StreamClan Training Clearing

A clearing just outside of the river surrounding StreamClan's camp, used for training apprentices in battle.

Burntglare hurried in the direction of the training clearing, smiling with eagerness. He was out patrolling with his first apprentice, Cloverpaw, and after showing him the boundaries of StreamClan territory he was looking forward to beginning battle training. Glancing behind him for the apprentice, Burntglare slowed his pace and impatiently waited for Cloverpaw.

But clover paw was following burnt glare the whole time. For he was as eager as burnt glare was.

PoppyLight pads on the other side of the training ground, a plump fish in her mouth flicking its fin side to side faintly. She bites down harder, trying to avoid letting it go. She notices Burntglare and CloverPaw and shouts to them muffled. "Hey! Going Training with the young one, Burntglare?"

"Yep!" replied the tom, nodding in greeting to Poppylight. "I've shown Cloverpaw most of the territory, so we're trying some battle training now!" Burntglare meowed. He looked to the apprentice, "Make sure your claws are always sheathed during battle training, so no one gets hurt. In a real battle though, you'll need to use your claws!"

PoppyLight smiled and continued onto camp, the fish no longer moving.

"Oh! Do you want to join us, Poppylight?!"

PoppyLight turned her head at the faint suggestion. "Sure! Let me just drop this fish off to the fresh-kill pile, okay!" She turned her head to Burntglare. "Is that fine with you, Burntglare?"

"Sure, that'd be great!" purred Burntglare. "The more the merrier, as they say, after all."

PoppyLight smiled and padded over to camp. About 5 minutes later, she came back and padded over to them. "Shall we start?"

"Yep!" said Burntglare. "Oh and Cloverpaw," he said, glancing at the apprentice, "double-check that your claws are sheathed." He looked at his paws and flexed his claws, keeping them curled and safely hidden underneath his toes.

Cloverpaw stared at BurntGlare's movements and copied perfectly. "yep! sheathed sheathed sheated. Sheathed!!" he smiled.

Poppy looked down at her claws and retracted them.

"Good.." he meowed. "Um, for a first move, how about the Front Paw Blow? It's always done with claws sheathed, even in battle. Mostly all you're doing is hitting the opponent with your paw, on the head."

Cloverpaw drew her paw back and forced it forward hard towards burntglare's noggin, but slowed himself down one second before he hit and gently tapped his mentor on the head followed by a "like that?"

Poppy watched, nodding to herself when CloverPaw demonstrated. *Good.* She thought.

"was it bad?" cloverpaw whined. "oh! should i do it harder?!" he joked!

Poppy laughed quietly. "It looked fine to me." She looked towards Burntglare.

He nodded, smiling. "That was good, Cloverpaw! Next time in battle it would do better to do it harder, but for now you don't want to hurt anybody." Burntglare grinned and nodded approvingly of how gently the apprentice had trained this time. "Poppylight, do you want to mock battle with Cloverpaw, and see how well he really knows the move?"

"What is mock battle?"

"Fake battle," Burntglare explained, his voice hardening now wit h a touch of sudden annoyance. "Pretend."

PoppyLight nodded. "Sure." She stepped forward. "Now, try the move on me." She kept a position and her claws sheathed in her paws.

"Like for real? Hard?"

Poppylight shook her head. "No. Pretend battle. Not for real. To make it clear, try your best."

"okay um... i don't get it."