[[ CLOCKS ]] <;3... f l y c h i c k

[Agii♫]

Closing hearts and ticking clocks.
Still feeling slightly fatigued, the she-cat leader blinked slowly, the smile disappearing from her jaws and replacing itself with a painted portrait of sorrowful concentration. Peach-tipped and long, rounded ears flicked slightly as a drift from the clouds brought a few remaining snowflakes from the peak of the large cliff. Northstar glazed over her apprentice's lean, black body with lazily curious green eyes, measuring the amount of stamina he had with how much energy he could put into it with adept accuracy.
Hearing his inquisitive question, the feline suppressed an amused arch of the brow. "That would be impressive, Inkpaw. I'm sure you could do it," she mused instructively. "But, not today."
Suddenly Northstar's expression faded, impressively lean shoulder blades tightening as she swiftly struck her left forepaw outwards to the tom's left shoulder.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Although Inkpaw saw the contracting of Northstar's muscles underneath her pelt, he hadn't thought anything of it until she raised her left forepaw in somewhat of a movement that suggested something like striking. He tried to move out of the way, but the dizzying effect of the scenery down below hit him straight in the face and he had been caught in between trying to move out of the way from Northstar and trying not to fall off the ridge.

Instead, Inkpaw took the blow. It wasn't excrutiatingly painful, but Inkpaw still didn't know what it was for. Standing up as quickly as he could after surviving the few seconds of shock, he looked at Northstar. He wan't angry -- just curious. "Hey! What was that for?" he meowed, a slight bit of a whine inhabiting his voice as he spoke to his leader.

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[Agii♫]

To her great pride, Inkpaw had responded exactly as she had expected him to, as well as in a manner that pleased her. Pulling her white lips into a small smirk, the she-cat tilted her head to the side as if she were going to bound away in playfulness. However, Northstar did not, but instead blinked amusedly at her apprentice, curling her immensely long and thin tail around an invisible sphere of air. "You do well in examining your surroundings," she commented pleasurably.
Cold wind caressed her lean body, fingers of the wind running down her spine as she lifted herself from her seated position, flexing her small paws as she did so. The leader felt her stomach churn unpleasantly; her body was still aching from her breakdown the previous day. Letting out a silent and slow breath, Northstar leaned down and gently picked up a single, frozen branch of heather between her jaws. Turning back to her apprentice, she looked to him with a cleverness in her hazel-emerald eyes. "Come and try to take this from me."

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Get the heather from Northstar? No problem. Inkpaw began his task with high spirits, pausing for a moment to examine his situation -- his opponent, his goal, and his surroundings. He knew that it would be rather ruthless to just leap up and try his luck since the ever shining prospect of falling from the peak of the ridge loomed about in his mind. Inkpaw wasn't all that afraid of heights. Well -- he was afraid of falling from them.

Eyeing the branch of heather clamped in between Northstar's jaws, Inkpaw thought over again at this situation. There were some rocks pointing out at sharp angles along the side of the ridge that would allow for a bit of leverage if he fell, but that didn't really give Inkpaw much comfort.

Well. This was turning out to be a little more challenging than he had imagined it to, wasn't it? You're smaller than Northstar. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? A thoughtful expression crossed Inkpaw's face as he thought about it. If he managed to get Northstar on her back while the heather was still clamped in her jaws, the task would be much easier from then on.

What would work, assuming that his smaller size was an advantage? Suddenly, without thinking, Inkpaw's body moved in to motion without the conformation of his mind. Scampering across the distance between him and Northstar, he darted underneath the leader. It was certainly a tight fit; Inkpaw was certainly a growing apprentice. From his position among the cream-colored fur, he moved his tail back and forth across his leader's belly, attempting to tickle her.

Odd.

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[Agii♫]

This certainly was a tactic she had never seen or heard of before. Tickling? Please.
Without any sound, she watched carefully as the apprentice darted towards her with determined speed. Eyes following with accuracy known to only a cat, Northstar saw as he darted beneath her. She had been expecting him to try and knock her off of her paws some way or another, but this? Tickling? Quite odd indeed.
Raising her brows in surprise, the she-cat flicked her long tail up in the air, whiskers twitching in a gentle show of her silent laughter. She really wasn't one much for ticklish types, although she did feel the annoying, playful prick of her soft belly fur against her skin. Lithe-fully Northstar leaped upwards, springing upwards with such height that she was able to fully clear a few ledges; which in turn, was a few foxlengths high. The lean feline turned her position in mid-air, landing lethally silently in the exact position where she could see her apprentice.

[>>BLACKiE! ]}]

Inkpaw's tail continued twitching back and forth in the motion that he had used to attempt to tickle Northstar's belly. It remained like that for a few moments until he realized that he was simply pushing the air back and forth with his tail. He looked each and every which way until he finally saw where Northstar was. Actually, he did a double take and then found Northstar.

How did she get up there? Inkpaw thought to himself, a bewildered expression slapping itself across his face as he looked at his mentor. Did she sprout wings and fly? The idea of this was so ridiculous, that Inkpaw couldn't help but take a few moments to purr with laughter.

All right, Inkpaw. Back on track now. It was time for him to think of a different technique to try to get the object from Northstar. Welllllll. It was time for him to consider his options. But what options did he have? Those cliffs looked difficult to climb, even though the pads on his paws were already tough from living on the SkyClan ridge. Well, he couldn't quite fly, so it seemed as if he would have to climb.

Inkpaw began his descent up even higher on the ridge. He forcefully told himself to not look down, or else he would've given up for sure.

This would take a while.

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