Drowning Oaks [Private]

[Stormy]

Captain

Oaktalon's app.

---

Oaktalon sat atop a rock in Honey Hollow, yawning away the heavy drowsiness clinging to his pelt. The sun crept over the horizon, its bright rays filling the forest, shining between every well-spaced tree. The sky, in turn, beamed bright blue, and a few clouds marked its vast pelt, lazily floating about.

Battle training, he thought, turning his body around to face the direction his apprentice would likely come from. He told Wavepaw to meet him here at dawn for some advanced training. His apprentice had hunting down pretty damn well, he'd give him that, but his fighting skills lacked: This, among other traits, made the two toms opposites.

[Captain]

Wavepaw had to admit that he wasn't looking forward to frolicking around with Oaktalon this morning. He felt a similar dread everytime his mentor asked him to meet for training. A type of feel which was beyond unacceptable for Oaktalon was the brother to one Willowstar, which meant he had royal blood. Wavepaw had a job to do. And he had to treat Oaktalon with respect.

Without realizing it, the blue apprentice had grown a fondness for hunting. While the preference left him with good hunting and tracking skills, he often neglected to practice the fighting moves his mentor showed him. So when Oaktalon told him to meet for battle training that morning, he felt more anxiety than usual. Of course his usual levels were pretty high anyways.

And so with thoughts swirling in his head, he stepped into view of Oaktalon. As he stepped through the honeysuckle flowers, crushing a few by accident, he could feel a sharp gaze staring him down. When he was a few pawsteps away from standing directly beside his mentor, Sagepaw promptly cleared his throat and then spoke.

"I apologize if I've kept you waiting. What are we going to start with?"

Stormy,

[Stormy]

Wavepaw arrived just as Oaktalon stood up, ready to go back to camp and curl up in his nest. He sat back down, cleared his throat, and glanced around the hollow. What could they do to prepare their muscles and wake themselves up a bit before they got into the heavier stuff?

Maybe some fun would be good to start them off. It was no secret that WillowClan's deputy and his apprentice were not on very good terms, but the tomcat aimed to at least try to get along with Wavepaw. Oaktalon's whiskers twitched. He nodded towards a scrawny birch tree and said, "Climb that tree and jump off the highest branch. You might end up injuring yourself and then we don't have to do any training," he paused, flicking his tail tip, then continued, "Better yet, climb up there and refuse to come back. I can't very well drag you down. Either way, there won't be any work done and if anyone asks, the prey was running low this morning."

Oaktalon thought for a few moments, his ear flicking. "In all seriousness, we should start by stretching and sharpening our claws. From there, I'll teach you some battle techniques, we'll practice them, and then the rest of the day is yours to spend however you'd like--just don't make me regret giving you that freedom," he said, mischief glinting in his gaze. He could remember his apprentice days all too well: Whenever his mentor made the mistake of giving him hours of free time, he put caterpillars in his denmates' nests and taught kittens different ways to annoy their mothers.

With a swish of his tail to indicate that Wavepaw should follow his lead, Oaktalon approached a tree with rough thick bark. He stood on his hind legs and leaned forward, scraping his claws along the bark until he was satisfied.

"Because we've already warmed up our paws, we'll start the day off with a hook attack," he said, taking a few steps away from the tree. "The goal, naturally, is to knock your opponent over; as such, this move should be reserved for when the enemy isn't looking. That sounds weird, right? When is the opponent not looking?" He gave the tom a few moments to to consider the question, then said, "When the enemy is paying attention to someone else. If you see a Clanmate in trouble during battle, then wait until their assailant is on his hind legs, then charge in and hook them."

To demonstrate, Oaktalon hooked his paw around a flower and pulled.

"Practice it a few times and then try it on me," he said, once again standing on his hind legs and pressing his fore paws against a tree.

[Captain]

Wavepaw noticed Oaktalon’s readiness to leave. It struck him and his whiskers twitched. Certainly he wasn't that late, but perhaps the his detour of giving greetings was longer than he thought. Regardless of how he messed up, he messed up. The thought left an awful prickly feeling behind.Solely focusing on his own thoughts, when his mentor finally spoke it took a moment to pick on the evident sarcasm. Jump off the branch? It would be awful to be stuck in the medicine den all while losing time to go on patrols. Yet not having to work on his moves was tempting. A happy compromise then would be to… how did Oaktalon phrase it? Sit in a tree and refuse to come down. Something like that.

Wavepaw did not spend long pondering the idea. It was a foolish fantasy and nothing more. Yet the way his royal mentor sat thinking for a moment made Wavepaw flick his tail uneasily. His rapid movements were halted when Oaktalon finally spoke. Stretching was a welcome idea and the prospect of freedom meant he could do more hunting, but the ever present notion of battle training stuck at the edge of his mind. A large repressed lump of fear.

As Oaktalon had indicated, Wavepaw approached the same large tree. He took a place which was a comfortable distant. Not to close, not to far. Dragging his claws through the thick bark was rather soothing, and he listened to repeated tearing noise as bark splintered around his claws. The moment Oaktalon was finished Wavepaw made a final gash in the wood and drew his claws back.

When the explanation began, Wavepaw listened closely. The idea of learning how to catch opponents who weren't paying attention was pleasant at first, but he could hardly find any reason he would need such tactics. After all, wouldn't it be better to learn how to defend himself when someone was about to kill him. A sudden realization let Wavepaw notice that he was thinking about the problem exactly how Oaktalon wanted, he Wavepaw felt an unusual appreciation for his mentor as the instructions went on. Being able to help out clan-mates was certainly a skill the blue cat wanted to learn, and he would probably find the right motivation to practice it. That being said, the move seemed relatively hard. Oaktalon twisted his paw in a very particular way. Wavepaw attempted to get the move just right. He started with the same paw as his mentor, curling it in such a way that his claws kept hooking at an awkward angle. It felt weird so he switch to the other paw, trying again a few times. By the time he finally settled on his original paw and a very particular motion multiple flowers had been bent at the stem or had slumped to the ground.

With a method in mind, Wavepaw approached Oaktalon. He moved in quickly and twisted his paw, exactly how he had practiced, around his mentor’s leg and pulled back with little success.

Stormy,

[Stormy]

Oaktalon sank his claws into the bark, prepared for Wavepaw to give the technique his all. He waited.

And waited.

Finally, the younger cat's paw pressed against his leg and tugged it. Oaktalon's foot slid back so little that an ant wouldn't have been able to see the difference. Oaktalon yawned, completely underwhelmed. He felt sore from standing in an awkward position for so long. He dropped to all four of his paws and gave his apprentice the least expressive look he could manage, hoping it would get the point across.

He didn't have time for this. While Wavepaw dilly-dallied and stumbled through his training, Willowstar was off making up bullshit to her Clanmates and manipulating them. He had to go back to camp and undo whatever damage she'd caused that morning. After that, he had his favorite duty: Putting together patrols. He wanted to go home and organize every warrior and apprentice into nice, happy patrols. They would go out, have some fun talking and making jokes, and bring back food.

Oh, he wanted food too.

"Look, Wavepaw, I have a lot to do today. You don't. You train and then you go and hunt and wander the territory, or whatever else you want to do. I have to make sure everyone else is patrolling, eating, and training. I want to train you. I was assigned your mentor because I wanted to train an apprentice. Training apprentices is difficult but rewarding, and it's always been something I've enjoyed, but I can't have an apprentice who doesn't put in his share of the work. You're going to be forty moons old and still an apprentice, and I'm going to be in StarClan training you," he said. Oaktalon didn't hate Wavepaw, he didn't want to pawn the apprentice off on to some other warrior, and he didn't want to deal with the backlash that would certainly follow him if his apprentice was poorly-trained.

Oaktalon wasn't partial to the idea of having to crack down on his apprentice, but if he needed to drop the humor for their training sessions, then so be it.

"We'll move on to a technique that doesn't require much strength but serves a similar purpose," Oaktalon said. The brown tabby took a few steps off to the side, then lunged toward his apprentice and batted a paw near his face. He took a few steps back and sat down to explain: "In an actual battle, your claws would be unsheathed and you would scratch the enemy's face--be careful not to get their eyes, as that is a dirty trick, and warriors are honorable fighters. Now, when do you think it would be appropriate to use such a move?"

[Captain]

The one thing thing Wavepaw did pick up on was Oaktalon's supposition that the younger cat didn't have a lot to do. Wavepaw did have a lot to do, he always had a lot to do. Sure, his mentor went on to explain why they needed to wrap up training quickly and then to note how he actually wanted to train his apprentice. Yet there it was again. An apprentice who doesn't put in the work? Surely he was doing more then his share. Wavepaw already had a list of things to accomplish once he got back to camp. Even though he had left room for this patrol or that patrol, he had three things he desperately wanted to get done. He wanted to hunt. Despite hunting everyday, yesterday was -well- lacking. Furthermore he decided to leave gathering moss until today, which now seemed rather idiotic of him. Wavepaw was intending to help out with any nest that needed to be changed, that being the third entry on his list, and he might not end up with enough time to do it.

By the time Oaktalon spoke again, the blueish-grey fur on Wavepaw's back was prickling and his tail flickered quickly. Although it wasn't that noticeable, Wavepaw still needed to take a breath and calm down. Lashing out would only cause further delay for both toms. When Oaktalon struck out his paw right in Wavepaw's face, the apprentice flinched. Perhaps the reason was his diluted focus or his irritated state, but either way Wavepaw felt cold shame at showing a smidgen of weakness. That definitely let him ignore his anger at Oaktalon and it also gave him a clearer mind to actually contemplate his mentor's question.

"Would it be for when the opponent is aware of you? To stun them so you can go in for another attack when they're off guard," He respond with what started out as a question, but turned into a statement as he finished.

Stormy,

[Stormy]

It wasn't the answer he expected, but that was a good thing: They could learn from one another. "I was thinking the technique could be used in the same way as the first: Drawing an opponent's attention away from a friend. That said, your idea would work just as well. It works well, doesn't it? You flinched when I demonstrated the move, so imagine doing that to someone in the heat of a fight, claws unsheathed, ready to scrape their nose. I don't imagine many warriors would see that coming, do you?" Oaktalon said. "I don't think that approaching and swiping someone's face is really something you need to practice, but perhaps it would be best to use some of your free time to work on it just so you have the muscle memory for it."

While the entire training session felt no longer than a few minutes, a quick glance at the sky proved otherwise: The sun was well on its way to reaching its peak for the day. The air felt humid and hot, and the wind offered little escape from the intense temperature. Oaktalon yawned and shook his pelt. "I think two battle moves is enough for today. Keep practicing, because next time we train I'd like to do a group session with another mentor and apprentice in the Clan. If there's anyone in particular you'd like to train with, let me know tomorrow. You're free to go," he said.

---

For the record, I would like to do a group training session. I'll post a thread in the plotting board about it if you want?

[Captain]

Unsurprisingly, Wavepaw had thought too much about the question. Perhaps he wanted to impress Oaktalon, but it was just as likely he didn't want to be wrong. Regardless he felt a shimmer of pride when his mentor acknowledge he was doing something right. For once, the blue-grey apprentice actually looked forward to practicing moving his paw just right. He hadn't felt worried about trying not to catch a warrior in the eye on accident, as surely enough practice would make it easier to aim. So yes, Wavepaw would practice like the older cat suggested. 

When the elder cat yawned, Wavepaw noticed his own exhaustion and decided to practice, take a break and then do whatever else he needed to. 

"Alright I will," he replied and hadn't much else to say. 

He dipped his head politely and took off towards camp. He veered off ever so slightly on his way so he could find more flowers to practice with. 

---

Sure, go on ahead. 

Are we saying this thread's complete then?