Cats outside the apprentice den moved quickly, and each were talking loudly about the Gathering they were about to go to. Hopepaw lay in her nest, head on paws and tail lashing behind her. Being told she couldn't go to her first Gathering sucked. Only she, Graystripe, Birchfall, Daisy and Ivypool were left behind to care for the camp while the rest of the Clan headed off to meet up with the other three Clans. She was the only apprentice being left behind, so it hurt more for her than it did for the other warriors staying.
A face appeared in the entrance of the den and Hopepaw raised her head to see who it was. From the scent she recognized Bumblestripe, and lowered her head again in a scowl. Her father sighed, gave her one last ear flick, then set off with the rest of the warriors. Hopepaw glared at the ground beside her nest and gave a long, dreary sigh.
"You doing okay, little one?" Another face appeared, this time Daisy, the former kitty-pet who had stayed a queen so she could help care for kits.
Hopepaw kept her eyes dim. "Yeah, great."
Daisy gave a small affectionate grin and sat beside the nest the apprentice lay in. "Anything I can help you with?"
"No." Hopepaw growled and looked away from Daisy.
The queen kept her place for a few moments longer, then stood and left the den. Hopepaw let out a snarl and curled into a tight ball of frustration, closing her eyes and drifting into sleep.
"Oh my StarClan that was so cool!" The apprentice den was full of excitement when the Clan returned from the Gathering. Flamepaw and Oakpaw were chatting together about a she-cat they had met, Bluepaw, and how they hoped to see her at the next gathering. Lightningpaw and Leopardpaw were already asleep in their nests, obviously tired out by the long night. Hopepaw flicked her ear silently as she listened to the two apprentices chatter like squirrels towards the front of the den.
"Did you see how tall the Great Oak was?! It must be so cool for the leaders to go up there every moon and talk to an entire four Clans!" Oakpaw exclaimed, and Flamepaw let out a giggle of excitement. "I can't wait to go back there!"
Flamepaw looked back at his sister, who's back was facing the rest of the apprentices. "So, what'd you do while we were gone?"
She barely even gave a nod as she stayed silent, and Oakpaw snorted to the other tom.
"Leave her be. She deserved to stay here tonight," He nudged Flamepaw and curled his paws beneath him to keep talking in warmth to his friend.
Hopepaw let out a low growl and flicked her tail angrily over her nose. "Dumb mouse-brain... I should have gone tonight..."
"Hmm?" She looked up as she realized she had woken Lightningpaw up. "Who's a dumb mouse-brain?"
The striped tabby tom looked at her with dreary eyes from his nest and yawned.
Hopepaw drew in an angry breath and curled her head up tightly so she didn't have to look at him. "No one."
Lightningpaw kept his gaze stuck on her for a few more short moments, then shrugged and curled up again, falling back into a deep sleep.
The sun was barely showing it's face in the sky as Hopepaw padded through the forest beside Cherrynose, Lionblaze, Oakpaw and Rosepetal. Dawn breezes had already set in, and snow was compacting beneath their paws as they raced across the forest floor. A quarter moon had passed since the night of the Gathering and she was already back into normal duty with Cherrynose.
"Are you ready to start your first assessment?" Rosepetal asked Oakpaw, slowing the group down and allowing for Lionblaze, who had gone off to catch a mouse, to catch up.
Oakpaw practically jumped with excitement. "Of course!"
His mentor nodded. "You must stay within the limits of the river, lake, and camp. No further than that. Lionblaze will be assessing your work. If you see him during your assessment, you must ignore him and move on, understood?"
The apprentice's eyes flashed with pure energy and he nodded, taking off to begin.
Cherrynose looked down at her apprentice. "Are you ready?"
Hopepaw drew in a shaky breath and nodded. Cherrynose nodded to Rosepetal. "You will be watched by Rosepetal as you go through your assessment. You don't have to try as hard as you would on a real assessment, this is only a training session for your real thing."
Her apprentice nodded and took off in the opposite direction than Oakpaw and sped up through the trees. Her nose twitched with scents and she slowed down as she caught scent of a blackbird. Slowly, she pin-pointed where it was and pulled into a hunter's crouch. Inching her way towards the scent, she saw the bird perched on a rock, eating a couple of small insects it had found.
Slowly but surely she made her way closer, until she was ready to jump at it. Suddenly, a flash of gray fur stopped her and she realized Oakpaw had caught the bird instead. He killed it in one swift bite and stared at her.
"Move along," He growled. "I don't need a kittypet slowing me down on my assessment."
She paused at the word "kittypet" and cocked her head. "What do you mean, kittypet?"
Oakpaw snorted. "You know, how your grandfather was a kittypet, and how your father's half kittypet. So that makes you a kittypet."
Hopepaw's eyes burned with fury. "At least my father wasn't a loner!"
The tom didn't reply with words, but he leaped at her with a furious snarl and pushed her to the ground. Hopepaw let out a surprised yowl and used her paws to push him away from her neck. His jaws snapped at her face with anger and his claws threatened to tear at her belly. The she-cat used her hind legs to push him off her and she scrambled to her paws only in time to see Oakpaw leaping at her again, claws outreached for her shoulders.
"Stop!" Oakpaw landed on dirt as Hopepaw rolled out of the way, and lashed his tail with fury. Behind them, Rosepetal, Lionblaze and Cherrynose erupted from the bushes and jumped between the apprentices.
Rosepetal stood parallel from her apprentice, her eyes blazing with horror. "How dare you attack a Clanmate! No matter what they say to you, you have no right to attack them in the way you did!"
Oakpaw's neck fur rose to it's full height as he hissed angrily. "She called my father a loner!"
His mentor's eyes widened in anger and her tail lashed behind her. "Over half the cats in our Clan are descendants of rogues, loners and kittypets! It's not something to be proud of, but it isn't something to fight another cat over! Clan ancestors were loners themselves, if you remember right!"
Hopepaw's eyes flashed from one cat to the next, her heart pounding in her chest. Cherrynose stood beside her, eyes angrily flashing from Oakpaw to her own apprentice.
"I am very disappointed in you, Hopepaw," The ginger she-cat glared at the younger cat, her ears flicking angrily. "You acted like an overgrown kit to your Clanmate, and before you can take your final assessment I want you to stop doing so. Do you understand?"
The tabby nodded silently and gulped as she watched Rosepetal and Lionblaze lead a very upset Oakpaw away and back to camp.
