Battle practice

Shiningheart jumped back just as the orange tom took a swipe at her. She darted forward lashing out with her paw. The tom slide to the side and landed a blow to her shoulder. “Good hit Brackenpaw” She meowed warmly. “I think you have that one down very nicely now.”
Brackenpaw purred happily. “What’s next?”
“Possum.” Shiningheart replied.
“Possum?” The younger cat asked. Brackenpaw flumped over twitched for a moment and was still.
Shiningheart laughed, “Not quite” she chuckled “young possums sometimes cling to the backs of their parents, this is a good way for apprentices, particularly several working together to take down larger opponents.”
Brackenpaw sat back up his ears perked forward.
“This is a lot like leaping onto a high branch” Shiningheart meowed. “You jump onto your opponents back and hold on with your claws. From there is will be very hard for your opponent to reach you, and very easy for you to cause damage. The most frequent counter to this is to roll, you must watch carefully for this or you will be crushed under your foe.” “Now try on me.”
Shiningheart began to stalk around the clearing. Brackenpaw gathered himself and sprang landing on Shininghearts back and sank his claws into her thick fur.
“Very good, now can you hold on?” Shiningheart meowed mischievously. She began to buck and dash about, making sharp turns, jarring landings. Brackenpaw clung onto her back, her thick fur was both a help and a hindrance for while it allowed him to hang on without hurting his mentor, Shiningheart was also shedding heavily making it difficult to get a solid grip.
And then he felt Shiningheart shift beneath him, and jumped off just as she started to roll.
“Very good” Shiningheart meowed with pleasure.

Artists note: The last part of my assignment for DOW
Shiningheart is mine
Brackenpaw is
For the story leading up to this go here [link]