Ravenpaw woke up to a pair of blue eyes staring at him. "Wake up, Ravenpaw," Cinderpaw chirruped. "It's time for training."

Groaning, Ravenpaw heaved himself to his paws. "Already?"

"Yep," Cinderpaw replied. Unsurprisingly, she was wide awake. She watched him as he stretched his legs. "Guess what?"

Ravenpaw rubbed his eyes groggily. "What?"

"We get to go hunting together today!" Cinderpaw must have noticed his confusion, and she continued on, her tail flicking. "Bluestar suggested that you come with me and Dustpelt and Runningwind, since you can't leave the camp alone."

Ravenpaw blinked. It was a mixed blessing; on one paw he didn't have to talk to Tigerclaw, but on the other he would have to go on a hunting patrol with his brother. Would Dustpelt try to train him? He certainly hoped not, although it seemed like something Dustpelt might do as a way to mock him. Ravenpaw remembered the patrols he had taken with Dustpelt early on in his apprenticeship; hopefully his littermate wouldn't try to startle him like he had back then.

Cinderpaw bounced out of the den, her tail waving, while Ravenpaw followed her at a distance. Sandpaw and Swiftpaw were still fast asleep. He looked at them enviously before joining the patrol. After several nights of poor sleep he wished he didn't need to be awake at the crack of dawn.

Tigerclaw was nowhere to be found, and Ravenpaw wondered if he was leading one of the daily patrols to search for Darkstripe; that would certainly explain why he hadn't even tried to train Ravenpaw by himself lately. He was probably distracted.

Dustpelt was waiting beside Runningwind by the camp entrance. His tail tip jerked back and forth impatiently as Ravenpaw approached. "Let's get going then." He turned and began the walk out of camp without checking to see if the apprentices were following.

Runningwind bounded ahead, and Ravenpaw reflected that there was a reason for his name; Runningwind was probably the fastest cat in ThunderClan. He was waiting patiently for the group to catch up at the sandy hollow, and as soon as they did looked like he wanted to run off again.

"I was thinking we could show them some advanced prey stalking techniques," Dustpelt mewed as the patrol skirted the training hollow. Runningwind nodded, his paws skimming the ground in a blur.

Sighing, Cinderpaw tilted her head. "Are we ever going to learn tree climbing?"

"Some other day." Dustpelt narrowed his eyes in warning; Ravenpaw guessed she asked that a lot. "Right now we're going to practice hunting." Cinderpaw fell silent and lowered her gaze, but her eyes still glimmered with enthusiasm. "Pretend that leaf is a mouse. Show me how you'd stalk it."

"First I'd crouch like this." Cinderpaw flattened herself against the ground. "Then I'd stalk it." She trotted toward the leaf. Ravenpaw's whiskers twitched. The small apprentice's pawsteps were too loud and sudden.

"No, like this. See," Dustpelt mewed, lowering himself so that his belly fur brushed the ground. "Be light on your paws; a mouse will feel your pawsteps through the ground if you stomp around like that."

Cinderpaw copied his crouch. "Is this right?"

Dustpelt nodded, ears flicking. Tasting the air, Ravenpaw turned his attention to where Dustpelt was looking. The brown tabby warrior pointed toward the mouse with his nose, inviting Cinderpaw to try and make the catch.

Cinderpaw's focus immediately snapped to the prey. She crept forward, placing one paw in front of the other as though she was balancing on a thin log. When she got close enough she leaped, made the killing bite, and raced back to Dustpelt and Ravenpaw, her tail held high. "Did you see that?"

"Good catch, Cinderpaw," Ravenpaw mewed, his fur prickling with jealousy. When he had been Cinderpaw's age, it had been rare for him to make such a swift and easy kill.

"You've taught her well," Runningwind mewed to Dustpelt, looking impressed.

Flicking his ear in thanks, Dustpelt twitched his tail. "Let's bury it and find some more."

Covering the mouse in a layer of earth and frost coated leaves, Cinderpaw's eyes glimmered with pride. She got up, shaking the mulch from her paws. "Where to next?"

Dustpelt jerked his head at a space between to trees. Ravenpaw and Cinderpaw trotted behind him, with Runningwind in the back. A flicker of movement caught Ravenpaw's attention; another mouse was near.

Dustpelt noticed it too. "Your turn, Ravenpaw."

Ravenpaw's heart sank. This was just what he needed, the chance to humiliate himself in front of his brother and a young apprentice. Hopefully he could catch it like Cinderpaw had just done with her mouse; he was many moons more experienced than the younger apprentice.

The mouse's gaze met his before it darted off, and Ravenpaw hurled himself after it. It was halfway inside its tiny burrow when Ravenpaw managed to hook it with a claw and pull it back out. Its alarmed squeak rang out, but was cut off when Ravenpaw made the killing bite.

"Wow, good catch," Cinderpaw piped up. Ravenpaw bowed his head, knowing that she didn't realize the sloppiness of his technique. He shouldn't have let it get so far away in the first place.

Dustpelt got up. "We'll have to try somewhere else now." Ravenpaw could feel his brother's judgmental gaze, but for once he didn't say anything. He must pity me for having such poor hunting skills. "Come on, let's go."

Runningwind blinked encouragingly at him, but Ravenpaw avoided his gaze.

Dustpelt led them away, closer to the Twolegplace. Runningwind made the next catch, this time a wood pigeon. As the swift tabby buried his prey, Dustpelt stiffened. "I'll get it." Dustpelt loped away, following a scent trail that Ravenpaw hadn't noticed.

"Look, a blackbird." Cinderpaw pointed with her tail toward one of the higher branches in a tall oak tree. Ravenpaw narrowed his eyes, spotting its dark feathers sticking out against the pale gray sky. If he managed to scale the tree without gaining the bird's notice, he knew he could make the catch.

Runningwind sat at the base of the tree, his ears pricked. "Go ahead," he meowed, seeing Ravenpaw's inquiring look. "I'd rather keep my paws on the ground."

Feeling a burst of something akin to joy in his chest, Ravenpaw stealthily ascended the tree, and the feeling expanded from his ears to tail-tip as the forest opened up below him. He could see all the details in his surroundings now, from the tangle of leafless oak and birch trees spread out all around him, to the vast expanse of gray clouds above his head, to the small blackbird pecking away at a sheltered spot in the tree, completely unaware of his presence.

He crept closer, taking care to keep his claws sheathed; he didn't want the blackbird to hear claws scratching the bark. The bird was tail-lengths away now, still oblivious to the fact that a small black cat was hidden in the shadows.

Ravenpaw was so close he could almost taste it. He bunched his muscles to spring and-

A harsh scraping noise screeched through the air. Ravenpaw swung his head around. A small gray cat peered upward at him through the trees, and didn't seem to notice when the blackbird squawked and fluttered away. She slowly scaled the tree, branch by branch, until she was a few fox-lengths below Ravenpaw. "I can help," she mouthed.

"It already flew off." Ravenpaw blinked, pointing out the distant shape of the bird in the pale gray sky with his tail. "Your climbing scared it."

"Oh, sorry." Cinderpaw shuffled her paws. "I didn't know it would be so loud." Ravenpaw sighed. It was difficult to be angry with the small gray apprentice.

"Does Dustpelt know you're up here?" he asked.

Cinderpaw didn't seem to hear him as she leaped to a lower branch. She didn't seem like she was getting down though, just seeing if she could make the jump. The branch lurched, but Cinderpaw clung to it, not seeming afraid of the fact that she was a very long way from the ground.

"Wait, Cinderpaw!" The gray apprentice glanced up at him. "Always know where you're putting your paws," Ravenpaw told her. "Make sure the branch you're trying to reach will hold your weight."

"Like this?" She pushed off the branch she was resting on with a strong kick of her hind paws and scrabbled upward onto a slightly higher branch.

"Yes, just be careful- take it slow at first." Ravenpaw hadn't even finished his sentence before Cinderpaw leaped again, and she landed halfway between her starting point and Ravenpaw's branch.

Ravenpaw watched with growing nervousness as she climbed higher. She jumped once, and then again. "This is great!" She scrambled up the rough surface of another branch, digging in with her still kit-sharp claws. "I see why cats like climbing so much!"

Ravenpaw reflected that she was a natural; he couldn't imagine being so undaunted on his first time tree climbing. But he couldn't help but feel that allowing Cinderpaw this high up a tree was terribly dangerous. "Maybe we should head down..."

"Watch this!" Cinderpaw hurled herself through the air, traversing a series of nearby branches in long strides, as though she was running along the ground.

"Be careful..."

Ravenpaw's warning went unheeded. Cinderpaw was still springing between the branches, and Ravenpaw was growing even more concerned. She bounded past him. "Race you to the other side!"

"It's okay," Ravenpaw called. "I don't want to race."

"Come on, Ravenpaw! It'll be fun."

"Why don't we move down a few fox-lengths first?" Ravenpaw implored her.

"Fine," Cinderpaw replied brightly, slithering down to a slightly lower branch. "Ready?"

"I don't think..."

"Go!" Cinderpaw began to bound across the twisting assortment of branches, her paws barely touching their slippery surface.

Ignoring his sense of self-preservation, Ravenpaw began to dart across the branches. "Wait, Cinderpaw! Why don't we just climb down-"

"Come on, slow-paws! I'm going to beat you if you don't hurry up!" Cinderpaw yowled back over her shoulder.

"It's okay, really." Ravenpaw hurried through the barren canopy, his claws scraping against the bark as he frantically tailed Cinderpaw. "You win!" The apprentice had no experience climbing trees this high; if she wasn't careful, she was going to fall.

But Cinderpaw didn't stop. Still sprinting, Ravenpaw found himself on a branch a fox-length away from Cinderpaw. "Bet I can make this jump!" she called back. Without hesitation, Cinderpaw hurled herself into the air.

Ravenpaw didn't have time to think; the wind shifted the branch she was aiming for out of reach. He shot across the gap and managed to snap his jaws shut around her scruff before she plunged to the ground. They were at the outside of the layer of branches now, and Ravenpaw could see Runningwind's eyes widen at the sudden appearance of himself and Cinderpaw. Burying his claws into the bark, Ravenpaw shifted his weight around, regaining his balance.

At that exact moment, Dustpelt trotted up to the base of the tree with a squirrel in his jaws, and rolling his eyes at the sight of his apprentice dangling helplessly, dropped it to the ground. "See, Cinderpaw, this is why I won't teach you climbing. You have no sense of caution."

After carefully adjusting his grip on her scruff, Ravenpaw leaned back and hauled Cinderpaw back up. As soon as she was high enough, the she-cat dug her claws into the tree bark and pulled herself onto the safety of the branch, and when she turned to Ravenpaw she didn't seem as fazed as he had expected. "Thanks, Ravenpaw."

"Get down here, now," Dustpelt ordered.

The gray she-cat descended the tree in long, careful leaps, and Ravenpaw made his way down behind her, ready to catch her if she fell again. When Cinderpaw reached the ground, she shook out her fur and gave Dustpelt a thrilled look. "You didn't see how well I was doing before you got here. I was running so fast!"

"You know how I knew you were up there?" Dustpelt growled. "I heard your claws scraping against the bark. There's more to hunting in trees than being quick." He hissed wordlessly, lashing his tail. "Why were you even up there to begin with?"

Cinderpaw scuffed her paws against the grassy forest floor. "Ravenpaw was hunting a blackbird. I wanted to help." Ravenpaw wondered if Dustpelt was going to question him, but his brother only shook his head to himself.

Turning to leave, Dustpelt snorted. "Come on. Let's keep going." He swung his head around to his apprentice. "And can you at least try to think before you act? One of these days you're going to get yourself seriously injured."