[ti]Private[/ti]A Cricket Chirping in the Night

[Cosima]

Nightface

"Nightface, you will be Cricketpaw's new mentor." Nightface could distinctly remember the moment Owlstar assigned him his first apprentice. His apprentice was to be Cricketpaw, a young and hyper tom-cat. Cricketpaws Nightface had found that he was very energetic, but his attention span was as small as his namesake. Cricketpaw was nearing warrior age, so it was time to crack down and begin final assessments. That proved as a challenge to Nightface with Cricketpaw's short attention span, for he was by far the perfect mentor. However, he would try his best.

Nightface had brought Cricketpaw out on a late night training session. He had instructed Cricketpaw to rest all day and meet him in the forest for their surprise training. "Cricketpaw, your full attention is crucial," Nightface purred in a cool tone. "In a moon or two, you will be becoming a warrior," He rose to pace in a circle around the tom before him. "Over the next month, we'll be training hard and long, and it is my job to make sure you're ready." Nightface stopped pacing and sat in front of Cricketpaw.

"To start, I would like to have a mock battle with you. For a bit of a challenge, you have to call out the names of the techniques, such as a belly or the leap-and-hold. That way, you will be naming the techniques as well as performing them to match the names with the techniques." He paused to confirm Cricketpaw was still paying attention. "Does that make sense?"

Tagged: KingHarry

[KingHarry]

"Huh?"

Cricketpaw hadn't paid attention to a single word that Nightface had said. Was that really surprising, though? It certainly shouldn't be. The apprentice had a reputation for his inability to concentrate, and being in a new home just made that worse. There were so many new things to see now! Cricketpaw particularly liked the monsters in the new gathering place. Hopefully Owlstar would let him go to the next gathering so he could see them closer up. She might do that, right? There was no reason for her not to?

"Hey, Nightface, do any butterflies come out at night?" Cricketpaw then asked out of the blue. Nightface was meant to know things, right? He'd know if there was any butterflies about. And hey! If there were, maybe they could look for them together! That would be fun! Did Nightface like fun? Hopefully, though Cricketpaw wasn't too sure. He hadn't really got the measure of his new mentor just yet.

[Cosima]

Nightface

"I'm doomed," Nightface concluded to himself. There was absolutely no way he could train Cricketpaw to pass his final assessments before he can become a warrior. This tom was going on about how pretty butterflies are...

"Okay, uhhh..." He began to rub his paws against his forehead. He remembered Cricketpaw said something about butterflies. "Uhhh, no, butterflies don't come out at night..." There was a moment of silence between them. "But... if you'd like, we can play a game."

He was sure at this point the tom would say something like, ooh, a game. What kind of game? Since, well, that was something Cricketpaw would say. He could almost hear the words said in Cricketpaw's voice in his head.

"A game where we can incorporate butterflies and training. Doesn't that sound fun, Cricketpaw?"

[KingHarry]

A game? Yes! Cricketpaw wanted to play a game! The young tom hopped to his feet, excitedly shifting his weight from paw to paw. "I love games!" He enthused. In a split second, his body language had completely changed - flicking from barely any attention being paid at all to intently watching Nightface.

He liked his new mentor, Cricketpaw decided. Nightface played games! His old mentor hadn't done that at all! All excited now, the apprentice spun on the spot a couple of times. Oh yes, this was definitely going to be fun.

"I like games! How do I play? Are we going to find where the butterflies sleep?" Cricketpaw asked. "I bet they sleep in trees, you know. Like squirrels do. Squirrels do sleep in trees, right? And birds too! Except some birds don't sleep at night so they'll be up and about right now, like owls. Hey, Nightface, is Owlstar named that because she is awake at night a lot?"

[Cosima]

Nightface

"Erm, I don't know, Cricketpaw." Nightface purred upon Cricketpaw's question as to whether or not Owlstar was named that because she was a night-owl. He actually pondered about it himself... how would her parents know? Why would--

Nevermind. He let his thoughts wander for a moment, but they caught back up with him.

"No, we're not going to hunt real butterflies..." He said, "We're going to play a game where you use your imagination." And that should be an easy task to you, because your imagination is your biggest strength, Nightface thought.

"Like I had mentioned earlier, we're going to be training today and this is the best way we could do it: with a game. Pretend I'm a... really, really big butterfly, right? You're trying to capture the really big butterfly, and I'm going to pretend to-- erm, I'm going to try my best to escape. We can have our sparring training just like that. Does that sound like a fun game to you?"

[KingHarry]

Training was boring. Games, though? Cricketpaw loved games. Or he loved his own games, anyway. Sometimes other people came up with boring ones. Nightface wouldn't do that though, right? He seemed fun so he probably knew how to do really good games.

The game did sound a bit weird, but oh well; Cricketpaw would play it anyway. He stepped up to Nightface and happily rubbed up against him for a moment, purring happily, before rushing a reasonable distance away. Okay! Time to play! Oh, he was going to be so good at this. Nightface was going to be really impressed. 

In his excitement, the apprentice didn't even wait for his mentor to tell him the begin - he just ran forwards and launched himself at the other, yowling loudly as he did so.