Work to the bone (Coon)

[Aaronoid]

Shadepaw stared down the bird before him. Curiously, it barely moved although it must have seen him by now. The black tom crouched free from the shadows restraints, harsh sunlight rippling on his dark fur, standing out bluntly against the faded greys of the rocks around him. Yet the bird seemed oblivious, hopping closer still as it pecked at the ground hopefully. The young apprentice flexed his claws, a smirk crawling up his jaw.

Maybe I’ll actually catch one this time he thought fleetingly before wriggling his hindquarters and pouncing. His paws were targeted squarely on the bird’s feathered back and Shadepaw was just about to yowl out a victory when the bird vanished. As his claws struck its form they simply slid through, leaving a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of Shadepaw’s stomach, and the figure of his prey dissolved like smoke into the air. The dark tom stared at his empty paws, frustration rising within his chest as he struck out fiercely at the rock beneath him, cursing loudly at losing his prey again.

“HEY!” Shadepaw blinked open weary eyes to stare at the glaring eyes of the older apprentice next to him. “D’yu mind keeping your paws in your own nest?” he grumbled, blinking tiredly. Only now did Shadepaw notice that he must have moved in his sleep for he lay splayed out in his nest, moss kicked about and one paw practically prodding the other apprentice in the flank. The apprentice quickly withdrew his foot but flung a stubborn snarl at his denmate. “I’ll put my paws wherever I please” he growled sleepily, boldly flicking his tail at the apprentice as he stumbled out of the den. The other tom sniffed haughtily before curling up into a sleeping ball of fur once more.

Shadepaw was slowly starting to hate dreaming. When he was a kit, all he dreamt about was fighting in great battles and overcoming his enemies and being the glorious hero of Boulderclan. As an apprentice, these uplifting images of his skills were replaced by projections of his failures. Specifically his trouble with hunting. Shadekit had imagined training to be all about learning to fight and defend his clan. Shadepaw now knew that it also meant learning to stalk and hunt prey; something that was unfortunately not a natural gift for the young tom and was turning out to be exceedingly difficult for him to learn. Patience and agility were two things Shadepaw did not possess. He’d have to earn them over much time of practice and effort. It’s hard to put effort into something you hate but if there’s one thing Shadepaw hated more than sitting motionlessly for hours waiting for a scrawny lizard or bird it was being bad at something. Failure was unacceptable and so Shadepaw willingly sought out chances to improve himself, determined to accomplish his goal of being the best warrior. Of course, this obsessive strive for perfection led to some pretty depressing dreams.

Sunlight attacked Shadepaws pale green eyes as he emerged from the shadows of the apprentice den. He closed them against the rays as he took the time to stretch and shake the moss out of his fur. When he opened them again he could see the other cats walking by on their daily duties. I wonder if Raccoonstar’s gonna teach me anything new today he sighed inwardly. Lately, his strict mentor had been concentrating on improving Shadepaws lacking hunting skills. The young tom was just itching to show the leader his skill at fighting but he had insisted that the importance of “feeding the clan” came first. Ugh. The black apprentice raked his claws impatiently against the stone beneath him. The leader seemed more interested in Shadepaw’s correct use of grammer than teaching him battle skills (that was another thing that frustrated Shadepaw about Raccoonstar. This led to him attempting to find every opportunity to use ‘erroneous’ language.)

Retracting his claws, Shadepaw moved to lay down on some sun baked rocks near the edge of the camp and lazily surveyed the activity of the camp. "Whatever. If that dreary furball wants to train, let him come to me" Shadepaw mumbled hazily, his eyes slipping shut to drag the tom back into some much needed sleep.