[ti]Private[/ti]Wake up, flawless

[bits]

It had been a bit of a surprise for Swiftwing when she'd been given an apprentice. Oh, she was a fine warrior; she was hard working and knowledgeable, and she cared deeply about her clan and its success. The issue came with her ... more people-oriented skills. Swiftwing was a tough molly, an active warrior, and probably one of the least empathetic felines on the face of the planet. It wasn't for lack of trying, but she didn't get along with her remaining family and she had never been the caring, compassionate kind. She'd been a little worried for the day she became a mentor; but now that it had happened... well, if nothing else, she knew what it took to be a warrior.

So she had told Blitzpaw to meet her at the edge of camp, the day after the ceremony. That would give him a chance to see his new den and get as settled as anyone needed to be - and Swiftwing would have a night to get ready for this whole thing. Her mind flicked back and forth from her apprenticeship to what she knew now, as a warrior. She wanted to be a better mentor than she had - not because her mentor had failed in any way, but because improving was her constant goal. She wanted to do better than those before her so that those who came after her could be better than her.

So Swiftwing waited at the camp entrance just past dawn, flicking her tail and waiting for her new apprentice to arrive so they could head into the Araios Woods.

[Miss Tactical]

The Broad shouldered tom snarled at an apprentice as he pushed his way out of the den. ”Out of my way punk.” with a twitch of his whiskers he gave his victim a hard nudge. Ever since the death of his mother Owlstar, he hadn’t quite been himself. His blue-green eyes trailed over to his father Moorwhiskers before giving an irritated snort. This was incredibly stupid, at least in his eyes. Waste of his time. He had other things that he would rather be doing and getting up this early was not one of them. The Scottish wild cat flick his tail before trotting towards his mentor, whom of which he was certain he would outgrow in the coming moons.

With a long, and clearly exaggerated sigh (loud too) he looked at Swiftwing with clear annoyance. ”Let’s just get this day over with please. I have things I’d rather be doing.” It wasn’t his mentor’s fault, surely had his mother still been alive the mamas boy would have turned out much differently, but with so much pent up hatred for the clan you were in, mostly the leader at that, he felt as if there was no point. He wondered how his father felt about Rookstar, and how his siblings were fairing. He probably just wanted to be leader that’s why he left her. ”I’m not hungry so can we just go now?” He mewed breaking the long silence between the two.

[bits]

Her eye twitched when her apprentice showed up.

Oh, she was already high strung enough. Between her nearly bone-deep perfectionism and her lack of emotional connections, it was no wonder that she ran herself ragged and tended to have very little patience. Maybe it was a punishment from Starclan themselves to give her what appeared to be surly, warrior-sized child as an apprentice. But she wasn't about to be intimidated - absolutely not. Though her apprentice was destined to be larger than her, at the end of the day, her goal was to ensure the not-so-little brat was prepared, loyal, and well-trained. She clenched her teeth, took a deep breath, and prepared herself for around six moons of tension headaches.

"Nope."

She wasn't intimidated by this brat, she wasn't concerned. She had experience on her side and had a fair amount of respect for her skills, if not her personality. The initial disrespect was something that neither surprised her, nor was it something she'd suffer from this literal child.

"Here's how this is going to go. I don't care if you like me, I don't care if you've got attitude problems. We all have issues, I don't care. I'm not here to be your friend, I'm here to make sure you can handle yourself. If you can't hunt, can't fight, and don't know how to handle yourself, you won't make it very far. You don't have to like me, you just have to learn."

She was concise and to the point, without a pinch of emotional investment. Oh sure, she was invested in the success of this mentorship, but she wasn't well-versed in showing emotion and she had no plans to start now.

"You'll run the perimeter of camp fifteen times, fast as you can, before we start training. That's for every second of disrespect I've had to endure since waking up. Go."


Miss Tactical

[Miss Tactical]

Blitzpaw raised a brow at her words, clearly unphased by her tone and strictness. He wasn’t in the mood probably never would be. His eyes showed no emotion and stared blankly at swiftwing before finally blinking and looking over his shoulder. He could probably run the camp rather fast with his bigger legs. However what if he didn’t feel like doing it ? He was stubborn, and quite frankly would probably cause a lot of headaches for his mentor. ”And if I don’t? Whats the worst I go back and take a nap for the rest of the day? Take ticks of elders, sounds more pleasant MISS.” He peered behind her for just a moment, did Rookstar do this on purpose? Probably he would have rather trained with someone else. Heronflight seemed okay…so did a few others but nope he was stuck with this pain in the tail for 6 whole moons. He contemplated for a moment his other options, could run and join a different clan….but that would disgrace his family…become a loner? Do what ever he wanted when he wanted…



”I’ll cut you a deal, I’ll run to MothClan’s border and back…twice which is a much further distance than 15 times around this small camp where I could trample a kit, and I don’t think any of the queens would forgive you if I did.” He mewed bluntly. The larger tom sat down calmly, tail around his paws. ”It gives me space and the only thing I could hurt Is a mouse or a vole and you get the pleasure of making me have to run before training.” He mewed in a slight annoyed tone. Oh this would be quite pleasurable for him. Swiftwing would never want to train an apprentice again…he would make sure of it.

[bits]

And if I don't?

"Then you can retire to the Elder's den, or walk past that border and not come back."

Regardless of the age of her apprentice, Swiftwing seemed perfectly fine with offering that ultimatum. She didn't have a particular soft spot for kids - she wasn't big on them, and her own family had been more or less a massive mess. She wasn't going to go easy on some angsty apprentice, no matter their heritage or their size. She had said her piece, and she wasn't going to argue anymore. Her white tipped ear flicked to the side briefly, but there was no other show of annoyance - given her older brother, she was more than used to stubbornness and an overbearing presence.

"You're right - you shouldn't run within the camp. You'll run around the outside border of camp - 30 times. We can keep arguing and you can find out just how many times I'll make you run, or you can do it so we can finish today's lesson and you can go wallow in your self-pity. Go."

Oh, she didn't tend to back down from a challenge, but she was pretty sure her fur was going to start falling out in the next six months. Amazing, considering how much of a workaholic she was on a day-to-day basis.

[Miss Tactical]

Blitzpaw narrowed his eyes slightly before finally responding with his own retort. ”At least if I leave and never look back over my shoulder I will NEVER have to see Rookstar again and I would thank StarClan every day for that.” He mewed firmly.

That was the last of his words before giving into his mentors firm ways and heading outside of the rocks that they called home. When the air hit his pelt, he didn’t hesitate to go on a run, 30 times around the camp, just as she requested. He didn’t want to give in, but one day he wouldn’t mind taking Rookstar in a fight either, so if this so called warrior just taught him the basics he could handle the rest himself. After many moments of running he dug his paws into the dirt, skidding to a halt in front of his mentor with a slight smirk in his eyes.

”Done Ma’am.” He mewed. Ma’am coming from a cat such as Morelshine was considered polite, but from Blitzpaw….perhaps not so much. ”now what.” He mewed with a slight lash of his tail.

[bits]

Surprisingly, there was no punishment for the apprentice's disrespect towards Rookstar. Honestly? She got it. She understood. Their leader was... not in the right state of mind. The more time she spent in camp, listening to him, the more she was convinced that Ivyclan was on the horizon of irrevocable change. It was in the air, a tension that she just wasn't prepared to deal with - not with everything still going on in her life. She was finally, well and truly alone - no parents worth mentioning, no sister left breathing, and no brother in sight.

So yeah, she didn't begrudge Blitzpaw his distaste for the leader. If anything, the fact that he thought so little of their leader was reassuring. She didn't smile, but her whiskers twitched with her amusement before her apprentice started his laps. When he got back, she nodded, not caring enough to challenge the disrespect in his tone.

"Today's an easy day. We go over one of the borders, you'll learn to recognize other clan's scents, and I'll go over a few hunting crouches. You'll practice the crouches and next time we'll hunt and start working on battle moves."

She jerked her head to the side to begin walking towards the nearest border. While she did that, she figured she'd set a precedent for this mentorship thing.

"I figure you care enough about bettering yourself, learning to fight, and learning to hunt. We don't have to meet every day - I'll give you things to practice, and you'll practice them. If you're able to handle that, we'll keep our sessions shorter and focused on introducing new concepts and perfecting what we've gone over. It's up to you to take the skills and improve."

Ugh, that was a lot of words. This was why she didn't have conversations often - talking was too intensive, required too much effort. But she figured this set up would be beneficial for both of them. It would allow her time to do her own business, and her clearly displeased apprentice. She wasn't going to cater to his apprentice-aged angst, and that was fine. Mentors weren't supposed to hash through your emotional issues for you - they were meant to ensure that you were the best warrior you could be. She wanted her apprentice to be able to hunt, to fight, and to survive. The rest was all gravy.

[Miss Tactical]

Blitzpaw’s demeanor went from a fiery ball of hate, to one of that who seemed rather interested. He swiveled his ears realizing that not meeting every day would benefit his needs, and probably her agenda too whatever it was she was so busy doing. He looked around him to make sure this wasn’t some sort of joke, part of him wanted to yell out excitedly sure she was pushy but they seemed to be on the same page otherwise and that worked for him. He could practice a few hours a day and have the rest of the day to himself. Sure when he learned battle moves he would probably practice those more as that would help the Agenda on his paws…

”Sure whatever you want.” He finally mewed. He didn’t want to seem too excited he certainly didn’t want her to change her mind, but he also didn’t want to seem disinterested either, as he wasn’t keen on spending al day running laps from making her mad. When she mentioned learning the other clan scents he figured that would be an easy task…mundane but easy. He lifted his nose to the sky and instinctively looked towards MothClan’s borders. ”How about the rats nest first.” He mewed.
The large tabby decided learning about his enemies would be beneficial maybe also learn about different ways to use them for his own needs. ”Maybe you can tell me a bit about Rookstar too….you know anything important about our Clan…Owlstar too I didn’t know my mom long.” He mewed softly. After that there was an odd silence as he felt as if starclan themselves had come down and clenched his lungs tight. ”It’s important right….?”

[bits]

Swiftwing wasn't an expert at reading others, but her suggestion seemed to sit well with her apprentice. She didn't see a need to babysit her goddamn apprentice; give him some slack, and if he did well with the condensed lessons and practiced on his own, they'd both do better. She wasn't here to antagonize her apprentice, but there'd be no paw-holding. Luckily, the complaints seemed to stop as they moved towards Mothclan, Swiftwing nodding along to her apprentice's suggestion and heading towards the border.

Then, there were some questions. Her tail twitched irritably at the mention of their leader, and though she was renowned for having a resting face like that of a displeased elder, there was an additional flash of something unhappy across her ginger features.

"I'm loyal to Ivyclan - usually, that includes its leader. Recently though..."

She was loathe to encourage her apprentice into doubting authority figures, but she couldn't in good conscience support their leader as he was.

"Rookstar is in over his head, and I don't think he should be leader. Honestly? I don't think he should be trusted with apprentices. I've seen elders with better problem solving and sharper minds. Your mother ... that was a leader I respected. I wasn't on board with all her decisions - you don't have to agree with everything a leader does. But she cared for her clan and her family, and she made decisions with reason and with good intentions. I was proud to have her as a leader, even if she respected Creeksong more than I think he deserved."

That was a fair explanation, right? Swiftwing wasn't very emotional - purposefully so, after shoving every feeling she'd ever had deep down. But the softer tone the apprentice took made her hesitate, and she sighed a little.

"I didn't know your mother personally. I don't - social is not something you'd use to describe me. I think she and my brother were more familiar with each other, but he's gone and I haven't willingly conversed with him since we were both apprentices."

It was as close to an apology as she could get - she didn't have friends. Not anymore. She had her work, she had her loyalty, and she told herself that was all she needed. She stopped a few tail lengths from the border - it hadn't been long since she'd been here last, though at this point she was visiting borders at an alarming frequency.

"Alright - tell me what you smell. Try to recognize the smells you know, the scents you associate with Ivyclan, then focus on what else there is."