PRETENDING WE KNOW THINGS — “hunting” practice

[Starlingheart]

Just because she was the medicine cat did not mean that she did not need to know how to hunt, to fight, to be able to defend herself, feed herself. It was not her fault she had been left without a mentor, but it had happened and she had been left with no one to teach her the simple things that every cat should know. There was the time she had trained with Pitchstar, but that had been short lived and violent. She lets out an involuntary shudder that has nothing to do with the cold as she relives that day in her mind. Her brothers angry voice telling her to fight her fellow apprentice, to not hold back, Granitepaws refusal.

She digs her claws into the snow, anchoring herself to the marsh below her, lest she be swept away by memories and daydreams.

A leaf flutters in her peripherals and she pauses a moment, taking a break in her hunt for herbs to try hunting something else. It’s not prey but practice was practice wasn’t it? She drops down into what she believes is a hunters crouch, but anyone with eyes and more training than she did could see that her form was sloppy. Her balance was not there, she had no clue what to do with her paws, and when she leaps it is clumsy. She almost trips over herself but she lands on the leaf. Hard to miss something that is not moving. Her claws sink into it with a satisfying crunch and she smiles a bit to herself.

She does not realize that someone is watching her. Not until she hears a stick snap and her head whips around, green eyes wide with embarrassment to be caught playing like a kit, ears back in fear of it being a stranger. When she sees it is simply a clan-mate she relaxes. But only a little "I wuh-wuh-waaaassss I was ju-just prac-praaaacticiiiiing…." she says, quickly shaking the leaf off her paw before giving her chest a couple of quick licks.
​

 

[spectermask]

When he moves out to go hunt once more in this damned weather he does not expect to see the medicine cat pouncing upon a leaf. Oh, lord, her form was off but she gets the leaf regardless, causing his whiskers to twitch in slight pride (he had never been fond of his clanmates, why is it popping up now) and amusement. He shakes himself and turns away only for a stick to snap under his weight, fuck! He had been caught!

"Relax, I'm not gonna report you for it, kid. You're allowed to know how to provide and fight for yourself." he shrugs upwards as if it were a silly trivial thing. He stays silent for a couple heartbeats, watching her nervous demeanor as she licks her chest fur down. A long sigh tumbles from his mouth. "I can teach you the barebones of a hunting crouch." he offers, quietly, just barely above the wind that blows past them. He already had Eerie to train and that kiddo listened quite well, what was another one? "Not exactly my forte with just regular hunting, but I can teach you some stealth maneuvers for it too." no sweat off his back if Starling refused but he remains there with a look in his eyes that could be mistaken for softness (and perhaps thats just what it is).​

"speech"​

 

[SHARPSHADOW]

† She doesn't expect to see Starlingheart out here. Though, maybe she should have. Maybe camp was becoming stifling for her, and why wouldn't it? Suddenly, the medicine den is just her. Suddenly, she gains her name before any of her peers ever would. Sharppaw would hate it. He does hate it. He feels bad for her. Her form is sloppy, and Sharppaw knows cause his form was– is sloppy to, and his mentor doesn't like it. She doesnt want to talk to Starlingpaw like that. She wants to say she's good, but that would be a lie. "Practice is good..."

And she's glad Spectermask found her rather over some others. Some others would make fun of her, but he did not. He even seemed helpful, which is strange. Stranger, is what they say, and Sharppaw scrunches his face. She doesn't understand. Was stealth not a part of hunting? Had she been taught wrong this entire time? She hates being wrong. And how was she supposed to know? No one talked to anybody here, not in any way that made sense. What would her mentor think if she asked? How was she supposed to know who– who's right and who's wrong? He shuffles his paws. "W-what? How do you hunt without stealth?"​

 

[TEASELPAW]

Jealousy kept poisoning his words and glances. Within the deepest ravine of his heart Teaselpaw knew it was stupid to be jealous of something his sister did not want, of something that clearly worried her so much- but he couldn't care enough to choke it down. Maybe Starling had noticed it, maybe she hadn't. He didn't care. It- it wasn't fair, that she should be special and chosen, that she should be so ahead. He struggled to hunt, he was about as good as her, and yet she had a full name because StarClan and his mother and whoever else was up there had decided she was better than him?

As if he didn't already have so much to live up to.

It was stupid. He knew it was stupid. But he threw the guilt off his shoulders, overcome with bitterness in that moment that she- medicine cat, holy chosen one of healing, was about as good at hunting as him, a warrior apprentice... someone who wasn't even supposed to hunt was equalling him. A snowy face painted itself with a saccharine smile, magma in his eyes. "I don't think you have it in you." he said, shaking his head. A disagreement to the encouragement that everyone else was offering- but he just didn't want her to outclass him even more. He wanted her to stop. Focus on what she had been chosen to do, what she and no one else had. "Not everyone can be good at everything, Starlingpaw." Pointed use of a name that was no longer hers. He didn't care, he didn't care.​

PENNED BY PIN​

 

[ravenpaw x]

Ravenpaw spared her sister's mistake little mind. It was foolish and embarrassing, certainly, but she would not be the one to point that out. Not in front of others, at least. Besides, it was of little consequence.

No, it was her brother's words that perked up her ear.

She slipped up to his side like a shadow, her eyes narrowed but her smile matching the saccharine sweetness of his own. "What an interesting opinion brother!" she patronized without missing a beat. "Perhaps next time you keep it to yourself though, hm?"

After how Pitchstar had talked about Bonejaw at the gathering, she'd had just about enough of her siblings tarnishing the family name in front of others. Any grievances they had with each other should be kept in private, where it belonged. Glancing away from Teaselpaw, she appraised Starlingheart with a keen eye. She let her smile soften.

"I, for my part, am quite certain you could be an excellent hunter if you set your mind to it. Doubtless you have simply been too preoccupied by your duties to practice." Ravenpaw stated, her own cleverness pleasing her. How easily her sister's little misstep was twisted into another point of praise by her silver tongue. A testament to her dedication to her role as medicine cat, Truly, her family was lucky to have her.​

[ PENNED BY EMPYREAN ]​

 

[GRANITEPELT]

( ¡! ❞ ) Granitepaw would have made fun of any other cat in the Clan for such a sloppy hunting crouch, but Starlingheart's endeavors are almost cute. She reminds him of a kit playing with a butterfly, but her face is so determined. He wears a rare expression, a soft smile that quickly withers and dies at the approach of his Clanmates.

Spectermask offers to help her, and is relatively nice, and Sharppaw offers nothing of worth. The tension in the gray tom's shoulders eases, relaxes. He approaches the small group, face neutral instead of simmering with rage. "You'll be just as good of a hunter as you are a healer," he says to Starlingheart, blinking at her with rare but sincere affection.

But any warmth his expression had held freezes like dew on the marsh turf in the morning. Not one but two of Starlingheart's siblings approach, and Teaselpaw opens his mouth, only for crowfood to spill at his paws. "I don't think you have it in you." The skull-faced tom's expression is sharp with sarcasm. "Not everyone can be good at everything, Starlingpaw."

Granitepaw's teeth flash. "I think you're forgetting yourself. That's your medicine cat." His voice is soft but dangerous. "Perhaps you need to go back to your lessons, Teaselkit."

Ravenpaw, of course, another know it all, but at least she isn't scornful of her littermate. Granitepaw can't imagine. He and Siltpaw are blood. They may not show one another any great affection -- they aren't built for it -- but he'd never say such a thing to or about his sister. He gives the sleek black she-cat a dull look before purposefully moving to give Starlingheart's shoulder a lick. "I can help you be good at anything yo want to," he says in a low voice.​

( TOOK YOU HOME, PUT YOU ON THE GLASS ; I PULLED OFF YOUR WINGS, AND I LAUGHED )

 

[SHARPSHADOW]

† Teaselpaw is irrational. She– Maybe she could get it, sure. It wouldn't be so easy for her to be wrong if she was medicine cat. His word would be star-blessed truth. Even if it was clear they didn't care for Shadowclan, they could still... be useful. She could be jealous. Maybe she would be. But it helps that her disdain for Bonejaw gnaws and writhes. As much as he hated, he'd rather anything else than to learn, and be abandoned under her.

Plus, what Teaselpaw said wasn't true at all. "But Starlingpaw– S-startlingheart's not good at either," he tells him, not unkindly. Not with malice, but he's saying what it is. He knew. If he looked like that, he'd be yelled at. Teaselpaw was being yelled at, by Ravenpaw. But her version of yelling is a different sort of scary, narrowed eyes and bittersweet tone. No threats or gnashing teeth, just cold... disappointment. And that's more respectable than anything former, she thinks.

Sharppaw swallows, hurridly nodding along with her words. Could be. She could be, sure, maybe. It isn't a lie. And maybe with Teaselpaw, she hopes that she won't be.

And where Starlingheart is, there's Granitepaw. Bonejaw had that too, once. Others were there to make excuses for her whenever she needed them to. And Sharppaw thought– that would've thought it had taught them all a lesson. Star-chosen, medicine cat or no, Bonejaw had still turned their backs on them. But Granitepaw still claims they should listen, just because she's medicine cat. She's clueless.

Not that Sharppaw dislikes her, or anything. He really doesn't.

He glances at Teaselpaw; maybe not sympathetic– the word is too strong– but she understands, at least a little bit. And to Starlingpaw, "Y-you'll be... good," He doesn't have the heart to claim excellence like Ravenpaw had, but in her image, he concedes...​