Brown and silver stood out faintly from the underbrush, the soft feathery fur smeared with mud. Pine needles were plastered on the fur of the small cat. The tom-kit was not alone though, two other forms were just beside him. His two brothers, but where was the mom? Where was she? If she wasn't around, that meant, three lonely and abandoned kits...who would save them? The brown and silver one let out a muffled cry as he scooted closer to the only warmth, his two brothers. Seeing Coyote frozen in terror, the ruddy pelted one, Jackal, butted him in the shoulder. "We'll be alright, you'll see." He said, "Mom'll come home in the morning." Sadly, Jackalkit didn`t know if he was telling the truth to his brothers or not. The third one, the dark auburn kitten snarled, "Don't fool yourself, Mom is gone, she's not coming back". They were stuck in this stinking marsh, he wouldn't have minded the cold so much except for Coyotekit freaking out and Jackalkit trying to be tough. Why were they staying there anyway? It was just too bad that they couldn't get up and leave. "Wolf, do you think so? Did Mom really just leave us?" Coyote whispered. Jackal pulled himself up and yowled "Help! Is anyone there?" his mews were puny and quickly lost in the vast marshes.
"Rise and shine!" a small voice mewed. The auburn kitten felt the ground shake and a thudding sound pounded into his head. He opened one amber eye then laid his head back down. The ruddy kitten however flipped over and jumped up with almost as much gusto as his brother.
By the time the auburn kitten decided to sit up his two brothers were bouncing around the only grown cat in the nursery, their surrogate mother. "Willowleaf! Was Duststar being serious? Are we gonna be apprentices?" Coyotekit squealed.
Wolfkit felt his ears droop, as much as he internally attempted to be excited for this corner stone of his life but if felt like a wet blanket of moss was carelessly tossed over his optimism. So he pulled his carcass back to sleep while Jackalkit and Coyotekit bombarded Willowleaf with questions.
His lethargy was somewhat cured when the voice of Duststar was heard from clear across the camp. Even he felt a stab of excitement that prompted him to stand up and shake the moss and pine needles out of his fur.
Jackalkit bounded with a mixture of anxiousness and unbounded excitement as Willowleaf herded the trio out of the nursery for the last time. Duststar was proudly stationed on the lowest branch of the Shadow Tree where she could gaze down on her domain. Jackalkit lifted his chin and proudly strutted to the base of the tree.
Coyotekit portrayed himself right beside his more optimistic brother casting an occasional glance at Wolfkit who dragged a bit behind. This-according to Willowleaf, the elders, and all their wisdom-was his day of glory and the little brown and silver kitten was planning to make it a day to remember.
Once the three small kittens were seated in a neat row at the base of the tree, Duststar leaped down and started the whole purpose of the meeting.
"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Shadow Tree for a clan meeting. "Jackalkit. From now on until you receive your warrior name you will be known as Jackalpaw. Ghostheart, you will be Jackalpaw's mentor, pass on your confidence and skill to this young apprentice and teach him the skills of a strong warrior."
Ghostheart, their savior, the one who brought them away from the stinking marsh that they were ditched in. Needless to say the newly named Jackalpaw couldn't feel more honored. He practically ran up to the light furred she-cat and nearly barreled into her. After the traditional touching of noses Jackalpaw sat down shivering with pride.
Duststar then pulled the brown kit into the sunlight.
"Coyotekit, from now on you will be known as Coyotepaw. Shalefur, you are ready for an apprentice, you will be mentor to Coyotepaw. I trust you will pass on your strength and judgement to this young apprentice."
A few of the spectators grinned at Duststar's knack for putting opposites together.
"Wolfkit. From now until you receive your warrior name you will be known as Wolfpaw."
Duststar paused, it didn't take a genius to guess how hard she had to consider to figure out what kind of mentor was best for a stubborn, unenthusiastic kitten.
"Sageclaw, you will be mentor to Wolfpaw. I know you will pass on your compassion and patience to this young apprentice."
Wolfpaw tried everything in his power to shrug nonchalantly, Sageclaw was guaranteed to be an easy mentor, he was excited.
After the ceremonial traditions Wolfpaw padded over to his siblings. "This is great! What'll we learn first?" Jackalkit gushed shaking with energy.
"Why don't you go get yourselves settled in the apprentice den? After you're done we can go see the territory." Ghostheart mewed and seconds later all three apprentices tore off.
Coyotepaw was first to poke his head into the den, "Wow! This is so much bigger then the nursery!"
"No it isn't it's just that we're the only ones here." Wolfpaw corrected. The warrior ceremony for Redwing and Thrushfeather a few days ago cleared out the Apprentice Den.
Ignoring the comment Coyotepaw turned a quick circle then dashed out of the den and back to where their mentors were still standing.
"We'll head to the Thunderclan border first, we can take a look at the Great Marsh on the way." Shalefur declared before padding out of the safe hollow of camp.
Wolfpaw treaded behind his new mentor while his brothers bounded ahead. And while Coyotepaw and Jackalpaw were asking questions that he probably should've joined in on he couldn't help just enjoying the scenery.
He was leaning over to get a better look at the Great Marsh Wolfpaw's eye caught something. It was a flash of red, at first he thought it was Jackalpaw but the pelt wasn't tabby, it was ticked. Then he thought it was a fox but it was too small.
Wolfpaw blinked and whatever he saw was gone, "Sageclaw? Did you see something?"
The she-cat looked towards the marsh, "I don't see anything, or smell anything either." Wolfpaw just shrugged, "Okay." But he could vouch to StarClan that he just saw a cat, he turned his attention back to Ghostheart who was lecturing about the types of prey in a swamp.
"Nice job Wolfpaw, it was a bit late but you caught something!" Sageclaw meowed. Wolfpaw sat up from the painfully orchestrated hunter crouch and kill.
"Thanks...."
"Take you mouse back to camp and then you can get something to eat and take a break." she advised to the young apprentice and headed back to camp. Wolfpaw was about to follow her instructions when he involuntarily looked up, this time he didn't even see anything.
Sniffing the air he couldn't smell anything then the normal cat smell but that was probably from being so close to camp. Snatching up his mouse he bounded back into the camp. He tossed the mouse into the fresh-kill pile and grabbed a water vole for himself.
He padded over to the Apprentice Den where Jackalpaw was already seated knawing on a frog. Setting down the vole he lowered himself down to Jackalpaw's level.
"Jackalpaw, do you ever become paranoid?" Wolfpaw asked as neutrally as possible.
"Paranoid? No, why?" Jackalpaw asked back between bites of what in Wolfpaw's eyes was a putrid animal with even more putrid flesh.
"Never mind, someone like you'll never know what paranoia even is." he scoffed and started eating his own piece of prey. Jackalpaw looked up with half shock and half hurt before blowing it off.
"Ghostheart taught me how to climb today!" he chirped happily.
"What do you mean taught you? Everyone knows how to climb just not...very well. Sageclaw taught me how to hunt." Wolfpaw countered.
Lifting his head he peered between the undergrowth wondering if his self diagnosed paranoia would make the red cat appear again.
Author's Note: This is located by the lake territories so Moonpool to Moonstone and so on. To be completely honest from the third series onward the Warrior's series has disappointed me a bit. For the record this is not based off of Jay, Lion, and Holly, the plot has nothing to do with StarClan given powers.
For those that don't know, if you want an example of a ticked red pelt look up the Abyssinian cat on Google Image.