Private Thread Guard the Gaps

"Noooo that's not fairrrr!"

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Swamppaw felt the base of her paws dampen as she padded on Quailfeather’s left side, the water not bothering the molly much as she padded beside her mentor. In their first moon of training, she had acted like a spoiled brat, throwing tantrums when something was too difficult. But with Quailfeather’s patience, the she-cat seemed to be slowly yet surely warming up.

After a moment, she realised just how far away from camp they were but she didn’t complain, instead offering her mentor a slightly surprised look as he spoke. “Ooh alright.” The apprentice attempted to stand tall as her mentor faced her, preparing herself for a spar but continuing to listen to Quailfeather as she prepared to learn. Learning took time, after all.

“Mm… My vulnerabilities?” Swamppaw repeated, eyes darting off to the side in deep thought as she considered what she knew. “Well, for starters, I know for a fact that my stomach is soft and sensitive. Unlike the rest of my body which is a little harder. So I’m guessing that having claws anywhere near there is a cause for disaster.” She responded.

It made sense, right? “Oh and my eyes and ears and nose and mouth too, maybe?” the molly suggested. “Like. If I lose sense in those things or lose them entirely, I don’t think I’ll be as useful to ShadowClan anymore.” The she-cat hummed thoughtfully. “I mean I guess I could get used to being blind… But I don’t want to test that.”

If you believe you can, that’s enough to try.

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"Well done!" Quailfeather purred with pride as his once bratty and frankly grumpy apprentice had begun to flourish into a calmer version of herself. Even if other cats might not have been able to see it, Quailfeather had and Quailfeather knew this was improvement, that was all he needed to know to see that he was doing well. At least... he hoped he was. "The underside holds organs vital to your health, a deep enough scratch to those organs will cause disaster. Even a well placed kick could spell bad things." he added, he hoped she had learned that from his short cover of it on their first outing, but even then, he spoke of it briefly while guiding Swamppaw around the territory. Maybe she just used her deduction skills, that was a good skill to have.

When his apprentice went on about the face being sensitive, he gave another nod. "Right. Your face is sensitive and it's extremely painful when hit in a real battle. A bad injury to the eye could halt progress or at worse, send you on a permanent trip to the elders' den." He knew the idea was harsh, but not harsh enough that it was unrealistic to think of, even cats with one working eye didn't have the best of depth perception. He couldn't imagine what having so sight would be like. "Ears are sensitive and control hearing, if you get struck too close to the canal, you risk blood infecting your ear and potentially losing your hearing. If it's possible, avoid something like that from ever happening to you by keeping your face away from any incoming claws. It's best to be careful than unable to be a warrior at all."

"And the mouth an nose help with breathing. Damage to them risks you getting tired much faster in battle, at worst, failing to breath much at all on deeper strikes." Quailfeather continued, his posture hardening as if to try and seem wiser than he was, the round tom didn't have a lot of chance at that... at least he thought he didn't, to him, he looked like a proud kit fat from milk. But oh well, it was worth trying anyway. "How do you think you would be able to protect your underbelly and face in a fight?" He asked, he wasn't challenging, there was no competitive lilt in his tone, just well placed maturity that seemed to be finding him over the moons as mentor.