Early Morning / [Shrewclaw]

[{Otter}]

Great StarClan, why did she have to ask so many questions! Did she ever stop to breathe? Oh, wait, there she went, pausing long enough to breathe. But for what? She rattled off even more, and Ottersplash released a heavy sigh. He was not patient enough to deal with this. Let an older, more experienced warrior train Baypaw. He'd stick with quiet Ashpaw.

Not that he didn't enjoy the fact that she was chatty and liked to talk. He only wished she were talking about more interesting things, such as, "how you you chase butterflies?" and "can I go swimming in the river in leafbare?" and "does chasing after leaves help you train in pouncing?" Those were questions he knew the answer to.

Bah, he'd do his best here. "I can't imagine any cat would bother to get mud all over themselves unless the Clan was desperate. And if the Clan was desperate, that's probably in leafbare, where all the mud is frozen anyway," he sighed. He skipped every single other question except the last one, and to that he replied, "If you go around thinking an enemy is lurking behind every tree, you'll have a crappy, boring life." Yup, those were his words of wisdom. Enough of this.

"Come with me," he mumbled, standing up and turning in the direction of camp. "Shrewclaw's your mentor, right? Let's find him." He hoped she didn't think he was just trying to get rid of her. He genuinely knew he didn't have the patience to give her all of her answers, so why not find her real mentor? Shrewclaw might not have a ton of patience, but it was more than Ottersplash had, and Shrewclaw at least knew how to answer everything bluntly.

[arrow]

When he answered her questions, he seemed a bit...tired of it. It wasn't her fault that she wanted to learn as much as possible. And Baypaw didn't want to just guess on what she had to do during hunts and look like a complete idiot in front of her mentor and the rest of the clan. She did agree with his first statement, but what if there came a time where prey was scarce during green-leaf? The mud wouldn't be frozen then, but it's not like Ottersplash would want to answer any more of her questions. Though his last answer seemed a little kiddish, well at least the last part. "If you go around thinking an enemy is lurking behind every tree, you'll have a crappy, boring life." So, being her outspoken self, she responded, "But those who do would be more alert. They may live a boring life, but what happens if it an enemy is hiding behind a tree? What if there is a full-fledged ambush waiting to happen? That one cat who lives a crappy, boring life, as you say, would be aware enough to alert its clan."

"Shrewclaw's your mentor, right? Let's find him." She was confused at this sudden statement. She had thought that Ottersplash had wanted to hunt today. Maybe she had annoyed him enough for him to want to get rid of her. Either way, she might as well train some with her actual mentor. It would probably benefit her more. She stood and began to follow the brown tom. "You aren't the most...patient warrior, are you?" It was an innocent question, and she didn't mean to insult him in anyway...or at least she hoped she hadn't. "You remind me a little of my brother, Creekpaw. Whenever we played, he tended to lose his patience easier, but that's probably because my other brother, Jaggedpaw, would pin him down before he could do anything."

[{Otter}]

((Paging Dr. Shrewclaw. Come in, Dr. Shrewclaw!))

Good, she didn't seem insulted. That was nice. Ottersplash didn't ever want to upset anyone, he just wanted to get a real mentor for Baypaw. Heck, he'd probably stick around, too. Shrewclaw was probably a good mentor, he could give Ottersplash some ideas for Ashpaw. Yes, he'd stick around. But he wouldn't be the one having to answer hard questions.

"You aren't the most...patient warrior, are you?"

"Hit the mouse right on the head," he mewed cheerfully, flicking his chocolate tail over Baypaw's nose. "Luckily, Ashpaw doesn't seem to mind. He doesn't ask many questions. Just...listens." Yes. Ashpaw listened, Ottersplash had thought the two of them were a poor pairing at first, but they weren't, as it turned out. They worked quite well together, he figured.

Baypaw continued to compare him to her brother, and Ottersplash snorted in amusement. "I get compared to apprentices a lot," he purred. "It's fine with me. I'm just glad I'm don with training." Yes, now that he was a warrior, he had much more time for chasing butterflies and the like.

They reached the camp, and Ottersplash sniffed the air. One lass lesson before Shrewclaw took over. "Is Shrewclaw in camp? Use your nose," he mewed.

[arrow]

'At least he doesn't anger easily.' She would of thought that he was going to get mad at her for calling him impatient. In fact, he readily agreed. 'Maybe it's a good thing he isn't my mentor,' she thought. The way he described Ashpaw made it seem like Ashpaw was made to be Ottersplash's apprentice. "Well, it seems like you'll have the easiest time out of you and Shrewclaw. But I still don't see how you can learn anything by just listening." The last part came out more of a whisper.

Baypaw wasn't that surprised when he said he got compared to apprentices a lot. She could see the apprentice still there underneath the warrior. Actually, it seemed like he just became a warrior. As they got closer and closer to the camp, the scents of her clan mates began to fill the air. "Is Shrewclaw in camp? Use your nose.." 'This is different.' Did he intend for this to be an actual lesson? She normally thought that lessons centered around hunting and combat moves. But she went along with it anyway.

Baypaw lifted her nose and breathed in the many smells of the camp. It wasn't going to be easy trying to sort through each scent but she had to try. It took her a few moments before she caught a brief whiff of who she thought was her mentor, though she couldn't be too sure. "Possibly...it's faint and I can't be too sure if it belongs to him." She took a few steps forward and the scent briefly got stronger. She recalled what Ottersplash had done when he hunted the squirrel. Mimicking his actions, she closed her eyes and breathed in again while moving her head from side to side. The scent she had tagged as possibly belonging to Shrewclaw seemed to come stronger from the right. "I think he may be over there," she mewed, motioning with her head. The apprentice stood and took a couple steps in that direction. She looked back to see if the brown tom was going to follow or not.

[blue]

Being in camp now felt so confined. Shrewclaw felt like the dens were going to collapse on him, and that the faint walls would close in and prevent escape. The blue sky above seemed so far away when he was in camp, regardless of their actually distance. When he was out in the territory (or, say, the moor), Shrewclaw felt like he could almost touch the moon. When the moon was out, that was. And since he preferred the night, the moon was almost always out when he ventured too the moor.

But enough about the moor. Today, he would stay in camp and fix up the walls of dens. It had been a while since they were tended to, he decided with a nod. Keeping his thoughts off of open territory and on a closed camp may not have been extremely healthy, but at least he would do RiverClan some good. It had been a while since he felt his did RiverClan any good. For it seemed everything he did or tried to do came out wrong, and he was stuck doing it over again until it was perfect.

Not too far off he could hear the semi-familiar sound of his apprentice's voice, coupled with that of another warrior. The tom couldn't place the other cat by name. Curiosity besting him for what seemed like the thousandth time, the tabby warrior slipped out from his crevice where he worked on the nursery, gazing around for the speakers. He spotted Baypaw easily enough, and not far off from her was Ottersplash. So he was the other speaker. Hah, why was Shrewclaw not surprised?

"I think you may be right," the brown cat said, padding closer to the two RiverClan cats. He had finally gotten close enough to catch what they were saying. And, apparently, they had been looking for him. He wondered why. Were they assigned to one of Rookstar's new patrols? Or did Baypaw want to train? Well, that last one wouldn't explain why Ottersplash was with her. Ah well, he'd find out in a moment.

[{Otter}]

Baypaw started to use her nose, and Ottersplash watched with considerable pride as she did what he had told her before and maneuvered her head around. Sure, she was a bit off and it took her awhile, but she was new at it. The same lesson had taken him dozens of tries. Come to think of it, most of his lessons had taken him several tries. He really wasn't the best of warriors. Oh well. RiverClan had enough warriors for there to be one dud, and he was perfectly fine with filling the position.

Ah, but Shrewclaw's scent was on the air, and within a few seconds the small warrior appeared. He was a good deal smaller than Ottersplash, and in fact a good deal smaller than most RiverClan cats, but not as small as Hawkfang. Goodness, Hawkfang was a scrawny little thing. Eh, he was getting distracted again. The warrior shook his head roughly and waved his tail cheerfully at Shrewclaw.

"I'm not patient enough to answer all her questions," he explained jollily, tilting his head to glance at Baypaw. "But I'd like to look on your lesson. Goodness knows Ashpaw needs his mentor to get all the help he can get."

And, he figured, he'd attempt to focus and pay attention. There wasn't much to distract him in this season. No butterflies, no river, as it was nearly frozen over. No falling leaves, as they had already fallen. No nothing! So why not look in on a training session?

[arrow]

Shrewclaw's voice startled her, making her jump. She didn't expect him to come to them and to appear right when they were looking for him. 'At least I was right about the scent...' Baypaw felt proud of herself though she didn't let her pride get the best of her. She wasn't sure what type of training Shrewclaw had in store for her today. She turned to face the small tom. 'In a way, he sorta resembles Jaggedpaw yet older..' Her brother did have tabby markings though Shrewclaw's was lighter.

The apprentice looked down in hopes of trying to stop herself from thinking about her siblings. She was here to train, not to think about her family. It seemed like every time she did run into her brothers she immediately pictured her sister with them. Even to think of her sister caused her to recall the night of Finchkit's passing which normally put Baypaw into a morose mood. And what good would a gloomy apprentice be when training?

"But I'd like to look on your lesson. Goodness knows Ashpaw needs his mentor to get all the help he can get." 'Why would he want to watch us? Judging by how he rushed in on the squirrel without taking his time, he would get bored and go find something else to do within a few seconds.' She did have her doubts about Ottersplash being serious when he said he'd like to watch the lesson but who knows, he may be somewhat serious when it comes to training. He did say that Ashpaw didn't really ask any questions, and Baypaw did ask him a bunch of questions. 'Maybe I just overloaded him?'

She lifted her gaze to Shrewclaw. 'Come to think of it, we didn't even ask him if he already was doing something and if he had the time to train me today.' To her, it felt like they just subtly commanded him to train her. She didn't take the time to wait for her mentor's response. "Actually, we came here to see if you would train me, and Ottersplash came along to watch and see what he could do to improve his lessons." She looked towards Ottersplash and hoped he caught on to what she was doing and that she didn't want to seem rude to him.

[blue]

What, was Ottersplash really going to look in on his training session with Baypaw? Shrewclaw almost snorted, it was that laughable. Knowing the brown warrior, he'd get bored within a few seconds and strut off to do something else. Even suggesting that he wanted to watch probably took more focus than the warrior had in him. But Shrewclaw didn't voice any of this, as he wasn't too much better when it came to focusing on others. They were so boring sometimes. Then again, he too, was boring, and sometimes his clan mates weren't. The brown tabby shrugged his shoulders, a lazy way of inviting Ottersplash along.

Baypaw wanted training, as he assumed. Shrewclaw wouldn't turn down the young she-cat, after all, he was her mentor. He wasn't supposed to turn down her request unless he was busy to an extreme degree. Something that never happened, as Shrewclaw was hardly ever too busy for his apprentice or other cats. Just showed how dedicated he was to his work, not thinking it important enough to keep on going when someone else bothered or needed him. Or, possibly, did it show how loyal he was to his clan mates that he'd stop his work for them? Hah, that was even more laughable. He was far from loyal to his clan mates, considering what was about to happen and all. Shrewclaw flattened his ears slightly, feeling a twinge of regret. Was he really going to abandon these cats for WindClan? A few strings on his heart felt tugged as he sighed a reluctant yes. He was really going to do this, leave these cats behind. And it was hard to find he really didn't want to, as, his loyalty really did lie with his clan mates. Maybe not with RiverClan in particular, but the cats who resided in it, despite how strangled he felt around them sometimes.

“Of course, Baypaw,” he said kindly, giving a soft smile to the she-cat. “I can train you today, and Ottersplash is more than welcome to come along.” This would be an interesting session, he mused with a grin, as Ottersplash just watching them would lead to some humorous activities. Maybe Shrewclaw should have suggested Ottersplash bring his own apprentice along, as that would surely get the brown tom to focus a little more. But he said nothing for a moment, looking over bother cats before settling his eyes on Baypaw. “Anything in particular you want to practice, Baypaw?”