first steps too far [o]

[prowler.]

Minnowpaw
____________

x. Minnowpaw's first thought of the day had been that it was a free day off her reccently begun training with her new mentor and what by StarClan could she do on a free day. She'd decided that she should still spend it usefully, she'd started by standing around in camp, wide-eyed and watching the goings on as cats came, left, hunted, brought back fresh kill and patrolled. She had so desperately wanted to be in on one of those patrols, but nobody had wanted a brand new apprentice that barely knew the territory on their patrol. So after much boredom of sitting around, she'd decided she'd re-follow the route she'd been shown just days before around the territory, get her legs on her own territory and all that, know the place to impress her mentor with her knowledge of the area. Yeah, that was it, it'd be fine. She'd just follow her tracks back if she got lost.

x. That had been the plan anyway, she'd got it right sure, and here she'd ended up, but when she tried to follow back the scents got all mixed up and her tracks were covered by other smaller tracks, not to mention leaves and stuff. 'Aw foxdung' she mewed quietly to herself. Looking around herself she knew she was still in their territory, she smelt the familiar fuzz of her own clanmates around her. Still, not far off a stronger, unfamiliar scent assaulted her nostrils. She remembered it, but couldn't put the clan to it, aw shoot she thought, how had she forgot what her mentor had said already? Still, she pushed through the bushes near her, eyes wide as a massive smell affronted her, mixed fiercely with her clan's own. Lowering her head she sniffed the ground experimentally - yep, this was what she'd smelt before, the border.

x. Eyes still wide and intrigued she wandered across the line, making careful not to cross over it. Ears pricked she heard the light sound of a rustle and almost jumped out of her skin 'w-who g-goes t-t-there?' she mewed, voice tiny and quiet. Glancing up, she saw a crow tilt it's head at her from the branches of a tree and breathed outward in relief - phew, how she'd thought that would be a cat of another clan or her mentor or a patrol coming to tell her off.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/color]

[Crowzerplorodon]

A routine border check with his apprentice seemed like a fine day to spend the day, Cloudstar had mused. It would provide an opportunity to see how she had been progressing with her training, sort of like a mini-assessment. He could ask her to hunt a bit, track some scents, and maybe even toss around a short battle practice. Whether he’d admit it or not, Cloudstar hadn’t been spending adequate time with Duskpaw. That would definitely have to change as she got closer to graduating to warrior.

His white paws padded silently across the earth as Cloudstar made his way to the border with PineClan. Duskpaw should hopefully be right behind him, though he hadn’t turned his head back to check in a while nor had they engaged in any conversation during the trip. Perhaps he should say something. She was his apprentice, after all. Learning how she felt within the clan and how other cats treated her might be a good idea.

As the scent of PineClan grew stronger Cloudstar couldn’t help but notice the strengthening StreamClan scent as well. Had a patrol been by here recently? He didn’t recall sending out a patrol to check this border, but then again, that was more of something Stormflower did. It seemed a tad of a waste if a patrol had already swept by here. Their time would be better spent at a different border.

He sniffed the air, but the scent of the cat (or cats) was too masked by the PineClan border for him to tell their identity. He guessed they would go check it out, because whoever it maybe was still there. ”Duskpaw, we’re going to see who is along the PineClan border, alright?”

[/blockquote]

[glowlynose]

A breeze swept around the surrounding forest, teasing Duskpaw's fur into a more ruffled state than it had been in originally. Her ears flicked at the sudden disturbance of her... erm... thoughts. In reality, she hadn't been thinking about much at all, so it was really more of a disturbance of her lack of thought. She craned her neck around to look at her shoulder. Wait... what just happened? She smoothed her fur and looked around to make sure that she hadn't fallen too far behind whoever she was out with at the moment.

Oh. Right. Cloudstar. We're... patrolling. Her pace quickened, for she had indeed fallen a bit behind her mentor, and soon she was following him at a normal distance once more. A quiet snicker escaped her lips and she shook her head. No one was likely to understand the cause of her amusement.

The PineClan border scent choked her. She wasn't so inept at tracking that she couldn't smell a border when it came up. Another smell seemed to be mingling with the border smell, a definitely StreamClan smell, but she could not be sure.

”Duskpaw, we’re going to see who is along the PineClan border, alright?” Duskpaw remained silent for several moments. She even blinked once or twice. The fact that Cloudstar had said something seemed to completely escape her, and she padded on in blissful silence. "Huh? Oh, uh, sure." It embarrassed her that she didn't know what he'd said to her, so she went with what seemed like the safest reply. Her ears burned in shame as she followed her mentor.

[/center]

[prowler.]

Minnowpaw
____________

x. Duskpaw, we’re going to see who is along the PineClan border, alright? oh crap, Minnowpaw thought as the voice sounded quietly but not too far off. Duskpaw? Wasn't that... Cloudstar's apprentice! Oh no, it really was her leader coming to tell her off. Quickly, she hurried further on, paws scrambling at the leaves beneath her paws to push her off. She made it four steps before trying to move all fours at the same time and, leaves slipping beneath the said paws, fell flat on her face with a heavy "oomph."

x. She groaned a little at the fall and rolled over self-sympathetically, sitting up with fur sticking out everywhere. Shaking her head she yawned a little before hazily remembering; oh, right, Cloudstar! Before scrambling to her paws yet again, she was about to make off when she heard the duo moving through the bushes to her location. They'd be upon her any second! She froze, aw man, she'd have to... not run, they saw her running and it'd look worse. She grimaced and faced the direction they were coming from, waiting for the storm from Cloudstar and the shame of it being done in front of Duskpaw to no doubt ensue.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/color]