“80, Finished the pointless jumping!” Came the exhausted cry. It was loud enough to scare any nearby prey and wake up the sleeping Sharpthorn who yawned and calmly came down the tree. “Pointless?” he asked Eelpaw when they were face to face. The apprentice flinched and his gaze wandered elsewhere as to avoid the subject but Sharpthorn didn’t move, his silence demanding a response.

“I didn’t mean pointless like pointless I was trying to say that uh,” he managed to quickly mumble as he thought of how to avoid punishment. “That I don’t know what use it has so it’s like an expression, I’m not saying I do the jumping for nothing,” he tried. Luckily Sharpthorn was too tired to scold him and was kind of proud of his progress in training so instead he just turned his back and slowly started making his way towards the camp. “I really hope you love Ash because that’s where you’ll spend most of your time if you ever question my methods again,” he responded. “Oh and just so you know I’m preparing you for your assessment, how in the world did you plan to leap onto a falcon’s back with those wimpy jumps you came to the clan with? Pick up your prey and head back towards the camp, if I get there before you Ash may receive his quality time with you after all,” Sharpthorn added as he kept walking away, leaving an opened mouthed Eelpaw behind.

“A Falcon!?” Eelpaw exclaimed in shock. “Have you lost your mind? Usual assessments are marking borders and hunting mice! Why do you have to be so demanding and different?” he cried in frustration but as usual his mentor simply ignored his protests and proceeded to get one of the hares he had hunted earlier. Eelpaw sighed and began running, quickly getting all the mice he had hunted and hurrying towards the camp.

He got there moments before his mentor who was clearly overbooked as the large tom was dragging his two hares and what looked like three owlets. “Um Sharpthorn… Where did you get those?” a puzzled Eelpaw asked as Sharpthorn carried the fresh-kill. “A monster killed their mother on the thunderpath close to where I hid one of the hares, took me a while but I found the nest on my way here,” he meowed as he handed one of the small owls to his apprentice. “We sure are lucky prey is so abundant these days,” Eelpaw smiled as he took the dead owlet by a talon. In total they had three mice, three owlets, and two hares. Plenty of food for the clan.

“It is not luck, our ancestors are smiling upon our new ways and rewarding us,” the experienced hunter lectured Eelpaw as the two made their way to the fresh-kill pile and added their kills to the large mountain. “Oh yes the ancestor thing, sorry,” the apprentice meowed. “You should be thanking them each time you take a life, in fact everyone should do it but for now it seems I’m the only one. Now get something small to eat and go to sleep, unless the leader tasks you with anything we are done for today,” Sharpthorn ordered.

As Eelpaw made his way towards the apprentice den, Sharpthorn went straight towards the great tree that served as den to Oakstar, greeting Nightmist who by the looks of it had just gotten up. His leader was conversing with Burrpelt.  [i] "The most important thing right now is to make sure the clan is unified. Or at least appears that way. Perhaps I should lead the patrol? Or simply be a part of it. It would be nice to go out of camp for a little bit,"[/i]“I’ll go if you need an extra paw,” Sharpthorn joined the smaller yet older cats, greeting with respect. “Sorry for interrupting but I was just coming to report in. We had another great training session and I believe Eelpaw is ready to become a warrior,” he informed before turning towards Burrpelt “Was that you hunting I scented earlier when we were training?” he asked as to see whether his nose was as sharp as his claws. He then returned his gaze towards his leader, “It would be an honor for me to accompany you two in the patrol,” he added. 

The two cats he was addressing were made for their jobs: leading, causing pride and comfort, qualities Sharpthorn would never possess but unlike them he was born and grew up in the valley; a place where before the winter a kit had to learn to kill before walking and to hunt before talking. He could go shoulder to shoulder with most cats when fighting, and hunting in those woods had been most of his life. He was a born fighter and hunter who only stroke fear into any enemy but would gladly put those self-made skills he honed constantly (and now taught Eelpaw) and his imposing presence to use for the clan life Oakstar offered and every single cat who had joined him. He was the Oak hammer, and he would let the leader’s paw wield him as he pleased as long as it benefitted the clan. 

[@OtterTerror][@CLIW]