DOG LEAPING || group training

Oct 16, 2023
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Warrior training! A very important duty, he thinks, and entrusted to him, of all cats. Tigerscar grins cheerily at the thought. He had already gathered a crowd in the SkyClan clearing, both warriors and apprentices who had decided to tag along. After all, this was very important business! The more cats who knew these skills, the better. Now, of course, Tigerscar had seen some questionable glances in his direction. There was doubt among the SkyClanners that accompanied him. The audacity of such things, but they would all be in for a very exhausting surprise. Tigerscar acted like a fool, but he was no idiot. He was cunning, powerful, and vicious. He was skilled, mighty in battle, and quick on his paws despite his large size. Anyone mouse-brained enough to underestimate him would be in for a shock!

Eventually, the group reaches the Sandy Ravine, where Tigerscar promptly leaps down it's banks to prance across the soft, warm soil. Turning to stare at the group, he offers them a smirk before he finally speaks, "You might be wondering why I dragged you all out here. What sort of training will we be doing? What could Tigerscar possibly teach us with that cone on his head?" His expression widens into a grin. "I'm glad you all asked! Today, we will be conducting a very important training session. I'm goin' to teach you all how to DIG! That's right! We're goin' to dig! For what? Worms! Worms are a great source of food in leaf-bare, you know. And they're slimy. Sometimes you'll even dig up a crunchy beetle or two. Delicious!" He pauses, stares at them expectantly, lets the quiet stretch on so they can consider his words, and then...

"Hah! I'm only kidding. We're not eating worms today. We're practicing the art of dog fighting! How many of you have experience fighting dogs? Let's hear your tips and tricks before we begin, then I'll teach you how SkyClan, specifically, has a huge advantage over any dog that comes into our woods." Finally done (for now), Tigerscar looks across the group patiently.
 
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a lucrative curiosity draws the ragdoll along, a determination to better understand the clan. dolly nods as tigerscar explains he's teaching them to hunt worms. he stops nodding when he realizes it's a joke, and blinks at the warrior. oh.

"cool." he pipes up, but to him, the idea of facing off against a dog is very not cool, the opposite perhaps. he's had his fair share of encounters with dogs, wherein he was sunbathing on the warm pavement and immediately ran off at the whiff of the creatures coming down the street. watched hidden as they walked down the street with something attached to their collar. dolly can't help whatever nostalgic longing stirs in him at the sight of tigerscar's collar, but tamps down the feelings gripping him in favor of learning.

he knows this training isn't likely for him. the closest he's gotten to a real fight was sadly throwing his claws out when the rogues attacked. but regardless, he is curious to observe, and attempt whatever the training entails. the life in skyclan is so different to what he's used to, but he's committed. "i've seen dogs before." dolly contributes and nods at this like it's a revelation.

 
This already seems like the worst guy for the job. Blazestar must've been crazy telling Orangeblossom to do patrols again when that molly is clearly so sleep-deprived she can't even do this right. Rolling their eyes, the bi-colored apprentice cannot help but find this lesson incredibly boring already. His jokes are the only good part about his yammering mouth and Edenpaw has half a mind to eat a worm right then and there just to shut up his self-assured laughter.

But then this cone-head starts talking about fighting dogs and Edenpaw immediately feels a cold chill run down their spine. Those crazy things that some of the Twolegs kept in their gardens? They'd never personally tried to fight one because that seemed, frankly, stupid. Even for the world's silliest little kittypet, they knew better than that. It seemed like... a trick... to go along with this ruse that they were gonna learn to take on those slavering beasts.

"Uhm they like... could totally eat us so why would we fight them?"

Clearly this guy needed some direction on his lunatic ramblings.​
 
just because i carry it so well doesn't mean it's not heavy .
︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶
The odd-eyed tom hummed, bouncing on three paws, soaking up Tigerscar’s instructions with a curious squint. He was one of the unlucky ones, facing dogs daily when he was a loner wandering the twolegs neighborhood in search of his next meal. He’d gotten good at invading their snapping jaws but never seemed good at dodging those swinging brooms. He huffed, absently reaching to rub at his nose, no longer tender, but hard to forget. Ow.

“Who knows when we’ll be stuck in a life or death situation.” He commented, tossing a wide smile in Edenpaw’s direction. “Against a dog, I mean!” He laughed. “I do my best to invade them, running zig-zagged until they tire out. I’m not that appealing.” He chirped, odd eyes crinkled in half-hearted amusement.

He wasn’t battered and torn with skin graphs and puffy-looking scars for nothing. Lux was lanky, but he wasn’t that strong to fight a dog head-on. Better to run, but he was always the hero, tossing himself into danger without a second thought. The cream-ticked feline couldn’t help but think of Crowpaw then, humming softly.
thought speech
 
Slate had encountered the gaping jowls of a mutt many a time, unfortunately for him. Most recently, he had nearly been torn apart by dogs on the journey back from the mountains. He did not opt to fight the barking beasts, as surprising as it may seem — Slate would rather face off against a badger and a fox before confronting the likes of a dog.

Tigerscar is rather difficult to listen to sometimes, Slate could easily admit. The daylight warrior annoys him with his whimsical nature, and not the mention the ugly eyesore that he bears proudly around his neck. It is not so much that the lead warrior is present for his own benefit, but for Cherrypaw's. Slate was intent on keeping Cherrypaw busy, seeing if the lessons presented after the journey would stick to the walls of her head better than before. An amber eye glances toward his trainee from the side, checking to see if she is listening to what the others are saying.

"A fight against a dog isn't one that's easily won. Especially not against the bigger ones." He inputs rather gruffly, swearing to the stars that he could feel the thin slash across his eye tingle at the very thought of being caught in between a canine's teeth. Slate, despite the absence of danger in the vicinity, tenses ever so slightly — he never wanted to be near a dog ever again. Such was a tough wish to grant, seeing as SkyClan bordered the Twolegplace. Hopefully the two-leggeds would keep their mutts contained inside their nests as leafbare reared its ugly head.

"Dogs are dumb, though. You just gotta be smarter than them. Running is one way to go, until you get tired out yourself. Then what?" He could go on, lecturing the naive SkyClanners about the ins and outs of going up against mongrels, but this was Tigerscar's lesson after all. Maybe the brown tabby knew something that they all didn't; he was a daylight warrior, after all. He must live near dogs, or even with a dog.

  • apprentice tag @Cherrypaw
  • SLATE
    —— he/him; lead warrior of skyclan; former rogue
    —— bisexual; single; not looking
    —— hulking, scarred charcoal-black colored maine coon with amber eyes
    —— "speech", thoughts, attack
    —— link to full tags; @ on discord for plots.
    —— penned by beatles
 

He listens with pricked ears as each attendee makes their comments known. Dolly has very little to contribute, and Edenpaw seems less than enthused about the whole idea of fighting dogs in the first place. Boring! Tigerscar makes a show of dramatically yawning for the crowd, as if he were performing on a stage! Lux, eat least, has something mildly interesting to say, followed by Slate. The cone-headed tom grins, nodding his agreement.

"Quite right! Dogs are dumb! But the big ones are also very, very dangerous. You'd never want to fight a dog head-on, unless you plan to compare which one of you has the smallest brain. Heh." The brute chuckles at his own joke with a smirk. "Running takes too much energy. Why would a SkyClan cat run from a dog? We're not WindClan, you know. They run. What does SkyClan do?" He gives them time to think, offering an encouraging swish of his feathery tail. "We climb! And guess what? Dogs can't climb! Their claws don't work the same way ours do. It means that if you hippity-hop your way into a tree, you're safe until the dog gets bored and finds something else to chase."

"BUT! What if you need to chase the dog away, hmm? What if it's too close to camp, or too big and slobbery to want hanging out in our territory? Well, same concept. We climb! Except instead of hiding up there, we attack from up there. Leap through the trees, surprise the dog by jumping onto it's head and back, clawing at it, and then leap back into the trees. Rinse and repeat until the dog gets so scared or so annoyed that it flees! I think SkyClan could really benefit from using the trees as a form of attack more often. We're great climbers and jumpers, after all."
Tigerscar points out with a toothy grin.

"So that's what we're going to practice. I'm going to be the big scary dog running through the trees. Your job is to get up there into the tree branches, and practice attacking me from above! Remember, you have to be quick enough to jump back into the trees, before I can knock you off! Now of course, I'm not nearly as big as a large dog but... I think it's safer to practice on me than an actual dog, yes? So we'll make it work!" The Daylight Warrior purrs. He'd like to climb into the trees himself, but his bulky cone-collar would make that too difficult to manage. "Alright, any questions? If not, go ahead and get up into the trees! When I say begin, I will start to run and bark, and your job is to chase me out!"

That was quite a lot of rambling... hopefully no cat had fallen asleep by that point.
 
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HE SAID, "WELL MY NAME'S JOHNNY, AND IT MIGHT BE A SIN
BUT I'LL TAKE YOUR BET, AND YOU'RE GONNA REGRET, CUZ IM THE BEST THERE'S EVER BEEN."​



The training session was more or less an excuse for Johnnyflame to keep him mind of other things. Dogs were actually one of the animals that the tomcat was more familiar with having to face down from his time guarding the humans yards from trouble. Snakes, skunks, raccoons, possums, stray cats, and loose dogs had been among the most common adversaries he'd face- along with squirrels looking to dig up the garden beds. They had all meant the same thing to the striped bobtail in the end though; trouble.

"Go on and give it a try." he said to Glimmerpaw, offering them a reassuring half-smile. ​
"And remember; always strike in a different place than the cat before you. The dogs focus will be on whatever part of the body the previous cat just hit, so if they're looking left, you go right- got it? I'll sit out the first round out so I can see how you do and give you pointers afterward."

@Glimmerpaw

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