For the next few days, Echokit tried his hardest to stay away from the medicine den. If I'm going to be stuck in there from now on, I might as well enjoy my last days of freedom… He spent most of his time playing with Owlkit and Mintkit, even when they were playing things he wasn't interested in. He didn't dare let boredom persuade his paws to go back to Rushingriver and ruin his enjoyment of kit-dom.

But eventually, the day of the apprentice ceremony came. A prod in his side woke Echokit. "What gives?" he demanded sleepily, rolling over in his nest to see who had woken him. Nobody was there. "Must have imagined it," he grunted, closing his eyes again. The prod in his side came again, sharper this time. Echokit leaped from his nest, tail twitching in annoyance.

"Come out!" he meowed angrily. "Don't hide from me!" Forcing his fur to lie flat, he thought sensibly, It was probably just Owlkit playing a joke on me. He looked around for his brother but realized he was alone in the nursery.

"Owlkit!" he muttered, curling up in his nest again. Instead of trying to fall back asleep, he kept one eye open for the cat who kept poking him. After a while, he saw an unfamiliar white she-cat slip into the nursery. Who's she? Echokit wondered with a slight sense of alarm. I've never seen her in ThunderClan before.

Before she could prod him again, he leaped to his paws. The she-cat didn't react much, blinking her only giveaway to any reaction at all. "Good," she meowed vaguely. "I thought you fell asleep again."

"Who are you?" Echokit demanded. "And why do you keep poking me and running away?"

The she-cat brushed him off. "That doesn't matter. I can tell you're still unsure about your apprenticeship. I've come to tell you—" she began.

"How do you know that?" Echokit interrupted, eyeing her suspiciously. The she-cat sighed.

"I'm Blizzardleaf," she meowed simply, as if it explained everything. She tried to carry on. "I've come to tell you that—"

"Wasn't Blizzardleaf Rushingriver's mentor?" Echokit asked.

"Yes," she replied, claws flexing in slight annoyance. "I've come to tell you—"

"Are you from StarClan?" Echokit asked excitedly. Blizzardleaf bristled.

"YES!" she spat. "Now can I please finish what I was trying to say?" Echokit blinked in surprise. Blizzardleaf forced her fur to lie flat before clearing her throat. "I've come to tell you that you are destined to be ThunderClan's next medicine cat."

Well, duh, Echokit thought, that's how being a medicine apprentice works.

Guessing what he was thinking, Blizzardleaf clarified, "StarClan has decided that your destiny is to be a medicine cat. I'm only telling you this because you still seemed hesitant to be Rushingriver's apprentice."

"You seem pretty different from how Rushingriver describes StarClan cats," Echokit informed her. "He says they're super vague and prophetic, but you're super straight-to-the-point."

Blizzardleaf licked her chest fur, not meeting his eyes. "Yeah, well… whatever," she grunted. Then she and the rest of the nursery began to fade.

"Bye!" Echokit cried before it disappeared altogether. He blinked and was back in the real nursery, with all the cats who belonged there inside and asleep: his brothers, their mother Mossyspots, and Robinkit's mother, Whitetail. Robinkit wasn't inside. Guess she couldn't wait to become a warrior, Echokit thought, still too excited about his encounter with StarClan for any envy to be attached.

He stretched and yawned, then padded out of the nursery. Robinkit was crouching beside the entrance, eating a squirrel.

"Isn't that stale?" Echokit asked, making Robinkit jump. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"That's okay," Robinkit mewed, shaking herself. "Yeah, it's a bit stale, but the dawn patrol's almost back and they'll probably have some fresh-kill. And when we're apprenticed," she continued excitedly, "we can catch more ourselves!" She licked her lips. "It'll taste even better when we're the ones who catch it."

"Uh… yeah," Echokit muttered, shuffling his paws as he remembered who exactly he was being apprenticed to. "I'm sure it will."

Robinkit stared at him curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm supposed to be a medicine cat, actually," Echokit told her.

"Oh!" Robinkit mewed in surprise. "I didn't know that." She looked slightly apologetic, then grinned. "No matter! You can have some of the fresh-kill I catch!" Echokit purred appreciatively.

"Thanks," he meowed cheerfully, but he didn't feel as happy as he sounded. I just want to be a warrior and not miss out… but if it's what StarClan wants…