NEW SLANG — howlpaw

[SLATESNARL]

❪ TAGS ❫ — // prior to the nursery being crushed

The raging winds, as well as Slate's recent promotion, had both served the tom as ample distractions from his new role as a mentor. He hadn't taken Howlpaw out on an official training session as of yet, aside from patrol assignments and such, which had been brought to his attention by Cloverjaw. Oh, right. Slate had a younger cat to train now. It still felt strange to him; he's never considered himself a teacher, but apparently Blazestar felt that he was fit for the task.

So, the Maine Coon quietly flicked his gaze around camp before eventually finding the torbie she-cat across the way. "Howlpaw," Slate addressed the leader's daughter, still looking about as unapproachable as ever with his signature gruff expression. It slightly softens as his brain tries to figure out what in the world to say; was he allowed to just excuse Howlpaw from whatever she was doing? "You good t' train right now?" The tom inquired.

// @Howlpaw ​

 

[Howlfire]

Despite Slate's gruff response, Howlpaw gives him a friendly smile when he approaches. Although they have only been mentor and apprentice for a short time she's quite used to his gruff responses by now. In a way, it reminds her of Redstorm though at least her former mentor was a bit more personable.

"Of course!" She told him with an eager nod of the head. Realising it was still reasonably early in the day, she made sure to lower her voice before speaking again. "What do you have planned? Hunting? Fighting? Something else?" Howlpaw was fairly close to warriorhood now, so it was more about refining the skills she had learnt over her apprenticeship ready for her future warrior assessment.​

 

[SLATESNARL]

❪ TAGS ❫ — Slate supposed that the one easy thing about mentoring Howlpaw was that she knew all of the basics already. He figured that Blazestar could have given him a spunky kitten who wasn't disciplined and had the attention span of a pinecone, so he was grateful to ease into the idea of mentorship with an older apprentice. He was a stand-in, a mere substitute for whoever her old mentor was. Slate couldn't guarantee that he'd be the best teacher; maybe it would be best to look at him like a training partner and someone who could occasionally chime in and critique her techniques. Even then, he wasn't necessarily an expert at everything (yet).

The Maine Coon led the way out of camp and in the direction of... ah, what did they call it? The Sandy Ravine? Wherever all of the apprentices trained. Obviously, Slate had little reason to visit that part of the territory before aside from the occasional training session between the warriors. "Y'already gave me an idea about your huntin' skills before," Slate meows, referring to their hunting session prior to officially being assigned to one another. "So let's see how well you put up a fight." He would be lying if he claimed that he wasn't curious to see how the chipper apprentice approached a fight. Who knows; maybe she'd surprise him.

Once the pair reached the Sandy Ravine, the lead warrior gave a roll of his shoulders and circled around so that he was facing Howlpaw head-on, amber eyes glistening in the light filtering through the treetops. "Come at me." Slate instructed the torbie she-cat, anticipating her first move.​

 

[Howlfire]

Howlpaw merely nodded her head when Slate informed her that he wished to see more of her battle skills over her hunting. She supposed it was a fair request and something he had a right to inspect and critique as he saw fit.

As they trekked to the Sandy Ravine, Howlpaw gave some thought to what kind of moves she could use on her new mentor. She had of course done some combat training with Redstorm, but by her own admission was probably not the kind of cat who used a lot of finesse when attacking. Another thing she had to consider was how Slate would retaliate. She was somewhat used to dealing with cats like Redstorm but Slate was a tougher nut to crack. Once they had reached the ravine, Slate turned to face her, amber eyes meeting amber, and urging her to come at him. Howlpaw nodded swiftly and quickly got into a combative stance, bushing up her fur to appear larger than she was. She stalked to the left of him before suddenly darting forward making it seem as though she was trying to rush him, only changing course at the very last moment when she slowed and drew up a paw, hoping to smack it down upon the top of his head if she was successful.​

 

[SLATESNARL]

❪ TAGS ❫ — The cogs in his brain activated, mentally dispensing several different responses to the incoming attack that Howlpaw presented. If he were in a real fight, he would likely use his sheer bulk to crash back into the smaller she-cat and crush her with his weight. However, he wanted to give his new apprentice a fair chance to make a decision on how she would approach taking him down.

He tensed, claws digging into the ground instinctively as the torbie darted toward him, his body bracing for impact. It was generally frowned upon to use claws in training, as it would just cause unnecessary injuries and give the medicine cats more work to do. Slate mentally reminded himself that this was just Howlpaw and nobody he should actually feel threatened by, so his claws retreated back into their sheaths right as the apprentice slowed to a halt right in front of him. A smaller paw came smacking down square upon his noggin, which caused Slate to wince and fold his ears back, but that was about it. A bruise would stun him only momentarily. "... Interesting choice. Won't do much to a big guy like me, though." Slate commented to Howlpaw. Maybe his head was too damn big for a whack of the paw to do any damage.

Slate would then leap to Howlpaw's side as quickly as he could manage. If his attempt was successful, he'd bowl Howlpaw over (or at least send her stumbling) with a ram of his head into her flank. "Think. What are you gonna do next? You gonna attack me head-on or are you gonna use my weaknesses against me?" Slate was never thrilled to admit that he had any weaknesses in the first place, but this was only for the sake of training. Howlpaw seemed to grow closer to Blazestar in stature over the moons, but there would always be a bigger opponent — what about a fox or a dog, even? In his opinion, Howlpaw would act swiftly and quickly if she were smart; he had brawn on his size but speed wasn't his strong suit. A move that always seemed to work for bigger opponents was the leap-and-hold technique as well, which involved attacking an opponent from upon their back and making it difficult for them to reach. Either way, Slate wouldn't take much damage from a single hit, and he wanted to push Howlpaw into fighting dirtier.​

 

[Howlfire]

Whilst her paw does connect with Slate's head, it proves to be a fairly harmless attack. Slate winces but Howlpaw doubts she's caused any real damage. If it were a real fight and her claws were out perhaps there could be an opportunity to scratch him, but even then it was likely he would just shrug it off. Slate even made light of it himself when speaking of her interesting choice.

Howlpaw was considering her options when Slate suddenly jumped to her side quicker than she anticipated. She gawked at him for a moment but before she could turn to get out of the way, he rammed his into the side of her flank. Howlpaw stumbled, nearly falling, but was able to right herself from fully hitting the ground. As she straightened, she fixed a determined expression on her face[ as Slate urged her to think about what to do next. She couldn't get too up close again, at least not at the moment. There was only so much strength she could put into her sheathed swipes at him, and she suspected he would shrug most of those off anyway. Slate was a strong and sturdy cat, much like her father, and though Slate could move swiftly when needed she had seen that he wasn't built for speed. Howlpaw though was more nimble, even though her frame suggested otherwise.

Howlpaw would approach Slate in a similar way to her first attack. Pacing side to side on the spot before making a lunge forward. Gambling on the notion Slate would try to counter her for trying to attack him head on again, Howlpaw would suddenly leap to the left of him when she drew close. If he was slow to react, she would take the chance to try and leap at him from the side, quite literally throwing her whole body at him in an effort to try and stagger him or even fell him if she could.​