you can't tame this! [nettle&&fox]

[lyric ♫]

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[atrb=background,http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Byonten/FoxheartBG-1.png] It was just after daybreak and the ginger tom stalked through the near-green grass, which was pretty much in between that golden color from late leaf-bare and the bright green color that came with new-leaf. It wouldn't be long now, before it was perfectly green to represent the season of life and happiness. He stopped, rubbing his scent off onto a nearby tree before continuing onwards. His destination was a place that twolegs often came to in the past, a man-made structure that honestly hasn't been visited in years, and so the clan naturally assumed it was abandoned. By all things twoleg, anyway. HillClan still found it useful due to the amount of rodents that take refuge there, whether in the crevices of every pile of wood, or inside the structure itself. So they claimed it as their own long after the twolegs had left, and had used it as a main hunting ground. But that was not the reason for Foxheart's visit today. Of course, catching fresh-kill for the clan would be a glorious side effect of today's duties, but the real reason for his visit was to teach his newly-appointed apprentice, Nettlepaw, some hunting techniques. He'd showed her the territory the morning before and since he himself had excelled in hunting, he thought that naturally he'd start her off with that. He was cautious as he approached the woodplace, for it was rather out in the open and he would've preferred getting killed by a dog over being snatched up by a twoleg. His ears swiveled around to each side of his body, thankfully only hearing the natural sounds of the forest. Good, the woodplace was still abandoned. Foxheart sat with his tail wrapped around his paws, next to a pile of wood logs and continued to be on alert. Both his eyes and ears were keeping watch for signs of danger; even his paws, kneading the ground, could feel when danger was approaching. He'd told Nettlepaw to meet him here after her morning apprentice duties, like grooming the elders and bringing them their morning fresh-kill, so all he had to do now was wait for her to arrive. words: 361. muse: fair.

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[atrb=background,http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu267/Winterfish_Summerswan/nettlebuttmid.png] This was new, all new. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one who had little to no clue what they were doing and stuck to her brothers like a burr until she got the hang of this whole elder-care thing. She'd liked it better when they'd just told her stories, but bringing them food wasn't so bad. She barely had the time or patience to clean herself half the time, and was trying to get the job done as quickly as possible without failing at it. She didn't want to fail, definitely not. She had to do the best possible, but she had to do it fast. And she was, until someone started going on about their apprentices days, and hos she needed to learn more patience, and a little restraint, and she had to listen to them, so it took her longer than necessary to finish, and it took a reminder from that same elder to spark her memory. Right..right! She had to go meet Foxheart! Oh, she was going to learn how to actually hunt today! Not just blades of grass, bugs, or the occasional leaf. No, not any of that, though she'd probably have better chances getting her claws into a butterfly, but real prey! The small she-cat barreled out of camp at full speed, grasses and scents flying past her as she bolted after her mentor, trying to remember the way there, trying to remember what scents to look out for..or smell for..or whatever, trying to not run into things because she was going so fast. There was so much to do! Scrambling over obstacles barely slowed her down, and Nettlepaw didn't notice the large cat until she'd sprinted right past him, pelt ruffled and eyes wild. "I made it!" She chirped, spinning around to face him and nearly tripping over her own paws in the process. "Took too long, got distracted, but I ran here as fast as I could, promise! Let's do this!" She stood there, impatient, watching him and waiting for him to move, and it felt like he wasn't moving fast enough. Then again, she still felt like she was speeding along, like her legs hadn't gotten used to the feeling of standing still yet. Oh, c'mooon, Foxheart, she thought. Hurry up! Word Count 382 Music The Vinyl Countdown-Relient K, Good Life-OneRepublic, Guts-All Time Low, Memories-PATD Muse Good~ Other Ffffwah. ------- Nettlepaw's Speaking Here Nettlepaw's Thinking Here You're Speaking Here

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[lyric ♫]

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[atrb=background,http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Byonten/FoxheartBG-1.png] Purr. Aside from the faint ambiance of the forest, that was all you could hear coming from Foxheart's chest. The smile on his face only reflected the contentment he was feeling, no longer worried about twolegs being there and, though he was nervous for this hunting lesson, it didn't cripple his ability to do so. But wait; his left ear swiveled to his left as a sound, not belonging to the forest, entered his head. It was the rustling of grass and the pounding of pawsteps, and moving quite fast by the sound of it. His eyes rounded and his smile remained, however, knowing that it was obviously an excited young Nettlepaw coming to meet with him. He wasn't worried about it, but hopefully she didn't scare any potential prey away! He chuckled in his mind as, almost out of the blue, though he was expecting it, she skidded passed him before turning to greet him hurriedly. He jumped to his paws and begun to whip his tail around rapidly as if he were fighting the urge to just tackle her playfully. "I don't know if we can start now. You might'a just gone and screamed for the prey to take cover!" he chirped jokingly, as he often did. He could still smell some prey lurking about, though. After a few moments to let the she-cat register what he'd just said, he moved closer and began to encircle her. She'd turn into a beautiful warrior some day, he knew. Luckily he wasn't the type to flirt with under-aged cats. "Nah, okay," he took back the joke he made, letting her know that there was still some prey nearby. "Today we're going to learn some basic hunting crouches. Our subject?" he meowed, parting his maw to take in the scents, searching for something that they could hunt. "Mouse." Foxheart pointed with his tail towards one of the wood piles. There was a mouse taking shelter in one of the crevices. "This will be slightly harder than catching a mouse out in the open. You'll have to be quick, but don't worry. I'll demonstrate how to catch a mouse from the woodplace first," he instructed. He might've been more successful if he'd teach her how to catch a mouse out in the open first, but not many mice would be out after the ruckus she made. "First, though, we need to make sure you know your mouse crouch," he started again. He then lowered himself, his belly barely off the ground, but enough to where his fur didn't drag and make noise. "You need to make sure that all of your weight is shifted off of your paws. A mouse has sensitive feeling, so if your paws carry any of your weight, they will feel you coming before you even get within a fox-length's reach." He kneaded his paws in the dirt and wriggled his haunches, sending almost all of his weight into his shoulders and hips. Once he'd successfully done the mouse crouch, he sat back up and purred, "You try it now." words: 512. muse: good.

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[atrb=background,http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu267/Winterfish_Summerswan/nettlebuttmid.png] She stood there, twitchy and impatient, as if he couldn't move fast enogh even if he was sprinting for his life. They had to things now and they had to them fast. She had brothers to talk to, and they'd want to hear about everything she'd done with her mentor, and who was she to go back with nothing to tell them? Granted, they'd probably come back with basically the same information, but who kew? Each metors was different, and maybe they'd gotten really, really boring ones. She knew she hadn't..but still. Finally he jumped up and she nodded. He was catching on. They were going to get along so well. He hadn't scolded her for anything yet, hadn't gotten mad at her for being impatient, or loud, or decidedly reckless. He actually seemed to like it. "I don't know if we can start now. You might'a just gone and screamed for the prey to take cover!" She finally paused in her movemtn and stared at him, then the rest of their surroundings, with rounded eyes. Oh. "Sorry." She blinked a few times, now speaking at a low, soft whisper, wtahcing him as he circled her, unsure of whether to just stand there or move out of the circle he was creating around her. She lifted her paws into the air, ready to move out of the way, just watching. What in the world was he doing? Hunting crouches? Okay..she could do that. Probably..maybe...well, she wasn't entirely sure but she was going to give it a try either way. Catching a mouse couldn't really be that hard, could it? Well, she had no clue, so she just stood there, one paw lifted off the ground, ears swiveling towards Foxheart as he spoke, the very tip of her tail twitching. Always in movement. She never stopped, always going and going and going. Who knew where it would lead her besides a whole heap of trouble? Didn't hunting crouches require being absolutely still? Okay, maybe this was going to be harder than she'd originally thought. "This will be slightly harder than catching a mouse out in the open. You'll have to be quick, but... Great, just what she needed. An added level of difficulty to something she knew was already going to be incredibly difficult for her. Just great. But she'd get it, she had to. Even if she collided with a couple logs and never got her claws around a mouse, she could at least say she'd tried. That would have to work for now...unless she had some hidden skill she'd never known about before. Maybe she'd surprise herself. "But..wait." She started, finally deciding to just sit there, a bit lost. "How am I supposed to be on my paws..but not on my paws? I get what you're trying to say, but I don't see how..." She trailed off, looking down at white-mitted paws in confusion, as if they held the answers. She had to do it; she could do it...she slowly stood back up, hoping and praying to every cat ever in Starclan that her tail, or her ears, or aything on her entire body, would stay still just long enough for her to do this, because if they didn't...well, every mouse in every clan would know she was coming. She stared intently at the way he had positioned himself, and lowered herself to the ground as best as possible, and tried to shift her weight back away from her paws. Not that there was much to shift, she was quite tiny...but it just ended up making her feel unbalanced, and she stood there, half-crouched and feeling quite ridiculous, shooting glances at Foxheart. This couldn't be right, and she had to get it right. As soon as possible...she was going to be the best. Word Count 645 Music Panic at The Disco Pandora Station MuseGoood~ Just kept on getting distracted by other things. XD Other This took me sooo long, I'm sorry! ------- Nettlepaw's Speaking Here Nettlepaw's Thinking Here You're Speaking Here

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[lyric ♫]

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[atrb=background,http://i958.photobucket.com/albums/ae64/Byonten/FoxheartBG-1.png] Believe it or not, Nettlepaw was actually his very first apprentice ever and he had no idea how to explain anything whatsoever. He watched her, trying desperately to get the crouch perfect and then he found himself stifling his own amusement even though it was dreadfully apparent in his eyes. 'How am I supposed to be on my paws..but not on my paws?' He flicked his left ear as he tried to think of a good way to explain it. How had his own mentor explained such a thing? Gah. It wasn't even that many moons ago, and he couldn't remember? Well, he guessed he'd just have to wing it, or explain it the best he could. No one could fault him since she was his first apprentice... right? But of course, as with any new mentor, deep down he wanted to receive the praise of his clan-mates for teaching her well. "Um..." he started with a purr, waiting for her to finish trying. His heart was beating pretty fast now out of excitement, he thought it might explode for a moment. He would've hated to have a heart attack during a training session, but his smile never left his maw. "Basically, what you do is," he meowed as he crouched into position. "When you're using your back legs, shift your weight into your front legs. And when you're using your front legs, shift your weight to the back." Slowly, Foxheart began to stalk forward with no real target. "So since we use one leg from both the front and back per step we take, you would need to shift your weight into the appropriate dormant leg as you move, like so," he purred, doing exactly as he instructed while he was saying it. "Then, once you are at most a fox-lengths away undetected by your target, stop and shift your weight only into your back legs. You'll need all of it to make the final leap," he stopped and shifted his weight into his back legs. His practice target? A stray dandelion. He looked intently at it for a moment, and then pounced using every ounce of strength he'd stored in his hind legs, sending dandelion seeds blowing into the air. "Then once you've got it in your paws, you bite! Biiiite the neck!" he exclaimed, tearing into the stem of the dandelion rather viciously before sitting up and looking rather ridiculous with that green stem hanging from his mouth. He looked at Nettlepaw fairly goofy-like. "And you've done it!" words: 423. muse: good.

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[atrb=background,http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu267/Winterfish_Summerswan/nettlebuttmid.png] She rose back up, intently watching her mentor's every movement in the way that only a new apprentice can, hungry and a little bit confused, but eager to get it right. She was going to be one of the best, if not the very best. She had to show off, maybe get her father's attention. Why her mother had ever taken him on as a mate....oh, she'd just let it go, but one day everyone would be looking at her and rattling on about how simply awesome she was. She and her brothers were something else, but she had the most spunk, the most life. That's what everyone had said when they'd been little kits. There was quite a lot of energy, and varying amounts of confidence in different fields, in that one little body, and it could barely be contained. Even when she slept, there was some sort of enthusiasm for activity there, as she never stopped moving. Ears perked forward, she nodded and took in his every word. Oh, well, that made sense now, and she smiled again. "When you're using your back legs, shift your weight into your front legs. And when you're using your front legs, shift your weight to the back." She straightened up, tail held high in the air and eyes bright, coming to a realization of her own. Oh! I can do that, Foxheart! Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Standing there, she was about ready to drop down and give it another shot when he crouched and stalked forward. She sidestepped out of his way, intrigued as to what the elder cat was doing. Um?Oh..wait...you're hunting... Dandelions? Okay, so maybe it was a little strange, and obviously an unorthodox example, but they were an odd pair themselves and maybe she required a specialized way of training. Dandelions it is, then. Why not? Smiling, she nodded and watched. Get down, shift, leap. Right, right..it was really just that easy. He leapt, and her eyes followed the arc of his body as it powered down on their "unsuspecting prey". She laughed as he vicously tore into the plant stem, batting at a stray plant on her own, waiting for him to finish up. Poor thing didn't stand a chance. She purred, looking over at him, still going at it. I think you've killed it, Foxheart. I get your point. To illustrate this, she dropped down, stopping her fall before her belly could hit the ground and knock the air out of her lungs, her eyes fixating on a stray twig. It was her turn. Drop? Check. Move forward, go. Slowly, she took a step or two forward, pausing occasionally to shift her weight. Eventually, probably by the end of this session, she'd be doing it almost automatically. She'd be a natural, she knew. She had to be. She wasn't built for bulk, and would probably be better at evasive and quick-moving battle moves than she would those that relied on sheer muslce, was obviously going to be a better hunty. Finally, she was close enough, at least by her judgement, and she shifted back, propelling herself forward in the process, diving towards the twig...flying past it..hitting the ground, chest-first, lying there and gasping for breath, half-shocked and half amused. I..may have..overshot..that. She slowly rose to her paws, shaking herself off. Oh well. Word Count 572 Music Panic at The Disco Pandora Station MuseGoood~ Might be a little short. Done during school with shortened periods. Other This took me sooo long, I'm sorry! ------- Nettlepaw's Speaking Here Nettlepaw's Thinking Here You're Speaking Here

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