Pineshade's Loss

Chapter 2

It is Pinepaw's first day of training. The dark gray tom hops out of his nest as soon as he wakes up and hurries up to meet up with Leafshadow.

"You're early!" Leafshadow purrs as Pinepaw approaches her.

"Will Hawkpaw, Ebonypaw, or Beetlepaw be joining us?" Pinepaw asks excitedly.

"I'm not sure," Leafshadow responds. "But none of them will as of now. I think if it's anybody, it would be Beetlepaw and Russetblaze," She meows. "Hawkpaw and Ebonypaw are much farther in their training than you."

"I know that, I just want to get to know them better," Pinepaw admits.

"I'm glad you want to get to know my kits," Leafshadow purrs. "It would be great if you became friends with them."

"Are you two going to train?" Pinepaw hears a familiar voice meows. He turns his head to spot Russetblaze with Beetlepaw standing beside him. Pinepaw is excited to see them.

"Yes, want to join us?" Leafshadow asks.

"Of course," Russetblaze responds.

"Great!" Leafshadow meows as Pinepaw and Beetlepaw exchange excited glances. "Let's go," She meows, leading the way out of camp. The four cats walk until they reach a small clearing.

"This will be a good place for training," Leafshadow meows. "Since it is your first day, Pinepaw, I will be teaching you some basic hunting techniques. You will probably need to know how to hunt before you know how to hunt," She meows.

"Fair," Pinepaw responds, although he would prefer to learn how to fight first.

"The keys to hunting are silence and accuracy," Leafshadow explains. "If you don't know these, you might as well be stuck eating dry kittypet food in a twolegnest." Pinepaw nods, understanding.

"First, you have to crouch low like this," Leafshadow instructs, crouching down low to demonstrate. "Your belly has to be almost touching the ground," She meows. Pinepaw observes Leafshadow and then tries it for himself.

"That's it!" Leafshadow praises. "Then, you have to slowly sneak toward your prey. Try not to make any noise at all because that may scare it away," She meows, beginning to stalk forward as if she was about to catch prey. Pinepaw watches her and then does the same.

"That's good! Just try to be a bit lighter on your paws. Try not to stomp," Leafshadow reminds her apprentice. Pinepaw nods.

"Then, once you're close enough, you pounce at it! This is where accuracy comes in. If you leap and miss it, then there's a very low chance you'll end up with anything to bring back to camp," Leafshadow teaches. Pinepaw nods and watches as Leafshadow leaps for a leaf that's on the ground. She catches it right in her paws. "Then, you kill it. There are many ways you could possibly kill it, but the most common way is to simply bite its neck," She meows. He watches as the dark brown she-cat bites the leaf. She then holds it in her jaws.

Is this whole presentation really necessary? I wasn't planning on watching my mentor bite into a leaf pretending it's a mouse like a kit would. Pinepaw thinks.

"And that's how you do it!" Leafshadow concludes. "I want to see you practice it on this leaf," She says, dropping it back back on the ground. "Remember everything I told you," She meows.

Now she's having me do it! Pinepaw thinks. He just nods and decides to do what his mentor told him.

The dark gray tom eyes fix on the leaf as he crouches low to the ground. He then sneaks closer to the leaf. However, he steps on another leaf, which results in a loud crunch.

"It's over!" Leafshadow meows. "Your prey would've heard that and ran off." Pinepaw lets out a sigh. "Lets try it again."

Pinepaw goes back to his original position and crouches low again. He stalks closer to the leaf, trying his best not to mess up this time. Once he gets close enough, he leaps for it, but misses it by a tail length. He stumbles to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Leafshadow asks, hurrying over to her apprentice. He slowly gets up.

"I'm fine," Pinepaw responds, licking dirt off his chest fur.

"Don't worry about missing it," Leafshadow meows. "This is only your first time, you will get better with more practice," She meows. Pinepaw notices that his brother is going through the same situation, leaping and missing completely.

At least I'm not alone. Pinepaw thinks.

"Are you ready to head back to camp?" Leafshadow asks her apprentice.

"Yeah," Pinepaw simply responds.

"Let's go then," Leafshadow meows. He then follows her back to camp.

I can't wait to tell Milkkit and Spikekit about this! Pinepaw thinks. Once they get back to camp, Pinepaw dashes over to the nursery, excited to tell his friends about his first day of training. It won't be much longer until they're apprentices as well.

"Pinepaw!" Milkkit meows excitedly once she spots the dark gray tom.

"Pinepaw? How'd it go?" Spikekit asks him.

"It wasn't as fun as I expected, but it was still pretty fun! I learned how to hunt and I had to pretend a leaf was prey!" Pinepaw answers.

"A leaf?" Milkkit asks. "Why a leaf? Is that even needed?" She mews.

"I don't know, for accuracy purposes I guess," Pinepaw responds.

"Anyways, I can't wait to join you! I can't wait to go hunting with you, Pinepaw!" Milkkit
meows excitedly.

"I can't wait either," Pinepaw meows.

"I just don't want to check Silentstream for ticks," Spikekit meows, shivering at the thought.

"I haven't had to do it yet, but I bet I will soon," Pinepaw responds.

"Milkkit! Spikekit!" Pinepaw then hears Goosecloud call from the nursery.

"Well, gotta go!" Spikepaw meows, dashing over towards the nursery.

"Goodbye, Pinepaw," Milkkit meows before dashing after her brother.

"See you two later!" Pinepaw calls.