Dingopaw was swishing his tail happily but stopped when Swiftbite sat next to him. He tilted his head slightly to the right and flicked his ear. "Hey, Swiftbite," he said. "Why do you look so.. I don't know. Troubled?" But it wasn't so unusual to see a cat like this. He remembered that one time he was so frustrated because he had missed a lrge blackbird while trying to hunt it down that he refused to eat for nearly the whole day. And if he had choice he probably would have stayed in the apprentices' den and grumble to himself all day as well.
~~~
A small smile appeared on Howlstar's face then he raised his tail for the clan to stop the chanting. "Runningpaw, Ashpaw," he said to the two new apprentices. "All apprentices have a mentor that will teach them how to hunt, fight, and learn the warrior code, so I shall *censored*ign cats to be your mentors. Wolfstorm," he looked at the black tomcat that was sitting under a tree, "you will be Runningpaw's mentor. I trust you to teach her our clan's ways. And... Hawkeye, would you be the mentor of Ashpaw? Pa$$ on your loyalty and skills to her."
~~~
Wolfstorm's ears pricked up at the mention of his name. This would be his first apprentice, and a part of him was suddenly nervous. "I shall do my best, Howlstar." He said to the leader and started padding up to his new apprentice.
~~~
From where Spottedfur sat, she was pretty close to Runningpaw and Ashpaw. She stood up and padded closer to the new apprentices and told them in a low voice, "New apprentices are supose to touch their noses with their mentor's. Just thought I'd let you know." She then padded back and sat down again only a little closer this time.
~~~
Ashpaw had stayed quiet since the time he had said "I do". He glanced at a female cat with orange, black, and white fur and gave a small nod after she had finished speaking. He was pretty amazed at how things worked around here. He had never thought that cats did this. Especially the wild ones. So this was what their teacher had said about cats in groups the day before. At least, he thought it was the day before.

((I don't really have a cat to be Dingopaw's mentor. Could Swiftbite like to be his mentor?))

[Swiftbite can be mentor, we'll see how that goes.. XD I can't write much, my hand is swollen..]

Runningpaw did what the cat said, and touched noses with Wolfstorm, it felt weird, but she already felt a bonding take place. 

Hawkeye sighed, mostly because he was nervous about Ashpaw. The last cat he had mentored had been Leafgusts mate, who was dead now. But he tried to shake it off, it hadn't been his fault or anything. He went to Ashpaw and touched noses, then sat beside him. 

Swiftbite glanced at Dingopaw. He had been harsh against him as mentor, but it was his way of training cats, they have to learn to work on their own.. "..things that has been done can't be undone.." He then watched the gr*censored* wave back and forth. He had tried to kill a cat, that would forever haunt him.

Dingopaw glanced at the ground for a heartbeat then looked at the two new apprentices. If his mentor was being bothered by the fact that he had lunged at the StarClan cat then.. Dingopaw flicked one ear. He didn't really think much about that. At least the StarClan cat was alive.
~~~
Howlstar watched the apprentices and mentors touch noses then waved his tail in a half circle shape, telling the clan that they could go already. He turned around and padded over to the ridge, where he climbed up and sat down a few mousetails from the edge. He sighed and wondered how the two new apprentices would handle the clan life.
~~~
Ashpaw reached out to touch noses with his mentor, Hawkeye, and watched as the deput sat down beside him. It felt strange touching noses like that with a cat, but those thoughts quickly went away when Howlstar waved his tail as if to tell the cats that they could go. "So, what do we do now?" He asked hesitantly.
~~~
Wolfstorm reached out to touch Runningpaw's nose then he pulled himself back. Flicking his right in toward Ashpaw when the apprentice spoke, Wolfstorm said to Runningpaw, "I'll show you around our territory first." That was what his mentor had done when he had just been made an apprentice. He flicked his tail sadly at the thought of his mentor, who was no longer with them and instead with StarClan.

Runningpaw followed Wolfstorm, she wondered how the rest of the place would look like, what she had already seen was beautiful enough to make her completely forget her old home.

Hawkeyes ears picked up Wolfstorms sentence, and he took Ashpaw to Wolfstorm and Runningpaw. "Could we join you two? I think Ashpaw has to learn the territory too."

Swiftbite walked over to the four cats, and stopped them. "We have to go hunting, all the fresh kill was spent on Ashpaw and Runningpaw when they still were unconcious." Hawkeye felt his heart drop. "Wha.. But, but they have to know their surroundings!" "And they have to know HOW to hunt." Hawkeye couldn't find any arguments to come with. 

((*pokes Feyth*))

Wolfstorm stopped just before reaching the entrance of camp. "Of course, Hawk-" He stopped himself from finishing his sentence when Swiftbite spoke. He flicked his tail tip in annoyance and listened to what the deputy and warrior had to say. He glanced up at the sky then said, "Maybe we could hunt for a while. Teach the apprentices how to hunt and then before it gets too dark show them as much of the territory as we can." He felt uncomfortable suggesting something like this to two older warriors.
~~~
Dingopaw followed his mentor and stopped behind the black tom with the white marking on his forehead. He listened to the older warriors and thought, We could always get a hunting patrol to get some fresh-kill. As best as he could, though, he tried not to reveal what he was thinking by the ex
pression on his face.
~~~
Ashpaw felt rather uneasy around Swiftbite. After seeing that cat lunge at another cat he certainly did not want to see him get mad or anything like that. He stayed silent as he listened to the older cats decide on what they were going to do first. But I don't really like the idea of killing some mice or other small animal with my hand- paws. Claws. He shook his head slightly, wondering what his father was doing now.

[Ohai, keep observing, I don't mind. ^^]

"Sounds like a good idea.." Hawkeye said. "Let's go." They walked to a dense forest, that seemed like a perfect hunting spot. Swiftbite kept himself far back, keeping quiet. When they stopped, Hawkeye turned himself to the cats, and started talking to the apprentices. "Here we are, I'm going to explain a little about hunting, but first, could you tell us how much you know about hunting?" Runningpaw felt a little unsure and shy. "Well, we humans don't kill.. Or at least not to get food. Some work with killing, but it's a choice one does." Hawkeye tilted his head. "Then how do you get food? Do the ones who kill give it to you?" "Well, yeah. There are places where one can get food, and in exchange gives them a thing called money." "Then it's like a fresh kill pile. But I don't understand what money would be so good for.. Nevermind, you don't need to answer that." Hawkeye sighed, twolegs felt so complicated. 

Wolfstorm followed the deputy from behind, sometimes glancing at Ashpaw who was padding beside him. Seeing the apprentices reminded him of the time when he was an apprentice. There were lots of happy moments. The first time he climbed high up a tree, the times when he caught an impressive sized prey, but the incident with the dog was usually the first thing that came to his mind when thinking about the time when he was an apprentice.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Wolfstorm stopped a few moments after the deputy stopped. Good place to hunt, he thought and then listened to what Hawkeye and Runningpaw were talking about.
~~~
Ashpaw listened to Runningpaw and Hawkeye then shrugged slightly. "Elisa- I mean, Runningpaw said pretty much what I would have said." He meowed. "So, I supose I could say I don't know how to hunt." As a cat.. He added to himself.
~~~
Dingopaw was walking a few mousetails infront of his mentor, his ears pricked up as he listened for prey on the way. He swished his tail when they stopped at a dense forest, his paws itching to pad away into the gra$$ and trees to start hunting, but he stopped himself. He thought the twolegs were even more strange when Runningpaw mentioned something called money. He was curious to know, though, how money looked like. He guessed that it was something twolegs valued.

[Maybe.. sometime in the future. -W-]

Hawkeye pulled himself together. "OK, then I'll first have to teach you the basics. A very important thing is to use your senses, you have to listen, smell and see. You also have to be very quiet. If you see prey, try to sneak behind something, so it doesn't see you. And try to mask your scent, otherwise prey will smell you and run away." Hawkeye crouched up to a bush, and saw a rabbit. He waited, and waited, and when the rabbit was scratching itself, Hawkeye dashed out of the bushes. He grabbed the rabbit in the neck, and it stopped breathing after a while. He dropped the rabbit, and said: "You must be patient, quick, and strong. It's important for a succesful hunt. Be alert, aware of your surroundings." Runningpaw nodded, she understood, but still was nervous, she didn't really want to kill an animal, but at the same time she didn't want the cats to be dissapointed with her, or starve. Hawkeye faced Ashpaw. "Ashpaw, you can try to do some hunting first, remember to be patient, hunting is not always succesful." Rivertail looked at the two apprentices worried expressions. "Don't worry, just relax, and don't be afraid of failure." She said with a smile. 

Ashpaw nodded as Hawkeye spoke and watched as the deputy caught the rabbit. He shuffled his front paws nervously as he thought about catching then killing prey. He gave a nervous nod to Hawkeye and then looked around, trying to search for some prey. He padded a few feet away from the other cats and still kept on looking around, and then remembered Hawkeye saying to listen and smell for the prey. Lifting his nose upward, he inhaled and found himself able to smell his surroundings way better than when he was human. There was another scent that he wasn't sure of what it was, and when he looking in th direction it seemed to come from he noticed a small brown body shuffling around some gra$$.

Carefully and as quietly as he could Ashpaw crept toward what appeared to be a mouse and then leaped forward, stretching out his paws in hopes of trapping it. But instead the mouse darted around his paws and into some taller gra$$. "Darn," he muttered and lashed his tail in anger, though he never ment to.
~~~
Wolfstorm flicked his tail in amusement at Ashpaw and strained his ears to hear what the apprentice had said. It sounded like something humans would say, for he never heard a cat say it. "Okay, Runningpaw," he said to his apprentice. "You try now."

Runningpaw snapped out of her stiff position. For one second she felt like saying that she didn't want to, but she pushed those thoughts away and started walking slowly. She tried to look around her, but she couldn't see anything. "Use your ears and nose more." She heard a cat whisper. Maybe it was Rivertail. Runninpaw tried to listen, and thought she heard something get pulled out of the ground. She sneaked over to the sound, behind a tree, and saw a deer eating. The size of it made her realize that it would be impossoble to kill it. She continued listening, and smelled a little. An airy smell reached her, and she saw a bird picking in the ground. She waited, her heart pounding rapidly. This is it.. She lunged, and managed to grab the wing. The more the bird struggled, the more she felt adrenaline race through her body, she felt like the world froze, she forgot it, and this primitive energy fueled her. She dragged the bird down, and bit it's neck, squeezing as hard as she could. She could only see the birds eyes, surprisingly saying: "Thank you." Before it stopped moving.

Rivertail saw Runningpaw breath heavily, and her body shaking. It collapsed, and Rivertail dashed to her. "Are you all right?" Rivertail asked. "I'm fine.." She saw Runninpaws face, it didn't look painful, just tired. Runningpaw stood up again, smiling. Hawkeye went over to her. "I'm impressed, this was your first time, and you did it! You have potential, Runningpaw." Hawkeye quickly directed his attention to Ashpaw, and sat down and observed. "Are you going to try again? We still have time." He said with a smile. These two cats had quite the fighting spirit. 

Runningpaw took the bird and sat down. She was stunned by the feeling she had gotten, and by what the bird had said. She had felt her anger against her human life lunge at the bird, instead of her. She tried to relax, and looked at Ashpaw. "You can do it, I know it."

Wolfstorm gave a nod of approval at Runningpaw. "Well done, Runningpaw." He praised and padded over to his apprentice. He felt proud of her. She was able to catch a blackbird on her first try, and it had taken him a few days before he was able to catch his first bird when he was an apprentice.
~~~
Ashpaw nodded and then found himself flicking his ears around as he padded a few steps away. It felt strange to be able to do this thing with his ears, and get in different scents with his nose. Inhaling deeply, the scent of... he wasn't sure, but he felt it was something alive. Trying to pinpoint where it came from, he padded away and then froze when he spotted something light brown with large ears. A rabbit. He thought and then, when the rabbit turned away from his direction, began creeping up to it.

He was just about ready to leap forward when a cry of alarm from a bird sounded from the tree above him, and the rabbit hopped away in alarm. Frustrated, Ashpaw starting running and the rabbit began speeding up. With one big leap, the apprentice nearly landed on top of the rabbit and he was able to close his teeth around its leg before it got away. He felt sorry for the rabbit as it tried to struggle away from his teeth that was now biting its neck, but he tried not to think about that. If he was going live with this clan life, then he would have to get used to it. Straightening up and rather proud of himself, he took the rabbit to where the rest of the hunting patrol was at.

Rivertail lightened up, saying: "Good job, Ashpaw!" Swiftbite nodded in a stiff manner, and then Hawkeye walked over to Ashpaw. "I'm impressed, you did a good job, and this was your first time hunting too! I'm proud of both of you, but remember, don't be afraid to fail, just try again." Some cats catched some prey too, and then everybody went to the camp. Hawkeye remembered something. He turned to the apprentices once again. "I should tell you, we have a code, called the Warrior Code. This code must be obeyed at all times, there is no exceptions. I can tell you some of the rules for now. One is, remember to thank Starclan, a very important clan, whan you've catched prey. And apprentices always feed elders, leaders, and kits before eating themselves. And.. only, and I mean ONLY kill another cat if the cat proves very dangerous, no pointless killing!" Swiftbite flicked his ear in frustration. "These were some of the rules, but now, we have to feed the other cats." Runningpaw tilted her head in slight confusion, she had never known that cats could have rules, but she felt that these were serious rules that every cat should have in mind, and they were good rules, so she wasn't scared.

[Just tell me if I control the cats too much, sometimes I'm a little unsure of what to write.. ^^;]

((It's all right.))

Wolfstorm followed the hunting patrol back to camp, a squirrell and a mouse in his mouth. He kept looking at the other cats a few times to take note on what they had caught. Dingopaw had two mice in his mouth and he was carrying them by their tails, and Ashpaw was nearly dragging the rabbit he had caught. The site of the gray apprentice tripping over a vine on the ground made Wolfstorm twitch his whiskers in amusement.

Once they reached camp Wolfstorm put his kill in the fresh-kill pile and watched as Dingopaw and Ashpaw did the same. Wolfstorm stretched his hind leg and then glanced around camp, wondering what he could do now. If a patrol were to leave later, then he wouldn't mind going along.
~~~
Ashpaw looked at the prey in the fresh-kill pile and part of him didn't want to eat these animals. They haven't been washed or cooked, so what would it taste like. He looked up at his mentor and listened as Hawkeye told them that they were going to have to give the elders, leader, and kits food before they eat. Okay.. He thought and looked at Dingopaw, who pa$$ed him to get something from the fresh-kill pile.
~~~
Dingopaw took one of the mice he had killed and turned to his mentor. "I'll give this Sunfire." He said around the mouse and then trotted over to the elders' den. As he did he remembered the time when he was a kit and he visited the elders' den often to here stories. One of the elders that told him stories had died from greencough about a moon before he became an apprentice, and he remembered how he snuggled close to the cold body of the elder when he was a kit.

Dingopaw snapped out of that thought when he reached the elders' den. "Here, Sunfire." He said and set the mouse down on the ground inside the elders' den. He wondered if Sunfire felt lonely in there, since he was the only elder.

Sunfires face turned bright with thankfulness when Dingopaw gave him the fresh kill. "Thank you, Dingopaw. This one looks really tasty!" Then he looked at the distant sky, as if he was daydreaming. "I remember the time when you were just a kit, your skills have certainly improved since then." Sunfire took the mouse and stepped out of the den, he looked at all the cats, doing their own thing. After a while he went back to eating his mouse.

Runningpaw stood in the middle of everything, unsure of what to do. She had to feed somebody, but she was way too nervous to feed the leader, what if he didn't like her food! She then realized that she hadn't properly thanked Leafgust, so she went over to her house.. or whatever it was called. "Uhh, I'm one of the cats you took care of, and I just wanted to say.. thank you for rescuing me, I would have been dead otherwise." She gave Leafgust a bird, and Mistpaw a mouse. 

Leafgust was surprised. "Thank you very much. It's our duty too cure cats, it was no problem."  

((If Yukiko's okay with it, then I guess you could.))

Ashpaw watched Runningpaw go off to where Leafgust lived, and then wondered who he should give food to. Dingopaw had given food to the elder, and Runningpaw to the cat who healed them, so all that was left was the leader. Right?

Hoping he was doing something right, he took the rabbit he had caught and then wondered where Howlstar was. He spotted some brown fur in front of a den, and realized it was Howlstar. With a quiet sigh, he took the rabbit and trotted over to the leader carefully. He didn't want to trip or anything like that.

"Here, Howlstar." He said and left the rabbit at the leader's paws.
~~~
Howlstar was thinking about the time he was a warrior when he heard a voice. Ashpaw's voice. Turning to the apprentice, he gave a nod. "Thank-you, Ashpaw." He said gratefully and crouched down to eat. It had been a few days since he last had a rabbit, so he was glad he had some now. It also had Ashpaw's scent on it. It was the strongest scent on the rabbit, so Howlstar a$$umed that the apprentice had caught it.
~~~
Ashpaw smiled slightly then gave a nod to Howlstar before trotting back to where Hawkeye stood. "I gave food to Howlstar," he told the deputy. "What do I now?"
~~~
Dingopaw gave a nod of thanks to Sunfire and then padded away from the elders' den. What was he going to do now? Maybe I could ask Swiftbite to teach me something. He thought. Like a battle move of some sort. Still deciding if he should ask Swiftbite, he found himself already heading for his mentor. "Swiftbite," he said. "Could you teach me something because I've got nothing to do now. Like a battle move?"