Okay, just to make this clear before I get any flames. I am 11 (my mom supervises my account). My writing is not the best. I understand that. So, please have some courtesy at least. I can't stop you guys from writing flames, but please make them constructive if you do. Meh. On with the story.
Plus, you people MUST review or I will not post a second chapter!!
Chapter One
It was cold. Very, very cold. Eaglekit shifted onto his side and yawned without opening his eyes. Where were his siblings? They usually kept him warm during the chill gray dawn. Snowkit on his right and Redkit on his left. Redkit was always shifting around and snoring, his jutting paws sticking into Eaglekit's side, but Snowkit slept in a petite little ball of fluffy white fur with her neat paws sticking out.
He forced himself to open his eyes, blinking away his sleepiness. Then a bolt of excitement rushed through him. The apprentice ceremony! It was today! He and his siblings were going to begin their training!
Happiness rushed through him, followed by an immediate desire to get up. After today, he would no longer be Eaglekit; he would be Eaglepaw, the greatest apprentice ever trained! He forced himself to calm down. He wasn't like Redkit, who rushed into everything blinded by excitement.
But still. An apprentice, after six long moons of waiting.
"Redkit?" he called, poking his head out of the nursery, which was empty. Frostfall was probably talking to Amberstar. "Snowkit?"
He glanced carefully around the edges of the entrance before stepping forward. His siblings liked to play tricks, although it was usually Redkit who thought them up. He stepped in a puddle and drew his wet paw back, hissing. As the surface stilled, he saw in the reflection two blurs of ginger and white. Grinning, he ducked as his siblings sailed over him.
"Man!" Redkit complained, landing on his feet. Snowkit rolled past him until he stopped her with his tail. "How'd you know?"
"Never mind that," Snowkit said, her voice breathy with excitement. "We're gonna be apprentices!"
"Not unless you quit acting like kits," Eaglekit reminded her. "Remember, apprentices don't play pranks."
"Yeah, they do, all the time. Adderpaw told me." Redkit lolled lazily on his back, kicking out with ginger paws. "He and Foxpaw play tricks on their mentors all the time. Last night they put mouse bile in Amberstar's nest."
"They did not," Eaglekit retorted. "That's just a rumor."
Redkit shrugged. "We'll see if Amberstar smells like mouse bile when he's announcing our mentors."
"Shhh," Snowkit warned, glancing behind Eaglekit. He turned around to see their mother, Frostfall, yawning as she stretched her limbs, as white as Snowkit.
"Good morning, my beauties," she said fondly when she was done stretching. Padding over to Redkit, she prodded him upright with a paw. "Don't slouch, Redkit, you look like a piece of fresh-kill."
"Mom!" Redkit protested. Eaglekit and Snowkit exchanged looks and grinned. The smile faded off Eaglekit's face as Frostfall came for him next.
"Mom, I can groom myself - " he began, but Frostfall was already covering him with gentle licks. "Hey! You're messing up my fur!"
"I'm grooming it, darling," Frostfall murmured between licks. "Can't have you showing up at your apprentice ceremony looking like you just got up."
"I did just get up," Eaglekit retorted. Frostfall gave him one last lick and started on Snowkit.
"Now, Snowkit, you didn't clean between your claws this morning." It was true; Snowkit's claws were caked with mud, like her two brothers'. "I expect you to do it every morning without fail, do you understand? Especially now you're going to be an apprentice."
"Yes, Mum," Snowkit said obediently.
Redkit and Eaglekit stuck out their tongues at her. Snowkit was the youngest and had always been their mothers' pet. When Frostfall wasn't around, however, she acted quite as unruly as Eaglekit and Redkit.
"Can we go now?" Redkit burst out. "When's Amberstar gonna start the ceremony?"
"We'll see," Frostfall said soothingly, giving his scruffy neck a lick. "Here he comes now."
The golden-brown leader was ascending the Rock, his amber eyes surveying the camp before calling to the Clan. FeatherClan began to troop out of the dens, gathering around the base of the Rock.
"This is our moment!" Eaglekit exclaimed. Excitement was rushing through him like springwater.
"Hurry up!" Snowkit squealed, and the three kits bounded toward the base of the Rock.
Amberstar glanced down at them, his amber eyes glimmering with amusement, and announced, "This morning, we gather together to name three new apprentices. Come forward."
Eaglekit led the way, scrabbling up the Rock to stand beside Amberstar. His siblings fanned out around him. Behind Amberstar, Redkit took an inconspicuous sniff of Amberstar's fur and mouthed to Eaglekit, I'm gonna get them.
Eaglekit was too busy listening to Amberstar to pay attention. Amberstar glanced over the three kits and her gaze rested on Snowkit, whose blue eyes were sparkling with excitement. "From this day forward, until she has earned her warrior name, this apprentice will be called Snowpaw."
Snowpaw couldn't resist letting out a squeal of excitement. Eaglekit nudged her.
"Oakfur," Amberstar called. The siblings' heads swiveled around to where a dark brown tom was climbing up onto the Rock. "You are ready for your first apprentice. You will begin Snowpaw's training. Petaltear taught you well, and I expect you to pass on the same skills you learned from her on to Snowpaw."
Snowpaw glanced at Eaglekit, who was feeling a little mutinous that Snowpaw had been chosen first, but he smiled for her sake. She was positively glowing with happiness as she touched noses with her mentor.
Eaglekit glanced at Oakfur with approval. The brown tabby warrior was a good hunter and fighter and loyal to the warrior code; he would make a good mentor for his sister.
He shivered in excitement as Amberstar's gaze rested on him for a moment, but then passed over and chose Redkit. Is there something wrong with me? Why won't she just choose me?
He forced himself to sit up and watch attentively as Amberstar proclaimed, "Until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be called Redpaw."
Redpaw! Eaglekit mouthed to his brother. Redpaw grinned back, looking the happiest Eaglekit had ever seen him, apart from when he was playing tricks on the queens and elders.
"Owlflight, you will train Redpaw," Amberstar announced, turning in the direction of a long-furred gray tom who was climbing up onto the Rock. "You trained Swifthawk well, and I expect you to afford the same care to Redpaw's training."
Like Snowkit, Redpaw glanced at Eaglekit as if for approval. He had always been the sort of leader, as the oldest. Eaglekit nodded; Owlflight had produced Swifthawk, the best hunter in the Clan. Glowing with happiness, Redpaw touched noses with his mentor.
And then, finally, he felt the little shiver of exhilaration as Amberstar rested her gaze on him.
"Until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be called Eaglepaw."
Eaglepaw! I'm Eaglepaw! Eaglepaw grinned, unable to resist. Amberstar smiled at him for a moment, and then said, "Tawnyspots, you will train Eaglepaw."
Eaglepaw swiveled around to look at the spotted warrior climbing up onto the Rock. For a moment, his heart almost stopped. Tawnyspots was famed as the best fighter in the Clan; her claws were longer than Amberstar's by at least a half-inch. Eaglepaw couldn't decide whether to be scared or excited.
"You are ready for your first apprentice. Thornheart taught you well, and I expect you to pass on the same skills you learned from him to Eaglepaw."
Eaglepaw decided to be excited. Being Tawnyspot's apprentice could make for a good reputation. He liked the idea of training under the best fighter in the Clan. As he leaned forward to touch noses with Tawnyspots, she flashed him a quick smile.
Amberstar smiled down at the three new apprentices and flicked her tail to break up the meeting. "I wish you well," she said in an undertone, so that only the apprentices and their mentors could hear her. "Snowpaw, Redpaw...Eaglepaw."
Did she pause before my name on purpose? Eaglepaw wondered. Again he wondered, Is there something wrong with me?
