[Copperbeanz]

When Bonefrost's kits turned apprentice-aged, it had been unquestionable that she would end up training one of them. The only question that remained was which of the two she would mentor. Birdstar had not known either of them well, having been preoccupied with her new leader duties when the kits were old enough to run around the camp. Thankfully, her brother had discussed the matter of his kits' mentors with her, so she chose her second apprentice based on her brother's judgement. Surely, Bonefrost would know his kits best.

After the appointment of her apprentice came the training sessions needed. She had already gone through some basic hunting and battle training with Dogpaw, and was planning to begin on a more advanced battle move, but now she began to wonder if she should have assessed his mastery of the basic skills instead. She was already on the way to the training grounds, though, and she couldn't stop now without looking mouse-brained. Birdstar huffed quietly, then glanced back at Dogpaw. Good, he was still behind.

Eventually, they reached the training grounds. The black she-cat turned around to face her apprentice, beckoning for him to sit down and listen. "Are you ready?" She prompted Dogpaw by means of ensuring he was actually paying attention.

[chaoticcrow]

Dogpaw happily followed her aunt out of camp into the forest. It wasn’t long before her leader beaconed her to sit down. “Sure!” She mewed in response to the black molly standing in front of her. She didn’t know her aunt all that well, she always seemed too busy. It wasn’t long ago that Dogpaw had been apprenticed to Birdstar and she was excited to train under a family member.


She sat down right beside Birdstar, eagerly awaiting instructions. As much as Dogpaw didn’t want to be leader of the clan one day, she did enjoy learning about the roles, and she was sure to make a mental note to ask her aunt about the responsibilities of a leader one day soon!

[Copperbeanz]

At least Dogpaw seemed excited to be here. Birdstar flicked her tail anxiously as she scrambled for the words to start. She stepped on her tail casually to cease its twitching and hoped her apprentice had not noticed; she didn't want to seem like a complete fool in front of her neice, even if she was a little.

"I trust you have practised the basic battle moves I've taught you, yes?" She asked, regarding her apprentice with unreadable eyes. She didn't know if Dogpaw had actually trained, or if she had any questiosn to ask her, but Birdstar carried on regardless. "Today, I'll brief you on a more complicated move: the bellyrake. As you may know, the belly and the throat are the softest parts of a cat, and where most warriors would aim for during battle. The bellyrake is the move where a warrior aims several claw-wounds at their opponent's belly. One can achieve this by flipping their opponent over or ducking under them. For you, you're quite young, and lack the strength to unbalance a full-grown warrior, so I'll teach you how to duck under them. Watch closely; I don't want to see you looking at anything else, understood?"

With that, Birdstar hurled herself forward at her imaginary enemy, feining to one side before ducking to the other, pushing herself into a roll with her hindlegs so that she would be under her opponent, giving her the perfect chance to lash out with her paws before slipping out from the otherside. The black she-cat shook the dirt off her pelt and gestured for Dogpaw to try the move on her now. Birdstar hoped her example had been enough... she was still young and, admitably, had never fought in a real battle before.