Just another day...

He merely grinned in response to her comment, tail swishing in a panther-like motion underneath his body. "You seem to observe what I do and don't feel like doing rather carefully, Turtlepaw." The statement, in and of itself, was unintentionally flirtatious. Jaggedstone's brow furrowed as he considered what they may start with. She was nearing the end of their training, so simple instructions on how to hunt and crouch would be an insult to her intelligence. He felt the same way in his own apprenticeship. So, without further adieu, the blue-point made to try something new. Leaning forward on the branch, his next words wore a supple purr. "Close your eyes." Checking to see she'd done so, the young warrior made his way about the clearing by leaping quietly, and occasionally not so quietly, from branch to branch. Soon, he'd circled the entire training hollow several times, and had come to rest a few trees to the left of where he'd started. His scent was everywhere, and his body was completely immersed in shadow cast by the broad elm under which he had landed. In a way, he was playing a game. Without specific direction, he hoped she'd be able to tell what was going on. /Come find me, little mouse/. Jaggedstone's obsidian mouth was touched by a coy, teasing smile as he waited, anxiously, betwixt several prickly branches.

Jaggedstone couldn't hope to suppress the snort of laughter coursing through his slender upper body, even though it gave away his position. "I didn't mean for you to search for me with your eyes still closed," The slate tom commented wryly as he dropped from the branch's secure hold. He settled himself a pace or two away from the she-cat, in the same proximity perhaps a good friend would sit. He seemed to be at complete ease except for the nervous twitch of his tail's alabaster tip. "Most cats think that being the strongest, or most powerful, will make them victorious." The RiverClan warrior's mew was smooth, trickling from slightly unhinged silver and white jaws like water from an evergreen leaf. After the last bit, his maw widened to make way for a single, nearly inaudible chuckle, almost as if the warriors he'd mentioned were nothing more than a bad joke. "Sometimes," Jaggedstone continued, leaning towards Turtlepaw, "being silent helps more than anything else. How can you attack an enemy you can't even see?" RiverClan's smallest tom shrugged, and settled back onto his haunches with an air of satisfaction. He wasn't a bad mentor after all.

What on earth was wrong with this apprentice? She made no sense at all. Though, he admittedly had no experience with playfulness.  Jaggedstone sat back in confusion, his expression that of complete befuddlement. He'd always considered himself to be an intellectual, someone able to think quickly and on their feet, but something about Turtlepaw completely caught him off guard.While other felines conversed and 'got to know each other' through friendship, he found he could find out much more by sitting back and just watching. For instance, he knew about Crowwhisker's and Palestream's awkward mishap; the way they interacted now clearly stated something had happened, and the black she-cat's belly had recently begun to swell. A snort crumpled his muzzle towards the base, revealing two rows of clenched, pearly white canines as the memory passed in and out of consciousness. The young warrior shook his head as if to dismiss his thoughts. They were of little importance. He steeled himself against the blabbering tortoiseshell's appeal - she was appealing, no? - and focused instead on the matter at hand. When the tom spoke next, it was far from a soft, supple purr. "Focus," the tom snapped, the fur along his neck rising to meet the gradually dipping sun. "This is important.You wanted to train, so let's train." With each word, the blue-point's alabaster paws danced backwards towards the cover of the spreading elms above; he inwardly reveled in the shade and security they provided. "Again." Jaggedstone flew up into the trees, aiming to repeat the exercise until Turtlepaw was able to successful detect his location. Those beaming, steel-grey pools she found so alluring now fixated in an unnerving stare - he intended for her to close her eyes once more, then he would fly about the clearing from branch to branch as he had before.

The pale tom had been seated on the very tip of an incredibly inclusive branch, so the fact that Turtlepaw was able to discover him so quickly earned several congratulatory purrs left rumbling thickly in his throat. When she, at last, managed to heave herself onto the branch, he startled himself by butting his foreign-shaped head against the mottled tortoiseshell's, the slightest of smiles teasing his maw. It was only by being this close he truly realized just how green her irises were. Jaggedstone found himself quite taken with them, as they seemed to swirl and gleam in the most curious fashion when light managed to break through the thick foliage above. A particularly light-weighted feeling overcame the blue-point, and for the first time in perhaps his entire life, the steely hue of his own pools softened. "Well done," He murmured, turning his face away from the apprentice's as if suddenly realizing the closeness of their proximity. Peering directly above him, the lithe RiverClan warrior's playful smile abruptly shot into an unruly frown. "I hadn't realized it'd gotten so late. We need to head back before anyone grows concerned."

Several tentative shudders rippled through the lithe tom's athletic body as his mouth unhinged to reply. "Let's...head that..." Trailing off mid-sentence was Jaggedstone's absentminded way of dismissing his discomfort. The effect was rather comedic, actually, as it failed to yield any successful results. In short, the light-weighted feeling acted as if it didn't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. His midnight hued lips quirked in that slight smile once more, right before he took a carefully executed dive from the tree's hold back to the muddy riverbank-like floor. Such was the thinness of the mud that the warrior's alabaster paws sunk deeply into the ochre substance. "Sometimes," the Tom grumbled to no one in particular as he unstuck himself, "I really hate rivers." Jaggedstone shrugged, turning back to see if Turtlepaw had followed. With a delicate flick of his slate tail, the lanky tom began the long treck back to camp.

He hadn't gone five feet beyond his companion's line of sight when a small, piteous cry pierced the hazy air. No part of her exclamation conveyed she was in any sort of danger, and yet Jaggedstone's sleek, pale grey fur stood on end almost as soon as it reached his ears. He ran, no, he flew back to the training hollow expecting to see Turtlepaw collapsed or bleeding or /something/, but she was perfectly fine - simply covered in mud from the long leap down. Scowling, the slender warrior's frame weaved through mud puddle after mud puddle until he was at the young fae's side. The slate tom's neck curved in a low arch to where his head was level with hers. Only then did he move to rasp a small section of her mottled brown fur clean. In between each slow lick, Jaggedstone made to assure himself she was alright. "I didn't realize the jump was that far. I'm so used to trees myself, I guess I didn't think about you not being used to them. Stars, you're lucky there was a lot of mud below. That fall could have broken something if you had landed wrong. I wasn't thinking. I should think more. I'm sorry. I just..." Now wasn't this a curious sight? Jaggedstone - the calm, the assured warrior of RiverClan, rambling and making repetitive apologies? Infinitely stranger than that was his use of 'stars', rather than 'Star/Clan/'. Once he'd stopped blurting out ridiculous apologies and reasons, he stepped back from Turtlepaw's splattered form. Though it was difficult to see, a gentle rosy flush had touched the stern tom's cheeks.

Jaggedstone set his gaze determinedly downcast, as if hiding the - what he felt was - blatantly obvious blush discoloring the silvery hue of his sculpted cheekbones. "Anyway..." Awkwardly shuffling his front paws, the previously self-assured tom-cat slowly backed away from Turtlepaw's partially cleaned form towards the direction of camp. "There's no rush to get back to camp. Not unless you want to, anyway. We could hunt along the way." Obsidian maw askew in a dorky, playful smile, the young warrior's slate grey tail rose towards the moon, which had replaced the sun during the duration of...whatever that was. His playfulness was a facade - something to cover up what might have been flirtatious behavior. Flirtatious? Jaggedstone? Never.