The Call of the Tide

Chapter 2

Tidepaw was hoping the territory would be more...exciting. Gravelpaw was eagerly dashing around and asking his mentor everything, but Tidepaw just calmly walked along beside Dunemist. She'd already done this before, every time she climbed up over the elders' den. She'd felt the sand under her paws, felt the harsh lash of the dune grass, stood on the top of the dunes. She'd thought doing it for real would be even better, but it was actually more boring because she couldn't skip from sight to sight in real life the way her imagination could.

Dunemist seemed to sense some of her disappointment. She leaned over and whispered in her ear. "It gets better when you're hunting."

Tidepaw winced. She hadn't meant to let others see that she was bored. She already wasn't in a very good mood because she was trying to act like she didn't want to hop and skip around like some dopey kit. Not even because of excitement; just because she needed to move.

Warriors didn't do that. Warriors never acted like she did. It made her feel ashamed when she did any of it, the rocking, the squeaking, the bouncing, the spinning, because she was the only one who did it, which must mean that something was wrong with her.

Tidepaw was exhausted by the time they returned to camp again. She almost slipped trying to climb back down the cliff, which woke her up a little, but she was still ready to collapse. She'd never walked so far or so much in her life.

She snuck a glare at her brother who was still eagerly pestering Darkwater with questions. Tidepaw had lost her energy for talking halfway to the border with BirchClan.

When they entered camp, Tidepaw let her legs fold up under her. She groaned in relief at being able to stop moving.

"Tidepaw, let's go get something from the fresh kill pile!" Gravelpaw was nudging her, but she could feel that he was tired too. He wasn't nudging her anywhere near as energetically as he usually did.

"Too tired. Can't move."

"I'll bring something over then."

As Gravelpaw trotted away, Tidepaw let her eyes wander over the camp. She caught her father's eye and he came over.

"How was the territory?" he asked.

"Big. Tiring."

Floodgaze purred in amusement at his daughter's lethargic response. "It'll get easier. I remember being pretty tired the first couple times I went out, too."

Gravelpaw padded up with a sandpiper in his jaws. Tidepaw forced herself to sit up to eat it.

As they ate, Floodgaze began sharing stories of when he was a new apprentice. Tidepaw purred hearing that her father had once mistaken a bit of Twoleg pelt that was caught on the base of a scraggly bush for a snake and that he'd attacked it and how his mentor had to help untangle him after he realized his mistake.

After Gravelpaw and Tidepaw had finished eating, they curled up in their nests, almost waking up Minkpaw, and fell asleep.

The next day, Dunemist took her out to practice hunting techniques while Gravelpaw had to stay in the camp to clear out bedding. He shot her a jealous glance before returning his attention to his mentor.

"The most important thing to remember is where your shadow is. Even if your stalking is perfect, once your prey sees your shadow, it's over."

After Dunemist had shown her how to hide among the dune grass and taught how to move forward without rustling the grass, she took Tidepaw to the base of one of the sand dunes. "The hardest thing about hunting uphill is that the sand will hold you back and attempt to drag you back three pawsteps, so you need to overstep by three pawsteps to keep moving forward, which is hard to do while crouching. It's hard enough just simply walking up these dunes, and our paws are built for it. I feel bad for the BirchClan cats that have to cross our territory to reach Roundrock and the Mooncreek."

Tidepaw struggled up, following the instructions Dunemist called to her. "How in StarClan am I supposed to leap while doing this?" she panted. "And does the prey really not run away after hearing us huff and puff our way up here?"

Dunemist leapt up after her apprentice. "It gets easier with practice, and once you get good at it, there's not a whole lot of huffing or puffing. As for the leaping...." Dunemist stopped climbing and settled her weight, but, Tidepaw noticed, not all on her hind legs. Dunemist leapt from that position, sand spraying out from behind her, and somehow landed two cat lengths away. She turned and looked at her awed apprentice. "You learn how to propel yourself forward without putting so much weight on any one paw that the sand traps you."

"Can I try?"

"If you want, but it takes at least a quarter moon to learn how to do it with any consistent success."

Tidepaw tried to settle her weight the same way she'd seen Dunemist do it, and leapt. Or, tried to. As soon as she attempted to propel herself forward, she unbalanced herself and she landed on her stomach, sand flying into her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. "Ah! It hurts, it stings so bad!" she coughed out, retching to get all the sand out of her mouth.

"Sneeze and give your pelt a good shake and we'll go visit Wavebreeze to see about the sand in your eyes." Dunemist sounded like she was ready to break out purring at any moment.

Tidepaw glared at her. "It's not funny!" But with her voice distorted by the sand and the pain, it came out rather muffled, which made them both start purring.

A/N: I know it's going rather slow at the moment. Hang in there! The action will start picking up soon!