The Cat Of The Prophecy: The Origins Of The Clans- Part 1: The Original Treeclan

Chapter 6: Battle Training

      I fell asleep in the real world and once again woke up in the forest with Willowflower not far in front of me. She was smiling, her pale green eyes had lit up the moment I had entered. Her demeanor had changed since our last visit. I guess me falling out of a tree allowed me to see her more caring side that she otherwise tried to hide. I bounced over to her and enthusiastically asked, "What are we doing today?"
     "Battle training." Willowflower answered softly.
     "Ooooh cool. Battle training." I meowed excitedly.
      She nodded, stood up, and turned towards the clearing without hesitation. I ran forward and jumped in front of her.
      "May I ask a really stupid question?" I asked.
      "There are no stupid questions, a question is only stupid if you do not ask it, but continue." Willowflower instructed.
     "What is the point of you teaching me all of this? I am going back to the time of the clans, what will happen then?" I asked curiously leaning in closer to Willowflower waiting on a response.
       "Young one, I am teaching you only what I have been instructed to teach you. While I do not know what will come after the full three moons are up, I am assuming you will be born into one of the original five clans." Willowflower answered sighing softly.
       "So I am going to have to learn all of this all over again? What is the point of that?" I meowed in frustration and then continued with realization and shock, "Three moons? You mean we only have three moons?!" I was shocked we had three moons, only three moons, for me to go from twoleg that knows nothing to best warrior cat in the history of warrior cats and vanquisher of darkness. Moons worth of training and I have to learn it all in addition to learning how to be a cat in three moons. How can I be expected to accomplish this? To begin to fulfill a prophecy in just three short moons? How can I do this when there are so many who would far more prepared than I, surely someone else would be a better fit than I? There's no way I can do this in three moons at least I do not think I can, but I will try my best.
      "You are very curious, young Fernpaw, and that is not a bad thing, your curiosity is one of the things that set you apart from others. However, it is also your main downfall. You still have a lot to learn and one of the main things you must learn is that not everything has an answer and that some questions are better left unanswered."
Willowflower replied and then continued, "I do not know why she told me to teach you these things but you are learning fast. I assure you we will meet the deadline young one. It seems like a short time period but there is a lot you can learn in this timeframe. You can do it."
     "Who told you to teach me?" I asked after a few moments of carefully selecting my words.
     Willowflower chuckled softly and meowed. "You will learn soon enough, but for now you must focus on your training."
     "Oh alright, but I want to know so badly." I meowed purring softly stepping aside and allowing Willowflower to lead the way to the other  clearing with the tall grasses. Willowflower stood in the middle of the clearing and I stood facing her excited and ready for battle training.
    "First I want to see how you naturally fight before I add in technique. Keep your claws sheathed Fernpaw, we do not need to injure eachother, but I do want to see how you defend against an attack and how you start an attack. This will help me train you if I can figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are." Willowflower instructed calmly.
     "Which do you want me to do first?" I asked busily double and triple checking that my claws were sheathed. I looked up when I heard no answer from Willowflower and looked around me puzzled. Where is she? I thought realizing that the old she-cat was no longer standing in front of me. I looked almost paranoid as I scanned the bushes around the clearing and the taller grasses that were within it for movement. I kept scenting the air and listening, but heard nothing and scented nothing.
     Suddenly after several moments of silence,  I was knocked to the ground and pinned. I looked up and there was Willowflower towering above me and squishing me with her weight which had knocked the breath out of my chest. I struggled beneath her, but finally managed to rollover on to my back causing her to jump off. She turned around quickly and I didn't hesitate to stand up and turn towards her. She took a hard paw swipe to the top of my head that sent me flying to the ground.
     Infuriated, I swirled around and grabbed her legs out from under her with my front paws, bringing them in towards me with a quick swipe. Willowflower fell into the grass. She picked herself up and darted forward grabbing my ears in her mouth, it was a softer grip than what I imagined she would use in a real battle but it still hurt. I let out a loud hiss and I swiped forwards at her, but she ducked easily out of the way.
     She leaped at me and I jumped out of the way nearly tripping over my own paws. I regained my footing and charged towards her and ended up jumping over her and biting her on the tail. She flipped around and I pinned her down on the ground. She was breathing as hard or harder than I was. She pushed me off and sat down, there was a warm look of pride on her face.
     "Very good, Fernpaw." Willowflower praised.
     My eyes lit up and I purred. "Thank you."
     Willowflower then meowed. "But, you did rush into the fight too quickly, that would have gotten you killed in a real fight. You never even tried to size me up, had I been a larger cat that you were no match for, you would have also been dead. Your body language showed too much of which move you were going to make before you made it."
     "Oh...." I meowed sadly looking at the ground.
     "But this was your first try. You'll get better with a little practice young one." Willowflower reassured me.
     "Alright." I meowed perking up again and then I continued, "So what are the different battle moves called?"
     "The first one I attacked you with was an ambush pin. Basically you hide until just the right moment, down wind of your opponent where they can not scent you, and you are able to give a surprise attack as well as quickly pin your opponent. You did a move as well to counter my pinning, the drop-and-roll, or in your case just the roll. Which is basically meant to crush the opponent under your own body weight, which as you saw can be avoided by jumping off at the right time. Wait too long and you will be smothered by the other cat and it will allow them to get in a fee blows before you even realize what is happening.
     "The front paw blow is the second move I used on you, it is where you use a hard blow to the top of your opponent's head. It is meant to disorient or slow down an opponent, it doesn't always fling the other cat as it did with you. Usually it just knocks the other cat away. It flung you because you've never taken a blow like that before and you were completely unprepared for it. I used the teeth grip move to grab a hold of your ear, but it isn't only for the ear. Anything you can grab with your teeth in a bite and hold is teeth grip; in fact you used teeth grip on my tail. You can use it on ears, tails, flanks, legs, paws, and belly folds. There's a few more that I didn't use in that particular battle like: the back kick, the belly rake, the front paw strike, the killing bite, the leap-and-hold, partner fighting, play dead, the scruff shake, the tail yank, and several others, but we will get to those at a later date during the remainder of the three moons of practice."
      "Ok. So are we done for tonight?" I asked yawning.
     "Yes we are. Good night Fernpaw."
     "Goodnight, wait what are we doing tomorrow night?"
     "Going over a few warrior traditions and ceremonies." Willowflower replied simply yawning in the process.
     "What about the day after that?" I asked curiously.
     "Fernpaw, that begins practicing until our time is up. " Willowflower replied as light fluttered into my eyes.