The Life And Adventures of Ivyshadow

Chapter 27 - Moon 16

Ivyshadow woke up earlier than usual, briefly pausing to stretch before leaving the den. It was two days after she'd become a mentor, and she still hadn't gotten to know Forestpaw very well yet. They had the gathering the first day (during which Ivyshadow and Forestpaw had stayed in the camp) and patrolled the rest of the territory yesterday.

She passed over the clearing now, nodding to Pebbleclaw and the rest of the Dawn patrol. It was snowing lightly, her pawprints making little indents from the Warrior's den to the Apprentice's den.

Inside the warm den, Forestpaw and Goldpaw were curled up in the corner. Morngingpaw had joined Dawn Patrol, so Daypaw slept alone near the entrance. Ivyshadow slipped past Daypaw and leaned over Morningpaw to shake Forestpaw awake. The dappled brown tom startled before following her out of the den silently.

As soon as they broke back into the white camp, Forestpaw turned to her excitedly. "Can we learn how to fight today?"

Ivyshadow smiled down at him, wishing that was what she had planned. "Not today. Maybe we can start on that tomorrow."

Forestpaw's face fell, and Ivyshadow's mind whirled. She knew she had to teach him to accept things not going his way. But to accept it, he'll have to understand the reasoning behind it, Ivyshadow realized. "Forestpaw, do you see the fresh kill pile?"

Forestpaw glanced over to the snow covered spot the prey pile usually was. He frowned, "There's nothing there."

Ivyshadow waited. Is this how Winterthorn feels?

Finally it dawned on him, his blue eyes widening, "We're hunting!"

"Correct!" Ivyshadow grinned, pleased.

Ivyshadow had never been taught to hunt in snow before, but she'd accompanied many hunting patrols in the snow anyway, and filled the gaps in her knowledge by watching the others.

They walked through the forest, Ivyshadow eyeing the trees with disdain. Her beautiful, full forest was gone, replaced by bare trees and the ever growing piles of snow. "We won't be running into birds, and probably not any mice or moles right now. What I'm going to teach you is how to hunt rabbits and squirrels."

Forestpaw nodded, his eyes intent.

Ivyshadow dropped into a crouch. "Squirrel and rabbit hunting have one thing in common; speed. In both instances you need to be able to break your crouch in a second to run all out." Forestpaw copied her crouch and she moved closer, pointing out the flaws with her tail, "although they are similar, there is a difference between them. It is-" Ivyshadow thought back to Blackstripe, and changed her sentence, "What do you think is the difference?"

Forestpaw relaxed his stance, frowning. "Umm, well squirrels can climb trees, right?"

"Correct! Cats can, of course, climb trees as well, but as a general rule; if the squirrel reaches the tree, you lost him. So with a squirrel crouch you want to rest most of your weight on your back legs, ready to leap up and pounce onto the squirrel before he can reach a tree." Ivyshadow demonstrated for the young cat, springing up and forward to land on a leaf. "While with the rabbit," she called back, "you don't want to waste time with a crouch - he's too fast. Instead you immediately start into a run. Keep your weight on your front paws." Ivysjadow demonstrated again, leaping close to the ground to land where she'd been standing. "So, let's practice!"

Forestpaw was, as expected, clumsy. He became increasingly frustrated as his paws tripped over each other again and again. Finally he stopped, frustrated and angry, "I can't do it."

"You've made progress!" Ivysjadow tried to assure him. Inwardly, she frowned; she would have never given up this easily. maybe Blackstripe would have taught him better... maybe, I'm not doing this right. Ivyshadow took a deep breath. "I think we both need a break. Let's go hunt for live prey!"