training wheels suck = ferndance

[Wolfpaw.]

❝ and they saw trouble in my eyes ✧°.☀ ———————————— Wolfpaw had been counting the days until he could train with a mentor when he was a kitten. And now the day had come, he had been made an apprentice and after a confusing second where he wondered why Ferndance was assigned to him he realized it didn't really matter and he was going to work his hardest no matter who was training him. Now he was going to have to prove to Ferndance that he was in fact the hardest worker she had ever seen. To do that he was going to wake her up before the sun, so they could go train. Because honestly he couldn't just sit waiting in excitement any longer. It was rather a different shade on the young tom but he was going to where it proudly for the time being.

The smoky coated tom made his way quietly from his new nest in the apprentice den and slowly his grey eyes peered into the warriors nests. His eyes quickly found the lead warrior and his paws found their way softly to the side of her nest and then gently tapped on the ear of Ferndance.
"Ferndance, I think it's time for training right?" Only after he actually opened his mouth and really sealed the deal did he reliaze that most of the time apprentice don't choose training time and chances are warriors like sleeping more than spending time with wide-eyed apprentices.


// @FERNDANCE

[penned by user - [tags☀]]

———————————— ☀.°✧ they were quick to recognize the devil in me ❞ ​

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[FERNDANCE]

She stretched all four limbs as she was awoken, her legs colliding with various trinkets she'd stolen. Feathers, shiny bits, rocks, all sorts made for companions when the rest of the den knew to sleep a little ways away from the flea-ridden feline. A green eye wearily opened, the blurry monochrome outline of Wolfpaw slowly coming into focus. Groaning tiredly and remembering at that moment that she had an apprentice now, the white-pawed warrior lifted her head, the tip of her tail twitching. I think it's time for training right? He asked her, and she had to stop herself from saying something unkind in her fatigued state. She squinted as she looked past the tiny figure, the outside world still a gloomy hue (though that could've just been ShadowClan. "Uh.... no?" Bleary, every instinct told her to send the cat back to bed and be done with it until the sun had blessed the mire. But, as she rested her head back on the moss, and found that sleep did not take her instantaneously, she huffed. It never had been easy for her to nod back off once something had stirred her awake. "Wait..." She slowly got to her feet.

"I'm only going to do this once, ok? If you wake me up again I will ask that you be re-assigned to Dogfur." She half-teased the apprentice and her friend, platonically loving the tortoiseshell tom but knowing he would likely cause any apprentice to age fifty moons before they'd even started training. Slipping past Wolfpaw, she gestured with her tail for the young kid to follow her out of the camp and towards the burnt sycamore. "I guess you're lucky in a way. We ShadowClanners use the night like a ThunderClanner uses a hero complex... no that doesn't sound right... " The ticked tabby fell silent as she considered the simile, her head slightly tilted as she strode between thin trees and patches of sodden earth. "We ShadowClanners use the night like a SkyClanner uses a kittypet... no that just sounds weird. Hmm, I guess it's not important. Do you know why we use the night, Wolfpaw? It's very important for your training, I promise." Surely Fern wouldn't just be trying to make small talk on the way to the sycamore, though, the lighthearted smile upon her maw seemed to suggest that the question wasn't as serious as she made it out to be.

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[Wolfpaw.]

❝ on the outside always looking in ✧°.☀ ———————————— As Ferndance stirred Wolfpaw couldn't help but have a grin tug on his lips, it was finally time! And as quickly as it came it fell. As his mentor told him to, at least as he could tell, get lost. His chest which he hadn't realized was puffed up deflated and he went to leave the warrior when she stopped him. The grin came back.

He tried to mask a face of shame as she told him he would be given up to Dogfur if he pulled this stunt again, but he couldn't help thinking about what their morning was going to entail and casually miss the threat completely. As he trailed the lead warrior he listened to her fumble about with the way she wanted to word this first lesson. And before answering her actual question he couldn't help but to try and finish what she had been struggling to say "We use the night like Riverclan uses water. To our advantage." He had spent much of his time in the nursey wondering about everything outside of it. And although he had never asked about why Shadowclan prefers the moon to the sun, he had figured it out on the couple of occasions he snuck out of the nursery. His smoky coat favored the dusky lighting and if he hide under a bush in the night it took Bramblesong a little bit longer to find him.

[penned by user - [tags☀]]

———————————— ☀.°✧ will i ever be more than i've always been? ❞ ​

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[FERNDANCE]

"Exactly. A lot of ShadowClanners have dark coats, like Chilledstar or Sharppaw, or Eeriepaw. It makes it harder for prey to see them - and it makes it harder for other cats to see them too. Perfect for an ambush." She grinned as if she'd just swallowed a canary, her tail tip pointing to her own agouti coat. "Not everyone looks all moody though. My dad is a black cat though... it's strange how I became so colourful." Her cinnamon coat was flecked with browns and gingers, and a splash of white settled upon one of her forepaws where the faint tabby markings failed to reach. Even her eyes were bright green. She looked suited to be a ThunderClan cat more than one adjusted to the gloom of the marshlands, but she still had her place in ShadowClan regardless of any physical disparities. Realising she'd near-lost herself to a tangent, Ferndance blinked slowly, her attention shifting back towards the smoky apprentice she'd been assigned. "So yeah... that's that. We have to be sneakier than everyone else. If that means sneaking up on your fellow apprentices then I wholeheartedly give you permission. I was told to use my lead warrior position for good, after all."

She felt the squelch of marshland beneath her paws and halted, raising her tail to tell Wolfpaw to do the same. Ferndance raised her head upwards, dramatically sniffing at the air to offer her apprentice insight into why they'd stopped. Her pupils grew wide as she detected something, gleaming with interest as her ears shot forwards. "Don't move, I want you to breathe in. What do you smell?" She asked, her usually quiet voice dropping even further into a whisper. She expected him to say 'swamp' or 'earth', but hidden amidst the pair of them was a tiny, four-toed footprint that'd caught the tabby's attention mere moments into the journey. "Do you see anything? Hear anything?"
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[Wolfpaw.]

❝ on the outside always looking in ✧°.☀ ———————————— Wolfpaw's head nodded along to the wise words of his mentor. He also happened to take a good look at his own darker coat, perfectly made for the marsh. But, it was pretty apparent that it didn't matter too much, Ferndance was a lead warrior and didn't check the box. This also meant that he didn't just get a automatic pass, he still had to be skilled. Hopefully Ferndance would give him the tools to get that skill. She was encouraging it at least, Wolfpaw grinned a tiny bit and nodded at the idea of sneaking up on another apprentice. Maybe Magpiepaw would be a good target.

But, he couldn't think about sneaking up on his brother for too long before he was made to halt. His eyes widened not sure if he had missed some sort of apparent danger. But, with the over done smelling gesture, he understood this was not danger but learning. His nose followed Ferndance's into the air. He filled up his less than regular sized lungs and then exhaled it. His nose stunk with mud, marsh, maybe some frog? But, nothing that he could feel stood out. Now he was given a choice, admit failure or lie and hope he is told the answer before he is asked. Not likely the latter would happen. "Nothing really out of the ordinary. But, I know that's wrong." He couldn't help but, preface his first failure of a question. Maybe saying he knew that was wrong would make it seem like he was paying attention and trying.

[penned by user - [tags☀]]

———————————— ☀.°✧ will i ever be more than i've always been? ❞ ​

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[FERNDANCE]

She nodded in agreement with Wolfpaw's deduction - he knew he was wrong, a good start, at least. "It's ok to be wrong. Just be right next time." It was difficult to remember that the kitten's nose worked differently from hers. She had seen the world, traveled to each corner, and learned the scents as fast as she had learned her name - Wolfpaw barely had a chance to leave the nursery before being thrown into her muddied paws for training. "Now look down." She gestured with her tail to the fresh frog prints on the mud. "No matter how hard we try to hide, we animals always leave evidence of our existence. The same goes for prey - even the tiniest frog can leave a pawprint in our mud. They also tend to be very very loud... but at the moment, I hear nothing. Sometimes they disappear in leafbare, this one might still be tired from hiding all that time. The hunt is about honing your senses, finding with your nose and eyes, listening with your ears, striking with your paws when the time is right." A frog could feed a clanmate for a day, it felt wrong to waste it on training an apprentice, yet, teaching him to hunt would be far more beneficial to the clan long-term.

"We do not know where this little beastie is yet, but if the tracks are fresh then we know it is close. I will first show you the hunter's crouch. This is how you approach it without it noticing you. Normally you have to make sure you are downwind but... being honest, I don't know if frogs can smell. If they did, they surely would've left this land a long time ago." Her clanmates were incredibly stinky, that was why the other prey had left, right? That was what Chilledstar might say, though Ferndance had her suspicions that the irregular bathing habits of her friends were not the only reason for their misfortune. She bent all four of her legs low to the ground, the hairs on her stomach gracing the mire below. Her tail hovered centimeters above the soft earth and with barely a sound except for the mousy squelch of deft paws flat against the mud, she looked over her shoulder to address Wolfpaw further. "We have death to balance life. We have a sun to balance the moon. We have tail to balance while hunting... that didn't make any sense, but copy me anyways. Move to my side and make as little noise as possible."



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