Willowstar's Tears

Chapter 4

The next morning, Willowpaw woke up before everyone else. She quickly groomed herself and went outside. As she guessed, Hailfrost was already there, waiting for her, sitting by the entrance.
"Wow, you're up way earlier that I expected you to be" said the warrior.
"Yeah... I was looking forward to today after all!" The apprentice responded, trying to sound cheerful, even though she was really tired.
"I'm glad you were," Hailfrost stood up. "Today we are starting with hunting training, and if we have time, some basic battle moves. Now, let's go." Both she-cats stood up and went through the bramble barrier, onto the dark woods of  VoidClan territory.

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"No, not like that, stop waving your tail around and lower it. No not that low- Yes! There! Perfect! Now, pounce!"
Willowpaw pounced on top of the imaginary prey, but landed clumsily and fell to her side.
"Sorry," she said, looking back at Hailfrost.
"It's alright," meowed Hailfrost. "Just try to calm down and loosen up a little bit, I could smell your fear from here. Remember Willowpaw, there's nothing to be afraid of, everyone makes mistakes, even Gingerstar herself.  You're just learning, so calm down."
"It's just that..."
"It's just that nothing, Willowpaw. I was an apprentice too, I made a lot of mistakes too, and I still do.  A simple fall like that one is not going to prevent you from becoming a warrior."
"But it is going to cause everyone to make fun of me! Specially Oakpaw and Lightpaw!"
"Willowpaw, they're not even here.  And if they were, I would scold them."
"But-"
"Calm. Down." Retorted Hailfrost coldly.  "Just try it again."
Willowpaw sighed and got back into the stalking position. She walked a few silent steps and pounced, this time landing almost perfectly.
"You see? I told you so," said the she-warrior, "Let's go and actually catch something now.  Where do you suggest we go?"
Willowpaw thought about it: "Hmm... maybe near the EmberClan border..."
"Good. Let's get going" Willowpaw noticed how cold the warrior was speaking now. She wondered how their little quarrel over such a stupid thing could have possibly triggered her so much.

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Willowpaw pounced on a squirrel, and before it could get away she killed it by swiftly biting its spine. She took her catch proudly back to her mentor, who was watching her from the branch of an oak tree. Hailfrost came down from the tree. "Nice catch," she said coldly. Then she proceded to taste the air and head over the direction of prey. Willowpaw buried her squirrel, then did the same as Hailfrost, but headed to the opposite direction, where she could smell a vole.

She stalked it, pounced and caught it. She went back to where her squirrel was buried and buried the vole with it. Hailfrost came with a blackbird in her jaws. She set it down: "I think this is good," she said.
Willowpaw was surprised: "Three pieces of prey?"
"We are not a hunting patrol. Plus, I bumped into them, they had quite the catch. Also, remember we are going to practice some basic battle moves today, so let's get going." With that, Hailfrost took her blackbird and started heading back to camp. Willowpaw took her pret and followed her mentor.

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Back at camp, Willowpaw gave her squirrel to Needlefoot, or well, Needlefoot took it as soon as he saw it. The apprentice decided to give her vole to Snowwing. She headed towards the nursery and went inside it. Snowwing was curled up in her nest watching her kits sleep.
"Oh, hello there Willowpaw!" Said the white queen lovingly, "How is going with your training? Oh, did you catch this?"
"Um... yes, I did," replied Willowpaw as she set down the vole in front of Snowwing.
"Why, thank you!"
"No problem Snowwing. See you later!" Willowpaw left the nursery and went back to the entrance of the camp to join Hailfrost. Her mentor seemed like she had finally calmed down.

"So, are you ready to go?" She said, her voice way calmer than before they came to camp.
"Yes," said Willowpaw,  "Where are we training?"
"In the training hollow, of course," the two she-cats left camp and trotted over to the hollow.

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The hollow was located left to the camp, close to the RainClan border, it was full of leaves that had flown and fallen from the nearby oak trees, but you could see that it was a grassy hollow, with the perfect space for training. Twilightpaw and Swallowflame were there training too. Hailfrost and Willowpaw approached them.

"Oh, I see you're both here at last!" Said Swallowflame, looking at the newcomers, "Twilightpaw, stop trai- what is it that you're trying to do? You look like an EmberClan kit trying to catch a moth!- just come here!" With that, Twilightpaw scurried over to where everyone was. Swallowflame's whiskers twitched in amusement.
"Sorry, I was just trying out a move I made up," she said apologetically.
"Well, you can try it out while you're training with your sister!" replied the mentor.
"What?" The apprentice turned her head around.  "Oh, hi Willowpaw! Hi Hailfrost!"
"Hello Twilightpaw!" Said Willowpaw.
"Well, back to training.  'Paws, today are your first fighting training sessions, and so, we decided to combine them to make it a little bit more fun for you both," explained Hailfrost.
"Wow, thanks a lot!" Said Twilightpaw.
"You're welcome. Now, let's get on with it, shall we? Show us how you would do a front paw blow," Said Swallowflame.

Willowpaw remembered her hunting lessons. For the move, she dropped into a stalking position and lashed with her front paw.  Twilightpaw tried to do the same, but she jumped while slashing her paw, causing her to fall. Both mentors showed no expression, although Swallowflame's whiskers betrayed him. "Well, that was something alright," he said,  "You didn't have to jump Twilightpaw.  Although at the end, you both did it wrong. There's no need to crouch," he then proceded to demonstrate the move with Hailfrost. Turns out for both apprentices that it was simply standing and lashing your paw, bringing it down against you opponent's head.
"You see?" It was Hailfrost who spoke this time. "It's way easier than what you were doing. Try it out again. Willowpaw goes first against Twilightpaw."

Willowpaw tried to copy what Swallowflame had done, she lashed her paw as high as she could and brought it down quickly and strongly against her sister's head.
"Ow" complained Twilightpaw.
"Sorry," said Willowpaw.
"Well done there, Willowpaw!" Said Hailfrost.
"Yes, now, your turn Twilightpaw!" Meowed Swallowflame.

The training session went on and on,  Willowpaw noticed Swallowflame sitting pretty close to Hailfrost, sometimes whispering in her ears, to which Hailfrost responded either with an eye-roll or with a mrrow of amusement. Eventually, Twilightpaw noticed this too and said to Willowpaw:  "Holy StarClan, those two seem awfully close, don't you think?" Willowpaw and her sister could barely hold their laughter during the rest of training.

A/N: Make sure to point out any mistakes I missed!