.New Mentor=New Apprentice.

[kittykow]

Longlily

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Longlily rolled over in her bedding--it stuck to her fur as she got to her feet. This particular she-cat was not in a very good mood.

Not caring about her denmates, she shook out her fur. The clumps of her bedding fell off, and not onto a denmate as she had half-hoped. Turning around, her used her long tail to push the bits and pieces back together. Finding the pile as satisfactory as she would get it after several moments of stalling, she groomed herself with quick and precise licks.

She took as long as she could, putting small and insignificant bits of fur back in place, and checking her entire multi-colored pelt over twice.

Longlily did not want to face this day. This day, her first day as being a mentor. Being a mentor to a she-cat who thought herself to be worthless.

The female RiverClan mentor let out a long sigh, and picked her way over the nests of her Clanmates. Very few were still curled up, fast asleep. Longlily thought that they must have been the ones chosen for the dawn patrol, and were back home and sleeping once more, or were up late into the night, off by themselves, perhaps fishing or doing something like that.

Once out side of her den, she slipped into a long stretch, her back arching high in the air and her tail curving high above her head. Her delicate jaws opened in yawn, he pink tongue showing only for a moment. Then, not even caring to glance towards the fresh-kill pile, she padded to the apprentice's den, and stuck her nose her nose inside.

She had not been in the den in moons, but it seemed the same. "Bluepaw?" She called, as she waited for her eyes to adjust from the dim light to the sunlight, and then back again. She hoped that her apprentice wouldn't answer, and maybe she could go back to sleep...

[flamewhisper]

A small form lay in the back corner of the den, it's sides rising and falling with each breath. The small form stirred as a tiny little sneeze filled the silence. It opened it's little blue eyes, licked it's now itching nose, and fell back to sleep.
This little she-cat had stayed up late, trying to adjust to the new surroundings. She was used to the nursery; the warmth, the smell of milk, and the sweet she-cats who treated her with kindness, unlike her mother.
She still wasn't used to how much colder this den was, and had most likely caught a cold during the night. Sure enough, she sneezed again, this time waking her completely. She rubbed her nose, annoyed that she had been awoken. When it finally stopped itching, she lay her head back down, ready to fall asleep, when she was once again disturbed.
"Bluepaw?" She heard a she-cat call into the den. She tensed up, then sighed when she remembered. She was an apprentice now, but what was the point? But no matter how much she wanted to ignore the call, she knew she must answer it.
Standing slowly, she stretched her tiny legs, her cute little tail sticking straight up. A yawn erupted from her mouth, but she snapped it shut right after. On her journeyed to the entrance she stepped on a few of her den mates, getting a few hisses, growls, and glares along the way.
Stepping through the entrance and into the light blinded her for a second, but she adjusted quickly. Her blue eyes shined bright in the sun, while her blue-grey fur shined a soft blue. Looking up at her mentor, her eyes became sad. She would never be able to please this she-cat, not when she was so worthless. With a sigh she sat down and waited for her instruction, bathing her fur with quick strokes.

[kittykow]

Longlily

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Longlily twitched once--twice--three times as Bluepaw walked to the apprentice's den's entrance and exit. Could she be, I don't know!, less...clumsy?

The she-cat reached the outside and Longlily stepped to the side to allow her room. As the she-cat began to wash, the new mentor let out a small sigh, and settled herself down as well.

"Bluepaw, today we will start with basics." she lifted a fore paw and flexed so that the shiny weapons concealed in it showed for a brief second before disappearing. "Claws."

Not bothering to check Bluepaw's reaction, Longlily stared at the pile of freshkill--fish--as she continued. Only half of her mind was on the words that she was meowing, however; the other half was thinking about how those tiny, countless fish scales caught the few sunbeams in the air and shone, sparkled. She wondered how many scales were on the fish in the pile and how many fish were in the river. Then she wondered how many cats it would take to catch and devour all of those fish, all the while meowing:

"Having complete and utter control of your claws in an essential thing for all cats. You may have instincts" (here she paused to dig her claws into the soil, still thinking of the fish) "but they are not always enough to keep you alive. You need your claws to catch slippery fish from the stream. If your claws aren't sharp enough, you'll be loosing a meal and loosing a meal may one day be the begging of the last day of your life, if your situation is dire enough. Claws, you use them to inflict damage to opponents. If we didn't have claws, perhaps fights between clans would be very different." She licked her jaws, her stomach's hunger starting to make itself apparent. "But maybe that different wouldn't be so bad."

At this point, the mentor finally turned her green eyes to her apprentice, fish and hunger gone from her mind when the prospect of begging training with the....in a way 'self conscience' female.

[flamewhisper]

Bluepaw continued to lick her fur, not really caring how she looked. Unlike her mentor, who was know to be extremely self concience, she didn't really care how she looked. Her blue eyes spotted a cow-lick in her fur, but instead of fixing it, she just licked it once and gave up. She didn't want to put in the effort, not when it didn't matter.

Looking up at her mentor, she notice that she wasn't really paying attention to her. She was watching the fish. Apparently she also thinks it's worthless for me, as well. She sighed as she listened to her mentor. She watched as she displayed her sharp claws, and brought hers out, feeling embarrassed at how tiny and worthless they looked.

When her mentor stopped talking, she looked at the pile of fish. "Longlily, can we just eat and get on with the lesson." She just wanted to get this over with; she knew how it would turn out in the end. Her mentor would say she was worthless and would never pull it off as a warrior, then quit as her mentor.

Why did she believe this? Because her mother had told her that before she went to the Apprentice den. She was happy to be away from her mother, but missed the other she-cats in the nursery. Maybe if she was thrown away she could go back to the nursery to be with the she-cats?

Without waiting for Longlily's reply to her earlier question, she headed for the fresh-fish pile and grabbed a small rainbow. Going back to her mentors side, she bit into the fish, not caring if she angered her.

[kittykow]

Longlily

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The warrior she-cat of the two twitched at he apprentices words; four times in just a matter of minutes. The words that Bluepaw had meowed were nothing like what she had imagined. Maybe something like "Okay, what will we start doing with our claws?" ranging to "But my claws are so small!"

'Longlily, can we just eat and get on with the lesson?' or anything close to it was not on her list of possibilities. Anywhere.

As her apprentice padded to the freshkill pile, without waiting for her response, she hissed icily under her breath: "Sure, why not. Go ahead. Training can wait till it's hottest." The last sentence, of course, was said with sarcasm and venom coating it, quite thickly.

Despite these words that she hissed, the multicolored female followed her apprentice to the pile. She snatched a fish from the top (her wanderings of its beautiful, colorful scale came back briefly), not looking at its size or shape. Sitting down, in the direction of the apprentice's den (but not quite back at the entrance; she was some what between the den and the freshkill pile) she tore into the fish with quick, cold, uncaring snaps. She could hear her own sharp, long teeth tearing its flesh and then clicking together when she bit down and chewed. She swallowed, and quickly repeated the process, wanting to be training (and getting it done and over with) as soon as she could.

[flamewhisper]

Bluepaw watched as the she-cat stomped towards the fresh-fish pile, snatched a fish, and layed down in a huff. She flinched as she watched the she-cat eat, knowing she wad very angry, but didn't really care. But it wouldn't matter, since she would hate her by the end of the day anyway.

Her thought, why even try if you already know you're going to fail? So she finished off her fish, cleaned her fur again, and walked out of camp towards the training grounds, not waiting for her mentor. This is where she liked it mose, outside, away from clan life. When she was in camp, she felt everyone expected more than she could give. But out here, no one expected her of anything. She could relax and not have to worry about disappointing anyone.

When she reached the training gounds, she remembered her mentor talking about using their claws. Well, no one was around, so no one would say anything. Lifting her paw, she extracted her tiny claws. They were sharp, but what could she do? Looking at a tree, she sucked in some air, figuring something bad would happen, and slashed her claws hard, her eyes closed. But there was no pain, nothing what she expected. When she opened her eyes, she saw four small slash marks in the tree. Had she done that?

[kittykow]

Longlily

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Longlily finished gulping down her last bite of fish in time to see her apprentice leaving. Without her? Fury rose in her chest; who did Bluepaw think she was? She didn't know where Longlily was planning on taking her, or what she was planning on practicing with her.

The fur along her spine prickled, spiking upwards. Her teeth showed for just a moment as a wordless hiss escaped her maw; leaving her fish as it was, she was on her feet in just two moments, and stalking silently, seething, after her apprentice.

Longlily followed her apprentice, shocked that Bluepaw seemed to be knowing where she was heading; The training grounds. But Bluepaw should never have been out of camp before. She was a new apprentice, after all, and wasn't today supposed to be her first day? Her first official time out of camp? But it seemed that she knew exactly where she was headed.

Deciding to not open her maw now, but to say silent, Longlily kept on her toes as she followed Bluepaw. The apprentice didn't seem to know that she was being followed, or even seem to care enough to check. This made Longlily feel extremely mad; What if she were a cat from another Clan, stalking the apprentice back to the camp so that their clan could find it and ambush it in the night? The anger seemed to melt a little, instead replaced by a heavy feeling in her heart; it was sinking.

Why did she have to have received this cat as her apprentice? She'd wanted a nice, strong male cat to train, one who would one day rise to Leader status of RiverClan. But no; she got Bluepaw, only half RiverClan, female, not thinking her self worth anything. Small.

Almost exactly the opposite of what Longlily had dreamed of.

Bluepaw came to where she seemed to have been heading; that is to say that she halted. Blinking, Longlily did too, and sat down softly to observe what her apprentice did when she thought that there was no prying eyes to see.

What she DID do was not what Longlily had expected, although truthfully, she wasn't sure what she HAD expected. For Bluepaw to have some hidden talents and some wonders abilities? Hah. Never. Longlily almost storted, but didn't, for if she had, it surely would have given away her position.

Bluepaw had pulled out her claws, as Longlily had done for her earlier; stared at them; then swiped a tree.

This time Longlily DID snort with laughter. She knew that Bluepaw had noticed her by now, and stood, meowing:

"Bravo, Bluepaw, bravo. You can damage a tree." An idea came suddenly, and she shifted her position just ever so slightly. Narrowing her eyes, she continued, "But can you damage me?"

Mentor leaped at apprentice.

O/C: I love Write or Die =B

[flamewhisper]

Bluepaw flexed her claws once more, still unable to believe that she had done that to the tree without injury. She was about to stike the tree again, when she heard a snort behind her. When she turned around, she saw her mentor, but her look wasn't pleased, it was mocking.

When she heard what her mentor said, her anger rose. She knew that she wouldn't be able to live up to her expectations, but when she actually could do something, she at least expected maybe some praise. She was about to lash out on her, when she heard her next remark.

"But can you damage me?"

When her mentor lept at her, she let out a cry and dodged to the side, rolling through the wet leaves. Her mentor had just attacked her, for real. Was she insain?! Her anger rose even more and she let out such a terrible hiss, even her fur stood on end from the sound.

"So when I actually find out I can do something you attack me?! What kind of mentor are you?!" She screamed, digging her claws into the ground. "You know NOTHING about me! I thought that, even if I tried, my claws would be useless, yet I was able to do that! For once in my life, I actually felt like I could do something, but apparently you still think the same way my mother does. You think I am USELESS!"

[kittykow]

Longlily

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"What kind of mentor are you?!"

The words made Longlily freeze, just long enough to let her apprentice finish what she was saying. In those moments, she thought things along the lines of :

What kind of mentor AM I? Attacking my apprentice, on an idea, a whim! That's revolting, horrible! She felt the fur along her spine starting to tickle and jump straight up.

An anger started to well up in the mentor's chest. A hate--no, not towards her apprentice--but towards herself. But that didn't meant that she couldn't direct it at her apprentice.

"The kind of mentor that want her apprentice to be battle-ready from day one/" She hissed the moment that words stopped escaping Bluepaw's maw. "The enemy is not going to approach you calmly, meowing in a soft voice:"

Here, Longlily lifted her voice to a soft nurturing tone, a sound that even she did not realize she could produce. She tilted her head to the side, eyes wide:

"Okay, missy little new apprenticy. I'm going to attack you now, so get ready, okay? Are you ready? Okay, good."

Her tone changed abruptly on the last word and her eyes returned to their previous slitted for. "Anyway, my claws where sheathed." Holding up a paw, aggressively, to demonstrate. "And it's not like I was ever going to hurt you."

Back into a crouch, she meowed, "Nice dodge back there, by the way. Let me see you do it again." She wasn't sure why she was praising to her after scolding her, but it seemed to be the right thing to do.

Shifting her position once more and then judging the distance between them, Longlily propelled herself at the smaller she-cat with her strong hind legs.

Despite her previous words, her heart remained like a heavy, round stone tossed into the middle of a fast-flowing stream. Sinking, being pushed, tugged along.

She hoped that her heart was wrong.

[flamewhisper]

Bluepaw cowered as her mentor yelled at her, lashing all her anger on her. She felt bad about what she had said, but she knew she had been speaking her heart. As she listened to her mentor howl at her, her eyes trailed her her paws.

She wants me to be battle ready, huh? How? She thought to herself as the lecture went on. She really expects too much from me.

When she looked up she saw her mentor prepairing for another attack. "Nice dodge back there, by the way. Let me see you do it again." She heard her say and her heart began to race in shock. Before she could say anything her mentor was already lunging at her. With movements she did not know she had, she threw herself out of the way, landing gently on her paws. As she looked back at her mentor, all she had been thinking rushed out of her mouth in a rush of rage and shock.

"Battle ready? You want me to be battle ready?" She screamed, her tail lashing through the air behind her. As she spoke her last words, her eyes began to sting as tears welled up. "Why even try with me? I'll never be ready!"

As her last words came out, something else took over. What was it? Instinct? Her back leg muscles tensed up and, before she could stop herself, she lunged at her mentor, ready to do whatever it took to take her down.

[kittykow]

Longlily

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Another graceful dodge. If this cat let herself, she could have some real potential... Longlily was begginning to realize. Now, if only she could prove it again. And again. Then again. And again....If Bluepaw was able to keep it up, it might just be what Longlily needed to boost her apprentice's courage and self confidence. And her own. As well as her hope.

All that was needed now was some higher power to convince them both of those two things.

Longlily landed deftly on her front paws, and using the ground, along side gravity, in her favor, swung around as her hind legs hit. Her tail curled in the air, high above her head, as her muscles tensed as she prepared for the next movement.

"Why even try with me? I'll never be ready!"

The apprentice barely finished her words when the new mentor burst out with her own.

"Yes! Of course you will!" Longlily snarled, throwing back he head in shock. She was taking this as a personal insult, StarClan! "With me as your mentor, you will flourish into an amazing warrior. I'm confident in that, based soully on your dodging instincts. Those could save your life in battle, you know,"

There was something in her eyes, the apprentice's, but before Longlily could deduce what its reason for being there was, Bluepaw lunged at her. Longlily reared onto her hind legs, wanting to intercept the apprentice with her front paws. She fell to the ground once more, after this, her tail lashing, meowing all the while:

"Hah! Look at that lunge. I can see it in your eyes--you want to take me down." Teasingly; "Don't deny it; I'm looking into you like a fish at the bottom of a clear stream on a sunny day, aren't I?" Scoldingly here, with eyes narrow; "You didn't put enough power into that attack, and you were aiming in the wrong place. Try unbalancing me by attacking my hind legs." She reared up on her hind paws, front ones wheeling. "Your instincts are good. Don't doubt yourself. Now!" The last word was snarled, as was the next bit: "Attack me now! Aim for my legs! They are what are keeping me up! If I do not have balance in my legs, I will fall flat and you will gain the upper paw. Now!"

[flamewhisper]

Bluepaw dodged her mentor as she intercepted her lunge, rolling quickly to the side and back to her paws. Had she just done that? But how? She tried to remember ever doing something like that, when she remembered a time when she was still a kit.

She had been playing with another kit just outside the nursery, playing fake battle. The other kit had lunged at her and she had gracefully dodged. Then, when the other kit was preparing for another attack, she lunged at it, catching it off guard. However, when she saw her mother watching and tried to tell her about it, her mother just snarled and told her it was a lucky shot. That was where it all started with her mothers harsh words.

Her anger raged up again when she thought of her mentor being the same as her mother, and she found herself wanting to attack again. As she got ready for the lungh, she heard her mentors praise, and froze. Her mentor was....praising her? She had never been praised for anything in her life, not once. As her mentor reared up on her hind legs and told her to attack again, she found herself stalling. Could she attack her again? What if her mother was right and it was just a lucky shot?

At that thought, she hissed, dug her claws into the ground, ran a quick circle around her mentor, and attacked her legs from the side. As she attacked her mentor, her thoughts were on her mothers words. "It was just a lucky shot".

Lucky shot? We'll see."

[kittykow]

Longlily

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Longlily landed back on her front paws, lightly, as Bluepaw started circling her. Longlily was faintly surprised that Bluepaw had chosen this method against her, but there was no way that she going to let that show on her face.

Bluepaw is quite a smart cat, once you get down right to it.

Her apprentice was attacking her legs, just as Longlily had instructed. It was good, Longlily decided, that Bluepaw could follow instructions without second thoughts or rebellion. When Longlily had just been Longpaw, a few of her fellow apprentices, who she refused (and still refuses) to call her 'friends', were quite...frank with their mentors. Longlily had never been like this, but could easily see why the other apprentices her age were. Sometimes, it bugged her quite badly that her pride would not allow her to act they same as them.

Longlily had not expected the ferocity with which Bluepaw was attacking. She stumbled to the side when the harsh blows met her hind legs, just as instructed. But it was her pride, not anything else, that kept her up.

"Good," She purred with eyes narrow once more. "You are getting there." she flicked her hind paw in Bluepaw's face. She wondered if the apprentice flinched or twitched, or what. "See the tendon that moves in the back of my leg? That's a key point you want to hit." She turned to her apprentice. She skillfully hooked a front paw around her apprentice's front leg.

There was no joint in the front leg that was easy to as there was in the back. Longlily meowed this smoothly to her apprentice as she ran the pad of her paw down the younger female's front leg.

"For that reason, it is much better to try and get around your opponent to attack their hind legs. They way you circled me earlier was a very good choice; if you can distract your enemy by doing that, it will end up much easier to get their hind legs."

Longlily's front paw left Bluepaw. "It is a much worse choice to attack the opposer's front legs; sometimes you do not have a choice. But right now you do." Her eyes were focused on Bluepaw.

How is she going to react?

"I want you to come up with something--anything--but the circeling move you just displayed--to get to my hind legs. Let me demonstrate for you for just a moment."

She shifted her muscles and bounded right over Bluepaw's head. She landed gracefully behind her, and before the apprentice could turn, pushed lightly on the younger female's tendon. Moving swiftly around back to face Bluepaw, she dodged quickly under her and made a quick slash at her back legs (not actually connecting with anything, however).

When she pulled back out and assessed the apprentice's expression, she purred. "Those were just two examples. Now what can you come up with?"

Surprise me.

[flamewhisper]

When Bluepaw connected with her mentors hind leg, she was thrown back a bit. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice her mentors leg hit her face. She had hit her mentor with all she had, yet she still stood. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she take her mentor down? Was she weak like her mother had said?

Before she could ask her mentor anything, Longlily had already bounded over her head, poked her in her back leg tendon(which did cause her leg to slightly numb), and showed her another method that slashed the tendon. She expected her to do all that? How, when she couldn't even take her down?

When her mentor asked her what she could come up with, her eyes became slits as she glared at her, a slight growl erupting from her throat, and a soft hiss coming after. What was wrong with her mentor? She couldn't take her down, yet she still egged her on. Digging her claws into the earth, she scraped some loose.

You want to see my plan? She thought, scraping up more earth. Here is my plan." With a growl and flick of her tail, meant to distract her mentor, she threw her paw forward, throwing the collected dirt into her mentor's eyes. The second she flung the earth, she lept through her mentors front paws and wrapped her teeth around her mentors leg, hitting the tendon, but she didn't bite hard enough to break the skin, just pinch the tendon.

[kittykow]

Longlily

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A hiss--that was unexpected, but Longlily could have been more surprised.

But it the seconds it took her to follow the movement of her apprentice's tail and then to think: Wait, did she just kick dirt in my face?, she was already down. And Bluepaw had done it. All by herself, with no previous instruction or coaching from her mentor.

First came anger--Longlily, how could she have let herself get disctracted just long enough for Bluepaw to do this to her?

Then came pride--Longlily, she was proud. Her apprentice was such a quick learner, her apprentice was skillful on day one.

Then the mentor was frustrated--Longlily, how had she managed to not watch her apprentice closley enough? She hadn't seen barely anything that her apprentice had done. How could she continue to coach her successfully if she didn't know what the younger cat had done wrong?

Or right, for that matter.

She stood, briskly, and shook out her fur. Her movements were stiff and cross, but her meow was neither warm or harsh:

"Good use of our surroundings; kicking dirt is effective." She blinked to get the dust from her eyes, just further proving its effectiveness. "Temporarily blinding an enemy or distracting them is always a good tactic."

She licked some fur on her shoulder, cleaning it of dirt. "Now sit for a moment, before you have another go; explain to me what exactly what you did just now and what was going through your head." she grunted. "I mean, even I" she stretched the one syllable like it was such a great big deal. "wasn't able to come up with anything like that on my first day of training." She added on, teasing: "You haven't had any special training from some warrior in the past moons, have you?"