Chapter I
Lightpaw was woken up by her brother, Rabbitpaw. She noticed that the sun had already risen. 'Come on Lightpaw!' Her brother said, 'Firecloud is waiting for you! She wants you to go hunting with her!' Lightpaw quickly got up. She was going to go hunting with her Knowledge Giver! She was very excited and ran out of the apprentice's den. Lightpaw felt the sun shining down on her pelt, it felt warm. Leaf-bare was finally over and a very warm and plentiful Newleaf had started. 'We can probably catch a lot of prey!' Lightpaw thought happily. Firecloud was already waiting by the exit of the camp. He greeted his Learner. 'That was about time!' He said to her, 'I thought that you would never wake up!' He quickly gestured with his tail that they would go. 'Today we'll go hunting, this is your first Newleaf, so it's the perfect time to train your hunting skills.' Lightpaw followed her Knowledge Giver. 'Will Rabbitpaw and Curlyfang join us today?' She asked hopefully, she always liked training together with her brother. 'No.' Firecloud replied, 'Curlyfang decided to continue Rabbitpaw's fight training today.' Lightpaw looked disappointed. 'But if you hunt well, I'll allow you to leave early and check on him.' Firecloud added. Lightpaw thanked him and they walked towards the forest.
'Today we are going to start with your training in the forest.' Firecloud told his Learner. 'During Newleaf you can find good prey in the forest, much better than the rabbits you can find on the plains.' Lightpaw had already stopped listening, she had never been to the forest when it was this green yet. She looked at all the trees that were slowly recovering their leaves. 'Lightpaw!' Firecloud shouted at her, 'Lightpaw!' Lightpaw quickly looked back to her Knowledge Giver. 'Sorry!' She said. 'Can you repeat what I have just said?' He said firmly. 'I think you said something about rabbits?' Lightpaw asked. Her Knowledge Giver laughed, if only Lightpaw could pay attention for once. 'Yes, rabbits.' He said, 'I just told you that the prey in the forest during Newleaf is much better than those measly rabbits in the plains, and that is why we are hunting here.' Lightpaw nodded. Her thought were drifting off again. 'What would Rabbitpaw be doing now?' She wondered. She looked back to Firecloud who was just demonstrating how to catch a mouse. 'Remember! A mouse can hear you if you don't sneak very silently!' He whispered to her, still quite audibly. The mouse ran away. 'See?' Lightpaw nodded, and noticed a mouse. She carefully mimicked Firecloud's movements and snuck up to the mouse. Just as she was about to kill it, the mouse heard her and ran away. Lightpaw became angry and chased the mouse until it vanished from her sight. 'You won't catch anything like that.' Firecloud said calmly to the Learner. 'Just as you wanted to jump on the mouse you made a little too much noise, it heard you and ran away.' Lightpaw swung her paw in the air. 'Stupid mouse!' She said, 'It's not my fault we need to eat you.' She followed her Knowledge Giver to another part of the forest. 'You must've scared away all the prey here already.' He had said jokingly, at least, she hoped it had been jokingly.
'I smell something strange.' Lightpaw said, 'What is it?' She pointed towards the MistClan territory. 'That is the smell of the MistClan.' FireCloud explained, 'Their whole territory consists of forest and they are excellent hunters in the forest.' Lightpaw looked at her Firecloud, he sounded really proud of the MistClan. 'Weird,' she thought, and then she added out loud 'Aren't they our enemies?' Her Knowledge Giver nodded. 'Well, they are sort of our enemy.' He said, 'We aren't exactly friend, but as long as none of the clans get on each others territories we don't fight either.' Lightpaw wondered how MistClan Learners would look like. 'Are they just like me?' She wondered. Firecloud interrupted her thoughts. 'Do you smell that?' He asked, 'I smell bird.' He snuck towards the place where a small bird sat on the ground. He gestured her to try and catch it. She snuck up to it, even more careful this time. She could feel the wind on her fur, her mind was focussed on nothing else but killing the bird. She came closer and closer, slowly sneaking forward. 'Come on...' She thought, 'Come on...' She jumped just as the bird noticed her. It tried to fly away but she killed the bird with a quick hit of her paws. 'Great!' Firecloud said, 'You have caught your first forest prey!' Lightpaw was very proud of herself, and proud that her Knowledge Giver was so proud of her. 'You can go show it to Rabbitpaw if you...' He couldn't even finish his sentence before Lightpaw ran off to the training grounds. She wanted to show Rabbitpaw the bird really badly. 'Don't forget to bring in to the Ancients after!' Lightpaw heard her Knowledge Giver shout after her, but she ignored him and continued running. Firecloud padded after her, knowing that it would probably be a very difficult task to train this Learner, but that she wouldn't become a good Battler once. 'Once...' He thought, 'And this 'once' might be far away...'