First Stop: Tallpines!

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

As soon as Earthfoot finished his thrush, Sagepaw leapt to his paws, eyes shining with excitement. We're going! We're really going! Eagerly he bounded over to his mentor, and trotted behind him as calmly as he could as the older tom lead the way out of camp. The apprentice cast one last glance behind him as they left. So long! he thought. I won't be back until I've seen the edges of our territory. Squeezing through the bramble tunnel, he found himself at the foot of a great cliff. Great StarClan! Do we have to climb that? The climb looked impossible, but he was determined to get to the top. Sagepaw tensed his muscles and scrambled after Earthfoot as he mounted the boulders that lead up the side of the ravine.

Each step was a leap for the small tom; each leap was a climb. But he scrambled and clawed his way up, and eventually he was sitting at the top, looking over camp. "Wow!" he breathed, heaving out a breath and trying to keep his heart from flying right out of his chest. From this height the camp looked tiny; Sagepaw had never been this high up before. He'd always had to look up, and suddenly he was viewing everything from above. Turning his glass-green gaze on his mentor, the young cat mewed breathlessly, "This is fantastic, Earthfoot! So where are we going now?"

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

After reaching the top of the ravine, Earthfoot glanced back to camp below, observing the cats emerging from their dens. They wouldn't be missed for long, right? The other cats knew that Earthfoot would be busy with his new apprentice and hopefully he wouldn't be neeed while they were out of camp.

Tallpines would be closest to camp from here, so that's where they would go. "We're going to Tallpines." he meowed with a small smile at Sagepaw. Setting off at a quick pace, he walked smoothly, having lived in the forest his whole life and knowing it just as well as any warrior. "Keep your senses open," he told Sagepaw, "Always be aware of your surroundings." After all, danger could pop out at any moment. But there was no reason to scare him with that now.

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

Sagepaw sprang to his paws and hurried after his mentor as Earthfoot strode away into the forest. The young apprentice had to take two steps for every one of the larger cat's, but he scampered tirelessly after him without complaining. The day was so nice, not yet too hot from the greenleaf sun, but still warm and green and lovely. The small grey tom tried to stare everywhere at once while the two cats made their way through the forest in the direction of Tallpines. Remembering his mentor's words, Sagepaw pricked his ears and tried to be as vigilant as possible as he trotted briskly along.

Leaves and tree trunks were mirrored in his round-eyed gaze as he tried to spot a foraging mouse, or a prowling fox, or a blooming flower. For a while he was completely silent as his ears strained to pinpoint the myriad of sounds that emanated from the forest in all directions, but after several minutes he looked back at his mentor, a question bubbling at his lips. "Is it true that a Twoleg monster lives in Tallpines?" he mewed, trying to detect any telltale monster-noises in the distance, though he didn't know what exactly they sounded like. "One of the apprentices told me that it eats trees."

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

Earthfoot opened his jaws to check scents, searching for any unwanted intruders or other creatures, as was routine for him. Despite being a medicine cat, he had the caution and the mind of a warrior whenever he wasn't doing medicine cat duties. As they approached Tallpines, Earthfoot couldn't smell any unusual scents.

At Sagepaw's sudden question, he turned his attention back to the apprentice. He nodded slightly. "The tree eater lives in a Twolegplace at the edge of Tallpines. It doesn't come into the forest as far as I know." he told him. Best not to frighten him, he thought, and added, "Twoleg mosnsters don't come into the territories. They stay on the Thunderpath or in Twolegplace."

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

"Oh," Sagepaw mewed. That was good, then. Imagine the destruction a monster would have caused if it had roam of the entire forest! But such a thing would never happen. Earthfoot had said that it was so. "Hey," he said, as the ground underfoot became layered with spongy needles and the trees around them became increasingly of the tall, thin variety, "is this Tallpines?" The small tom looked around with interest. It was easy to see where they had gotten their name; the trees here were so tall he couldn't see the tops, and the branches didn't start until very high up on the trunks. Sagepaw looked back at Earthfoot with round eyes, his ears perked up with attention. He was listening; he would be good.

OoC// Ugh, short post. XP

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

Looking up as the trees gave way to high stretching pines, he knew they were reaching the edge of the territory on this side. They would soon get closer to the Treecut Place. Earthfoot nodded at Sagepaw. "Most of our territory has regular trees that lose their leaves in leaf-fall. But these trees don't." He thought it was strange himself but left those kinds of confusing mysteries alone. Never would he fully understand everything, even if he was a medicine cat, viewed as wise and all-knowing. He was far from it. He kept his eyes open for the first sight of the nearby Twolegplace, for at that point they would have to change direction and continue along the edge of the territory.

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

OoC// *Snores* Boring! This thread needs a good kick in the butt.

Pacing eagerly beside his mentor, Sagepaw looked around the tall, shadowy pines with great interest. He had never been this far from camp before, and every new sight or smell was exciting to him. Pricking his ears at a small sound, he turned his head and saw a small, furry squirrel scuttling down the trunk of a nearby pine tree. Unable to resist chasing it, the young tom immediately raced in the direction of the little ginger animal, sending it scurrying quickly away through the leaf litter. Caught up in the excitement of the chase, the small tom didn't slow his headlong sprint until he followed the squirrel through a patch of ferns and saw it bound like lightning up a tree. Sitting down, Sagepaw looked up at the creature, who was now scolding him noisily from a high branch. He was disappointed that he hadn't been able to catch it, but mostly he was just excited to have be able to chase a live squirrel.

Then he abruptly remembered the presence of his mentor, and looked around sheepishly to try and spot him. The squirrel had led him on a bit of a chase before scampering up its tree; Sagepaw could now see some odd-looking structures at the edge of the forest. They looked like short, smooth, flat pieces of bark all lined up very close together, forming a wall of sorts. Behind the wall of bark he could see the tops of large, blocky structures, and hear a plethora of new sights and smells that he had never encountered before. Getting to his paws, the young grey tom took a curious step in that direction. What was over there? The wall looked decidedly unnatural, but he couldn't fathom why it was there. Looking around again for his mentor, Sagepaw wondered if he had lost him when he had run off in pursuit of the squirrel. Had he been too fast for the medicine cat to keep up with? Realizing that he had no idea where he was, the small apprentice stopped moving toward the bark wall and waited nervously for his mentor to appear.

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

Earthfoot was looking around at the trees, taking in the surroundings when Sagepaw suddenly took off. He looked over in time to see the apprentice disappear, chasing after a squirrel. Sighing, he started following Sagepaw, tracking the scent once he lost sight of the younger cat. Sagepaw was barely out of kithood, so he probably couldn't blame him if some prey caught his attention. Maybe he could teach Sagepaw to hunt; medicine cats learned to fight and defend themselves, and hunting was a useful skill as well.

When he finally came closer to Sagepaw again, he was sure he had traveled across half of ThunderClan's territory. It was a wonder Sagepaw hadn't gotten lost. Earthfoot came to the edge of the forest and saw Sagepaw looking out past the boundary of the territory. "Looks like you found Twolegplace." he mewed, walking over and sounding rather tired from the chase. He guessed Sagepaw had heard of Twolegs before but never actually seen one. Earthfoot had only seen one or two in his life. But that was more than enough for him to know they were strange creatures that StarClan probably didn't even understand.

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

OoC// Kay, this thread is so dead it's a shriveled corpse. It's after sunhigh, so shall we just assume that they've returned to camp now?