Do I Have What It Takes ~Darkpaw's Training~

Lionshine nodded in consideration. “In the coming moons I'll teach you to recognize most of those scents. Fortunately, we're getting closer and closer to newleaf, so there will be more prey-scents in the area.” Gesturing towards the tree where he could smell the finch, Lionshine continued. “We're not going to hunt it, but there's a finch up in that tree. It can be a bit tricky to pick out the scent of prey when they're in some of the more fragrant trees, like that spruce.”

As a follow up to that, Lionshine delicately picked up a fallen spruce twig by the bark in his paw. He held it out to Darkpaw. “You may recognize the scent from the trees near camp, but sniff the needles of this twig. Don't touch the needles, though. They aren't quite deadly, but they'll make you sick all the same - if you ever do directly touch spruce needles, you'll have to wash up with water instead of your tongue,” he explained. “That said, once you're familiar with the scent, it'll be easier for you to pick out prey-scent. When water is less dangerous, you can even roll in needles to hide your scent, though I don't really recommend it. There are safer ways to do that.”

“Well, mud and safer plants are pretty popular for masking your scent,” Lionshine explained, discarding the twig and flexing his paw to make sure no bark got stuck in between his toes. Once satisfied with the cleanliness of the two gaps, he returned his paw to the snow. “In newleaf, there will be a lot of flowers you can roll in, for example. There will also be a period of recovering from the flooding, so mud will be abundant. Fortunately, you don't need to recognize safe mud beyond making sure it's not too deep. Some flowers are safe to use, others range in poison. Don't worry - I'll be sure to point them out to you when they come.”

Resuming the walk towards the newleaf camp, Lionshine beckoned Darkpaw once more. “Speaking of the floods, we're heading to the newleaf camp now. I suppose you wouldn't have had time to learn to swim properly, hm? Hopefully we'll have a bit of time to work on that before the floods. Most cats can manage normal water on instinct, but proper training will make the flood easier on you.”

“Well, with newleaf's warmth the snow melts and becomes water again. The snow in the mountains melting means there's more water rushing down from the Celestial Lake, and all the snow and ice down here melts around the same time. Not to mention, newleaf tends to be fairly rainy. All that extra water doesn't have anywhere to go, so it ends up flooding,” Lionshine explained, reflecting on the changing of the seasons. “While that's mostly bad news for us, it does clear out a lot of dead foliage from leafbare, and I feel like it makes the fish more active when they're readjusting to their typical environment.”

The mountains where the Celestial Lake resided were still in the distance, but between the branches of leafless trees and the gaps between the evergreens, Lionshine could make out their familiar shape. Their peaks were capped with white snow - he felt they almost glowed in the sunlight.

“Well, it's all part of the cycle of the world, I suppose. There are probably benefits I don't know about that the forest needs. A lot of little details contribute to the balance of the world - some of which we have to keep in mind as warriors. We can only hunt what we need to survive, or else we'd run out of prey, for example.”

“A moon or two from now, if I had to guess,” Lionshine pondered. “We can't ever predict exactly when the floods will start, but we try to leave camp before the time they usually begin. The exact time will be more up to Pansystar. Either way, we should have quite a bit of time to prepare you.”

Hesitantly, he gestured in the direction of the newleaf camp, despite them walking that way already. “The camp's a bit of a mess right now, so it'll have to be cleaned up before we can move in.”

“Yes - when you think about it, the camp that we stay in now, we have tasks to keep it clean and safe. When we go back to it, we usually have to fix things a bit.” On that note, he felt both better and worse prepared to answer Darkpaw's second question. Things were changing, and she had both the fortune and misfortune of being an apprentice to witness it all. “It can take a few days to get a camp ready in general, but I don't know how long it'll take this year. With Pansystar introducing the camp keepers we'll have cats who devote most of their time to the task. It should go faster than usual, and should speed up the process both ways.”

While it was hard for Lionshine to come to grips with the choices Pansystar made, repeating and explaining the logic to an apprentice now made things seem easier to handle. He opted to ignore his feelings on that.

“I'm not sure,” Lionshine mused, thinking over the cats he talked to within the Clan. “I heard Ivystrike was interested, but most other cats I can think of seem to have some reason to want to stick with their current duties. Swiftsnow, for example, might be suited to camp keeping if she wasn't so devoted to being a queen. Ashwillow is always looking to pick up a new skill, but I know he's always keen to explore or spend time with other cats.” He couldn't fault other cats for feeling that way. Even he was a bit interested in camp keeping, but he enjoyed mentoring too much to give it up.

“But, I do enjoy being a warrior. Providing for the Clan is very rewarding to me.”

Lionshine briefly counted through his apprentices on his foreclaws, vaguely amused that he was almost out of forepaws by the time he got to Darkpaw. In two apprentices he'd have to repeat paws. “Four before you,” Lionshine answered. “You're my fifth apprentice - I almost didn't realize that I've had five apprentices already.” As Lionshine reflected, the feeling of being assigned Darkpaw's mentor was much different than the feelings she had when she was assigned her first apprentice. Excited and a little nervous still, but not like the first time.

How subtly life makes drastic changes.

“Well, the newleaf camp shouldn't be too far from here. Do you want to try your paw at hunting before we get there, or would you prefer we stick with touring and worry about hunting tomorrow?”