Enderpaw swiped at the air in front of Snarlpaw's face, and then she leapt up and twisted to the right before landing on Snarlpaw and pushing her to the ground and bared her teeth at her sister's throat. Silverheart nodded in approval. "Good Enderpaw. Much better than last time. You might want to give yourself a more balanced landing." Silverheart cut Enderpaw off as she opened her mouth to contract. "I know a more heavy landing would unbalance your enemy more but a controlled landing would do the same and it would let you recover easier for the next attack, from you, or your enemy." Enderpaw nodded. Then, she took Snarlpaw's place as Shimmerpaw stepped into the sandy hollow to try out the move on Enderpaw. Enderpaw stopped focusing on Shimmerpaw and wandered around the clearing. She sniffed the air and caught the scent of a blackbird. She followed the scent to the edge of the hollow. She saw the blackbird pecking around the roots of a small birch. She crept out of the hollow and snuck up behind it, checking the air to make sure that it was behind her and the blackbird wouldn't sense her coming. She was a tail length behind when she pounced. Her hind leg slipped on a patch of wet leaf litter and she landed short of the blackbird. The blackbird trilled in fright and spread its wings to take flight. Enderpaw scrambled up quickly and she leapt at the blackbird again in vain and managed to snag her claw into its right wing. She brought it down and gave it a killing bite on its neck. She trotted back to the training hollow.

As soon as she stepped into the hollow, a heavy weight slammed onto her and Shimmerpaw's scent wrapped her. She went limp and rolled over, spitting out her blackbird and taking Shimmerpaw down with her. Enderpaw batted her paws against Shimmerpaw's flanks and tummy. Shimmerpaw got away from Enderpaw and sat down, breathing heavily. "That was a good fight Enderpaw!"

Enderpaw purred. "I agree. We should do more regular battle practices to practice the battle skills we know."

Silverheart nodded. "I'll speak to Deerstar about it."

Snarlpaw bounded out from the shadows of the trees surrounding the hollow. "Can I practice the move now?"

Silverheart nodded. "Oh and Enderpaw? You might want to pick up your blackbird before these two wreck it stepping all over it while training."

Enderpaw quickly darted over and picked up her blackbird and retreated to the shadows to watch.

Shimmerpaw was pretending to be a patrolling warrior, sniffing at the ground, and looking up every once in a while, pricking her ears and peering around the hollow. Snarlpaw was crouched behind her, close to the ground. As Enderpaw watched, Snarlpaw leapt up and landed right on top of Shimmerpaw without her noticing. Shimmerpaw let out a startled yowl and immediately rolled onto her back and swiped at Snarlpaw's ears. Snarlpaw screeched in pain and let go of Shimmerpaw and rolled into a sitting position. Enderpaw scrambled out of the shadows and bounded towards Snarlpaw. There was a trickle of blood coming from a scratch on Snarlpaw's ear. Shimmerpaw flicked her tail nervously as their mentors came towards them. "I'm so sorry Snarlpaw!" blurted out Shimmerpaw. "You just really startled me and I guess my instincts took over." She lower head shamefully. Snarlpaw flicked her tail playfully. "It's okay Shimmerpaw. Besides, look! I have my first battle scar even before my first battle! I'm not going to allow Lightfur or Shadepaw to treat it because it might not scar!" She lifted her head proudly. Glowfang gave her a hard clout over her head. "Don't be a mousebrain Snarlpaw. What if that cut got infected and you lost your ear?" He asked. "I'm sure you'll be boasting about your "battle scar" then."

Snarlpaw sighed. "Fine. I'm pretty sure Lightfur and Shadepaw would never let me get away with that anyways."

Moorspring purred. "I'm sure you'll all get a battle scar soon enough. In the mean while, why don't we all go back to the camp and get some prey to eat? You've all earned it!"

All the apprentices perked up at that and scampered back to camp.

As soon as they got into camp, Lightfur bounded out of the medicine cat den with some marigold and cobwebs in her jaws. "I smell blood!" She declared. Her gaze traveled around to each of the cats in the camp clearing before settling on Snarlpaw, who was busy gnawing at a shrew beside Enderpaw and Shimmerpaw. She bustled over to her and set to work on Snarlpaw's ear. Shadepaw darted over to Lightfur and began to chew the marigold into a pulp. Then, he patted the marigold pulp onto Snarlpaw's scratched ear. Snarlpaw jerked back with a hiss. "Oww!" She complained. "That stings!" Shadepaw pushed her head towards Lightfur. "An infection on that ear's going to sting a lot more. Sit still!" Lightfur managed to wrap Snarlpaw's ear with the cobweb and padded back to her den with Shadepaw close behind her. Snarlpaw pawed at her injured ear. "Why do medicine cats have to fuss so much?"

Enderpaw purred in amusement. "They're medicine cats! Their specialty is fussing over cats!" 

(Cat above is Shimmerpaw, sister to Snarlpaw and Enderpaw)