Leaf-bare

"No, Swiftpaw, swipe your paw at her!"

The black and white apprentice was training with Sandpaw. After Nightfrost returned from his mission and rested, he lead Swiftpaw to the training hollow to see what Longtail taught him. The silver warrior had trained Swiftpaw well. Swiftpaw learned how to hunt, and a basic battle technique in the short time he was gone. Nightfrost spend a moon with Swiftpaw training him and his apprentice is now ready to battle train with the other apprentices.

Swiftpaw leap at Sandpaw and she hopped out of the way and attacked him at the side with her hind legs, knocking Swiftpaw out. His apprentice shook his head as Sandpaw tackled him, making him fall to his side. "Ah! I give up! I give!"

Sandpaw stepped off him, letting him up. "That was amazing! What was that move?!"

"That was a back kick. You have judge the distance between you and your opponent properly to lash out of with your hind legs. It is too advanced for you right now," Nightfrost explained. Swiftpaw looked chest fallen before looking up. "So, when do I get to learn it?"

"When I decide you are ready."

"Yes, Nightfrost." Swiftpaw mewed sadly then stood up and shook himself. Whitestorm padded to his apprentice.

"We will be going back to camp now, Sandpaw."

Sandpaw dipped her head and followed Whitestorm out of the Sandy Hollow. Nightfrost flicked his tail to his apprentice. The mentor and apprentice started heading back to camp as well.

"Swiftpaw, you have keep up well against Sandpaw, an apprentice for several moons, despite being a new apprentice yourself," Nightfrost mewed approvingly.

"Really?!" Swiftpaw meowed, excitement and pleased in his mew.

"Yes, you have. Now, why don't you grab a piece of prey to the elders and help replacing their nests."

Swiftpaw nodded and hurried to the fresh-kill pile. Nightfrost was about to grab a thush for himself when he sensed something different in camp. The black warrior glanced at the treetops and padded back though the gorse tunnel.

He nodded to Longtail and continued on his way to theTwolegplace. There, he caught a whiff of prey, a large bird. Nightfrost instinctively drop to his hunting crouch. In front of him, in between the bushes, was a pheasant. He padded paw by paw quickly, taking great care to not make any noises. Nightfrost leap at the bird and gave it a swift bite, killing it before it could cry out.

A shriek came from nearby and when Nightfrost look up from his kill, a very light brown tabby kittypet was running to the Twolegplace.

"Princess?"

He stared at where his half sister ran off and turned back to the pleasant, sending a prayer to Starclan. He dragged the bird noisily though the ground when a cat spoke out. "Wow, that is a huge bird, and did you know that Twoleg pet?," commented a red she-cat on a tree branch.

Nightfrost removed his jaw from the pheasant. "Red?"

"You remember me!" The rogue said cheerfully and leap off the branch.

Nightfrost rolled his eyes. "Didn't I tell you that I would tear you to pieces if you come back? Why were you following me in the treetops anyway?"

"I just needed to be out of the Twolegplace...and I was bored, Nightpaw. "

"It's Nightfrost now."

Red twitch her ears. "Do forest cats always change their names?"

"No, we do not always change our names and I am a clan cat," He said, sighing.

"Clan cat? What is a clan cat?" Red asked curiously.

"A clan cat is a cat belonging to a clan. A clan is a group of cats living together to help and protect each other. There are four clans in the forest: Thunderclan, Shadowclan, Windclan and Riverclan."

Red nodded. "That sounds nice, though, why did your name change?"

"My name had -paw in it before, right?" Red nodded again.

"I was an apprentice and apprentices had -paw in their names. When they were kits, they have -kit instead of paw in the name. They have to wait six moons to become an apprentice. Apprentices have to train to become a warrior. When an apprentice become a warrior, they get a different name."

"So when I first meet you, you were an apprentice and you are a warrior, right?"

"Yes. And then there is a deputy, a leader and a medicine cat in each clan. The leader is the one who leads and makes decisions for the clan. The deputy is second-in-command after the leader. A medicine cat is a cat that heals the cats in the clan, sometimes outsiders."

"Being in a clan really does seem nice, but...I don't really belong in groups," Red mewed in a low voice, staring at a distance.

Nightfrost crocked his ear curiously towards her. "Why not?"

Before she could answer, bushes rustled nearby. Red quickly ran away just as Mousefur appeared.

"This bird is huge."

Runningwind and Dustpaw padded after, with eyes wide at the sight of the pheasant. "Hello there, Mousefur, Runningwind and Dustpaw, can you help me carry this back to camp?"

"Sure," meowed Dustpaw. Runningwind and Mousefur nodded.

"What is this bird?" asked Dustpaw.

"That is a pheasant. They are very rare around here. I'm surprise that you actually caught one, Nightfrost, especially in leafbare."

"I'm surprise myself. This pump bird will help us during leafbare."

Dustpaw turned questionably to the warriors. "If it's leafbare, shouldn't it be snowing now?"

"Sometimes it does snow, sometimes, it doesn't. We're lucky we're having fair weather for now, and look what it brought us, a pheasant." The apprentice and three warriors started dragging the bird to the camp entrance. They had to force the bird though the tunnel and dropped it at the fresh-kill pile. Cats padded around, commenting on the bird.

The rest of the day passed by quickly, and Nightfrost sleep, dreaming of the time when Fireheart and Princess were kits.

Okay, fixed it. Thanks Thunderandshadowcats.