Hazelpaw took in her mentor's words as she crept low, gazing at the prey in front of her. A scurrying mouse seemed easy to kill, and enough to fill her belly. The only problem was that the newly-made apprentice would have to bring the mouse back to the fresh-kill pile or bring it to the kits. If there were only any elders around, then Hazelpaw would be fetching prey for them. Crowfang looked over at Hazelpaw. "Keep your tail low and paws from dragging." He instructed. "If you keep your tail raised up high, your prey will sense you coming. Those mice have minds of their own!" Hazelpaw had the urge to laugh at the tom's comment, but she didn't want her prey to escape. She slowly took one step forward, trying hard not to make any noises. Once she was a paw-length away from her prey, Hazelpaw leapt up into the air and slapped her paws down on the mouse, keeping it down. Its pink tail was thrashing around wildly, and Hazelpaw bit down into its neck, killing it. Her heard perked up with the mouse dangling from her jaws. "Nice job Hazelpaw." Crowfang meowed proudly. "How about you bring that to the fresh-kill pile. We're running low on prey." Hazelpaw nodded and bounded off, her paws kicking up remnants of snow from the ending leaf-bare. She carefully dropped the mouse into the fresh-kill pile and turned towards the apprentices' den. Hazelpaw's ears perked up when she noticed her best friend from kithood, Robinpaw. "Hey Robinpaw!" She squeaked. "Oh, hey Hazelpaw! How was your first day of training?" Robinpaw asked. "Awesome." Hazelpaw replied. "I caught a mouse!" Robinpaw smiled. "Wow! I couldn't even catch one on my first try!" She exclaimed. "I must say, you have some very talented hunting skills." Hazelpaw puffed out her chest fur. "Thanks." She purred. "Crowfang is a wonderful mentor." After she had mentioned his name, Robinpaw paused for a few moments, making Hazelpaw wonder if there was something wrong. "Is there anything bothering you? Stomachache?" She asked. "No." Robinpaw answered, shaking her head. "There's just...something." Hazelpaw nodded and curled up in her moss nest, quickly falling asleep after a hard day of training.
***
"Hey, wake up, lousy-brain!" Squealed a voice. Hazelpaw looked up to notice a cat towering above her. It was Marshpaw, one of her denmates. "What do you want?" She asked angrily. "Wanna play a game of prey-stone?" Marshpaw asked. "There's still some ice from leaf-bare." Hazelpaw, excited at the idea, hurried out of the den and followed her friend out of camp. Sure enough, there was still some ice that looked like it would take a long time to thaw. "There's a spare stone over there." Marshpaw meowed, flicking his tail over to a big stone behind a snow-capped bush. Hazelpaw hurried over to the stone and pushed it onto the ice with her paws, rolling it over. "It's ready!" She yowled over to Marshpaw. "Come play." Marshpaw got to his paws and hurried over to the ice. Hazelpaw started first, batting the stone over to Marshpaw. He batted it back, and the two apprentices kept batting the stone until they were tired. "Great StarClan! We were batting it so much the ice started breaking!" Marshpaw panted. "I was worried about falling!" Hazelpaw nodded in agreement and turned around. "Well," She meowed. "I should probably get back to camp. Crowfang usually trains me at this time." Marshpaw nodded and flicked his tail dismissively. "Okay, you go do that." He mewed. "I'll stay here, admiring the sunset." Hazelpaw ignored him and bounded back to camp.