Dawnstar's Trouble {COMPLETE}

Chapter 6

"That was sloppy!" Thornpelt hissed, batting his paw over Dawnpaw's ear. She winced and bit back a hiss. Dawnpaw winced her stinging ear, she personally didn't think that her catch was sloppy, but she knew that Thornpelt was picky. Dawnpaw broke slightly away from her mentor to seek out more prey. She sniffed the early morning air for more traces of prey, there wasn't as much around this early but Thornpelt wouldn't accept her giving up so she kept on tracking.

Luckily, Dawnpaw caught the scent of sparrow, and heard the flapping of wings. Just a few taillengths in front of her, the small brown bird landed gently on the ground and began pecking at the moist dirt for it's own meal. Dawnpaw crouched down, closer to the ground, taking a deep breath before she pounced. The bird began to fly away, but Dawnpaw was faster than it's wings.

Her claws snagged on the bird and brought it down to to the ground where she killed with with a swift bite to the neck. Feeling confident in her quick, clean catch she lifted her head high, looking around for Thornpelt. Her mentor strode past her, his amber eyes nearly empty. "Better." He said sharply. "But there's room for improvement."

Dawnpaw once again, bit back a retort and buried her prey. She followed her mentor silently, wishing once more that she was back with Sunstream. Sunstream encouraged her and praised her for her catches, Dawnpaw didn't think that she had gotten a single praise from Thornpelt in the half-moon that she had been his apprentice. Whenever she made a serious error she was met him cuffing his paw over her ear, rather harshly too.

After everyday of hunting or training her ear stung, which annoyed her even more. To her, hunting and training was no longer fun. She didn't enjoy going out to hunt or train for battle and she never got to train with her fellow apprentices, she hoped one day she would. She spent most of her time battling just Thornpelt, and he didn't hold back. She'd spend her days sore and bruised from trying to take on a fully grown warrior.

Dawnpaw followed closely with her mentor, he never stopped to wait for her, she had to keep up with him. She walked with long strides through the forest, following close by with her mentor. After a moment he came to a stop and looked around at her. "Try and hunt over here, come back to me after you've caught two pieces of prey."

Dawnpaw didn't complain, she just gave a nod and continued her hunt. She crouched down and stalked down a mouse, and not long afterwards she tracked down a squirrel. She returned them to her mentor who looked at the prey, then back at her. "Good enough." He mewed. "Gather the rest of your prey and then meet me back at camp. You may take some time to rest but at sunhigh we're doing battle training. I might ask some of the other mentors if they want their apprentices to join with us."

Dawnpaw felt a bit better, she was looking forward to training with another apprentice and not just Thornpelt, part of her hoped it would be Turtlepaw. She also hoped it might be Goldenpaw and Lionpaw, she hadn't really spoken to them much since Sunstream's death, she had been too busy with training. From dawn until nightfall she was training hard, and then she went to bed and woke up again at dawn.

Thornpelt vanished into the forest and Dawnpaw grabbed her prey, she trekked through the forest, taking her time and resting her muscles. She grabbed her sparrow and her earlier mouse that had been "sloppy". She picked it up and made her way back to camp at a steady pace, she didn't want to waste too much time in the forest but she wasn't going to be running back home.

When she made it back to camp, Thornpelt wasn't in sight, but she decided to take some prey to Pebblekit and Poppyfur, the medicine cat had been rather busy with treating leftover wounds from the battle alongside Pebblekit. The kit was nearing six moons old very quickly, and still had no sense of smell. The entire Clan was worried about what would happen with the young kit.