Diverging Paths (Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 12

Half a moon later...

Highwings trotted around, observing Whirlpaw's position with squinted eyes. They had spent days on his battle moves, and he was blooming into an already-pretty-okay fighter, but the tom-cat was lagging behind in hunting. That was why she continued training him late into the night tonight, as he badly needed practice in hunting, regardless of how tired he was now.

"Are we done yet?" he mewed tiredly.

"Not yet. Show me your leap," she snapped, her patience just as worn as his body. "As far as you can go."

He bunched up his muscles, trying to give it his all despite his exhaustion. He let go of the tension, leaping forth as hard as he could, going a somewhat-considerable distance before shakily landing. He had to stumble a bit, but usually all newer apprentices did; he was only half a moon into his training, anyway.

Highwings, though, was ruthless in her style. Marching up to him, she hauled him onto his four paws by his scruff. "You're putting your energy into all the wrong things!" she growled. Whirlpaw expected more instruction after this, but then she walked off to the side and sat down, flicking his tail to signal to do it again.

"And what're the right things for it?" he questioned her through gritted teeth. She was nice and all sometimes, but his mentor could be infuriating at other times.

"Ugh. Look." Highwings got into her own hunting crouch, doing her best to show her legs. "Your legs are meant for very specific things. Your back legs need to provide all the power; your front legs steer you. The more you distribute each responsibility among your legs, the less efficiency you gain in your pounce overall."

Whirlpaw blinked, and immediately wriggled his haunches in anticipation for another pounce. Highwings walked across his view, pointing to a spot on the ground marked by a small stone. "You will leap to here." Trotting back over to him, she then stood over him, taking his shoulders in her paws, and forcefully rotated his body an acute angle away from the target. "From this angle. Remember, front legs steer, back legs power. Go!"

The insistence and harsh tone of his mentor scared Whirlpaw, and he instinctively leaped forward. While he tried using what she had said, it was easier said than done, and almost instinctually, his front paws spent most of their energy on powering him while his back legs lost a lot of their power to trying to steer him.

Whirlpaw landed way off-target; he did not turn enough, nor did he go far enough to reach the stone even if he had rotated enough in his pounce. He landed unevenly on the ground, his muzzle hitting the floor and dragging along it for a bit, stirring up a small cloud of dust and dirt, before his front paws shoved down and his head jerked up.

He came to a disgraceful stop, sitting down and panting. "I'm so sorry!" he mewed quickly as he turned around to face his disappointed mentor. "I'm no good at this!"

Highwings huffed. "We'll just have to work harder, then." The she-cat then stopped short, her nose twitching.

"Highwings, please! We've been training so long, I'm so tired...can we please just do this tomorrow-" Whirlpaw attempted to beg.

"Shhh!" she shushed him, swishing her long tail over his mouth and turning somewhat away from him.

"Wh...What is it?" His voice dropped to a murmur automatically, even without knowing what was wrong.

Highwings twitched her nose more. She was no tracker like Sunroar, of course, but that did not at all make her incompetent with scents. "Someone is here," she whispered harshly. Turning back to the apprentice, she saw his distinct amber eyes had widened into large orbs, clearly frightened by her intensity. "Get out of the clearing. We're exposed."