Burnt Sycamore

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Apprentices come to train here to practice attacking and killing prey. Many times of prey can be found here including moose, deer, elk, muskrats, snakes, lizard, and raccoons. There is a large burnt sycamore in this territory, which was struck by lightning long ago. It is a dead tree, now, but was clearly large and lush at one time.

The little pup did his best to keep up with the she-wolf, but his legs although to long for his body were shorter then the adult's, and so Apachepup found himself struggling to keep pace with the female.

Never one to be annoyed very easily the young pup found himself feeling a tinged of the emotion directed toward his small size, and he was relieved when Darkfeather stopped and allowed him to catch up. Scrambling up a small rise Apache joined Darkfeather, his little pink tongue hanging out of his mouth as he panted," Sorry ma'am," He breathed, " I'm not used to traveling so far so quickly, thank you for waiting for me."

His words were strange, to proper for a pup but Apachepup had learned to speak this way from a young age; well younger then he currently was. And he wasn't about to stop now, he quite liked it after all. Suddenly the clouds split apart with a thundering roar as the sky hurled sheet of rain down on the earth, jumping in surprise at the sound and the sudden assault of water Apachepup turned and fled back toward camp. Doing exactly what he had been told to , he knew that Darkfeather could easily out pace him and do what she could to help him, but those thoughts were not present in the pup's mind. Only fear and a need to return to camp filled his thoughts urging him forward.

-Back to camp_

Apache faithfully followed Nightfeather, his eyes wide as he took in the largest tree he had ever seen. Sitting the pup listened to Nightfeather, nodding before taking in a several deep careful breaths. Closing his eyes to get rid of the distraction of that particular sense Apache focused on what he smelled.

"Mouse...." He said after a time," ...and deer....and something else, I can't quite make it out...." The male opened his eyes, looking at Nightfeather expectantly.

Apache watched and listened to Nightfeather intently, absorbing every word and actual like a sponge. His desire to be able to support his clan, and actually be of some use , and his natural curiosity and wish to learn kept him quite and attentive. He did not speak as Nightfeather began to stalk closer to the raccoon, the barely even dared to breath as his wide golden eyes watched her form closely. Trying to memories the way she shifted her body so her paws fell silently on the ground, she was like a dark spirit moving through the marsh her eyes locked intently on her prey.

When she stopped so did the male's breath, as her hindquarters tensed a millisecond before her powerful back legs launched her at the coon. Powerful jaws closed around its neck, snapping it with ease. Letting out his breath when the animal went limp, Apache realized that he had been holding it, getting to his feet Apache padded over to his mentor- his tail wagging a mile a minute. "That was amazing." he said, unsure whether or not it was alright to talk loud or not.

"You're welcome." He said, taking a moment to see if he could smell anything. After a moment the pup caught the scent of some other animal other the mouse, one he had smelled before but it was so long ago the memory so faint that he could not quite touch it. "There is something else here, but I can't remember what it is...."

The pup sat there struggling to remember what it was, he knew that it was there somewhere. Oh it was just on the tip of his tongue! Shaking his head the male closed his eyes, that's it! "Muskrat!"He said, "I smell Muskrat."

Apache nodded. "I want to try." he said, a light of determination in his eyes. Taking a moment to set his body the way he had seen Nightfeather and other warriors do it the new apprentice began to carefully creep forward, using his nose and ears to direct him rather then his sight. His advance was slower then the trained female as he avoided rocks and other debris that might startle the prey.

After a short time the pup spotted the muskrat as it scavenged for food, its back to him. Keeping his eyes on his prey the apprentice moved closer, using his smaller size to his advantage as he hid behind objects that would normally be useless to a fully grown wolf. Apache was a very observant wolf, and he executed Nightfeather's hunting crouch nearly perfectly. Although he had yet to acquire the skill of practice or the almost sixth sense of knowing where your foot would go and whether or not that area would provide the least productive. His hindquarters could have been lower as well, but these were all things he needed to be taught.

Taking a moment to judge his distance the male tensed, and with a powerful push from his back legs the wolf launched himself toward the muskrat. But just as he moved the prey sensed his presence and bolted, leaving the male to land where his prey had once been. Tongue lolling the male watched the rodent scurry away, a normally disappointing sight but the male never let such things get to him. He found joy in the fact that he had even been able to get so close to the Muskrat, and it shone in his eyes. With the hunt now over the young male returned to his mentor's side, waiting for her verdict before they set off for four trees.

Lightningpaw trotted toward the burnt sycamore. It was a nice run from the camp and as soon as she reached her destination she stretched, all four black legs sprawling out before coming back to their normal positions. She sat by that sycamore, her tail draped to the side, her ears pointed backward and her eyes staring straight ahead. Occasionally her nose would twitch, signifying that she was smelling the air. After a few moments of listening to those annoying birds chattering, the young apprentice leapt up onto the burnt tree and toward another tree. Soon her paws were back on the ground. Though she failed to catch one of those little birds, the young apprentice did manage to scare the birds away, with a prize of a black feather in her maw. Content with her assault on the birds, Lightningpaw went back to the tree, feather still in her mouth, and set to work on play. She jumped atop the burnt tree then dropped the feather which floated down gently. In just a few seconds the apprentice leapt, pining the black feather to the ground. Several times the she-wolf did this in a couple of different ways. At this point, she didn't care if anyone saw her though she probably wouldn't do it if she knew someone was nearby. After the feather became completely mangled and hardly recognizable as a feather, Lightningpaw gave up and lay down by the tree, tail curled around her as a blanket.

. . . As Stark approached the sycamore he heard an increase in squalling birds. He whined and scratched at his head with his front paws as if to get ride of the noise. once it subsided he continued on.

He stepped onto the charcoaled tree and felt the pitch black smut rub off on his pads, the feeling was smooth and silky, but the smell was stingy and smoky. He leaped down and enjoyed the brief feeling of flying, when he spotted lightningpaw directly under him.

He swiftly landed over her, his front paws next to her ears, and his hind next to her tail.

Lightningpaw snarled when all of a sudden Starksoul practically landed right on top of her. She twisted around growling, not knowing who it was. Seeing that it was just a fellow shadowclan wolf, she settled her fur and forcd the growl to cease. Her eyes glared at him for disrupting her and nearly squishing her. "Can't you watch before you jump Starksoul?" She spat before sitting and twitching her tail. She sighed and shook her head then looked at him, wondering how he would react.

He almost whimpered, but held it in for whimpering at the words of an apprentice would be stupid. But Lightningpaws mark was mature, and made him feel like a pup being scolded.

He shuffled his paws and slowly brought his eyes from the ground to her eyes bright blue eyes , he stared at her with apology, his eyes a gleaming grey

{Brb 10 mins}

Lightningpaw saw the older wolf's aplogetic eyes and snorted in disgust. /I expected him to not look like he was the aprentice and I was the warrior./ she thought shaking her head. To make it worse, that same black bird she had snapped a feather from had returned, chattering away in the treetops. After spotted the annoying bird, Lightning padded a couple wolflengths away from the tree then turned around to face it and Starksoul. she glanced up once to make sure the bird was there then made her attack. She raced off to the tree then leapt over Starksoul and onto the tree, twisting herself in such a way that she was able to turn back to where she had run from and launch herself at the bird in just a second. She seemed to fly through the air, quickly as a lightning bolt. Her paws touched earth and all was quiet. She turned back to Starksoul and padded to him then dropped the bird at her paws and looked at it, the bird forever to be silent. The young apprentice looked at Starksoul. "Now it'll finally shut it's beak." She said smiling darkly.

He laughed at her expression, his muscled chest heaving as he did, he smiled at her then plucked a black feather of the bird and gently lay it on her head, once he did he could barely make it out against her fur color.

"I do admire your stealthy lightningpaw, you will make a good warrior someday"
he said, straightening his back so he sat at his full height and looked down at her. A slight smirk of slide across his face as he did.

{really sorry my mom had to do emails}

(that's okay. you don't have to post when you are going to poof or not. Just post whenever you can. )

Lightning watched the wolf pluck a feather off the bird. Though normally she would have snapped the feather from his maw and spat it back out but she just let him place the black feather on her head. As he spoke, she shook, shaking the feather from her head and fluffing her fur out slightly. She nodded. "Well thank you Starksoul. I intend on being a great warrior." She said with little emotion. She saw him straighten and get a little larger, smirking. But she did not care. His size did not distract her. She simply yawned at his smirk and looked at him with eyes that seemed uncaring. Her tail twitched and she looked at the bird that lay at her paws. /oh how I would love to eat that now. But I'll bring it back to the camp a little later./ she thought to herself before standing up and stretching.

Stark was used to get a desired emotion out of she-wolfs, not that he was trying to get one out of lightningpaw, but hers was different.

She knows how to play her cards - he thought to himself

" shall we go back to camp"
he asked her, as he started to rise

The young apprentice watched the warrior rise and listened as he asked if they should head back to camp. She bent to pick the bird up but before she did she said, "Sure. I guess." Then she picked up the bird and without waiting for Starksoul, trotted back to camp.

(lame post...O.o)

{lol its k, mine was worst}

He trotted after her, his nose twitching as he took in the scents of the forest

Lightningpaw went at a nice quick pace, not paying attention as to whether the warrior was still behind her or not. She moved in one pace, not faltering and slowing, or speeding up. When a branch that had fallen days ago blocked her path, she leapt right over it, hardly any adjustment needed for her. Soon the camp came into view.

(back to camp)

He followed trailing behind taking in the serenity of the forest, when he spotted a plump vole, with one quick swipe of his paw he had it in his mouth as he followed after lightning paw . . .