Chapter 4

Bluestar, Darkstripe, and Whitestorm were sitting in the center the clearing, Lionheart joined them while the apprentices sat a few tail lengths in front of them.

"We shall be assessing some of your skills today, we'll start with a patrol near the twoleg border and see what you smell. Firepaw you come after me, followed by Dustpaw, then Lionheart, Sandpaw, Darkstripe, Graypaw, Whitestorm will bring up the rear." Bluestar ordered and set off in a brisk pace to the forest. Firepaw followed eagerly. He wanted to impress his mentor

They travelled in silence for a while until Bluestar stopped, she looked at each apprentice before mewing "Sandpaw, what do you smell?"

The light ginger she-cat opened her mouth and took a deep breath. "There's a rabbit near that tree and a dog seems to have passed by last night, but I can't smell any twolegs." She answered confidently and looked up at Whitestorm and Bluestar, they both nodded but Bluestar didn't keep going with the patrol, instead she waited silently.

Lionheart sniffed the air, then spoke up "Dogs don't stray away from their twolegs, open your mouths and take a deep breath.

The apprentices complied and Sandpaw's eyes widened a little in surprise, Firepaw didn't smell anything that she hadn't mentioned, the rabbit was under the roots of the tree oblivious of the cats and there was a strong but staled dog scent surrounding the air, he didn't smell anything else.

"Firepaw, don't concentrate on any specific scent" Bluestar mewed softly "Smell everything as a whole."

Firepaw nodded and took another deep breath this time he smelled a really faint scent; it was a twoleg scent!

"Why is the wtoleg scent so faint and the dog scent so strong?" Whitestorm queried/

Firepaw narrowed his eyes "dogs aren't bigger than twolegs so the strength of the scent should be around the same." He paused to think. "There was more than one dog?" he asked uncertainly.

Bluestar purred. "that's right, now let's keep going" she set off.

The patrol stopped several times along their route to quiz the apprentices on what they could scent and other basic knowledge.

Firepaw could hear the labored breaths of the other apprentices. Bluestar hadn't slowed down the pace during the whole patrol and except for the quick stops to quiz them that resumed as fast as they had begun, they had no breaks. Firepaw looked at Bluesstar in awe, his leader didn't show any signs of fatigue. He glanced back at the rest of the patrol Whitestorm and Lionheart seemed as undisturbed as Bluestar, but Darkstripe showed faint signs of tiredness and his breathing was a bit more rapid. The other apprentices though seemed to feel like him, their breaths were labored, their tails were close to the ground, and their paws were hardly rising above the ground.

Firepaw stumbled over a root; "Watch where you're going!" Hissed Dustpaw, and with a malicious gleam in his eyes added "or are you too tired? Can't you handle a simple patrol?"

"Quiet" Warned Lionheart in a low growl and Firepaw bit a sharp retort and kept following Bluestar silently.

It felt to Firepaw like moons before the patrol made its way back to the sandy hollow, by that time the apprentices were panting and their paws felt very heavy, as if they were made from stone.

Bluestar quickly scanned the apprentices, she pointed to the nearest stream with her tail and mewed "Go drink, you all did well."

Firepaw drank the cool water eagerly; it felt good as it rushed down his throat.

"I'm so tired my paws are failing off" Graypaw mewed as they walked back to the sandy hollow and Firepaw nodded in agreement.

When the apprentices assembled back in the hollow they were quizzed on hunting techniques.

Lionheart asked "Why do you wait until you're close to your prey when there is undergrowth but leap from far when there is none?"

Firepaw had no idea, he looked at Graypaw but he was looking up to Lionheart blankly, Sandpaw and Dustpaw didn't seem to know either.

Darkstripe, finally finding a moment to torment Firepaw, prompted "well, Firepaw?" with an evil look in his eyes.

"I don't know" he mumbled, looking down so the warriors, especially Bluestar couldn't see the anger he had for Darkstripe in his eyes.

"Think young Firepaw." Whitestorm mewed "The undergrowth compared to the bare ground is…"

"Softer?" He guessed

"Exactly. So what does that mean Dustpaw?" purred Bluestar.

"They'll hear us faster on the bare ground than when we're stalking on undergrowth" Dustpaw answered.

Darkstripe nodded. "Well done Dustpaw" he praised his apprentice.

"The undergrowth also covers some of your scent from the enemy making it harder to smell you" Lionheart added.

Bluestar checked the sun's position then ordered "Head back to camp, but on the way catch some prey for the elders and queens, then you can eat and afterwards change the elder's and the nursery's bedding." She paused to think before warning in a low hiss "You'll do your duties and eat together, we'll know if you fight or split up and it will only worsen things."

"Yes Bluestar." The apprentices dipped their head respectfully.

As they padded in the forest, Dustpaw headed the other direction. "We're supposed to be going together" Graypaw protested.

"Scared to go on without me to protect you?" sneered Dustpaw turning to face them.

"You wish, I just don't want to get in anymore trouble" Graypaw scoffed.

"I think you're lying, and you need me." Dustpaw snarled. Graypaw growled and stepped closer to Dustpaw, teeth bared.

Sandpaw stepped in between them, "Mousebrains! Do you think they trust us and aren't tracking us and watching our every move?" She hissed and forced the two toms apart.

"You're right." Admitted Dustpaw and Graypaw nodded.

"Okay, let's hunt and get back to camp before they start wondering where we are," Firepaw suggested.

The apprentices hunted until they had sufficient fresh-kill for the elders, queens, and kits then headed back to camp.

"Is that for us?" One eye asked when they entered the elder's den.

"Yes. One-eye" responded Graypaw as he and the others set their fresh-kill in the center of the den. The elders thanked them and the apprentices went to eat.

As the apprentices sat down to share the mouse and rabbit they had picked out from the fresh-kill pile, Dustpaw seemed to have forgotten the bitterness he had towards Firepaw and Graypaw and conversationally mewed "wasn't that patrol tiring?"

"Yeah! I thought we'd never stop for a rest!" Sandpaw agreed.

"That training wasn't as fun as I had expected it to be… It IS a punishment... and it's only the first day too!" Graypaw mewed anxiously.

"We wish. They were only evaluating us today; the real training is yet to begin" Added Firepaw.

"I just wish we had more time to rest, by the time we're done fetching new bedding it'll be time to train again!" grumbled Graypaw. Firepaw and the other apprentices nodded.

"So which den should we do first?" Firepaw asked as he licked any rabbit crumbs off his lips.

"Well, I was thinking of a way to do it in the least time possible and..." Sandpaw paused to take a deep breath "There are four of us right?" the others nodded. "And there are four tasks to be done, one of us can get rid of the moss in the elder's den, another in the nursery, and the other two can gather moss for each then."

"That's a brilliant plan!" Firepaw exclaimed, "So who'll do what?"

Sandpaw answered "I'll get the Elder's old moss, Graypaw you get the nursery's" Graypaw nodded and trotted away. "Firepaw, get the Elder's new moss and Dustpaw get it for the nursery." She called back as she bounded off towards the elder's den.

"Come, there's a good place for moss near the stream." Dustpaw hissed

Firepaw sighed as he followed Dustpaw; the elder apprentice might not be taunting him now but he was still making notice that he still didn't like Firepaw.

Firepaw shook the moss he had gathered dry and rolled it up into a large ball. "I'm going to head back now." He called to Dustpaw, who flicked his tail in acknowledgement.

As Firepaw rolled his moss back to camp, he passed Graypaw who was disposing of the nursery's old moss. "You better hurry, the elder's are getting cranky without bedding to lie on" His friend warned him and Firepaw nodded gratefully and sped up to camp.

Once the bedding had been changed for both dens, Firepaw could see Dustpaw and Sandpaw about to share tongues in the clearing and he raced towards then. "Unless you want to be taking care of kits and picking ticks off pelts, go to our den and share tongue there, not here." He whispered in their ears and they nodded and headed to the apprentice den.

Firepaw followed the two elder apprentices into the den and saw Graypaw sleeping, he yawned and went to lie down next to him and closed his eyes. he wanted to be well rested before training again that afternoon.

Midterms were this week so I had plenty of time to write this and catch up on a lot of things. I finally read Eclipse and Long Shadows (Looking for someone to talk to about them..) Also caught up on Hollyclaw's fan fic "Blood Feeds the Roots" which I recomend to everyone =O... it's really good.

Suggestions on more errands the apprentices can run and new ways to finish the chapter are appreciated, it was hard to close it and stop writing it to be able to update it. (I was trying since I reached 800 words and finally could at 1.5k .)

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all!

PS: If I don't update before the end of the year, my new years resolution is to update more frequently =D.

Somewhat late responses:

XBlaze of DreamsX - Thank you for review =) I'm glad you like the story so far and I'll try to update it more frequently. Happy Holidays =)