Warriors fanfic: Weightless , Book one in the Legacy series

Chapter 2

          Ibis's official trainee ceremony had been just two days ago, and she had to admit, Panther had done her a favor in assigning her Moss. The tom's patience was endless, and he was kindhearted too! Never making fun of her inability to do certain things and FINE, she had a teeny tiny silly little crush on her mentor. But it wasn't fair! He was so nice to everyone all the time, not to mention dashingly handsome.
A cold, fat raindrop slashed onto her nose, pulling Ibis from her daydreams just in time for a downpour. Moss was walking just a stride ahead of her, explaining her training, which, come to think of it, was something she should be paying immense attention to.
         Gator walked past, accompanied by Wolf and Bat, he'd been ecstatic when she told him, Tamarin, not so much. Tamarin had told Ibis that if she got in the way she'd push her from the highest platform she could find.
"So since you obviously can't fly, I think we should work on your agility and speed first, so that of your ever out hunting you can get away. After that we can practice your hunting." Moss mused, glancing at Ibis for the OK. That was the other thing Ibis liked about him, he never made a decision for anyone, he always made sure they were alright with it first.
Ibis nodded eagerly, practically bouncing on the woven bridge that they were crossing. Due to the rain, they would not be practicing tree-climbing because the trunks would be slippery and Moss was afraid she would fall and hurt herself. That was fine with Ibis, she wasn't eager to climb, considering how fine and thin her claws were, not thick like Gator's, they'd be horrible at gripping the rainforest trees (and anything else for that matter).
       Moss stopped at the platform, causing Ibis to nearly knock into him, if she hadn't felt the vibrations of him stopping they could very well have gone sailing over the edge, into the gator-infested waters below.
He seemed to be testing something, she glanced around then walked into the platform, it's tightly woven vines provided a springy but firm surface to train on, not to mention that this platform was covered by the out stretched branches of a tree, sheltering it from all sorts of weather. 
      The downpour had faded to a light mist. Moss appeared beside her,
        "I want you to do 30 laps around the platform, and I want you to jump to the third-lowest branch and pull yourself up 15 times. We will do this everyday at the start of training to improve your agility and speed, also to help you loosen up before training." Moss instructed, flicking his tail for her to begin. 
          The platform was large, 15 cats and all the trainees could have easily fit up there, it was probably 30ft. By 40ft. At least, that's what it seemed like when Ibis was running. Her legs were long and thin, but she didn't have any muscles yet that the other cats all had.
        Around and around and around she ran, her heart coughing in her chest, the cool morning air was NOT helping. By the time Ibis slowed to a stop, she was wheezing and gasping for air, her legs were trembling and threatened to give out.
       "Great job, Ibis!" Moss ran up, his vibrations causing her to wheeze harder. Ever the optimist, he gave her an encouraging lick, "let's get the next part over with now!" He moved back to where he had sat before, leaving Ibis to complete her next task. The third lowest branch... Ibis thought, gazing up into the tree branches, that's at least 15 feet up.... She mused, and before she could think better of it. She took a running start and lept for the branch.
         Ibis almost made it, as she was sailing through the air, a stray leaf whacked her in the face and she lost her balance, so rather than landing on the branch, she landed on the side of it. Yowling at the impact, Ibis managed to hook her thin claws into the rigid bark of the branch. Swaying her body for momentum, Ibis hauled herself up onto the branch. Her claws ached from the stress she'd put on them, and her legs continued to tremble. There is no way I can do this for the rest of my life.... The thought dimly pinged in her mind, not helping her self confidence whatsoever. But she jumped back down, and when Moss instructed her to do the exercise again, she obeyed.

Over the weeks that they trained together, Ibis learnt to climb trees, turns out even if her claws were no good with the tree bark, they could grip vines fairly well (something that Gator helped her discover). Peacock had announced that she would be having Wolf's kits, the tom was overjoyed, naturally, and he spent the rest of the day strutting around and helping the trainees, which was something he rarely did.
          Wolf had helped her with her Hunter's crouch, since Moss was taking the day off and Gator was busy making goo-goo eyes at one of the other trainees, Whisp. The romance in the air didn't bother Ibis too much though, considering the fact that she'd finally befriended a tribe cat outside of her family. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was her mentor. Or the fact that her crush was slightly refusing to go away. And definitely not the fact that he was the only male besides Gator and Parrot who ever bothered to notice her....
Well, that last part wasn't entirely true, Dart still kept trying to talk to her, it was probably part of some scheme of Tamarin's, or perhaps Dart's own scheme. Whatever the reason, it was freaking Ibis out enough that she avoided any sort of contact with her sister or her sister's friends.

          Another two weeks passed, and Ibis became faster and stronger, her muscles and endurance building up alongside her confidence.
The day was warm and humid, the vines that made up the training platform were slick with mist. A caw sounded from above and Ibis looked up to spot a bird of sorts. It had a shiny black beak, with white and gray feathers against a puffy chest. There was a crest of long yellow feathers that reminded Ibis of ribbon.
In all her weeks of training, Ibis had never actually had the chance to catch prey, and now was perfect, she was alone on the platform and her training had just ended.... And imagine how proud Moss would be when she brought back prey on her own! That settled it! She slowly and carefully began inching for the bird.
         The bird sat unaware on one of the low hanging branches of the tree that covered the training space, an easy leap thanks to her training. She bunched her muscles and prepared to leap when something snapped near the bird, startling it into flight.
         In a split second Ibis made the decision to leap and twist in an effort to catch the bird. Her claws barely tacked the underside of the bird's puffy chest and as she landed the wet vines set her skittering and sliding, out, out, out, and straight over the edge of the platform.