pafp good man of the average kind [bird hunting]

[CLAYFUR]

Most RiverClan cats don’t hunt birds, likely just because there aren’t very many birds in the river territory that aren’t giant wading birds with nasty-sharp beaks. Or worse, geese. Birds should never have been given teeth. But the small birds, the ones like nuthatches and jays who frequent the pine forest, are some of the best tasting prey, and they aren’t hard to catch.

Or at least, Clayfur doesn’t think they’re hard to catch—which has brought him to where he is now, leading Mosspaw through the territory in an attempt to teach her something. Bird hunting is certainly a skill that a river-born cat such as Mosspaw likely hasn’t had the time or the chance to learn. And it’s something that he’s good at, so why not try to teach her (and annyone else who’s willing to listen) while he’s got the time? "So, like, first you have to actually find a bird. You can try smelling for them, but usually you’ll hear them chirping first." His ears swivel around as he speaks, hoping to catch onto any birdlike sounds in any of the beech trees around them.

They aren’t too far from the temporary camp, so the voices of clanmates occasionally filter in, an unfortunate distraction from their hunting. "When they aren’t chirping, they make, like… a weird little shh-shh sound," he says, turning to smile at the apprentice—as though his imitation of the noise makes perfect sense. "You hear anything?"


// pls wait for @Mosspaw
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[ YOU ARE THE STARS TO ME ]​

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[Mosspool]

Mosspaw wanted to learn anything and everything she could, and she did not yet know how to catch a bird. With her proficiency at catching things that walked and swam growing, she could no longer contain her curiosity on how she was supposed to catch something that could fly. It seemed impossible to her, but Clayfur seemed to have consistant luck doing it. So, who better to seek guidance on honing her skills?

Listening attentively to his every word, she nodded along as he told her to listen for the birds first. That made sense. Unlike much of the prey she had hunted before, birds were loud. They chirped. That was an advantage she hadn't considered. There was another noise though, a sound he said the birds made when they weren't chirping. She listened closely as the experience warrior imitated the sound.

He just sort of made a shushing noise.

She blinked.

"Right." Mosspaw nodded, her ear flicking as she considered his words. Silence hung between them for a moment. "So, what do you... right." Try as she might, she couldn't figure out the right question to ask. The sound he had made didn't sound like anything a creature would make to her.​

 

[lichenstar]

Lichentail was practically beaming when they had heard Clayfur mention something about bird hunting to one of the apprentices. Finally, someone who could understand the thrill of being up in the air to catch food instead of lounging around in the water. Fishing was hard in its own way but birds? It was a skill not common to RiverClan tragically, and it meant even fewer still were any good at climbing up trees in the event they needed to. It was unlikely that would actually happen but that was entirely besides the point.

The blue point had practically begged to come along for the lesson, if only to give Mosspaw more than one skilled hunter to watch (and idolize of course). Listening with forward perked ears, their eyes wandered the cloudy sky for signs of where they might have the best luck. Clayfur was right about one thing, birds didn't really leave a strong stench anywhere they went quite like ThunderClan cats did by breathing in the same general area. That was half of the challenge!

Scrunching up their nose at the embarrassing mimicry from the other warrior, Lichentail shook her head slightly in sympathy for the confused youngling. "It's more like a..... kind of eeckkekekekek~?" They sat in silence for a couple more seconds before continuing, "They talk fast- birds I mean- but also me I guess..."​

 

[BEESONG]

beesong stumbles across the lesson by accident while retreating from the bustle of the temporary camp; clayfur's trying to teach mosspaw how to catch birds, by the sound of it... with emphasis on trying. the warrior is correct that one can usually hear birds before one can see or smell them. the feathery critters are loud, consistently vocalizing from the moment the sun rises up until the sun sinks back down below the horizon. however, beesong can't help but snort and twitch his curled ear as clayfur attempts to imitate a bird's chattering, poorly so. all it seems to accomplish is confusing mosspaw... and lichentail's 'correction' would probably only exacerbate the apprentice's puzzlement.

now, beesong's no expert in bird-catching... in fact, they would consider themselves quite the opposite. back in the pine forest, the cinnamon tabby would stick to catching mice and voles, which they knew wouldn't be capable of fleeing up a tree where they wouldn't be able to follow without falling flat on their ass. but the healer silently questions the teaching tactics of the two warriors.

either way, beesong's in no position to be offering tips of his own. instead, he greets the trio with a tip of his chin, focusing his attention first on mosspaw, who seems to be fumbling for words. the healer tilts his head. "learning lots today, aren't you?" despite the sarcasm behind his words, he gives no indication of it outwardly.

then, beesong turns to the warriors, a wry smile quirking their scarred lips. "careful, you two. if you keep that up, you might be swarmed by birds."​

 

[CLAYFUR]

Okay, so maybe his mimicry of a bird isn’t the best, but he doesn’t think Mosspaw’s silence is totally warranted. She doesn’t respond for a few heartbeats, and his smile begins to fall until she speaks again. Right, she says, and the white-splashed tom takes it as understanding, of confirmation. His muzzle stretches wide into a grin, bright and cheery, and he lifts a paw in excitement. She understands what he means! "Yeah! You get it! You’ll be catching birds before long," he says, plowing forth even in the face of the apprentice’s obvious confusion.

Lichen, from their place alongside the patrol, speaks up to suggest their own interpretation of some of the noises that birds make, and Clayfur flicks his tail eagerly in their direction. The more demonstrations, the better; Mosspaw has a lot to learn if she’s going to become a decent bird hunter. "Oh, or a… a cleck cleck clack? Some birds just sound weird. But they do talk fast." He nods his head to Lichen, conceding to their explanation.

Before he can get back to his in-depth and definitely helpful explanation of bird hunting, the scarred face of the clan’s healer comes into view. Beesong asks if Mosspaw is learning a lot, to which Clay puffs out his chest and lifts his chin. "Of course we’re learning a lot! Me and Lichentail are great teachers—right, Mosspaw?" His gaze turns almost pleading, big round eyes practically begging for the apprentice to validate his and the other warrior’s bird imitations. But Bee continues, warning that they may be swarmed by birds, and that doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all. After all, it’s easier to catch prey if the prey comes to them, isn’t it? "You’re right! Maybe we should do it louder, so the birds all come to us."
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[ YOU ARE THE STARS TO ME ]​

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[hyacinthbreath]

"Angry birds are dangerous ones. I've seen someone get their eye plucked from their head by one before because they pissed it off." Hyacinthbreath hums as she follows behind Beesong, head raised high to look for any signs of birds. She keeps her distance from Clayfur out of respect, but her mouth salivates at the idea of a good bird to eat. "Birds just happen to be my favorite catch." She hums appreciatively, momentarily separating from the group to listen to the sound of flapping wings. In the short distance she travels, Hyacinthbreath can swear she feels eyes on her as she lowers herself to the ground. Not far from her she can see flecks of black wings, littering night-down feathers onto the ground.

"Here's a bird." She signals to the patrol of cats, waving her tail over to Clayfur and Lichentail. "All yours."​

RIVERCLAN WARRIOR ✦ WARTORN SOLDIER ✦ 53 MOONS ✦ TAGS​

 

[Mosspool]

Mosspaw eagerly turned toward Lichentail as they spoke up. To her dismay, they only offered another example, one that didn't clarify anything. Making matters worse, Clayfur chimed in again to make another noise. Blinking, she glanced between them. To her, all their sounds were both contradictory and nonsensical.

Somehow, she was even more confused than before. At this point she couldn't even think of anything to say. Never before had she struggled this much with a lesson. She couldn't even think of what to say anymore.

Beesong's arrival broke her out of her bewildered stupor. They asked if she was learning well, and the lesson's teacher immediately chimed in that of course she was, before asking her for confirmation.

Clayfur gazed at her expectantly.

"I still don't get it." Mosspaw told Beesong bluntly, missing his intended sarcasm entirely. It was perhaps rude to her teachers, but in her mind she would never improve if she was honest.

Hycanbreath was the only one who offered what Mosspaw could recognize as useful information, letting her know how dangerous hunting birds could be. She dipped her head in acknowledgement. "I'll keep that in mind." At least she had learned something today. Her attention was on Clayfur and Lichentail at Hycanbreath's next words, poised to observe their example. Perhaps she would better understand what they had been trying to teach her through their actions rather than their words.​

 

[lichenstar]

Beesong... her eyes narrowed slightly, catching the dry manner he used to gently tease them. She wasn't just talking nonsense, birds were (undoubtedly) her favorite prey food! Becoming all the more flustered as Hyacinthbreath came in with a daunting reminder of the danger of larger birds, her tail twitched as the conversation became overwhelmingly embarrassing. Clayfur was trying desperately for Mosspaw's approval and.... it had entirely been for naught. The young cat had no idea what any of the silly noises they were making meant. Had the kid not heard a bird before? They were noisy, obnoxious little things most hours of the day... It made no sense to her.

Lichentail had to restrain herself from the commentary that Mosspaw must be drowning out the tones of their chirps to not recognize the mimicry well enough and instead opted to remind herself that she, had not in fact, spent her entire life raised in RiverClan... The perceptions of a child cooped up in one territory were bound to be... awkward.

"It's not like we're hunting hawks, it's mostly stuff like thrush and robins..." Her ears pinned against her head, not quite sure how to cope with the humiliation.

Casting a sympathetic glance to the tom who was sure to be shattered by the revelation that his teaching was confusing, the blue point then turned her gaze towards the bird being pointed out to her. Feeling the ends of her toes tingle with anticipation and a swell of confidence, Lichentail gave a small and self-assured nod. She would catch that damn bird.

Crouching low, being mindful of her tail hovering over the littered ground, they made a slow, methodical advance towards the oblivious feather-brain sitting not far ahead. It busied itself, as they were wont to do, preening and pecking at the dirt for something worth eating. At its mindless hopping about did it prove to give her some minor cause for concern... if it wandered too close or too far it would kind of ruin the whole show, huh? Pointing an ear back out of an unconscious uncertainty about how her clan-mates saw her... she stopped not too far from the target in question. There was a tree nearby that she could scale for height if it took off... the options were there.

Then, with a little wiggle to calibrate her stride properly, Lichentail darted forward towards the dark-feathered bird, watching it scramble to take flight the moment it noticed it was being pursued. It had the chance to leave the forest floor but only just for a moment [19] before the RiverClanner leapt up to grab it with splayed claws and a practiced takedown.

Landing on the ground with a tail waving with pride, she picked it up to wander back over to her clan-mates with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face from behind the bird in her mouth.

"th'ee? e'th'y."​

 

[CLAYFUR]

Mosspaw’s response to Bee has him frowning, tilting his head in a way that’s almost comical. But nothing about this is funny, because Mosspaw isn’t learning! He’s supposed to be teaching her, but nothing he says is getting through to her! He sort of wants to wail out in self-pity, maybe flop dramatically to the ground, but instead the warrior sighs and runs a paw down across his face in exasperation.

"Yeah… okay. Maybe, like, doing it paws-on help more? What was confusing?" He’s never had trouble swimming since he first got over his fear of the water, but the tom flounders now, clearly out of his depth in such a conversation. Yeah, okay, maybe there’s a good reason he wasn’t assigned an apprentice until recently. But—still! He thinks he and Lichentail were being pretty, you know, good teachers or whatever.

Hyacinthbreath speaks up, mentioning that birds are her favorite catch, and at least they have that much in common. There’s not much else he can say about her that’s positive, but he offers her a wobbly, half-forced smile anyway. "Birds are my favorite, too," he warbles, completely disregarding the lilac tabby’s first statement. No one’s losing any eyes today, not to something as silly as a chickadee! Hyacinthbreath does point out a bird she’s found, though, and Clay watches as Lichen creeps up on it.

He glances at Mosspaw, hoping to see the apprentice watching Lichentail’s actions carefully. "With birds, you’ve gotta be super careful about your positioning, and stay really quiet. If it takes off, you’re probably not gonna catch it." Sure, he’s managed to snag a bird from the sky or from a tree once or twice, but for a first-time bird hunter such a feat would probably be asking too much. He grins back at Lichentail as they display their catch, and then turns back to Moss. "See? You’ve just pretty much gotta do, like, exactly what Lichentail just did."
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[ YOU ARE THE STARS TO ME ]​

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