The sea was calm and flat, like a mirror. He stared into the eyes of his reflection. They were blue, blue like the sky, blue like the ocean, blue like the abyss. He leaned forward into his own gaze, and the water broke to let him in.
Then he was falling, falling like a leaf from a tree. Was he a leaf? He wasn't sure. He looked at his paws, which were covered in white fur. No, he wasn't a leaf. Leaves didn't have fur. Perhaps he was a mouse. No, mice didn't have white fur. Mice didn't fall like leaves.
Maybe he was a cat. Cats had fur that came in all sorts of colors—grey and black and brown and white. Cats had four paws and tails and pretty sea-glass eyes that came in all sorts of colors. Yes, he was a cat.
Had he always been a cat? Maybe he had been a leaf once, and that was why he was falling like one. Maybe his body remembered how to fall like a leaf. But were leaves alive? How could he be something that wasn't alive? Perhaps he had been a bird. Birds had colorful feathers and beaks and wings. Maybe he had flown once and had liked to dive and fall like a leaf.
He tried to stretch his imaginary wings, only to realize that he didn't have any. He wasn't a bird, not any more at least. Maybe he would gain wings if he tried hard enough. He scrunched up his face in concentration, trying to will a pair of wings onto his back.
He suddenly realized his error. He didn't need wings, for he was in the sea, and birds couldn't fly in the sea. Smiling, he stretched out his tail behind him and began to swim, fluidly moving his body up and down. He began to swim downwards, into the depths of the sea…
A strange appendage reached out toward him—a tentacle? Could it belong to a great god of the sea, or to a nightmarish horror intending to destroy the world? He moved toward it curiously, studying the individual rings on the thing.
Suddenly, it reached out and wrapped around his torso, pulling him down with it. Panicking, he began to thrash against it, but he just couldn't break free—
"Wavepaw!"
What was that? Perhaps it was the beast, a whisper to taunt him with a cruel parody of a familiar voice?
"Wavepaw!"
There it was again. How could the creature mimic such a voice so flawlessly? Why, it sounded so familiar—who could it be? Could it be his own voice?
"Wavepaw! Wake up!"
Wavekit awoke with a start. Above him was the slender figure of his sister, Tidekit. Her face was twisted into an expression of annoyance.
"It's about time, sleepy head! You should've been up ages ago!"
Wavekit yawned. "I'm up, I'm up. Stop yelling, please…"
Tidekit rolled her eyes. "Don't you remember? It's the first day of us being apprentices! You can't just sleep in!"
Suddenly, everything rushed back to him. Her name wasn't Tidekit—she was Tidepaw now. And he was Wavepaw, not Wavekit. He rolled the name over in his mind. Wavepaw, Wavepaw, Wavepaw. If he repeated it enough, it stopped sounding like a name—or even a word, really. What was a name, anyways? Would he be any different if he was named Rosepaw or Whitepaw or Firepaw?
"Wavepaw!" Tidepaw's voice, high and shrill, yanked him from his reverie. "Stop spacing out, we'll be late to our first lesson!"
"Okay, okay. Get off of me first, you lumbering whale." With that, he playfully swatted at his sister's face. She laughed and carefully removed herself.
The pair padded out into the camp. As far as camps went, it was fairly generic. The dens were all situated under bushes, save for the den of the Priests and the leader, which was under a sprawling tree. The entire space was large enough to fit about twice the size of the entire clan, even though most cats only returned to camp to eat and sleep.
Wavepaw's mentor, Thorntail, padded towards them. "Ready to explore the territory?" Despite his friendly words, his face showed no hint of a smile.
"Of course!" Tidepaw shouted, causing Wavepaw to wince from the noise. "Are we gonna go to the CloudClan border?!"
Thorntail smirked for a heartbeat. "We'll see what your mentor says."
"Oh, I'm sure she will be! After all, we're gonna be the best warriors ever!"
"Tidepaw, I'm not sure about that—" the ginger and white tom interjected nervously, only to be interrupted by his sister again.
"What are you saying, Wavepaw? Of course we're gonna be the best! Momma always says that, anyways."
"Well, yeah, but isn't Sandsea the best warrior ever? He can fight off all of CloudClan alone!"
Tidepaw snorted. "Well, why hasn't he just gone and defeated them, then?"
Wavepaw frowned. Why hadn't he? Surely he didn't like all this bloodshed.
Thorntail shook his head. "Of course he's the best warrior in the clan, otherwise he wouldn't be leader. End of story."
Tidepaw rolled her eyes. Wavepaw glanced at her, frowning slightly. How could Tidepaw doubt Sandsea so much? Didn't she have any faith in their leader?
Meanwhile, Tidepaw's mentor, Grayblaze, padded over. "What are you up to?" Wavepaw noted the warmth in her voice and the mischievous sparkle in her blue eyes, comparing them to Thorntail's cold, fleeting smile and constant frown.
"We were waiting for you," Thorntail meowed. "These two are quite eager to explore the territory." Wavepaw blinked, startled. Why would he just ignore Tidepaw's claims?
Grayblaze laughed. "Well, what are we waiting for, then? Let's go." She gestured towards Tidepaw as she turned to walk out of camp. Thorntail whipped around without so much as a friendly glance at Wavepaw.
The four of them walked out of the clearing and into the small forest. Above them, exotic birds called to each other. Morning dew still hung on the leaves of the deciduous trees.
Soon they came to the rocky beach. Wavepaw felt his eyes widen to the size of the moon. So this was the sea? It looked so… plain. It was just a flat, grayish surface that stretched on for miles until it merged with the clouds.
He felt strangely disappointed. His mother had always described the ocean as a miraculous, beautiful place filled with secrets and adventure. How could such a boring thing be so interesting?
"Where are the fish?" Tidepaw asked loudly.
Thorntail snorted. "Under the water, mouse-brain."
"Thorntail! Be civil."
"…Fine," Thorntail muttered, glaring at nothing in particular.
"But they are under the water, Tidepaw. We'll have to swim to get to them."
"Swim?!"
"Yes. It's our duty as your mentors to teach you how to. Since it's your first day, we'll just be exploring the island for now, but you'll be swimming soon enough."
Tidepaw frowned. "But isn't the island small? Won't we have a lot of time left over?"
"Oh, don't worry. There's plenty to explore. Otherwise, we wouldn't make our camp here."
Wavepaw felt strangely cheated. Why couldn't he go into the sea yet? Surely he could swim. He was big enough to be mistaken for a cat of seven moons, and he was just as strong as any other apprentice. It was understandable with Tidepaw, since she was still small, but surely he was ready.
"Come on, Wavepaw," Thorntail growled, apparently still annoyed. Grayblaze and Tidepaw had already padded off into the forest.
"Sorry," he mumbled, following his mentor into the woods. The shadows from the trees enveloped him, making him into one of their own, and he was gone.