A long haired ginger, black, and white tabby stretched each paw forward slowly, one at a time. Her gaze was fixed on the mouse only two tail-lengths ahead of her. She was getting closer, and closer. Then the mouse looked up and sniffed at the air for a moment before racing away. She tried to give chase but had hesitated too long and came to a slow, defeated, stop. "Foxdung!" She swore.
"Emberpaw I keep telling you, keep your tail lower." A voice said from the shadows at her left. A large tortoiseshell tom stepped forward and gazed down at her with icy eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, Dapplepond and I hear you every time." Emberpaw said glaring at a bush.
"Then why in starclan don't you listen? I might as well be training a deaf kit." He said Pushing her toward a bush affectionately. "Try near that bunch of bushes." Emberpaw rolled her eyes but stalked toward the greenery anyway. Why would there be any more prey over here then over there? Then she saw a flicker of fur between the leaves. She dropped into the hunter's crouch and crept forward, this time keeping her tail low. She could see the brown fur only a tail-length away. So she leapt cleanly over the bush and right on top of a dark brown tom. He yowled in surprise as she landed on his back with her unsheathed claws. She was thrown to the ground by his thrashing, desperatly trying to get her off.
"Mudpaw! What are you doing here?" Emberpaw glared at the other apprentice. His shock had turned to anger, he was baring his teeth.
"I'm hunting for my clan. And apparently trying not to get crushed by clumsy kittypets!" He spat the last words fiercely. Emberpaw's relation to the former kittypet Firestar was more of a burden then she had expected. When she was a kit she was foolish enough to think it would make her better liked. But Mudpaw, Rainpaw, Sparrowpaw, and Lynxpaw never let her and her sister forget they had kittypet blood.
Emberpaw glared at him and growled,"You mean being hunted! Try to pay better attention to your surroundings." With that she sniffed and padded off toward the training clearing. She emerged from the bushes and remembered she was still supposed to be hunting. She sighed and turned back to the bushes behind her. By the time she caught an amount that satisfied her it was well past sunhigh. She caught enough to feed the new kits in the nursery and maybe even have some left for the elders. With her tail held high she set her prey in front of Dapplepond.
"Your becoming quite a fine hunter Emberpaw. I expect you shall have an evaluation soon." With her staring at him in impatient excitement he picked up half of the prey and walked off toward the camp. She Quickly picked up the rest of the prey and scrambled after him. Once they arrived at the Thunderclan camp they set down the prey in the fresh kill pile and Emberpaw bounded off to find her sister.
"Streampaw!" Emberpaw called into the apprentice's den. She looked inside but it was empty. She backed out and ran over to the nursery. Streampaw loved to help with the kits so she might be there. "Is Streampaw in here?" Emberpaw meowed softly into the Brambles that made up the nursery's entrance.
A pretty silver spotted tabby came out and said,"Yeah I'm in there." Then licked Emberpaw between the ears.
Emberpaw shook her off,"Hey, guess what!" She could barely contain her excitement enough not to just blurt it out.
Streampaw watched her calmly,"Huh?"
"I might be made a warrior soon!" Emberpaw blurted out finally voicing how excited she was that she might finally become fully excepted by her clan.
"Oh, really." Streampaw meowed, licking her chest fur. She seemed so unenthusiastic and condescending that Emberpaw started to get impatient.
"Yeah, Dapplepond said that I might get an evaluation soon!" She was still a little happy until her sister's attitude didn't change with the new information.
"He's probably just saying that so you'll try harder. Lakeshine tried that on me but I took no notice. It's not like they're going to make us warriors early or anything." She said it like she was moons older than Emberpaw.
Emberpaw stared at her angrily and growled,"What's up with you? You remember we're the same age, right?"
Streampaw just snorted and meowed,"Then why do you act like an excited kit all the time?" At that remark she glanced over at a young black tom with a white face and dark blue eyes.
"Your mooning over Brightface?" Emberpaw snorted. "Is that why your acting like you swallowed a thistle?"
Her sister whipped around to face her and hissed,"Shut up before I claw your ears off. I'm not mooning. He's just nice..." She had a wistful look on her face.
"Ok. Excuse me while I go throw up my mouse from this morning." Emberpaw murmured wandering away. "I don't care if he's nice what bothers me is that you have to be so mean..." She hissed under her breath. Streampaw ignored her and walked up to Brightface and started meowing about how much Emberpaw was acting like a kit. Emberpaw just glared back at them, hating that she didn't have anything to take her mind off her sister. She saw Dapplepond walking towards the brambles that lead away from Streampaw and into fresh air. She trotted over to him just before he went through the tunnel and called his name. He turned around as if he'd been caught taking a second mouse. Then he saw it was her and seemed to relax.
"Yes Emberpaw?" He looked down at her.
"I was wondering if you were going hunting and if I could join you." She said trying not to look longingly at the entrance, wanting so badly to run through it into the warm evening air of greenleaf.
"Yes I was going hunting, and of course you can come with me you still need practice." At that he raced through the camp entrance toward the lake. Emberpaw scrambled to keep up with his longer and stronger legs. Once the ancient oak came into view they slowed to a stop and took in their surroundings. After a moment of stillness Emberpaw could hear some scrabbling coming from underneath a few bushes. She crept forward eyes fixed on where the noise was coming from. She was so close she could smell the mouse. Emberpaw leapt and caught it. She killed it quickly and brought it back out to where Dapplepond was. She looked around and he was gone. As she set down the mouse she caught his scent leading toward the windclan border.
"He must be hunting over there..." She thought allowed, not really sure what her mentor was doing over there. But she knew she shouldn't interrupt him. She had better things to do, she had to feed the clan. The moon was only just touching the horizon now and Emberpaw had caught what she thought was enough freshkill. She was getting tired, but Dapplepond was still no where to be seen. Emberpaw sighed and gathered up the freshkill and walked back to camp, dreading having to see her sister after their fight earlier. But Emberpaw didn't even think it was a fight, just her sister being mouse-brained.
As she walked through the barrier she saw the camp was mostly asleep. She dropped the freshkill on to the pile and started toward the apprentice's den. While walking towards it she heared a noise and looked back at the barrier. Dapplepond was trotting through the entrance with no freshkill and he looked freshly washed. She stared at him for a moment before creeping into the den and finding her nest. As she curled up she couldn't help but wonder what Dapplepond had been doing. Then she was asleep away from her daily worries and pains.