Silverpaw trudges out into SkyClan territory behind Featherstar, glancing back to see Hailwatcher and Beechfoot following closely after.
The silver tabby tries to make contact with Hailwatcher, but he simply smiles fakely in her direction, blue-green eyes flickering uncertainly, before withdrawing back into himself.
"So...what exactly is it that we're doing?" she mews to Featherstar.
The SkyClan leader turns to glance back at her apprentice.
"I'll be teaching you some fighting techniques, and I'll tell you and Hailwatcher both a story."
Beechfoot nods cheerily, gently nudging a faltering Hailwatcher along.
"Is the story like the one you told last time?" Silverpaw questions, narrowing her eyes skeptically.
"Only a little bit like that one," Featherstar replies with a quiet chuckle, neglecting to acknowledge the pained shine lingering in her gaze.
"Beechfoot knows the story."
"All too well," the senior medicine cat mews, his tone unreadable.
Featherstar pauses, surveying the surrounding area.
Trees circle the clearing in which the four cats stand, and a few fallen logs provide ample shelter for small animals to shelter in.
Silverpaw bristles, shivering in the persisting cold.
"Looks like a good place to me, Featherstar," mews Beechfoot, his fluffy cream fur rustling in the breeze.
"Let's get started, then," the light brown tabby replies; she smiles at a nervous-seeming Hailwatcher, who flattens his ears.
-=-
Silverpaw crouches opposite Featherstar, green gaze trained on her mentor's every move; nearby, Beechfoot sits with Hailwatcher and coaches him through unsheathing his claws.
"What you want to do, Silverpaw," mews Featherstar, "-is read your opponent. If you can ascertain how someone's liable to strike, you'll know how to counter them."
Silverpaw nods slowly, planting her paws in the ground.
"Say if I tended to approach you from the left, Silverpaw," the SkyClan leader continues, starting to creep closer, "-what would you do?"
Waiting in preparation for her mentor to leap, the silver tabby angles herself accordingly.
Featherstar lunges at her, claws sheathed, and Silverpaw reflexively whips out of the way, accenting the dodge by tapping her mentor's flank with a hind paw.
"Very good," Featherstar purrs, expression softening; in the depths of her mentor's heather-blue gaze, Silverpaw senses something viscerally familiar.
"Of course, your opponents will occasionally be intelligent enough to feign a plan of attack, but there are usually signs that they're doing so."
"For instance," the light brown tabby mews, assuming a wobbling stance, "-if something seems off about their form, they're unaccustomed to fighting in that style."
The silver tabby nods, tail flicking back and forth.
"Those principles also apply to life outside of battle," Beechfoot pipes up.
"When someone acts strangely, it's usually because they're hiding who they really are."
Feeling a pang of awkwardness for a reason she's not yet willing to unpack, Silverpaw pauses to think.
"So I should read each opponent to get a sense of how they fight?"
"Precisely," replies Featherstar, smiling a little.
YOU ARE READING
𝚂𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚂𝚞𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 || 𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜 #2
Adventure''The Clans are plagued by darkness, but a seer of truth will bring peace.'' As Wavepaw of RiverClan begins her apprenticeship, the shadows of a scandal that shattered her family push her to uncover the secrets that bind her Clan's past to an uncer...
