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With as hectic as things had gotten the past few days, Forestmask hadn’t really been able to find much time to take Pantherpaw out for a true training session. He felt as if he was already letting his little brother down, shaping up to be a terrible mentor not fit to even train a rock. The brown tabby was usually better at maintaining his confidence, faking it until he made it, but this time around was much harder. The last thing he wanted to do was let down family. So he had tried to move StarClan and earth to get his schedule a bit more clear. In fact, he had managed to get about the whole day free to take his apprentice out for training.
The young warrior was leading Pantherpaw to the Willow Grove with a slight bounce in his step, tail held high and charming smile plastered on his rubbery lips. “I’m gonna train you so hard you won’t be able to move tomorrow, Panther my boy,” he declared, pausing and whirling about to give his younger half-sibling an appraising look. “I’ll have ya shaped into the finest warrior yet in no time, mark my words!”
Pantherpaw was beyond excited to finally have his paws skimming the earth outside of RiverClan’s camp grounds. The first night of his apprenticeship, the young black dappled tom had snuck out of camp with his siblings and a few other apprentices to the rapids. One of which had almost actually drowned. Rainstar had punished them all by sentencing them to camp for a few days and not only that, but he got one full earful of a lecture from his mother.
Even better, his own half brother was his mentor! It wasn’t often within the Clans that kin were allowed to mentor one another, but he appreciated their leader’s choice more than anything. It gave him a chance to get closer to the older warrior. He must be impressive, if he had managed to convince their mother to let him off of warrior duties for the whole day just to take him out into the territories.
When Forestmask had reached their destination and turned to address him, Pantherpaw chipped back, “I’m ready! Give me all you got!”
His younger brother’s energy and excitement was infectious. Just being around Pantherpaw made the older tom feel like he was an apprentice once more, ready to tackle any obstacle thrown his way with vigor. He smiled broadly at the black pelted tom. “All I’ve got, hm?”
Suddenly, with hind legs made powerful from swimming, he sprung forwards. He wasn’t the fastest of cats, but once he gained moment he was near impossible to stop due to his size. Forestmask wasn’t fat, but he didn’t lack any muscle. Every inch of him was stream lined and made to be athletic.
Paws outstretched, claws still sheathed, he aimed to tackle Pantherpaw. There was no better way to gauge abilities than by a friendly spar, in Forestmask’s opinion.
Pantherpaw’s bright yellow eyes grew nearly black as they stretched wide in surprise to find his mentor and older sibling springing at him– a sudden challenge to a spar in the most abrupt of ways. The young apprentice surely had no battle experience, zero training. So he’s teaching me battle skills first? He thought, as his body immediately began moving on its own, an instinct sewn deep into his muscles.
He dove under the larger cat’s underbelly, swiftly moving between his forelegs and ducking out behind his hindlegs before he had the chance to hit him. It was easy, thanks to his smaller size, for him to evade the other cat. The black dappled tom then swung back around, planting himself firmly on his paws as he faced his mentor. He didn’t know what he would do next, so he thought it be best that he lay back and wait, give himself time to prepare.
For a moment he thought he might actually crash into Pantherpaw, as the young tom was frozen like ad on the Thunderpath, but that wasn’t the case. After that brief, wide eyes hesitation, the black tom moved. Pride surged through him as his brother used his smaller size to his advantage, ducking under Forestmask and popping out behind him.
As soon as all four paws of his were back on the ground, he was whirling about to face the apprentice. “Not too shabby, young grasshopper. Fast, body and mind. Once I teach you some moves though, don’t stop like you just did. Carry on that moment to crush your enemy into the ground before they have a chance to recover,” he advised, giving Pantherpaw a reassuring smile. His younger sibling really did do well, all things considered.
“Tell me, what do you think your weak spots will be; hunting, swimming, fighting?” He wanted to see how Pantherpaw assessed himself and then go from there.
Pride soared in the heart of the young RiverClan apprentice as Forestmask praised him. This cat was not just his mentor, but also his older brother, so the praise meant all the more to him than just that of a compliment from an older cat, or a seasoned warrior at that. He puffed out his chest and stood as tall as he could on his paws. He wasn’t even bothered when the tabby tom told him of a correction to his maneuvers.
When Forestmask asked him of what he thought his weak points may end up being, Pantherpaw frowned. This, he didn’t have to really think all that hard about. His mind immediately flashed back to his first night out as an apprentice by the rapids with his siblings and a group of other RiverClan apprentices. A night which nearly cost Hollowpaw his life. He had almost drowned. Pantherpaw himself hadn’t even been near the water, and yet the memory sent a shiver up his spine.
“I’m afraid of the water…” He conceded, hanging his head a little in shame to avoid the eyes of his mentor. What kind of RiverClan cat feared the water?
Afraid of the water… Certainly not what he had been expecting to hear, even having a fair idea of the trouble his brother had gotten himself into with the other apprentices. Watching someone nearly drown could be frightening, but it must have been pretty bad if that one little incident made Pantherpaw scared of water. That was certainly a problem for a RiverClan cat.
“I see,” he hummed, nodding once. “We’ll work on that then. It’s not big deal, Panther. Don’t fret about it too much.” If anybody else found out, especially someone not a RiverClanner, surely the poor black tom would be subjected to endless teasing. Working on getting rid of his fear of water would be Forestmask’s number one priority.
Admiration for his older brother swelled in the young tom’s chest as he looked up to the tabby tom with glowing yellow eyes. Forestmask did not shame him or belittle him for being afraid of the river current after his experience with the rapids, if anything else he seemed to sympathize with him. Pantherpaw once again felt nothing but pride to be related to a warrior as noble as him. He nodded enthusiastically to his mentor. “I’ll do my best!” he promised.
The dark brown tabby purred in a mixture of affection and amusement at his younger sibling. “I’m sure of that, Panther. You’re part of our family, after all,” he chuckled, whiskers twitching slightly.
“Now, shall we continue with battle training or would you like to start working on swimming or hunting?” They might have a lot of work to do into the swimming department, but Forestmask didn’t want to start that today if Pantherpaw didn’t feel up to it. Forcing the apprentice into the situation too early would make the training less affective, after all.
‘You’re part of our family, after all’. This was a phrase that he knew meant a lot to his older brother. Forestmask was a family’s man, and he held his kin to be one of the most important things in his life as a Warrior, as most of his Clanmates did as well. And while Pantherpaw appreciated the sentiment, he wasn’t sure how far that would go with the rest of their rather large family. It seemed like, half the time, their older siblings got along better with each other and their mother and father than he and his littermates did. But he tried not to let any of that bother him too much.
At Forestmask’s next question, the dappled tom paused for a moment to think. This was his first time out with his mentor, and he wanted to learn as much as he could grab onto today, but the thought of going in the water just yet made his tail quiver in unease. He would have to struggle with that another day. “Can we hunt?” He asked, turning wide golden eyes up to his older sibling. “I want to learn how to catch a fish!”
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