By Jane May and Fanny Cherry
Edited By: Autumn Peterson
Forestclan:
Leader: Butterflystar- Black and white spotted she-cat with green eyes.
Deputy: Bearclaw- Large dark brown tabby tom.
Healer: Sticktail- Skinny light brown tom.
App: Starpaw - Small white she-cat with blue eyes, a star shaped mark on head.
WARRIORS/APPS:
Badgerstripe- Black and white striped tom with a stripe down face.
App: Thrushpaw- Brown tabby tom with green eyes.
Oakpelt- Cream colored tom with amber eyes.
App: Rainpaw- Light gray tom with blue eyes.
Owlcloud- Gray and white spotted she-cat with amber eyes.
App: Scorchpaw- Ginger she-cat with tufts of black fur and green eyes.
Duststripe- Pale brown tom with darker stripes.
Mintleaf- White she-cat with dark green eyes.
Spottedsky- White tortoiseshell she-cat with hazel eyes.
Hawkflight- Dark brown tom with yellow eyes.
Foxtail- Ginger tom with long fluffy tail.
Lionheart- Thick furred golden tom.
Poppyfeather- Beautiful light ginger she-cat with blue eyes.
QUEENSKITS:
Laurelleaf- Gray and silver tabby she-cat. Mother of Badgerstripe's kits.
Kits: Snowkit- spotted silver she-cat. Sparrowkit- Ginger and brown tabby tom.
Ottersplash- Ginger and white she-cat, expecting Bearclaw's kits.
ELDERS:
Eaglestone- Once strong gray and white tom.
Speckleflower- Speckled she-cat, oldest cat in clan.
Birdwing- Black she-cat with green eyes.
Chapter One:
Scorchkit grimaced as her mother rasped her tongue over her ginger pelt. "Poppyfeather! I'm clean enough. I'm not a kit anymore!" she complained. Poppyfeather purred and mewed back: "You still are, at least for a few more minutes. Now finish up your ears and let me work on your brother." Thrushkit complained "aw, mom! I already cleaned myself." Scorchkit giggled. Her brother's brown tabby pelt was filled with brambles and mud had turned his paws dark brown. "If I'm clean, can I be an apprentice?" Snowkit squeaked. Laurelleaf purred, "You're not getting away that easily. You still have four moons before you're ready to be apprenticed." "Really, Scorchkit! Wash your ears!" Scorchkit grumbled and began pulling her paws over her orange ears tipped with black tufts. Scorchkit saw a flicker of a cat climbing the High Stone, and nudged her brother. "Let's go!" The two kits scrambled down the tree trunk from their lofty dens and waited eagerly at the bottom of the rock. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath High Stone for a clan meeting!" called a black and white she-cat who was sitting regally on the highest rock while Scorchkit and Thrushkit waited patiently at the end of the stone in barely concealed anticipation. Scorchkit knew the black and white she-cat was her leader Butterflystar, she watched the she-cat as she looked fondly over her cats as they clambered down to see the two kits become apprentices. Scorchkit hoped one day she could be Scorchstar, yes she thought I like the sound of that. Once all the cats had gathered by the base of the rocks Butterflystar started to talk, "we are here to continue the tradition of ForestClan's cats and make two kits into apprentices. Thrushkit? Are you ready to train to defend your clanmates at any cost, and work your hardest to be the best cat you can be?" Thrushkit stepped forward. "Yes, I am." Scorchkit could see that he was quivering with excitement, but his voice remained steady. How could he be that serious on a day like this? She thought. "You will now be known as Thrushpaw, and your mentor will be Badgerstripe." Badgerstripe! He's so lucky, Badgerstripe is a really strong warrior. Scorchkit thought. Thrushpaw leaned up to touch noses with his mentor, and then stood back beside the others. "Scorchkit? Are you also ready to become an apprentice and learn to defend your clan?" "Yes, I am!" Scorchpaw squealed, a little too loudly. She licked her chest fur in embarrassment and then looked up at her leader. "You will now be known as Scorchpaw, and your mentor will be Owlcloud." Owlcloud! Scorchpaw thought. What an amazing warrior! She had always admired the graceful ForestClan warrior, and wished she had the same large beautiful amber eyes that Owlcloud was named for. Scorchpaw leaned up to touch noses with her new mentor, and Owlcloud whispered; "I have a feeling you're going to become a great warrior. Scorchpaw glowed. "Thrushpaw! Scorchpaw! Thrushpaw! Scorchpaw! Thrushpaw! Scorchpaw!" The Clan cheered from below the rock and high above in the treetops.
"I want you and Thrushpaw to go and get your nest ready for tonight because you're going to need a good night's sleep after training today!" said Owlcloud looking to Scorchpaw and Thrushpaw. Scorchpaw felt a prickle of excitement, what were they going to be doing? Checking borders? Chasing stray rouges out of the territory? Or picking fleas off of the elders? Scorchpaw didn't care what they did as long as it was entertaining. "So who again is our denmates?" asked Thrushpaw looking to his sister quizzically, after the two had leaped up to the dens. Scorchpaw was about to answer but a light gray tom emerged from the den, he narrowed his blue eyes at the two newest apprentices. "What are you two kits doing here?" he asked, the way his voice sounded make Scorchpaw want to claw his ears but she restrained herself and instead said as politely as she could, "hey Rainpaw how are you?" he was about to reply but she interjected "anyway we're your new denmates and we've come to set our nests up, but don't worry they won't be too far away from yours, possibly as close as we can". Rainpaw frowned and disappeared back into the den but not after shooting Scorchpaw and Thrushpaw a look of scorn, "whatever!" he shouted over his shoulder. Thrushpaw shrugged and together he and Scorchpaw entered the den for the first time. "Wow!" Scorchpaw exclaimed. "It's huge!" The nursery had started to become crowded, especially after Ottersplash moved in, expecting Bearclaw's kits. "Since you're new, you two can have the nests in the front, where it's nice and cold." Rainpaw said with a smug look on his face, curling into his warm and deep nest filled with feathers and moss. "I'll take this one," said Thrushpaw, touching his paw to a bracken nest in the front of the den. Scorchpaw padded over to one next to him and said; "We can find more feathers and moss later to make them at least more comfortable than Rainpaw's thorny nest." Rainpaw glared at them, and then buried his head under his tail and settled to sleep. "Scorchpaw! Thrushpaw!" Scorchpaw heard Owlcloud call to them. "Come on! We're going to explore the territory." Scorchpaw leaped in excitement. "Yay! We're seeing ForestClan territory for the first time!" Both apprentices leaped out of the den and stood, ready to follow their mentors who were only a few feet away from them. Scorchpaw felt her heart give a little jump when she realized that they were talking to Bearclaw, who sat next to Owlcloud and Badgerstripe. Bearclaw was the deputy of Forestclan and he was well respected by every cat, even if you didn't like Bearclaw you didn't say anything. He was a large brown tabby tom, he was lean but muscles protruded from underneath his thick pelt. He turned his gaze onto the two apprentices who were carefully making their way too their mentors we swung their gaze around to meet the young cats who were still unsure if they were going to walk up to the deputy. "Well what are you waiting for?" asked Bearclaw ushering Scorchpaw and her brother up to himself and their mentors, "I promise I won't bite!" Scorchpaw felt a flare of embarrassment when she heard the mentors chuckling. Scorchpaw was lost in thought after quite a few minutes of discussing from the mentors, she'd almost forgotten she was living in a new tree and it was the first time that she wasn't sleeping by her mother's side. Scorchpaw glanced over to the next tree where the nursery was tucked in the branches of a steep oak, she sighed when she thought it was just Laurelleaf and her kits along with Ottersplash who'd previously moved in. Scorchpaw replayed scenes in her head of Poppyfeather who would play with her when it was rainy and who told stories when she wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. "Are you coming?" asked Owlcloud jolting Scorchpaw from her thoughts, "yes! Of course Owlcloud" exclaimed Scorchpaw feeling very silly that she hadn't even heard her mentor say anything to her, she noticed her brother and Badgerstripe were already a great distance from herself and her gray and white mentor. Scorchpaw launched herself down from the tall tree and landed clumsily on her paws while Owlcloud landed with grace and finesse, "where are we going first?" asked Scorchpaw looking to Owlcloud as they left the camp and went deep into the forest where the birds sang high pitched notes and fluttered from branch to branch. "We're going to the Training Clearing so you will know where to go when we go down there to train" explained Owlcloud as she leaped over a fallen log while Scorchpaw had to move around it. They all trudged through the woods, squeezing through brambles and moving around large bushes of thorns. Sunlight streamed through the branches high above and made dappled golden patterns on the green forest floor. Scorchpaw breathed in the cool forest air and savored this perfect moment. Her first day out of camp!
"This is the Training Clearing." Badgerstripe said as the four cats emerged into a large area free of trees and brambles. "You will learn to fight and hunt here, but not today. We still have a lot of territory to cover!" Badgerstripe continued. Owlcloud pointed a paw at a patch of dark forest on the other side of the Training Clearing. "That's the Pine Forest. Over here is the Greenwood Forest. That forest surrounds the camp and most of our territory. Let's go to the eastern border." Scorchpaw took one last look at the training clearing and then followed her mentor. Soon she could hear the roar of rushing water. "What's that?" She yelled. She could hardly hear her own voice. "Big Stream." Badgerstripe yelled. It's our border on the east. DON'T go near there, ever!" Thrushpaw shivered. "We won't!" he said. The cats followed the Big Stream until they came to a sheer rock wall. Wow! It's so big! Scorchpaw thought. "This is our northern border." Owlcloud said. "Some warriors and apprentices try and climb this to prove that they are really good climbers. I wouldn't suggest climbing it, though. That's how Falconwing died." I'm never climbing it. Scorchpaw thought with a shudder.
Scorchpaw followed Owlcloud along the rock face and back into the forest until they reached a blackened stump about as tall as the High Stone. "This marks the border on this side, until the Twoleg Campground on the bottom. The stump was hit by lightning before any cats got here." Badgerstripe meowed as he passed the stinking area. Twolegs sound so scary! Scorchpaw thought, remembering stories of the giants hairless animals that he mother had told her. "We don't see many around here, except for one who wears green clothes and only seems to look around at the trees." Badgerstripe continued. They continued walking until they reached an oval shaped pool that sparkled in the noon day sun, "this is the Swimming Pond" said Owlcloud "you'll learn to swim here and maybe catch fish if you're lucky". They kept walking until they reached a faint trickling stream where Badgerstripe explained this is the best place to catch fish.
Scorchpaw collapsed into her nest, she was ridiculously tired after seeing the territory but she was glad that she got to! It was fun to see what Rainpaw had seen when he first started his apprenticeship and to rub it in his face! Scorchpaw had to admit that it was tiring looking everywhere but Star Falls was the best and made the journey worth it. True she'd only caught a glimpse of it but it was enchanting all the same even though it wasn't lit up like it was on the full moon it was still nice to see the cascading water. Now it was time to go to sleep, Scorchpaw felt herself getting dragged down into sleep and she was ready for it because for the first time in a while she felt great!