private when its all over ཐིཋྀ assessment

[doepath ࿔]

How the time has moved this quickly, Doepaw is unsure... It is relentless, slow at the worst of times and quickest when life is at its easiest. Though she had felt the loss of her den-mates as they moved onwards and upwards without her, the baton has passed down and down again until at last, it rests in her paws to carry. The last leg of apprenticeship is marked in explosive efforts, improving more now than she had in the last several moons before and marked with success in hunting patrols, ease of movement along borders, and a slowly received understanding on how to protect herself at the very least. The fawn would not pretend she was great at any of these skills though, knew that if it truly came down to it, she might find herself dead in the first big battle she was ever thrust into. It just wasn't in the cards, for her to be a glorious battle maiden. It barely suited her to be a mediocre huntress. Mostly, she just hoped for quiet strolls... idle chatter when passing by opposing clans at the edges of the territories.

The Gatherings were a treat, a reprieve from required violence that allowed for friendships to bloom and stubbornly, a flare of fiery fur comes to mind despite the snarl that remains plastered on muddled features.

There would be no more practicing today though.... Cobwebtail stands as a tuft of cotton against a backdrop of greens and browns, if he is nervous, it is nott plain for her to see (though things never are). Today, she carries the anxiety for both of them, well aware of the last few grains of sand escaping the hourglass and how imminent her warriorhood is. The excitement to join Sunshinespot there encourages her, as well as the hope that she won't be left behind by her far sturdier and more impressive sisters.... To be left in the apprentice's den without Antlerpaw or Fallowpaw would surely be alike a death sentence- focus becomes hardened in sundrop eyes, trailing after the wisping form of her mentor with a quivering glimmer of hope sparked in her chest.

"What's my assessment? What am I meant to do," she asks, glancing around the tree-dense area with a sense of giddy dread, "Do you think-" She wants to ask if he thinks she can even do this but the self-defeat is swallowed thickly down her throat before it has the chance to escape.

@COBWEBTAIL​

 

[COBWEBTAIL]

Panic courses through his veins as he sits there, chewing on his lip in what seems to be an idle manner. It's the only thing keeping his heart from giving out... An idle distraction from the task at hand: the assessment. He's been dreading it, not for the reason one would think, but because the passage of time has begun to scare him. It's already time for Doepaws graduation, and if she were to pass then he'd have to tell his mother, and then Doepaw, at the next meeting, would get a name.

And then she'd get her name... Her name, i'm getting old. The sands of time slipping through his paws seems more daunting than ever.

She begins to speak and he snaps back to reality almost instantly, ready to help quell any fears. "Yes. I know you can do it," he murmurs, can only assume thats what she had meant before she cut herself off. Thank Starclan I didn't have an assessment. He'd fail instantly, especially if he were back at the age Doepaw was. A little more carefree, anything but cautious and most of all a little bit lazy...

"I'm just going to have you hunt... And then we'll go over the Warrior Code, and then you'll be done." in all honesty, he's just come up with that on a whim. He's never had an apprentice before. He's not sure what assessments are even supposed to look like... "I want you to catch one squirrel," Thunderclans staple, after all, what would this assessment be without one? "And one cardinal. Bonus points for anything extra you bring back, though not required..." both are not the easiest to find, but live in an abundance... In fact, hes seen some on their way here. "After that, bring them back to me and we'll be done... With this portion of your assessment, at least." he gives her a reassuring grin, or at least musters up what he can.

And now, he gives her the go-ahead with a dip of his head and a wave of his tail.

𝙸𝚃𝚂 𝙰𝙻𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 ⋆ ☾⁺⋆ ☁︎ 𝙸𝙼 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴, 𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂 𝙰𝙻𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃

• 
  ❥ cobweb ,, cobwebtail
  ❥ cis male ,, he/him ,, 44 moons
  ❥ thunderclan warrior ,, mentoring doepaw
  ❥ spindly blue & white tabby tom with blue eyes
  ❥ "speech, 827aab" ,, thoughts
  ❥ bisexual ,, single
  ❥ smells like oak trees & an odd mixture of smoke
  ❥ art by inkcap ,, penned by chuff

​

 

[doepath ࿔]

A hunt...? Nervousness lines the sudden influx of saliva that fills her mouth, swallowed down thickly as Cobwebtail details what specifically he's hoping she'll bring back. He says a squirrel and she already wallows in a pool of self pity, knowing it to be a doomed request. She'd be an apprentice forever... Her brows pinch in slight concern, glancing towards the wide expanses of trees- "Just those two things," she says, more as a reassurance to herself than to confirm she'd heard him right.

Giving a small nod, she brushes against his side briefly in thanks before heading off into the forest to undertake this task.

Good fortune finds her on the winds today, as she treks through the undergrowth. The first scent she tracks is a simple distraction, one that draws her further out than probably necessary. It isn't until she can see it just ahead along the roots of a large bush that she realizes it is a waste of time- just a mouse... nothing more. Cobwebtail had said it was just a bonus to catch more and a fearful part of her thinks to abandon it now and hurry off to find her real targets.

Had he accounted for the fact she couldn't easily spot a squirrel? Cardinals were easy enough- very few things out here were so vibrantly red.

But then... there are so many kits in the nursery these days, even if most of them are due to become apprentices soon. She ought to go the extra mile, to catch the extra prey where she can. And she does... the mouse is lost in its focus for collecting something tasty to eat and by the time it notices, she's sunk her claws into it. It goes buried, to be retrieved later, before Doepaw pursues the sound of wings fluttering in the distance.

rolled a 13!

Sure enough, StarClan entreats her to an easy assessment- crimson as holly berries, that bird pecks along the ground in a search for worms. Wary of its ability to simply fly out of reach, her approach is cautious... slow... By the time she's willing to take the leap the sun has sunk much further in the sky than she'd like. The timing grows as a searing pressure, and she scrambles to hastily hide her prey again.

The squirrel.... all that was left was the squirrel. Her paws shake in anxious anticipation, uncertain if this might finally be a day she can wrap her teeth around one. They are so quick... and their fur blends in painfully with the nature around them. When you can only see in the nebulous shapes in an array like a kaleidoscope.... shades of brown are hard to distinguish.

The paths she follows are varying successes in their level of closeness.... There are two more distractions that prove not to be squirrels at all. A pair of voles cross her path and she stumbles over them haphazardly, so enamored with her desperate search for her real target that they are free to go about their days when alerted by her clumsiness far before she'd ever hope to catch them....

By the time she remembers to back track the way they'd come to find squirrels she thought she'd scented, it feels as if she's wasted a whole day already. But there... ramming an acorn against a rock over and over again, she can see it... it isn't brown like most of the squirrel she's seen, this one comes in blotches of grays instead. Relief floods her as she sidles down into a hunter's crouch, creeping along with painfully slow and careful paw-steps. She couldn't afford to mess this one up-

rolled a 17!

Her movements are quick, confident in the spaces where she has wandered for moons with near-blindness to guide her. The roots do not trick her this time, as they had many times before, and though the squirrel has the gift of distance and it scrambles to find a tree to scale, Doepaw's preparedness sends her careening the few strides up the trunk to chase it, snagging it between her teeth before shoving off the tree to land awkwardly back on the ground below.

It wasn't often she tried to scale the thin bark... but it had been worth it. A heavy breath of relief.... and then the matter of collecting all she'd caught. This part is done with a leisurely joy, practically skipping to recover the other two pieces before making her way back towards where she'd abandoned Cobwebtail. Eager to move onto the part she'd consider easiest, she sets the cardinal, squirrel and mouse at his feet, practically beaming with the smile that meets his gaze.

"I found the mouse first and... then the cardinal... I missed some voles because I was so worried about finding the squirrel but.. I caught it! So... yeah.....!"​