Two Birds

OOC: *looks at Cloudfrost* .... XD

Kestrelpaw walked around the territory, sniffing occationally. He smelled the scent of prey, but he didn't know where they were. He was never good at pinpointing a scent. In the distance he heard a croak. Frog? He started towards it, changing direction if the direction of the croak changed as well.

Griffinshade sighed. "She was the most cooperative. She didn't care what happened, she never gave up on anything." he remembered the kit who had asked him for training.

Soon, the new apprentice came to a marchy clearing. The ground was browned, muddy, and wet in a nice opening, almost like a little training ground. It was the perfect place to spar if you wanted your apprentice to get used to fighting on slick surfaces just for the advantage. He wasn't concerned with this.

He sniffed the air again, hoping to smell the frog, but instead, he smelled all different kind of prey. From mice, to odd voles. No birds, though. It was like all of they prey was camping over here! The smell of his own clan in this spot was nearly faint, like it hadn't been visited often. Maybe they didn't find anything when they first looked? Well, they were here now!

Kestrelpaw pricked his ears when he heard the croak again and quickly scrambled into the area, feeling the mud seep between his toes. Just the way they liked it. Then he spotted it, it was the frog, but... there was something odd about it. Really odd.

The frog was bloated up, large and big as it's mouth was open wide, unable to close because of the load it carried. Inside it's mouth, Kestrelpaw didn't know, it looked like it may have been a mouse or a rat or something, but only the bottom half of it showed as it occasionally twitched, it's escape seeming futile now. Sometimes the frog would shift to try and swallow the animal more, but it semeed to be struggling. It looked like it'd choke!

In the distance he heard that familiar croak. So... this wasn't his frog, but this was just... weird. Frog ate mice? He thought they just licked up bugs! An image of a frog with large rows or teeth, ready to clamp into it's next meals mouth went through his mind, a devilish smile and it's face. He shuddered, crazy, but he didn't see any blood. Frogs were weird.

He crept a little closer and laid down next to it, watching intently. He wanted to see if it'd eat it all. He might has alarmed the frog, because it seemed to be trying to expel the mouse or rat so it could hap away, but it seemed to be having trouble.

Interesting...

Cloudfrost purred. "Don't worry. All apprentices are tough to train at one point or another. You certainly were." He licked his paw and drew it over his ear casually, unbothered. Though he did feel restless. While he'd had Griffonshade as an apprentice, they'd always gone out to spar. And now that he was just a plain-old warrior again, he was bored. Bored. Trying to find his way around the forest in a rainstorm didn't faze him anymore. He was too used to it.

It was a while before anything actually happened after this. What was up? Kestrelpaw poked the frog with a claw. Nothing, not even a twitch. Did it choke!? Uh.... Awesome! Kestrelpaw grabbed the rat by it's tail and the frog seemed to hold firm. Wow. It was like some mega catch, even though he didn't actually do anything. He marched triumphantly to the end of the marshy clearing and set it down. Maybe he could find more.

He went back over, and started prowling around, forgetting to crouch and all of that jazz. He just wanted to see something interesting now.

Griffinshade smiled, sighing. "Alright. Let's see if he'll hunt anymore willingly then he does fight." he sheathed his claws from the soggy soil and stood up, his stub of a tail hanging down.

Aha! Kestrelpaw sprinted over when he saw another frog over in the place. It didn't move when he reached it, it just sat there. Easy catch! He pounced at it, but when he got close it just hopped away from him. He punced again, but again, it just hopped away. Kestrelpaw growled in frustration. Again, he jumped at it, this time he caught it under his paw. He felt on odd feeling, it was slimy ish and... just weird. He lifted his paw away quickly. Ew? He stepped a little closer, but it didn't move. Again he poked it and it shifted its legs a little.

Was this thing stupid or something? He swipped at it with his paw, but it bounced away again. He did it over and over again, and the frog did just the same. After ten or so jumped the frog jumped through the bushes, out of Kestrelpaw's sight. He tried to look through it, but it was too thick. He couldn't even slip past.

Frustreated, he looked for another way to get over there. He didn't realize, but he almost stepped on a lizard or something. Next thing he saw was a ground colored lizard scurry away and up a tree. He raced after it and jumped towards the tree. He caught it by the end of its tail and started to pull it down as it wriggled around. Yes! His first, real catch! But... nothing was that simple. To Kestrelpaw's confusion the lizard got away, but how...? Great StarClan! In his mouth was the tail still stuck in his mouth, wriggling around in his mouth.

Quickly he dropped it out of his mouth and backed away. That was just disgusting! The prey around here was just odd. Maybe it was time to go. He padded back to the entrance of the area, but when he got there the food he'd "caught" was gone! Where was it!? In the place it had been the smell of badger lingered.

Those scavangers! It stole his food! He unsheathed his claws and ripped into the ground angrily. Argh! He ought to go after, but he didn't even know a single move thanks to Griffonpaw. He couldn't do a thing about this. He stomped off deeper into the forest, angry about the whole aspect of hunting.

"Yes." Cloudfrost pulled himself to his paws. "Let's see how your apprentice hunts." He started off towards the forest, making sure to make his steps seem confident and able. In truth, he was very confused. The rain that poured down around him shrouded all of his senses, making him feel like a kit, blind, deaf, and completely useless curled up next to it's mother.

But he wouldn't let Griffonshade see that. Nor any other cat. Because he'd fought for so long to be made a warrior. He wasn't going to lose that privilege now. He twitched his ears, which were assaulted by the constant rain almost instantly, to try and sort through the many sounds of the forest. It almost deafened him. He heard the roaring of a wounded badger as a fox fiercely defended it's prey, the huge clap of thunder that roiled by on the breeze, the leafless tree branched clacking noisily against each other, and, of course, the sound of rain.

Griffinshade trotted up beside him, just in front of him. He knew that Cloudfrost could find his own way, but he stayed close to him and kept his steps heavy in case he couldn't. His fur remained soggy and matted, plastered to his side, but he still looked massive. His whiskers twitched with irritation as rain pelt over him.

He scented the air, heavy with water and plant life. He searched through these scents, some ladden with ShadowClan patrols. Intertwined with many amphibious smells, he found Kestrelpaw with his strong nose. He could imagine the strong willed cat frustrated with no prey in his paws, just as he was when his apprentice's age. "I found him." he smiled, almost.

Griffinshade took another pawstep ahead, the base of his neck equal to where Cloudfrost's nose tip was. He lengthened his strides, but kept his steps loud and heavy, not worried about missing any prey with his strong nose.

Kestralpaw walked around the forest, looking left and right for prey, not actually doing the hwole hunting thing right. About halfway along his walk he remembered that he was supposed to croutch and some other stuff. He was probably trying to catch that frog like a little kit. He sighed, this was terrible.

He kept his ears pricked as he walked past the trees, and as he did so, he started to think. If they had so many trees, how come none of them climbed up them? No one in ShadowClan knew how to climb a tree. FOr some reason only ThunderClan cats did it, but they had way more trees that them. So why not? Any it would be easier to catch one of those crazy lizards.

He stopped at the base of a tree and looked up through its branches and leaves. He squinted his eyes, and, with the concentation, saw there was a bird up there, happy and safe. What if he could get it? He bent down, ready to hook his still unsheathed claws into the bark. He jumped, but failed to grab a foothole and fell with a thump, his back stining like it had been jabbed by millions of rocks. He tried again, and twice more, but he stopped. He was getting nowhere, that bird was getting restless. He watched it as it swooped down towards him and pecked him on the head.

It stung and infuriated him. What was that things problem? He swiped at it with one of his paws, but it flew out of the way and attacked him again. He took an onslaught of hits as he tried to get it through puncing and swiping, but it moved out of the way countless times and came back. It was like a warrior he had to fight, only it was a stupid bird, a stupid bird that was really going to get it when he got a claw on it.

Blood seeped from the little wounds as he tried again and again to get it. WHy was this so hard? It made him feel incompetent in many ways. Getting the bird wasn't out of anger now, but more of a goal.

Griffinshade made it to the clearing, seeing Kestrelpaw being savagely attacked by a dumb bird. He crouched forward, the bird not alerted since it was so caught up with his apprentice's head. He leaped at it, his claws outstretched. He felt his needle-sharp claws tear into the bird, past it's feathers. They both fell to the ground, Griffinshade the winner. He bit into the birds throat, just in case.

Kestrelpaw watched as Griffinshade come from some unkown direction and took down the bird easily. If it had eggs, they were done for now. His fur stayed bristled and he glared at his mentor. "What did you do that for?!" Couldn't he have just stayed out of it?

Griffinshade looked back at the younger cat. "What? That thing was tearing you to pieces!" he growled back sharply.

Cloudfrost bounded after Griffonshade, bramble whipping his face as the younger warrior sped away. Drat I'm off the trail! he thought crossly, emerging into a clearing. He blinked and "looked" around, hearing Griffonshade's and Kestrelpaw's angry voices among the chaotic sounds of the forest.

"It wasn't even close and you know it," he growled, "I had it handled! I could have gotten the thing! Why did you have to butt in? Couldn't you have stayed to the side or something!?" This cat would be the death of him.

"What happened?" Cloudfrost called, frustration muffling his tone. He trotted over, looking alert. His white-fleck pelt bristled. He smelled blood. Not just prey-blood but cat-blood, too. "Who's hurt?" he demanded. As the Clan's stand-in medicine cat while the real medicine cat was away, he had to know these things. Though he hated how much he sounded like a medicine cat...

Griffinshade didn't look away from Kestrelpaw. "Do you want me to tell him or would you like to?" he mewed sarcastically, This cat is never happy.

"No one is," Kestrelpaw hissed. He tensed. Tell him what? Oh, so now they were sharing secrets and crap? Yeah, just perfect. They were probably going to tell him something he already knew, like he was a dumb kit or something.

Cloudfrost snorted and sniffed the air again. "I can smell bird-blood and cat-blood on both of you. Tell me what happened. Now." he growled threateningly, unsheathing his claws.

"Oh yes, because attacking us all with your claws sure is going to help the situation." He sure thought that one through. Yeah, injured and injured cat because they won't tell you who's injured. Seems... counter-productive. At least eh'd know who the injured cat was.

Griffinshade sighed. "Put your claws away. I just killed a bird and got a couple scratches. Nothing serious." he meowed.

Cloudfrost growled restlessly. "Urg... Take better care then." He turned away, not hearing Kestrelpaw's comment. This rain is driving me crazy!
he thought angrily, twitching his tail.

"Now what is it you have to tell me. That's oh so important?" He went through his mind on all of the topics that it could possibly be. First, he went through the dumb ones. Then he went through each list until it turned itno the really important smart ones. He seemed to be paying more attention than he'd ever had.

He enjoyed the things he didn't know.

Griffinshade shook his head, still angered. "Nothing. We just came to see that you weren't killing yourself." he growled. "Training's over. I'm heading back to camp." he turned away and padded silently back to camp. He didn't even take notice to see if Cloudfrost was coming or not.

"Finally." Now he could get away from that cat. He turned in the other direction, not wanting to go back to camp. He was going to try his hand at this hunting again, or find another bird to pester. Or, better yet, he could see those borders that weren't even in consideration for him to look at. Yeah, that was probably the best idea.