Chapter 2

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey…" Flamekit didn't bother to listen to the rest of the clan leader, Redstar's call. She sprang to her feet. Anxious for her litter to become apprentices at last, she shook Sparklekit with her paw. Sparklekit, dark eyes clouded, looked up at Flamekit. Her face suddenly lit up and she scrambled to her paws and began to wash urgently. Moonkit was mumbling in her sleep. Poking her softly with a claw, Flamekit attempted to wake her sister. Moonkit looked sharply up.

"What – what is it?" she stammered, alert and on guard.

"You can let your guard down, it's me, Flamekit." She mewed. "It's time for the naming, remember?" The three excited kits hopped out of the nursery toward where the cats were gathering. Spotting Ivylight, Flamekit ran to sit by her mother. Finding herself unable to stay still, her tail twitched uncontrollably.

"We, Windclan, celebrate a very important event for three young cats." announced Redstar. Cats glanced eagerly at the three kits. Flamekit ruffled her pelt importantly and glanced amiably at her clan.

"Flamekit, you will now be known as Flamepaw." Ivylight gave her kit one last lick before Flamekit stepped forward. "You shall be mentored by Specklenose." Flamepaw gazed admiringly at the golden she-cat as they touched muzzles.

"Sparklekit, you shall now be called Sparklepaw." Sparklepaw skipped happily away from her mother. "Your mentor will be Heatherclaw." A smooth, ginger tabby she-cat approached her. Sparklepaw touched her brown muzzle to Heatherclaw's ginger.

"Moonkit, from now on you are Moonpaw." Allowing her mother to smooth her fur with her tongue one final time, Moonpaw strode up calmly. "Skyspirit will be your mentor." Moonpaw touched muzzles happily with the medicine cat. Ivylight look upon her daughter a little but sadly. A medicine cat could not mate, or have kits. Moonpaw would never be a warrior.

"Flamepaw! Sparklepaw! Moonpaw!"

"What are we going to do first?" Flamepaw kneaded the ground with her paws impatiently.

"I was thinking of exploring the territory." Specklenose responded softly. Heatherclaw approached her. "Perhaps we could join," She suggested. Flamepaw groaned inwardly as the two warriors agrees. Now she would have to spend her first day of apprenticeship with Sparklepaw tagging along.

For the rest of the day, the group explored the moor. Flamepaw caught her first piece of prey, a rabbit, trying out Leopardpaw's rabbit stalking technique. Sparklepaw caught a small mouse as her first. Both apprentices came back to camp with a proud mouthful of fresh-kill. They met in the apprentice's den with Leopardpaw.

"How was your first day of training?" the young apprentice asked.

"Great!" agreed both new apprentices. Now, it was their turn to retell their experiences, constantly correcting and interrupting each other. Flamepaw proudly finished with how she had hooked a large mouse on the way home, mouth already filled with prey.

Exhausted, Flamepaw kneaded at the soft moss of her bedding. She curled up like a kit and slept.

…..

Sparklepaw woke up to white light streaming in through the cracks in the walls of the apprentice's den. Licking her lips softly, she stretched her paws. As her pads connected with Flamepaw's white fur, her sister groaned and winced at the bright light. Sparklepaw crept over to the entrance, careful not to wake any more apprentices. Peering out, she saw that a thin white sheet covered the moor, freezing the remaining leaf-fall leaves, blown from Thunderclan forests, into crystals.

Sparklepaw pounced out. The cold shocked her skin, despite her thick pelt. She sniffed for prey. Most of it had skittered toward the protection on the Thunderclan and Shadowclan trees. The moor offered no shaded area where the snow could not reach the ground. A sudden movement caught her gaze. She pricked her ears. A small mouse was skittering madly under the ice. Unsheathing her claws, she hooked the mouse easily. Heatherclaw appeared from the warrior's den.

"Nice catch," she complemented, glancing at the leaf-bare clearing. "What do you say to a leaf-bare hunt? The clan needs more food than ever."

Heatherclaw's words were true- the clan had to be fed in this time of low prey.

"And keep an eye out for catmint! With leaf bare come Whitecough and Greencough," Moonpaw mewed matter-of-factly after them as they headed out for their hunt.

The frozen moor cracked underfoot loudly, warning the occasional rabbit or mouse of their approach. By the time it was time to return to camp, Sparklepaw's paws ached and all that dangled from her jaw was the mouse from her morning catch and some catmint she had seen growing weakly near Fourtrees. She padded over to the medicine den, where she heard Dapplekit's rough coughing. Dropping the catmint at Skyspirit's paws, she prayed that the sickness of leaf-bare would not take kits to Starclan.

She walked back to the apprentice's den while Moonpaw purred soothingly to the sick kit. The sounds of coughing echoed in her mind ominously, like a dark cloud over the luscious moor. She curled up in her nest, but the usual warm, dreamless sleep didn't find her. For once, she questioned whether she belonged in this clan. If she could not bear the coughing of a kit, how would she ever become a strong warrior like Spikefoot, her father?

…