"Oomph! Volekit, get off!" Silverkit squealed and Volekit purred in amusement and rolled off.
Silverkit barely had time to scramble to her feet before she heard Snowkit squeal "Attack!" and Silverkit was buried under Daisykit and Snowkit.
"Help!" Silverkit wailed playfully. "Clanmates, attack!"
Mudkit and Crystalkit both ran to pull Daisykit and Snowkit off Silverkit and they all tumbled around, playfighting. Lilykit sat watching, before she pounced into the fray and tackled Silverkit to the ground.
"Kits!" Fogfur called from the nursery. "You all better come and get yourselves cleaned up, or you'll look messy at your apprentice ceremony." The six kits all scrambled over and one by one, they all were groomed incredibly neatly just in time for Mountainstar to make his way to the Tall Rock.
He looked around and yowled, "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather to hear my words!"
The Clan began to gather around and the six kits all sat lined up in front of Fogfur and Waterfall, the mother of Volekit, Lilykit, and Daisykit. Mountainstar waited until the whole Clan was present before speaking.
"Today we are here to celebrate the making of six new apprentices," his gaze swept across the clan and landed on the six kits all sitting proudly at the center of the clan.
Mountainstar beckoned Lilykit over with his tail. "Lilykit, come forward." Lilykit excitingly bounced over in front of Mountainstar, who had jumped down to stand at the bottom of the Tall rock. "Sunfeather!" he called over. A beautiful ginger tabby walked over and stood in front of Lilykit.
Silverkit leaned over to Crystalkit to whisper in her ear, "Lilykit's got Sunfeather!"
"Lucky Lilykit, Sunfeather's so nice!" she whispered back.
"From this moment on, this kit will be known as Lilypaw." Mountainstar nodded to Sunfeather and continued. "Sunfeather, you have proven yourself to be a loyal and valuable member of the clan. I trust you will pass on your knowledge to Lilypaw." Mountainstar stepped back to allow them to touch noses.
Sunfeather took a step forward and mewed "I'll do the best I can, Mountainstar." before touching noses with Lilypaw. The clan immediately erupted into cheers. "Lilypaw! Lilypaw! Lilypaw! Lilypaw!" Sunfeather led Lilypaw to a different side of camp and sat down next to her.
Volekit was next. Mountainstar beckoned Icepelt over and Volekit felt a wave of relief that his mentor wasn't like Nightfoot, who was always grumpy or like Hawkfeather, who was very strict.
"From this day forward, this kit will be known as Volepaw. Your mentor will be Icepelt." As Volepaw walked forward, he saw friendliness in Icepelt's eyes. They touched noses and walked to the side to join Lilypaw with Sunfeather.
After Volepaw was Daisykit, whose mentor was Eagleshadow. Then was Mudkit who got Cloudrock as a mentor, just as Mudpaw had hoped for. After Mudpaw was Crystalkit whose mentor, surprisingly, turned out to be Fogfur.
"I understand that a mother mentoring her own kit is unusual," Mountainstar explained. "But both Fogfur and Crystalkit both requested each other to be their mentor and apprentice." He looked down at the two she-cats. "I shall watch your progress with interest." He mewed before dismissing them with a flick of his tail.
He then beckoned Silverkit forward, who walked over calmly, but deep down she was bursting with excitement. Silverkit looked up at Mountainstar and noticed he was giving her a strange look. It was unnerving, but it was different.
"From this moment on, this kit will be known as Silverpaw. Dewdrop will be your mentor." Mountainstar announced as a pretty light gray she-cat came forward and touched noses with Silverpaw.
Silverpaw heard her murmur "I promise I'll make you the best warrior you can be."
Silverpaw looked up and mewed, "And I promise I'll be the best apprentice you'll ever have! I won't let you down." Dewdrop led her over next to Crystalpaw and sat down. Silverpaw exchanged exciting glances with Crystalpaw before Silverpaw whispered.
"Snowkit's last! I wonder who her mentor will be." Silverpaw mewed and Crystalpaw nodded in agreement before Fogfur shushed them.
Snowkit walked forward happily and Mountainstar gave her a strange look as well. "From this day on, this kit will be known as Snowpaw." Mountainstar meowed.
"Leaffeather!"
Silverpaw let out a gasp of shock. Leaffeather! Silverpaw thought. But Snowpaw's never shown interest in becoming a medicine cat! She looked at Snowpaw and saw her eyes glimmering happily. Silverpaw decided that as long as Snowpaw was happy, she was happy too.
"Snowpaw has shown interest in becoming Mountainclan's next medicine cat. Leaffeather," he nodded at the medicine cat, exchanging knowing glances. "I trust you'll pass on all the knowledge you currently possess onto young Snowpaw."
Leaffeather stepped forward and mewed "Of course," before touching noses with Snowpaw. The clan broke into cheers, cheering the names of all the apprentices.
Silverpaw looked around and noticed that all the other apprentices were celebrating with their littermates and parents. A wave of loneliness filled her before her sister, Snowpaw, pressed her flank against hers and purred encouragingly. Silverpaw shook her pelt before bouncing around excitedly. "What will we do first?" she asked Dewdrop.
"We can go tour the territory with all the other apprentices." Dewdrop gestured toward the other apprentices sitting together. The two cats walked over and joined the group.
"Why don't we split into two groups?" Dewdrop offered. The other mentors nodded in agreement. "I'll take Silverpaw as well as Volepaw and Daisypaw and you two," Dewdrop nodded at Icepelt and Eagleshadow, "can join me."
The two groups split off towards different directions and Dewdrop led the group towards the mountains that covered a quarter of Mountainclan's territory. She led them to the edge where the trees cleared and you could see the mountains.
She stopped and flicked her tail at the mountains. "These are the mountains. It's what we were named after. They run so far that when you get to the top, you can still see stretches of mountains as far as the eye can see." Her gaze swept over the apprentices. "I don't recommend going to the top. There are large mountain cats that can eat an apprentice like you in two bites and hawks so big they could fly off with a grown cat. Our territory ends before the mountains start to really slope upwards. Most times when we hunt here you can find birds or maybe small animals catch."
Dewdrop began to walk in a different direction and stopped at a river. She turned towards the apprentices.
"Take a good sniff here," she instructed. All three apprentices stretched their necks forward and sniffed loudly. The strong scent of something fishy and wet filled their nostrils. "That's Iceclan. They're our biggest problems, always stealing prey and intruding on our land." Dewdrop growled.
"Get a good sniff and remember their scent. You'll need to recognize it soon." Dewdrop began to head along the river and walked for quite a while before stopping at a clear border. She explained that Darkclan resided past the border line in the pines. Silverpaw wrinkled her nose. They have such a musty smell, it's disgusting! Silverpaw thought.
They quickly explored the rest of their territory and headed back to camp at dusk
"Go get something to eat," Dewdrop told Silverpaw.
"Thank you!" Silverpaw mewed, rushing off to the prey pile, selecting a vole for herself and joining Crystalpaw and Lilypaw at the stump in front of the apprentices den.
"What'd you think of our territory?" Crystalpaw asked. "Isn't it great? We live next to a mountain! I'll bet none of the other clans has anything special like that in their territories."
"Yeah, Mountainclan is the best!" Lilypaw purred, tucking neatly into her rabbit. Silverpaw bent down to take a bite of her vole when she noticed Volepaw was watching her intently. She looked up and stared at him before he turned away and ate his mouse. Daisypaw narrowed her eyes at Silverpaw, and she gave her a confused look before turning her attention back on her vole.
Silverpaw walked over to Snowpaw in the medicine den. Snowpaw was sat in front of many different types of herbs and were muttering them under her breath. Silverpaw mewed a greeting to her sister and she turned her attention to Silverpaw.
"How was your first day?" Silverpaw asked.
"It was pretty good," Snowpaw replied. "Leaffeather took me on a tour of the territory too, but she showed me all the spots for herb collecting. She also taught me a few herbs! It's amazing how many herbs there are, and all the different ways to help your clanmates." Snowpaw looked at Silverpaw with excitement, and Silverpaw knew Snowpaw wouldn't regret being a medicine cat. Mewing her goodbyes, she retreated to the apprentices den.
She curled up into her nest and closed her eyes. She could hear and smell Crystalpaw curl up into a nest next to Silverpaw and Volepaw took a spot next to both Crystalpaw and Silverpaw. Silverpaw's mind began to drift as she thought about how lucky all the other apprentices were to have their kin to celebrate with, and how her and Snowpaw's parents had died. She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out that all familiar feeling of loneliness before she got up, nosed her nest closer to Crystalpaw, the main cat who had always been her best friend and there for her, and curled up back in her nest, happy to feel Crystalpaw's soft silver fur against hers, and fell asleep.
A/N: And that's the first chapter! I'm not really sure what counts as bad or not, so if it's bad, then tell me. I can handle it lol. Also first legit chapter and already over 1500 words? Anyone proud of meh? No? okay...