Come on, Icepaw! [open/ahermione]

Desertfrost was new to mentoring, that was rather obvious.

"Here we are!" Desertfrost yowled, an echo falling through the Mine Caves's entrance. Here is where he had brought Icepaw, the poor thing, to be mentored in Navigation. It was a risky first choice, though, as this was his apprentice's first lesson. However, he was confident she would make it. Well, almost confident.

"So, do you want to just jump right in?" Desertfrost asked, having a musical tone to his voice. Despite the dank, depressing atmosphere of the Mine Caves they were entering, he was happy just to have an apprentice so early. "Or, do you want me to start by showing you how to avoid--"

He was cut off by a falling stone landing right at his paws.

"falling rocks...?"

Desertfrost was a little dense, so he wasn't exactly sure what she meant.

"Hah, silly Icepaw, rocks can't sneak up on you~!" he purred, instantly rebounding from the fear of falling rocks. It was something common in SnowClan, and it wasn't a curious event to have a rock fall on your head. That usually didn't stop cats from fearing it, but what could you do.

"That's the spirit!" he said, happy that she was eager to learn. He was slow on the 'sarcasm' thing.

"The most important thing," he started, continuing along into the cavern, "is hearing the sound of the caverns when they are normal. Can you hear the little dripping?"

"Good!" he purred, stepping away from his apprentice slowly. He wasn't sure what he was about to do, but it sounded nice in his head.

"Now, second part of our lesson!" he said, eying a boulder cautiously and looked to make sure his apprentice still had her eyes closed. "That one, that was to make sure you weren't deaf. This part is actually important."

Desertfrost jumped toward the boulder, nudging it the best way he possibly could. It moved a bit after he strained all he possibly could, and he, satisfied, sat back down, approving of the noise.

"That, now, that was the sign of a boulder moving. It's the biggest and telltale sign that you've misstepped. Because you are SnowClan, you will rarely do that, but I want you to be aware."

He looked back at his apprentice, happily calling back, "Got that?"

"Especially in this place. Not even sure why this was here, but prey lives here sometimes, and it's best to know how to navigate anyway," he said in reply. She was catching on quick, maybe this lesson wouldn't take that long. He loved this place for some strange reason, so it would be ashame if they couldn't stay.

"Yes, that's exactly right," he nodded, looking toward the big monster that stayed there eternally, never waking up. "This thing is what tells me we're entering Fox's Tooth, my name for a rather narrow dead end. There usually isn't anything there, but it'll be great for the next part of our lesson."

He laughed, a rumble that danced on a light echo around the cavern. He was trying to be informative, but he didn't know to much about Navigation either. He hadn't seen a lot of the cavern, this was mostly where his sis---

"Welp, you really can't avoid falling rocks any better than that, because it shouldn't be a problem for a strooong apprentice like yourself," he moved on, trying to forget his sister. He was admiring his apprentice sincerely, it was just strained so he didn't lose track of what he was doing.

ahermione wrote:

Satisfied that she had gotten something right Icepaw started to relax. As she listen to her mentor she saw a sudden moment where pain had crossed his face. Worried but afraid to pry she decided to ask a question. "Before we go there can you answer something? Wouldn't it be possible to hear the rocks cracking as they began to break apart and fall?", she asked.

"Hmm?" He said, blinking quickly. It seemed like a reasonable question, why hadn't he covered that? "Well, I would say yes, but that depends. If a cat is traveling to fast, they might not hear it from the distance, and the small rubble will fall fast. Small rubble is common, you know, but than the bigger rubble can come instantly, and serious injury might occur. Similarly, a cat that's going to slow might have their ears used to the slow sound of cracking, so his dilly-dallying could cause injury as well."

He tried to play everything off, but he was panicking a bit. He still couldn't suppress his thoughts. "It's... okay, I'm fine." He hurried along, trying hard to let the tunnel air soothe him.

"Good," he said firmly, taking plain paranoid steps farther into the cavern. Fox's Tooth was a far trek, so they needed to start with something else.
"Anyway, while we trek there-- it'll be awhile, by the way--- I think we should touch up on the warrior code a bit!" he said happily, recovering a bit. Making sure mistakes were not repeated was the definition of learning, wasn't it?

"The one we'll touch up on: Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for its life." he finished, knowing the verse on site. Not giving her anytime to react, though, he went through a small crack and disappeared. He was on the chase, so she would be fine on her own for a second! Right?

(I'm going to bed, I'll reply to your next post in the morning. Night!)

The crack in the wall, as it turned out, led directly to the outside. Not letting his ears adjust to the mumbling from back inside of the echoing walls, Desertfrost let himself be taken by the growing snowfall's gentle wind. It was beautiful, to him, that a brutal force of nature could be gentle with a light touch of StarClan's grace. In fact, the light wind was just the perfect temperature for his thick, bulky coat.

He looked back at the cave walls and saw his new apprentice slink through, her fur a little ruffed from the small space. "Oh, hey," he said, turning back to the wind blowing.

"It's beautiful, no?"

Desertfrost simply nodded in return. He never put it into words, he never was good with them anyway. His ears flicked anxiously, and he turned to see his apprentice sniffing at a new flower's petals. That's cute, thought admiringly to himself, enjoying the peacefulness of their moment. After a few minutes, though, he realized they were spending to much time out here. Yet he certainly didn't want to go back into the caves.

"Icepaw," he mewed. "I think that we're in for a hunting lesson instead."

He watched a hare look cautiously out of it's nest, and he urged her to crouch. "Like this..."

"Alright, stay as low as possible..." he began, piling himself into the snow to have the best possible camouflage. It easily worked for him, as he was snow-white and icy-blue eyed. He had no tail to keep down so he simply nudged her and showed her the motion for it. Then, with a gleam in his eye, he found the weak spot and lunged, piecing it a little to low to kill but swiftly fixed his mistake.

"Now that's how rabbits are caught. Not to much agility is required in the coldness, just strong backlegs and some focus!" he said proudly, dropping the rabbit in front of Icepaw for her to examine.

"Think you are ready to do it yourself?"

"That was excellent!" Desertfrost purred, extremely impressed by her success. It was easy to tell she was going to be a great warrior for SnowClan, and that he would soon give back to the Clan what his sister stole. Shivering, not because of the wind, he turned away, the mood ruined.

"Heh, two rabbits. I guess we need to get back to camp," he said, his happy mood sobered. With a leap back toward camp, he signaled for his apprentice to follow him back.

(ooc: Alright, so once you get back, you wanna close this thread with your next post?)