Hailfoot went outside of the tunnel, checking every so often that Icepaw was following, then veered sharply to the right.  After a while, he padded into a sand-and-dirt clearing surrounded by trees and bushes.  This was the place for battle practice.  "Ok, so we're going to practice some moves today," he told Icepaw.  "Tell me or show me what you can do."

---

"Yeah.. I know..." Dawnfrost said.  Of course the key components of the Clan wouldn't leave!  "Well... maybe it doesn't have to be a warrior at all," the she-cat stated.  The meaning behind it being it could be one of the apprentices.

Thornfire craned his neck to see Hailfoot exit the camp with Icepaw. "You mean it could be Icepaw or Hawkpaw?" He hadn't considered that. But why would StarClan choose such young cats to go on such a dangerous journey. Perhaps they showed potential... Though Sandstream never mentioned anything particularly special about Hawkpaw, and he didn't see Hailfoot go around the camp boasting about Icepaw.

[[ gotta go, will finish this post later :c ]] 

(Okay.  I'mma go bake some stuff. :P  We're out of eggs.  Oh yay. -.- )

"Well, we've practiced how to attack a large enemy... So I can just do this!" Icepaw nimbly darted towards Hailfoot without warning and launched off into the air, aiming to land on his back. Her claws were sheathed, of course, in case Hailfoot started complaining about her clumsiness again. 

Hailfoot knew what Icepaw was going to do as soon as she launched and aimed, predicting what she would do.  But he let her do so.  The tom purred with some pride over his apprentice.  "Very good, Icepaw.  But we also have to learn to get an opponent off of you once you are attacked," he instructed, "So if this was a real battle between me and an.. oh, I don't know, a.. HallowClan cat, I would get down and roll over so I would crush them.  Then I would most likely be released and/or would have an advantage."

---

"Yes.  It could be one of them.  I mean, it's not just warriors that get picked for these things.  Maybe deep inside... they are warriors.  But on the outside they are merely apprentices," Dawnfrost spoke.  She looked up at Thornfire and continued.  "So maybe we should approach them?  Of course, we can't be completely to the point, though..  We sort of have to ease into it.."

Thornfire nodded, deciding to let Dawnfrost do the talking. He was never particularly fond of kits, let alone apprentices. Thornfire was afraid of him coming out too forceful and scaring the apprentices. With a shrug, Thornfire started towards the camp exit. "Well, I suppose so, but there's no sense in waiting for them. They'll probably come back at sunhigh. Care to hunt? I'm sure Thunderhowl would be happy to see us bring back prey."

---

Icepaw scrambled off Hailfoot once he mentioned her being crushed. "Well, how would I do that?" She gave Hailfoot a quick look. "And you're so much bigger than me! We can't practice that, unless you allow me to cling on to your back more! And promise to not put your entire weight on me." Her eyes sparkled with amusement. 

Hailfoot chuckled lightly.  "Icepaw, hopefully you'll just remember my words and do it when it's needed in battle.  I'm not going to risk crushing you.  Or we can go get Hawkpaw one day and you two can practice," he spoke.  Getting up, he continued to another lesson that could be practiced.  "But there are far more ways.  If I pinned you down, you could scratch my belly.  If I see you coming to pounce on me, I could get ready to evade.  If you swipe at my face, I could duck.  So many possibilities.  First, we'll practice the first move I said - that if you are pinned, scratch the opponent's belly.  It's quite common."  Hailfoot got into a position to be ready to pin down Icepaw.

---

Dawnfrost skittered after Thornfire.  "Yes, we can hunt and bring back plenty prey by sunhigh," she mewed.  She enteed the tunnel and ventured into a bit of the forest, then stopped, waiting for the other warrior.

[[ Herp. I'm gonna bring in a bit'o PP and say Hawkpaw acted weird on the patrol, if that's okay :c ]]

"Hawkpaw, you alright?" Sandstream looked at her apprentice who was next to her. She had hunted down a mouse, and her apprentice hadn't said anything. He wasn't usually like  that... Sandstream just hoped that her apprentice didn't catch a contagious disease such as whitecough.

---

Icepaw nodded, attempting to square her shoulders and get ready for Hailfoot's oncoming attack.

---

Thornfire caught up to Dawnfrost, looking over his shoulder to see if their deputy was looking. Luckily, Thunderhowl was showing a few kits how to bring moss to the elders, doing so in a kind and patient voice. Thornfire couldn't help but smile [YES CATS CAN SMILE IN THIS RP >I] Their deputy certainly deserved his position, hopefully Thornfire could live up to Thunderhowl's set standards in a deputy. 

(Oh, he would have done that anyway. xD So that's appropriate PP'ing.

AND CATS CAN ALWAYS SMILE >I )

"Huh?  Oh, um, yeah," Hawkpaw said, stumbling over his words.  "I'm fine.  Why do you ask?  It's not like I've gone psycho or anything!"  His last sentence sort of ended in a hiss.  Quite the edgy one, now are you?

---

Songfern scraped her paws on their border to renew the scent [yes female cats have scent glands in their paws].  But something alarming shifted her attention.  Straying off to another part of their border a few tail-lengths away, she scented something that shouldn't be there.  "ShrubClan!" she hissed.  Their scent had crossed the border into SkyClan's territory.  "Hawkpaw!  Sandstream!  Can you come over here for a second?  We've got trespassers."

---

Dawnfrost looked over to Thornfire and then saw what he was looking at.  She put on a small smile then parted her jaws to scent the air.  A very stale scent of mouse tickled her senses.  Drat.  Padding around to other spots, she finally found a smell that told her a vole had recently been across this part of the forest.  Following the trail, she finally saw something scramble about in some bushes.  The vole.

---

Hailfoot pounced and controlled his attack so he landed lightly on Icepaw, pinning her down in the process.  He looked in her eyes with something that said, "Go on, do the move."

(By the way.. the other clans are HallowClan, StreamClan, and ShrubClan.  Such fail names >.> )

[[ Your wolfies are accepted, by the way. So long as Sierra doesn't act like a Sue when we actually RP, then I'm fine with it ^_^ ]]

Sandstream was rather taken aback by Hawkpaw's harshness. "I-I'm, sorry?" She mewed, too confused to be mad. Her attention was diverted, however, when she smelled ShrubClan's scent just like Songfern. "Why would they dare trespass?" Sandstream asked, eyes narrowing.

---

Thornfire, not wanting to mess up Dawnfrost's hunt, quietly sat down and observed the she-cat's hunting technique, ears pricked and alert in case the vole decided to move again.

---

Icepaw started kicking her front and back legs, claws sheathed, of course. Using her front legs, she pushed against Hailfoot, feeling her body slowly begin to move out from under the tom's body.

[[ I decided to try writing stories again. Can Iceh read my two ickle posts in the Writing forums? :c -hasnolove- ]] 

Taken aback, Hailfoot backed off of Icepaw, his stomach poked and battered.  Or at least his belly would have been battered.  "Very, very good, Icepaw," he started.  "You got it in the first try.  But tell me how you, personally, would evade that attack?" [omigosh I'm not good at training sessions.]

---

Hawkpaw flattened his ears in anger, both for Sandstream and ShrubClan.  "Whenever I see those ShrubClan cats I'm going to freaking rip their ears off!" he hissed.

---

"I have no idea.  Maybe we should follow the trail?" Songfern suggested.  It went farther into the territory, but not as so far they would notice when they went out for regular hunting and such.  Then, a few drops of blood and brown fur was found at the end.  After that evidence, the trail reverted back to the border and over to ShrubClan's own territory.  Sniffing the remains, Songfern could tell what it was: rabbit.  "Look at this!  They're stealing our prey!" Her fur and tail fluffed up in anger.

---

Dawnfrost dropped to a crouch and stood motionless, feeling the slight breeze.  It blew away from her diagonally.  In this case, the vole could possibly scent her.  Creeping around it to the other side, it shifted and scampered off farther into the grass.  Mouse-dung!  Taking a large portion of grass with her mouth, she wiggled and twisted them so they eventually slid out of their position and tore off from the ground.  Setting it down beside her, she could now see the vole moving a bit back, possibly curious as to what happened.  Yes, this was working!  Taking ever-quiet steps, Dawnfrost was only a tail-length and a half from the vole.  It had just  begun to skitter away once more, but Dawnfrost knew if it did she'd have no more chances.  So she pounced and crushed the vole partially on accident by landing on it with her paws.  With a squeak, the breath was pushed out of it and so was its life.  To make sure, she dealt a swift bite to the neck.  Picking up the vole, it was sort of medium-size.  A fair catch.

(Aw, Tld.  They are probably not as ickle as you think they are.  I will go read it give you some luff. c:

And thank you for acceptin' mah wolfehs.)

Sandstream cuffed Hawkpaw's head, though she made sure the blow was softened. "Hush, Hawkpaw!" She hissed. "Ripping their ears off may be a suitable punishment, but we must always avoid border skirmishes at all costs. Thornfire is our best fighter [in her opinion], and he's already acting odd." She sighed, wishing that Songfern hadn't scented the rabbit. "Perhaps a ShrubClan apprentice got careless and chased it here..." Sandstream suggested.

---

"Well, I would definitely dodge to the left or right, or maybe even under you!" Icepaw purred, tail raised in delight at Hailfoot's praise. At least her mentor wasn't so grumpy after all!

---

"Nice catch." Thornfire said, waiting for her to bury it so they could continue their hunt. "We better move on, the vole's incessant squeaking may have driven potential prey off."

[[ Yay, thank you, Icey :D ]] 

Hawkpaw lowly hissed at Sandstream and sat down in a sort of slouched way, his ears flat against his head.

---

Songfern calmed down and sighed.  "Maybe we should talk with the leader of ShrubClan..?  You know, Falconstar..  Or shall we have Spottedstar announce it at the Gathering and get them to explain?" she said, giving out options.

---

"Those are all very good strategies, Icepaw."  Hailfoot said. [ -omgfail- :c I'm going to lay off the training for now..)

---

Dawnfrost nodded in reply and scraped up a small hole in which she dropped the vole in.  Patting the dirt back on top of it, she was ready to continue.

(Woah.  Looking over this, I realize it's truly fail-worthy. D: )

Sandstream sighed. She didn't mean to harass Hawkpaw, but her apprentice was much more aggressive than usual today, much like Thornfire. But sometimes it was hard to tell, as her brother was always a prickly tom. 

"Spottedstar should mention this the next gathering." She said with a shrug. "We can't cross over now, we may as well be asking ShrubClan to maul us, accusing them of stealing prey our prey while we're in their own territory!" 

---

Icepaw wriggled with delight. "So, are we done, Hailfoot? I'm tired!" She feigned exhaustion, flopping dramatically onto the ground.

[[ I have no idea what to do with Thunderhowl and Thornfire xD Maybe we should start bringing the cats back so we could continue the prophecy owo ]] 

(Yes.  I was getting bored of all of this nonsensical Clan life. owo

`=~*-Time Skip-*~=`)

Dawnfrost had arrived back at camp and was waiting for the apprentices to come back so she and Thornfire could ask them.  Looking over at the other tom, the whole thing seemed surreal.  Their dreams, a prophecy, a journey...

---

Hailfoot had just returned along with Icepaw.  He was pretty far ahead of the small she-cat, but she'd find her way.  Flicking his ear in sudden tiredness, he left to go lounge around in camp.  Laying down, he stretched out and sunned himself with due content.

---

Songfern had Hawkpaw trailing behind her as she padded up the dirt uprise to Spottedstar's den.  She poked her head in and asked, "Spottedstar, may I come in to speak with you?"  The black-spotted she-cat raised her head and nodded in reply.  Songfern went in to tell her of the patrol. [yus she is alone]

---

Hawkpaw grumbled and went into the apprentice's den to get some shade and hopefully a small, tiny nap.  But if anything else came along to irritate him, they'd get their fur shaved clean off with a single pawful of claws!

Thornfire dropped his share of the hunt into the fresh-kill pile, watching as Icepaw and Hawkpaw returned to the camp. Well, Sandstream will be able to tell us if Hawkpaw's been acting weird... He thought, filcking an ear. Sure enough, once they returned, Sandstream made a beeline for him.

"Thornfire, Hawkpaw's been acting strange lately." Sandstream said in a worried mew. "He hissed at me during the patrol! He's never this... Aggravated." She sighed, sitting down and then nodding a greeting towards Dawnfrost.

---

Icepaw mewed a goodbye to Hailfoot, sighing when she realized he was just going back to sleep some more. "Hey, Hawkpaw." Icepaw poked her head into the apprentice's den, though she didn't feel like going in to nap just yet.

"WHY DON'T YOU JUST LE-" Hawkpaw started to hiss, but stopped when he realized it was Icepaw.  "Oh.  It's you."  He couldn't flame out on her now because who would want to go on a journey with a cat you were confilicting with?  "Did you find out if it was Hailfoot?  'Cause I don't think it's Songfern or Sandstream.  The ones with the prophecy, I mean."

---

Dawnfrost's ears perked up as she listened in to Sandstream and Thornfire's conversation.  So maybe Hawkpaw was chosen...?  Then again, he was always hissing and being irritable.  Sandstream should expect that by now.  But maybe he was more angry than usualy today because of a prophecy..  Still keeping her ears tuned in to the brother and sister's words, Dawnfrost became swamped in other thoughts.

Thornfire gave Dawnfrost a suspicious look. Hawkpaw was a prophecy cat! Sandstream never worried about Hawkpaw, and always told Thornfire how the little apprentice kind of reminded her of her own brother. "Why do you think he's so angry?" Thornfire asked with a nonchalant voice. Sandstream shrugged.

"I think he just slept late last night. But if he keeps this up, he'll never be a warrior!" She sighed again.

---

Icepaw was rather taken aback by Hawkpaw. "Well, I was going to tell you it wasn't Hailfoot, but I can tell you need some alone time." She rolled her eyes and walked off, not wanting to deal with another grumpy cat. 

Hawkpaw frowned and bounded out after Icepaw, skidding in front of her.  "No, no, it's... it's just the patrol shaking me up," he said, trying to brush it off.  "But, um.. should we investigate the other warriors now?" he asked, trying to make amends.

---

Dawnfrost knew Hawkpaw all too well.  He was always just irritable.  Sandstream shouldn't worry much, but things could be because he was a prophecy cat!  Assuming that Thornfire thought Hawkpaw was for sure, she automatically thought so too.  This was great!  But would the other be Icepaw...?