared Shiverwind down defiantly, even as she felt weirdly uncertain and nervous. A stray thought crept up on her. What if he decided she was too... Her, and decided to drop her?! Who would train her then? Maybe she should've bitten her tongue... Not that she was sure how to do that exactly...

She suddenly took a step back instinctively, breaking her crouch, before taking two steps forward. "Hey! Are you alright?" She asked. Even if she thought Shiverwind was a little mean and too demanding... He didn't sound very healthy. 

She took a step back again when Shiverwind began speaking and explained that... Perhaps he was out of practice training apprentices. She tried to make her fur lie flat, before she shouted something she might regret again.

Then she dropped back into her hunting crouch, stopping for a moment to remember the corrections Shiverwind suggested, and applied them so she was in the correct hunter's crouch again. Then he picked out a dying flower for her target. She reached out a paw carefully and slowly, and began to move forward. She moved rather slow, however.

[Shiverwind]

"And I'm fine," Shiverwind added as she began to creep up on the imaginary prey. "I'm a-a-afraid these bluebells don't like me too well."

Noticing how long she was taking, he tried to correct her in the nicest way possible. "Prey is s-s-still unpredictable. You wanna move up a little fa-faster than that. It could've s-scut-scuttled off by the time you reached a s-suitable p-pouncin' distance. Like this," he backed the six feet away from the plant, dropping into a similar crouch to Breezepaw's, and began stalking it, keeping a steady speed, low to the ground. About two and a half feet away, he leapt forward and landed directly on the bluebell.

"A' course, if the prey notices you before you're c-c-close enough to catch it, well.. Let's see you t-t-try again first." He stepped off the flower, standing and watching her again.