First time's the charm

[Cloud of Diamonds]

The StreamClan tom watched as the small she-cat slunk across the sand and then sprung into the air to pin a leaf. Hmmm, nice touch, the striped reddish tom thought. It's good that she picked an actual target. But then Redtail resisted the urge to roll his eyes. For a while, everything Gingerpaw was doing would need more work, because she was a brand-new apprentice. Yet she seemed to expect to be good on her first try. Oh, what do I know? He thought wearily. She's probably just anxious, and I refuse to go into empathy mode. Maybe this was the evil in Gingerpaw, that she was anxious enough to drive the ginger tom up the wall. Or maybe I'm a paranoid mouse-brain, he grimly reflected. But yet...mentoring seemed to come so naturally to him. Shaking his head in effort to try and rid himself of all his confusing feelings, he twitched his whiskers slightly and cleared his throat, trying to make up for his pause. Hopefully it would seem to Gingerpaw that he had simply been thinking of criticism. "Hmm, picking a leaf as a target was a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. And your skill for leaping is fairly developed already, which is good. The only thing I would say is to remember to check your pawsteps. In the sand it doesn't matter as much, but in the forest where there's twigs, stones, thorns, and dried leaves, you always want to look before you step. I know it's difficult to be thinking of everything at once, but it's what you have to do. If it makes you feel better, it took me a while to learn to hunt, and even now I'm not the best hunter. So, Gingerpaw, do you feel confident enough to try to hunt now, or do you want to practice more?"

[Puddyluff]

"I think I'm ready," sighed Gingerpaw, exhausted from leaping and bouncing. Without waiting for an answer, she crept up to a place where she thought would be a nice place. I can do this, thought Gingerpaw as she crept up closer and closer to a bush of leaves. Mouse! She spotted a brown mouse, finding nuts. She crept closer and closer to the mouse, and before the mouse could go anywhere, she leaped and killed the mouse without suffocating it. She caught her first mouse. She raised her head up high, wondering what her mentor would say. Gripping the mouse in her teeth, Gingerpaw stalked to Redtail, her amber eyes full of pride. "Well?" asked Gingerpaw, bouncing up and down. Her mother would be so impressed. "What do you think?"

[Cloud of Diamonds]

The eyebrows went up and the ears straightened. She was good, no doubt about that. But this early catch might inspire her to be overconfident and reckless. Praise would be good for her, no doubt-though he hoped she didn't expect him to flatter her all the time. Redtail couldn't do that. It wasn't that he was unfriendly, so much as he was overthinking-trying to work out why she wanted praise, how much she needed, whether he should throw criticism in-it was a jumble, no doubt. But also a practically unbreakable habit of his. How it reminded him of when he'd meow volumes of awe in his head, all for Snarl, no thought was required....um. But now it was simple, but only because this was a special occaison. Any mentor with a shred of compassion would warmly praise their apprentice's first catch, right? Repressing a slight smirk as he watched her bounce once more, he meowed, "It was well done, Gingerpaw. You were lucky your prey was distracted, but still, you demonstrated the skills I taught you with precision. We'll take our catches back to camp, because now that you have one basic hunting skill down, I want to show you as much of the territory as I can, and it'll save us the trouble of fetching them later when we're tired." The large tom padded with sure steps to where the vole he'd caught was buried and began to unearth it.

[Puddyluff]

"Well, okay. If you say so." Gingerpaw wanted to hunt more, but she had to listen to her mentor. If she didn't, Redtail wouldn't want to teach her, and that would make Stripedpelt upset, and everything would be ruined. She looked at Redtail and asked, "Are we going to train again tomorrow? What will we do? Will we do something else? Will-" she stopped. Gingerpaw felt that she asked too many questions at once. But she couldn't really help it. It was just coming out. She couldn't do anything to fix it, but she managed to say, "sorry." shyly. She turned around, waiting for Redtail to say something. Perhaps he would say nothing. Perhaps he would..... Wild thoughts filled Gingerpaw's mind.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

The large StreamClan tom grunted. Nervous, so nervous, she was. But then, he'd been the same way. A fleck of dirt landed on the warrior's muzzle as the vole was shaken out of its earthy covering. Part of Redtail longed to puzzle out his apprentice's emotions, but he firmly told himself he must devote only a little thought to his answer, careful to make his tone neutral but light. "We might train tomorrow, it depends on how much of the territory we cover today. Most likely, though, I'll finish showing you the territory if I can't today, and if I do finish, tomorrow you'll learn more hunting techniques." Redtail paused, but suddenly/Erinfail felt a need to explain himself more. He did not, after all, want Gingerpaw to think that he thought she was too weak to train. He cleared his throat, tail twitching, and said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone,"Um, Gingerpaw, if you're wondering...I'm saving combat training for later not because I think you're not capable, but you're young and your muscles haven't really developed yet, so I don't want to put too much stress on your body." His eyes were a bit wider than usual, with the anxiety over wondering if his apprentice would be offended.

[Puddyluff]

Gingerpaw meowed, "Yay! I really need to get this territory introduction done, then, because I really want to train how to hunt!" Gingerpaw gave no clue of sadness, but she immediately turned her voice down, because she spoke to much. I've been to careful, thought Gingerpaw. Now, I'm just going to speak up and say all the things that I really want to say. I mean, I'm going to be an apprentice for about six moons, and if I be so quiet, I might even lose my voice. "So, are we going to cross the borders or anything? Or are we just going to look around our territory?" questioned Gingerpaw, her amber eyes full of curiosity. She hoped that she was only going throughout the StreamClan territory, because she really didn't need to get in trouble by the leader.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Redtail rolled his dark eyes. He couldn't help it. Crossing the borders. The borders. The very notion disgusted him. It was practically like spying. And Gingerpaw was starting to have the bad habit of stating the utterly obvious. The ginger tom could not put up with that. Chattiness wasn't so bad, but this was just ridiculous. Was the little she-cat stupid or something? If he had to be blunt, he would. In fact, it would probably come to that. Then Gingerpaw would probably be hurt, and then he would feel her pain and question why he'd done it, and then it would be awkward, and he did not like awkwardness. He felt awkward enough every day as it was. But he did need to be honest, though he'd try to..go easy on her. Even though the possibiity of seeing her squirm, with pain or embarrassment or anger, was oh so tempting...trying to keep contempt out of his voice, he said, "Just our territory. Never cross the borders unless it's vital to the future of the Clan, Gingerpaw. But first, we need to get this prey back." Scraping the last of the soil off of the vole, he bent down to grasp it in his jaws and raised his head again. "C'mon." He mumbled, hoping he was loud enough. "Gotta get these back to camp." The large StreamClanner began to walk in his thudding way in the direction of camp.

[Puddyluff]

"Well, okay!" Gingerpaw was told never to cross the borders, so she was never going to cross the borders. She would do anything for her mentor. Why did he roll his eyes? wonder Gingerpaw as she followed Redtail with her mouse. Was he mad? thought Gingerpaw. If he's mad, it should be a very bad sign, because it's only our first day. Also, he seemed to be really irritated with me. Am I that annoying when I speak? Worries floated into Gingerpaw's mind. What if her mentor hated her because of all the jibber jabber? Gingerpaw just decided not to care, and seriously think about it when the time comes. She liked to look to the positive side. After all, today was the day she got her own mouse. The first one. Her mother would be so impressed. She could just imagine Stripedpelt, beaming with pride. She loved it when her mother did that. Actually, that was probably one of the main reason why Gingerpaw did good things at all. If there were no reward, then why would she do good things? Why would she even hunt for the clan? Even a compliment was a reward to her. It was so lonely in the nursery that all she really wanted to do was talk to other cats. Enjoy her time in the Clan. And she would be able to do that when she went back to the clan. She smiled, forgetting that Redtail was moving along. She shook her head, and meowed, "Redtail! Wait up!"

[Cloud of Diamonds]

He hadn't even realized he was leaving her behind until he heard his apprentice's call. Couldn't she even keep up, for goodness' sake? Redtail thought that and immediately felt guilty. How would he feel if he were a new apprentice, possibly worried, definitely excited, buzzing with energy, and having just caught his first piece of prey, and his mentor rolled their eyes, dug up their prey, and walked off? Admittedly, she should be paying more attention, but still, he felt that...maybe he should be more kind.

Gingerpaw was a she-cat, after all. Who knew with them? The further away from you they were, the better off you were.

Maybe if he were kind to begin with, she wouldn't pester him later on. It was an idea, at least. In any case, the striped tom stopped moving, his right back paw in a tiny puddle. However, he didn't mind it too much. How long would it take her to catch up? He wondered.

She was far smaller than him, with legs half as long as his, but she seemed to have endless energy. Hmm....speaking of time, how far away was moonrise, roughly? The StreamClan tom tipped his head back to look at the sky through slightly narrowed eyes. The sun wasn't that low in the sky yet, so he figured they had a while before it set. Plenty of time to tour the territory.

[Puddyluff]

Gingerpaw quickly ran to where Redtail was. Now that she thought about it, Redtail wasn't that bad. After all, this was the first day, so laughing and other cheerful things would be abnormal. "Well, do you think we'll be able to tour the territory in one day?" mumbled Gingerpaw, with a mouse in her mouth. Wondering if Redtail was able to understand what she had said, she dropped her mouse and repeated, "Do you think we'll be able to tour the territory in one day? Like, now?" Then, she picked up then mouse, and stalked a little faster to keep up with Redtail. She had a hard time speaking to her mentor, because Redtail was just so big, compared to her. She had to look up to see his expression, and she had to look up to obverse what Redtail looked like. She would have to stop doing that when she got used to him, because then Redtail would think of her as a pest that always tries to distract where they were looking. Besides, she already knew that she was going to grow up. If she did, then she can just speak to him without bending her neck upward. Actually, she expected a cat with a warm smile as her mentor. Things change, thought Gingerpaw. And if I like Redtail, and he is a good mentor, that's all that matters. She couldn't really tell yet whether or not Redtail was a good mentor, but she assumed that he was, by the way he let Gingerpaw catch her first mouse without any failures.