llilacc

Thornfang looked directly ahead of her as she walked, waving her tail back and forth. Occassionally, she'd glance at Adderpaw to see what was catching his attention, but his noisy pawsteps alone told her where he was. Eventually, when they were practically dead center of the forest and in the middle of nowhere, Thorn abruptly stopped and looked towards Adderpaw.
"It's about time that Ashstar realized that I can be useful." She absently commented before narrowing her eyes, making eye contact with her apprentice. "In the next 6 months, I'm going to be teaching you how to really survive in this world."
Although Adder was, in all honestly, terrified of his mentor, he took up a brave face- just like he had back when he was a rogue- and replied without issue,
"I'm glad." He lifted his chin and looked her straight in the eye. He was incredibly afraid, obviously- in fact, Adder was quite possibly one of the less-brave apprentices of the group. But he knew how to hide weakness, hide fear (and, as a matter of fact, he certainly new how to hide that you were 'different from the others') and therefore, knew how to gaze a scary cat straight in the eye without letting his soft side show.
Thorn let out a small smirk, loosening herself up a bit. It was very hard to tell when she was being sincere or not, but considering that she practically vented to the apprentice earlier, it was relatively obvious that she wasn't too suspicious of the young tomcat. She glanced behind her, then to Adder's behind as well.
"Alright, first, do you notice how I'm moving my tail?" She looked back to her's again. "Moving it back and forth like that is a good way to get a bearing of your surroundings; it helps you feel the direction of the wind better and let you know if there's any disturbance around you."
Thorn took a breath. "It also makes you harder to read. Now, try lifting your tail up and moving it slowly. If you're having a hard time, I'm willing to guide you myself."
Adder tried to follow her instruction but seemed to be struggling. When he tried to move slow, he got all shaky and started trying to move faster than he should've been, then going back to slow and shaky again. Suffice to say, it wasn't going well. He was quite the bit mad at himself only after a short amount of time- this was a real simple task, and he couldn't do it; how on earth, how in Starclan's name, was that supposed to impress his mentor?
"Gee, I, uh, I'm a little stiff..." He muttered, voice soft and resigned.
Thornfang quickly jumped in to help. "You'll get used to it, but right now it's not something you're used to doing at all." She assured him, lifting her paw and placing it halfway up his tail gently. "Now, just focus on keeping your tail against my paw and I'll guide you until the movement feels comfortable."
And, with that, she started to move her paw back in forth in synchronization with her tail, closing her eyes in the process. "Once your body gets okay with the movement, it'll be easy as cake." She explained. It felt unusual, even for her, for her to be so supportive. But this apprentice meant everything to her right now.
"Uh, yeah. That's a lot easier." He managed a little smile, his confidence beginning to grow. "Thanks, Thornfang..."Adder said with sincerity. He had forgotten how much Thornfang seemed to... care. She was usually a little bit, uh, scary, and her morals weren't the best; but right now, at least, she seemed to really care about him. Maybe he just hadn't noticed until now, but either way, it made the apprentice feel a lot better and more confident- something he was sorely lacking in lately.
"That's really interesting, actually. I'm glad that you can teach me stuff like this- I bet most of the other apprentices will be like, woah, he's cool now."
Thornfang kept a subtle smile on her face and nodded curtly. "I'm sure they will be." And after a quick moment, she looked away and quickly decided what to teach next. She decided it would be best to establish some principles. "While your denmates might be learning the perfect hunting crouch or forepaw slash, those techniques are secondary when it comes to surviving. They're only two of the many tools you can use. So tell me," She looked around, widening her eyes. "Tell me everything that's happening around us. Everything you can smell, see, and feel. And remember, your tail can be useful, too."
He stood up a little straighter and smelled the air, moving his tail as she had told him. "There isn't much pray in the area- you can smell rain... uh, there's a little bit of a breeze, too. The sun is about to go down and that tree over there just kinda rustled and scared me. The grass is grown out in that spot but not in this one." He gestured as he spoke, "cause this one is covered by trees and hasn't received the water yet. And, also, Thornfang's over there." He tilted his head over to her with a smirk.
Thornfang's eyes widened at the comment directed to her, slowly covering it up with a slighted smile. She nodded. "Very good - I like how you gave reasoning for your observations, it shows that you know what you're talking about. However," Thornfang stopped suddenly, jumping onto the tree and continuing to leap upward until, behind a patch of leaves in the tree, a loud rustling of wings, followed by a small snap, could be heard. She jumped back down and set a bird by Adder's paws. "You forgot about auditory cues. They're very useful, too."
She looked down at the prey again. "You can use that to prove that you hunted today."
"Oh, I guess I did... Thanks for the tip, and the bird!" He gave her a genuine smile. He was glad that it was just him and Thornfang- she seemed to really care about him, and didn't prod about 'why he didn't like talking about himself' like the other apprentices did. Her mentorship was a stark contrast from the 'mentorship' that the rogues had given him- a scratch or two every time he messed up. "So.. is there anything else you need to teach me today?"
Thorn hummed, glancing upwards in thought for a moment. "Mm..yes." She nodded. "But I'll let you choose: would you be willing to walk to the border, or would you rather just go back to camp?" She blinked and waited for an answer - either way, she'd be teaching him something that Thornfang thought was incredibly important.
He smiled. "The border- We might find some more prey there," he scooped up 'his' bird into his jaws and perked his ears, before adding, muffled by the bird, "hat is... if you're alrigh wit it?" He hoped she had understood, cause it was obviously kinda-sorta hard to understand a cat speaking through a mouthful of prey.
She gave him a curt nod. "I'm completely fine with it." Without giving much more of an explanation, Thornfang turned around, sniffed to make sure she was going the right way, and started walking cautiously.
-
Adder stepped up towards the border with a smile. He was happy to be spending more time with his mentor- he finally felt useful, like he knew what he was doing. And it was, all in all, because of Thornfang. For that, he was grateful. But right now, he was more focused on what they could be learning about next.
Thornfang immediately knew that WindClan border smell; it was engraved into her mind. She nodded and allowed Adderfang to go in front of her. "Alright, do you smell that? It's usually very strong. That dictates that we've reached the border. Now.." Thornfang took a few steps forward, completely ignoring the barrier she established. "Step over it."
"U-uh... yeah, uh... ok." He was feeling quite the bit less confident now. Paws shaky, Adder took a step over the border. And another, until he was standing next to Thornfang and shaking intensely. "Alright, do we go back now? This seems... unsafe, in a way? Maybe? I mean, uh, I'm not afraid, but, uh... yeah. That."
As soon as Adder stepped over to join her, she continued to walk further without much hesitation. "Alright, here's a little psychology lesson, then: While cats might like to think they're incredibly cautious, they all desperately don't want anything to be wrong. You can use that to your advantage." She continued to walk forward, hovering towards the lake. "If a patrol catches us before we leave, then.. you're the new medicine cat apprentice. No one will care enough to double check that, so we'll be able to get by no problem."
He thought about it for a second. Morally incorrect? Yes. Tactical, useful, and possibly the product of a genius mind? YES. So, he just went a little bit farther forward into Windclan territory- the smell was absolutely putrid and of course he felt uncomfortable walking in the pawsteps of a Windclan cat, even if they were his allies. He kept pace with his mentor as she continued, still shaking, with a nervous-but-still-interested look.
"Alright, here's some tips for WindClan while we're at it." She continued, sniffing around for anything of value. A cool spring breeze blew against her, telling the two that they were getting out of the forest. "Rabbits and lapwings are good, and all, but what's much more valuable are herbs. Medicine cats - and non-medicine cats," she coughed for emphasis that there might be some.. other.. reasons a cat would want an herb "- will do a lot to get herbs not found in their clan. WindClan's most plentiful herbs that are not found much elsewhere are goldenrod and catnip. I'll let you know if I see any."
"Alright." Once again- probably, stealing? Yes. Useful? For sure. He also glanced around to see if he could recognize a herb, trying to take it off his mind that there might be some other reason then 'exhaustion' that the Windclan leader was so... loopy. He was beginning to get a little conflicted by this situation, but he should be able to do anything for his clan, right? That meant, uh, stealing. Stealing was catagorized under 'anything'.
Thornfang glanced around, humming. "We should be getting close.." She murmured, keeping her tail waved back and forth and checking to make sure Adder was trying his best to do the same. "Ah, there it is. Up there is a twolegplace, the only one in the territories. They have a pretty large garden, which is a jackpot for us. Do you want to race to see who gets there first?"
Just like that, Adder's pep returned. "Yeah!" He purred, bracing himself for a big bound, "but I get to call the start, ok?" Without waiting for a response, shimmied a little bit closer to the ground and said, "ready... settt...... GO!" He made a huge bound, taking large leaps and bounds towards the objective instead of moving his legs at too quick of a speed. He felt like he was going fast, at least.
Thornfang nodded in compliance, waiting until he said 'Go' to start. She made quite consistant leaps as she ran forward, but made sure to not go too fast to both let Adder win and to make sure she wasn't being super noisy. As Adder finished before her, she nodded proudly. "Congrats."
He caught his breath then laughed in celebration. "Good run!" He purred, flicking his tail and grinning. "But I won, so maybe not very good for you." He raised his chin but caught himself suppressing a chuckle and had to tuck his face into his chest.
"It was a wonderful run." She agreed, eyeing the twolegplace. "And don't worry - I am perfectly content with you winning."
She stepped aside, crunching the dried out grass under her paw, and leaned to the side to peer around the corner. "Jackpot," she whispered, flicking her tail for Adder to join him. "Catnip everywhere. Newleaf sure is a great season."
Adder scrunched up his nose. "Literally everywhere. It smells realll... reaaaal weird." He approached the herb patches a little bit tentatively. He followed close behind Thornfang but seemed to be scared of getting too close.
Thornfang laughed quietly, looking back to him. "Sure does. But cats go crazy for it - if we can get a good amount of this, we'll only have to give a small pawful to Robinsong and give the rest to other cats who want it." She opened her mouth and clamped a few leaves in her teeth, ripping them off smoothly. "Now, grab as much as you can without hindering yourself. And try not to taste too much of it."
"Uh, yeah, alright." He carefully picked off a couple of leaves, contorting his face so he was barely touching it, but after a little bit the smell made him uncomfortable and he found it harder to maintain his demeanor. "I don't know about this, Thornfang." He commented softly.
"If you're uncomfortable, it's alright to not get much. But you should try to push yourself, it'll benefit you a lot in the long run."
Eventually, Thorn had a stack of about 20-25 leaves in her mouth, which she attempted to wrap in her tail in order to hide it. So also did so to see if she could get a bit more. "Besides, this place has hundreds of hundreds of catnip leaves, taking a few dozen isn't hurting even WindClan."
Adder had only stacked up around 7 leaves before he started feeling groggy and figured he shouldn't grab anymore. "Uh, yeah. I'm sure taking them might even help them." He joked, giving a weary chuckle. "Maybe we should hurry back? Like, what if uhh... a watcha-ma-callit... oh, yeah, a twoleg... catches us?"
With a decent mouthful of catnip now with her as well, Thornfang nodded. "Right, of course - Let's get back to our own territory." She turned around and started sniffing for the scents they had left behind. "This catnip will cover up our scent, so it's important to walk in the same path we walked before," She explained. "Good thing we stayed by the lake the whole time."
"Yep, alright." Adder trailed after his mentor, moving slower than before- for whatever reason, he felt a little tired. "So... do you come here often?" Adder tried to make conversation to distract himself from the pungent scent of the catnip. "To, like, do whatever we're doing... help provide for the clan? Yeah, that's the word." He lost his train of thought quickly.
Thornfang, still trying to not bite down too hard on the catnip leaves in her mouth, looked unimpressed. "Providing for the clan is a very broad term. Best not to worry about it too much." She commented without too much explanation, feeling just a bit tired as well. "But yes, I come here a lot. I've only been caught once, too - either WindClan is just bad at their job or they really just don't care about me being here."
She continued to ramble a bit, enjoying having someone to explain all the stuff she's learned her whole life to. "RiverClan is the real money-maker though. They have a lot of herbs that can't grow anywhere else that a lot of ThunderClan cats would do anything to get their paws on."
"Hm. How do you get all the way over there? Follow the shoreline?" He pondered. "But it must be worth whatever bother, since they have a lot of herbs. Especially after the newleaf rain, we've been short." At this point he just talking. It wasn't like she needed to any of this, he just rambling for the sake of... well, not really for the sake of anything. "How much longer till we get to the border?" He pondered, allthough they hadn't been walking long.
Thornfang stammered a little bit, not sure if she could keep up with Adder's constant barage of questions. "Uh- yes, yes, and we're getting close, so don't worry." She tried to answer, looking around. The entire place felt barren - was something going on with WindClan? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't her problem. She could see the oak forest in the distance already.
"Ok," he picked up the pace a little, feeling more unsettled by the enviornment then he was by the catmint... as Thornfang had noticed, it was completely barren. There wasn't another cat in sight- the Windclan scent wasn't even that strong. He would've figured that some cat- any cat- would've found them by now, right? It was about time for evening patrols...
Thornfang glanced back as she heard Adder's hastening pawsteps and nodded assuringly. "Don't worry about WindClan. They can handle themselves. It makes our job easy, anyway."
She looked back and her attention was turned towards the oak tree they just passed. The forest was already starting - for how large WindClan's territory felt, it didn't take long to get from one end to the other. "What do you smell?" She suddenly asked Adderpaw.
He smiled, "Thunderclan! Finally. Windclan smells absolutely putrid- how do they survive without the trees, anyways? I'd actually, like, jump into the lake or something if I were a Windclan cat." Adder scoffed as he followed her deeper into the forest. He felt less unsettled, and had suddenly forgotten his worry about the Windclan cats. (Or, for that fact, that they were allied with Windclan. Maybe he should worry about them.)
"WindClan cats sure are a bit crazy," She agreed, stepping over the border with ease. She never really concerned herself with allies or enemies on a clan scale - she can make allies and enemies in and outside of what the leaders deemed. The way she saw it: if just two cats (two leaders) decided to not be allied or rivals, then everyone would just have to comply. So why would it have any significance?
As they crossed the border, Adder breathed a sigh of relief (but he didn't breathe back in too deeply, he didn't want to get all... groggy, or whatever, from the catnip they were carrying.) "I wonder if they think we're crazy? That'd be weird of them. Cause, like, we're not crazy... right?"
Thornfang, as she walked, thought for a moment. She pressed her paws into the grass with the next few steps. "I think that everyone thinks they aren't crazy, whether it's true or not," She started, though as per usual with Thornfang, that wouldn't be the end of her sentence. "ThunderClan might be crazy. But you and I certainly are not."