"All cats who are old enough to catch their own prey, join here beneath the Highledge!" Bramblestar called from up on the Highledge. He waited as cats joined together to hear his words. Lilykit and Seedkit appeared out of the nursery, freshly groomed. "I have great news. Jayfeather has just informed me that Cherrypaw is out of the medicine cat den and back to warrior training. She will not take it heavy yet, but with StarClan's blessing she should be back to full training soon."
"Cherrypaw! Cherrypaw!" The whole clan called for her. Most of ThunderClan felt sympathy for the young cat, who had one of the worst injuries.
"I have greater news still." Bramblestar meowed once the Clan had died down. "We have two cats that have been in the nursery for six moons and deserve to become apprentices. Lilykit and Seedkit, come here." He turned first to Lilykit.
"Lilykit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Lilypaw. Your mentor will be Hazeltail. I hope Hazeltail will pass down all she knows on to you.
"Hazeltail, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Dustpelt, and you have shown yourself to be brave and loyal. You will be the mentor of Lilypaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to this apprentice."
The newly named Lilypaw, barely able to contain her excitement, went up to Hazeltail and touched noses. Hazeltail must have seen her exitement, because she murmered "Settle down" to Lilypaw as Lilypaw's sister, Seedkit, got her apprentice name.
After the ceremony, the Clan called their names, welcoming them as apprentices into the Clan. "Lilypaw! Seedpaw! Lilypaw! Seedpaw!"
As soon as the Clan was done congratuating the apprentices, they went back to their food and the kits and elders went back to their dens.
Ivypool went back to her shrew and saw Lilypaw and her mentor bounding up to Seedpaw and her mentor, Thornclaw.
"Can we explore the territory together? Can we?" The eager apprentices asked their mentors.
"Yes, that's fine with me," Thornclaw said to his apprentice, "as long as it's okay with Hazeltail."
"It's good with me," Hazeltail replied, "we can go now if you want."
"Yes!" Both mentors and apprentices went toward the thorn barrier to head out of camp, with their mentors following more slowly behind.
"I think we had that much energy when we were apprentices." Meowed Dovewing from next to her. Suprised to see her, Ivypool turned her head around quickly.
"Oh! Dovewing. Sorry, I didn't see you there."
"Sorry." Dovewing replied. "Can I eat with you?" She asked.
"Sure," said Ivypool, "you can finish my squirrel if you want to. I'm not that hungry."
"Thanks. Let's go, Squirrelflight's assigning the patrols." Dovewing nodded her head toward where Squirrelflight was stitting with her tail wrapped around her paws, waiting for cats to come.
"The dusk border patrol will be Ivypool, Sorreltail, and Brackenfur. No dusk hunting patrols today, there were two that went out at sunhigh. But I want a moonhigh hunting patrol of Spiderleg, Birchfall and Poppyfrost. The dawn border patrol will be Foxleap, Thornclaw, and Hazeltail. Take your apprentices, of course. I'll tell them when they get back from exploring the territory. The dawn hunting patrol will be Brightheart, Dovewing, and Icecloud."
Ivypool groaned. "I was just on a hunting patrol and now I have to go on border patrol? I hardly got any rest today."
"You're sounding like an elder." Dovewing teased. Then she got serious again. "I'll do your border patrol if you want, I haven't been on patrol yet today."
"No, you should rest." Ivypool looked up at the darkening sky. "You've got dawn patrol in the moring."
Dovewing meowed, " Don't remind me." But she got up and walked over to the warriors den.