A Warriors Skills

[--> arcticstripe <--]

Arcticstripe padded silently into the clearing, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Boulderpaw was right behind her. She sat in the tall grass, which rose up to her shoulers. She smiled at Boulderpaw as he sat infront of her, waiting for her to begin.

"Today, we are going to be practicing your fighting skills." she waited for Boulderpaw to nod or say something in acknowlegdement, but he just kept looking at her with that stone-like gaze. Her smile widened and said, "First off we should work on when to attack." she paused, again waiting for some kind of understanding. Nothing came again. Her smile turned a little nervouse and she continued. "When attacking another cat you have to make sure that they aren't going to be attacking you at the same time. You should also make sure they don't know your coming." She paused, and atleast she got a reasuring blink this time. "A good way to start an attack is by swiping at anothers paws to get them off balance. After that, you leap and catch them off gaurd. Let's try it."

Boulderpaw finally nodded and then waited for Arcticstripe to give instructions. This was odd, he had never faught any other cat before. He kneeded his paws on the ground and looked nervously at Arcticstripe. "Go ahead and start swiping at my paws, when you see a good moment to leap, do so." Boulderpaw looked nervously at her still and she gave him a reasuring nod. He got to his paws as she did and tried to focus his eyes on her feet.

The two of them jumped around for awhile, Boulderpaw trying to get a hold on Arcticstripes paws, but it never worked. Finally he just decided to go for the leap. She dodged it easily and Boulderpaw fell crashing to the ground. He god up and moaned, not wanting to work anymore.

[--> arcticstripe <--]

Arcticstripe sighed, seeing that Boulderpaw really needed a break, or else he was just agitated. Anyhow she padded over to where Boulderpaw had flopped down and looked down on him. "You'll get it eventually," she said encourangingly. She smiled, with a little bit of empathy shown in her eyes. What would it be like to be a cat that came into the wild life of the clans from kittypet life? "Come on, let's go back to camp. We'll come out and practice again tomorrow." The empathy was erased as Boulderpaw got to his paws, with determination shining in his eyes.

"No, let's do a tiny bit more today. Just a little more, please?"

[--> arcticstripe <--]

Arcticstripe sighed and shook her head. The sun's evening rays were sending interesting colors through the leaves and branches of the trees. Soft pinkish fluffy clouds floated in the colored sky above them.

We've been out here long enough. Come on, it will be dark soon and we should be getting back to camp.

She smiled softly waited for Boulderpaw to get to his paws before turning around. The two of them padded back to camp. Arcticstripe, felt a bit guilty for not letting him try harder, but to tell the truth she was getting tired herself.

Boulderpaw walked next to Arcticstripe, his tail drooping sadly and his eyes staring at his feet that moved one in front of the other over and over. Why couldn't he get the fighting thing right? He trudged forward, thinking of the nice moss bed he would be curled in soon. Somewhere in the back of his mind thouhg he thought of the soft - and warm - human bed that he could be sleeping in right now.