The Lesson! (Member)

[Naruto]

Hollyfrost padded up to the huge gray stone wall, her eyes gleaming the in gloom. (XD) "To climb trees you have to use your claws a lot. To climb stone you have to use your claws a lot. But climbing this," She flicked her tail to the stone slab. "Is a lot easier. If you can climb this, you can climb a tree."

"Watch me." she instructed, padding up to the bottom of the wall. She suddenly jumped straight up, and you could hear the sounds of her claws scraping against the stones. Within moments she was pulling herself onto the top. "Now you try."

[Member]

Mm. Pastpaw tilted his head as he looked up at Hollyfrost who stood ontop of the boulder. He went through his mind on what she'd done. All she did was scrabble up it like an odd mouse. He unsheathed his claws and grinned.

"Psht. That's easy." He mewed before arching his back and leaping up the boulder. On his first try, he nearly scaled up the entire thing, more or less, with a single jump, but of course, he didn't make it far enough, and tried to grab onto with his claws. Unfortunately, instead of having the desired "Holly Effect" they just slid down, the wall. As he went down one of his claws slid in a little groove and snapped free in a second. The sting surprised him and he jumped off with a hiss, checking his paw to see if he was bleeding.

He wasn't...

[Naruto]

"Are you OK?" Hollyfrpst called, looking over the side at him. She'd seen him fall, and felt a small amount of amusement. Nobody in FireClan was a better climber than her, it seemed.

[Member]

"Yes, I'm fine," he mewed as he checked the back of his paw and put it on the ground and testing it. He looked back at the wall and jumped at it again, this time, not going as high. He grabbed onto the stone, and for a second, he stayed still. He grinned in triumph. "Ha! Easy!" He said, but before he finished he started slipping.

No! No! He tried to hold on and move up with his claws, but he kept slipping, and next thing he knew he was on his back on the ground. Man... this was hard.

[Naruto]

"Not as easy as it looks, huh?" Hollyfrost purred. "Do you want me to show you again?"

[Member]

"Please. And do it slow this time!" Pastpaw got back onto his feet and shuffled them a little, and for no reason, before he looked at Hollyfrost closely, waiting for her to show him what she'd done. He wasn't a good memorizer, but he was a good copier. Maybe he could just copy her until he got it right? Eh, he didn't know.

[Naruto]

Hollyfrost grinned and jumped down, waving her tail as her claws scraped at the stone. "OK, watch close." She tried to do it slow, but it was a little hard. She leaped at the stone, her claws expertly finding the small cracks and chips in the stones that would help her get up. "You can't procrastinate or your claws'll snap off." she mewed, reaching the top.

[Member]

Pastpaw watched Hollyfrost carefully. So, all her really saw was where she jumped, but not that she hooked her claws in key points. Like crevices and such. How could he!? She was obscuring his view with her body, but he had to do what he could with what he had. So he shrugged and crouched down.

Don't hesitate or you'll lose a claw. Eh, that's good to remember. He jumped, following the path of good ole Hollyfrost. He got one or two stones covered, but on the third jumped towards the top he didn't catch it in time, and was flat on his back.

Ugh. Who thought it was a good idea to make one of these things?

[Naruto]

Hollyfrost looked down and frowned. "Er, try again. I'm sure you'll get it soon!" her voice rang, cheerfully.

[Member]

Pastpaw rolled back onto his feet. "Argh." This was hard, but at least it was something new. He stretched, hoping that it would help him with this task. He jumped up at the rocks again, doing the same exact thing, only getting to the third stone quicker. Barely did he make it past the fourth, the fifth, pure luck that may have made him overconfident, because by the sixth he was back on the ground.

"Can you help me with this one?" He grinned.

[Naruto]

"Sure!" Hollyfrost bounded down the stones, smiling. "What do you need help with?"

[Member]

"Um, how about everything?" He joked, grinning his usual grin. It was days like these that let him know that apprenticeship could be fun. Going over the same things with his crazy mentor was more than he wanted to do. He knew how to do everything! Ugh. At least he was learning something new.

OOC: You know, I've noticed that Pasteh and Kestrel are kind of the same. XD

[Naruto]

OOC: You just noticed? XD

Hollyfrost smirked. "I thought you were older than me?" she said playfully, jabbing him in the ribs with her paw.

[Member]

OOC: Maybeh... XD

Pastpaw laughed and flicked Hollfrost's paw away from his ribs with his tail. "That may be! But aren't you the warrior? As I recall, you must know more than I. Now show me how to do this! I'm terrible at it." Yes, terrible, very terrible indeed. But he'd get better as soon as she started teaching him instead of taunting him!

[Naruto]

OOC: LOL I love your new siggy... BB is freaked out. XDDD

Hollyfrost snickered. "Alright. Let me demonstrate." She crouched on the ground, her claws flashing out. "Look. See my claws? They're not all the way out... They're only there to help my grip. Not far enough that they'd snap off if I put too much weight on them."

[Member]

OOC: Ah, thank Wolvine for the inspiration. XD

Pastpaw looked at his paw. He sheathed and unsheathed them multiple times, each time having them come all of the way out? He inspected Hollyfrost's paws to see what he was supposed to be doing. What the heck? He looked back at his paw, sheathing them and unsheathing them until he could get it right, but alas, they always came out the same.

He squinted his eye, concentrating as much as he could. Maybe too hard, because he started letting in hard breath as if he was trying to haul a boulder. He stared at his paw with the greatest intensity and, with all his might unsheathed them! The outcome!? Exactly the same. He sighed and let his paw relax.

"I can't do it," he mewed, looking over at Hollyfrost. He pulled his paw toward her, giving a little innocent "child's-grin". "Do it for me?" He asked. Knowing full well she actually couldn't do that.

[Naruto]

The black she-cat purred with amusement. "It's a little automatic for me..." she mumbled. "Guess I forgot that. Hmmm..." She thought again. "Try climbing up the wall again. Don't think so hard about it." she advised.

[Member]

Myeh. Up the wall a second time. He jumped back to the wall, from stone to stone he went, just like last time. Up, up, towards the top. He hadn't really gotten that far, and he could already feel himself starting to get less nd less time to grab onto the rocks. The starting phases of falling. But lo and behold! A squirrel! The thin little thing just happened to scurry up the wall.

Prey, food, it was enough motivation for him. He moved faster now, going up on each stone without even thinking about it. Before he got to the top the squirrel heard his scrabling and looked down at him. In seconds it was off in surprise. And then old apprentice was up, his paws holding on to the other side as he scrapped on the wall to haul himself up.

It was taking to long, way too long! It would be gone by then, he knew it. Off into another clans borders. It was about fifteen seconds when he finally got up there. It ws gone! It was gone!

He ran across the wall, that wasn't really that long, and saw the squirrel on the other side. Looking for a good means of escape. But at the last second it jumped off the side and into a tree. Pastpaw, taken by surprise, didn't have time to react, and stopped to late. He teetered at the edge before he finally fell off, barely landing on his feet, into a little stream that fed into the river.

Blahst, it got away.

[Naruto]

"Pastpaw?" Hollyfrost's voice came from the top of the wall. She'd climbed up behind him to congratulate him, but what did she see as she pulled herself over the edge? The tip of Pastpaw's tail going doqn, off the wall! "Are you OK? What happened?" She padded to the edge of the wall, her eyes huge with worry.

[Member]

"No I'm not okay! The squirrel is gone!" Pastpaw's fur started to bristle. He was very, very seriosu about hunting. He may slack off on the training, slack off on the assessments, but when it came to hunting, it was everything to him. Losing something was a terrible, terrible thing for him. Almost as bad as having a family member die, at least for him. You can't just not catch something. You can't! And he let it get away! It got away!

He failed, he really did. It was all his fault. He could have gotten the squirrel, right then and there. Right. Then. But he didn't, and now it was gone. StarClan! He was so stupid! It wasn't because he completely goofed off on his assessments. No, that's not why he wasn't a warrior yet! No! It was because he couldn't catch a flipping squirrel.

Pastpaw growled at himself and dug up the streams little rocks with his paws. Was he really that bad?

[Naruto]

She looked alarmed at his tone, and she scrabbled her way down the rocks. "Pastpaw... It's okay..." Her meow was calm, but frustrated. Hollyfrost wasn't mad at him or anything. She was mad at herself. She had no clue what to say, what to do. It made her fell... Helpless. "If it helps, you climbed the wall," she mewed softly, trying to lift his mood.

[Member]

Pastpaw glared at Hollyfrost. "No! It's not okay! How can it be okay!? How!?" He growled at her. Growled at her like a disappointed mentor. As if she'd asked the question of a kit! And then he caught himself. Ugh. He was growling at her for no reason! No reason at all! It was his fault anyways. He tried to force his fur down, but it was... difficult. He was just too angry at himself.

"Yeah, I guess I did," he said, his tone glum.

[Naruto]

She flinched against his disapproving tone. "Jeez! You don't have to yell at me for it!" she hissed, anger flashing in her eyes. Normally, by now, she would have clawed his fur off. But Pastpaw was her friend, and clanmate. She couldn't do that...

[Member]

Pastpaw sighed. Well, he deserved to get hissed at, he supposed. "I'm sorry," he said. StarClan, it's just a squirrel. A squirrel he could have caught easily. He lifted a paw out of the stream, flicking the water off before setting it down, curiously enjough, back into the stream, completely defeating the purpose of even doing it in the first place.

His black fur was a little muddy, but at least his paw were still white. He hated it when they were... brown or something. Mm. Maybe he should just... go back to camp and lay down or something. Since he was a constent failure... or something of that context.

[Naruto]

Hollyfrost calmed down a little when Pastpaw apologized. "It's alright." She moved forwards, stepping into the stream and not seeming bothered by it. "Come on... We'd better get you dried off before you catch a cold."

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