Frecklepaw opened her eyes. It was still dark outside, but a faint glow in the distance told her the morning was coming. Her legs was still slow and sleepy as she tried to stand. But I doesn't have much time before my training session, she thought, about to leave the apprentice's den. "Frecklepaw? What are you doing? Go back to sleep." She turned around to see her brother with one half-open eye. I must've woken him before. "Oh, I'm sorry Shadepaw! I wanted to catch something before meeting up with foxcatcher." Shadepaw shrugged and walked up to her. "Well, I'm already awake, and I'm hungry too." Frecklepaw left the den followed by her brother.
"Would you mind joining the patrol today?" Bouncelight asked. "Not at all." Foxcatcher looked back at his apprentice, making sure she was listening. "Great!" The silver-and-white deputy gave him a quick lick before turning around. Frecklepaw couldn't hold back purr of amusement as she saw her mentor's face brighten up. She was sure he had a crush on Bouncelight, and couldn't believe the she-cat hadn't noticed. Her mentor flicked his tail, telling Frecklepaw to walk up to him. She was disappointed that Shadepaw wasn't in the hunting-patrol, but thankfully she wasn't the only apprentice. Silverjay and Shinypaw was there too, along with Raspberryleaf. "Everyone's here? Okay, let's go."
Frecklepaw was crouching, her paws close to her body and her tail down, hardly moving. She stalked a tiny mouse running through the tall grass and waited for the perfect moment. It was tricky, but looking intensely at the grass she tried to make out where the mouse was. There, she thought leaping into the air and landing with both paws on the mouse. "Ha, I got it!" She said triumphantly breaking it's neck. "You were just lucky," Foxcatcher sighed, "you only leap that high if it's a bird, understood?" Frecklepaw's mood quickly dropped and she let the mouse's body drop to the ground. The big red tom sensed her disappointment and gave her shoulder a quick lick. "It was a great catch nonetheless. Let's bring it back to camp." She nodded and followed him back to the rest of the patrol. "I caught a sparrow!" Shinypaw said puffing out his chest. Frecklepaw knew birds were a hard catch, and her mouse now seemed a bit dull. "Oh, you only caught one mouse?" The ginger apprentice meowed in a superior voice. Silverjay was quick to swirl him with his tail. "Frecklepaw is still a new apprentice. It's actually a good catch, much better than you could do at that age if I remember." She gave her father a grateful glance, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Good hunting?" Shadepaw looked up at his sister as she sat beside him. "Nah, only one mouse. But I guess it's not that bad for a new apprentice." He shrugged and shoved a half squirrel before her. "There's a gathering in two days," he said, "and I think blossomcloud will persuade Amberstar to let us go." Frecklepaw could feel her fur rising. The gathering was full of cats from other clans, it was just so exciting! "Really? I hope he will let us go. Do you think there are cats the same age as us? Of course they have apprentices, but…" She quickly stopped talking as she realised Shadepaw wasn't listening. She followed his gaze and saw Bouncelight standing in front of the medecine-cat den. "Have you noticed that she doesn't go out hunting as much any longer? And Hopepaw never gets to go on patrols, she's always stuck here, helping the elders or nursery." He mewed with a thoughtful look. "I'm sure she's pregnant." The surprise slowly turned in to understanding. Of course, and the father must be Foxcatcher, she thought, smiling as she saw her mentor and the deputy share tongues. She was right the entire time, something was going on between them. The next day she would congratulate them.
Frecklepaw stretched her body. She and Shadepaw was given permission to rest as they would travel to the gathering that evening. Shadepaw had been right about Bouncelight, she moved into the nursery shortly after the two apprentices spoke together. Foxcatcher had such a weird expression when she talked to him about his coming kits, kind of… surprised and a bit worried? Bouncelight on the other paw seemed relieved and nodded, saying that, yes, Foxcatcher was the father. It would be great to have some new kits, she thought, gleamkit is the only one of flurrypelt's kits who survived, and she's going to be whirlfrost's apprentice.
The forest was a weird place trees all over the place and hardly any grass. There was so many different scents from prey and plants. It must awful hunting here, poor sunsetclan. After what felt like an eternity, they finally arrived at the gathering. The cliffs was rising above them like a giant stone, but the dusty coloured rocks was broken in two by a mighty waterfall, resulting in a lake at the bottom. "It's so cool." Frecklepaw mewed and stormed to the shore of the lake. A large rock pointed towards the top of the cliffs, leaning towards the mirror-clear water. Amberstar pushed her aside and leaped to the top of the cliff. Around cats begun to gather, and Frecklepaw was overwhelmed by the many scents of different cats. A golden She-cat and a tabby tom crawled up next to Amberstar. They must be Shimmerstar and Brindlestar, the other clan leaders. "Let's sit over here," Frecklepaw mewed pointing at a group of cats with her tail. She was sure they were apprentices from the way they were talking and laughing. "Oh, hello. You must be duskclan's new apprentices, Frecklepaw and Shadepaw, right?" mewed a pale looking She-cat. "Oh, yes." Frecklepaw was surprised, "how'd you knew?" The she-cat gave her an amused look. "I overheard a few of your warriors talk about you. I'm Rosepaw." she mewed. Two other apprentices was sitting by them - one was a red tom named Flarepaw, the other was a tabby tom with two scars above his eyes named Ripplepaw.
The leaders took turn to speak, but overall it was rather boring. Except from a short talk about the tragic redcough-outbreak, everything went fine in the clans. "Duskclan has recently made two new apprentices, Shadepaw and Frecklepaw." Frecklepaw proudly puffed out her chest, smiling as the cats around her begun chanting their names. "Frecklepaw! Shadepaw! Frecklepaw! Shadepaw!" Slowly it died out, and the clans broke off. The journey home went in mostly silence, nothing had happened that needed to be talked through. The two apprentices was getting more and more sleepy and had a hard time focusing on the road. I hope we're home soon, I can't take step more without falling asleep, Frecklepaw thought, though her feet kept moving.