"Silverpaw!"
The dappled she-cat came to a skidding stop, sending leaves flying everywhere. Casting a guilty glance back, she gazed into the irritated green eyes of her mentor.
"Do you want to scare every mouse into their hole? Great Starclan, I bet Shadowclan could hear you from here." Goldenfrost scolded, "You know that every piece of prey is invaluable in leaf-fall. We need to strengthen up the clan before leaf-bare."
"Sorry!" Silverpaw mumbled.
"Sorry feeds no bellies!" Her mentor snapped. Hawkpaw cast a sympathetic glance at his sister as he and his mentor caught up to them. Grayheart looked amused, his whiskers twitching.
"I'm sorry!" She repeated irritably, the tip of her tail twitching. He was worse than her father! She regretted ever looking up to him. Goldenfrost was nothing but a grumpy nag that was never satisfied with whatever she said or did. He worked her twice as hard as the other apprentices. She never thought she would say that she wished some cat didn't believe in her so much. Since birth, she had been used to getting babied and pampered, because she was sickly as a kit. But Goldenfrost didn't seem to give two mousetails about her physical health, not letting her stop training when she was tired or aching. Not only did he not allow her any handicap for her small size and weak disposition, but he pushed her harder than any other apprentice. She was up at dawn every morning, dragged out of her nest while her brothers got to sleep in.
Silverpaw realized a little too late that she had used the wrong tone of voice with her mentor as his eyes narrowed. Well, she wouldn't be so grumpy in the first place if he would just let her rest now and then, she thought. She was so tired she could hardly walk straight!
"Go on." Goldenfrost mewed to Grayheart and Hawkpaw, flicking his tail.
"Good luck." She hissed at the mocking tone of her brother's voice, ears flattening at his smug and amused expression.
She waited for a lecture as the two cats vanished into the brambles, but Goldenfrost was silent for several long moments. When she opened her mouth to speak, he moved his tail in front of her mouth to silence her. He shook his head.
"Follow me." He mewed, expression unreadable. He leaped off, leaving her scrambling after him. Her eyes widened as he jumped into the lower branches of a tall tree. Thunderclan was known for their great treeclimbing abilities – Windflower told her stories about how her ancestors passed down their great climbing abilities to them, but how it was Firestar who had started the tradition of training all apprentices and warriors in the art of aerial and tree combat. Often, their warriors jumped from tree to tree to hunt, spending as much time in the sky as they did on the ground. It scared off intruders from invading, because their higher position often gave them the advantage of surprise. Rockclaw had cheerfully recounted the story of when dirty old Shadowclan had tried to take Thunderclan territory and how they had leapt out of the trees out of the intruders and sent them squealing back to their mothers. It was tradition now that before an apprentice was made into a warrior that they were to climb to the top of the Ancient Oak in the darkness of a new-moon and share tongues with Starclan from the highest branch, as they were closer to their warrior ancestors there than anywhere else except for the Moonpool. No warrior was to ever talk about what dreams they might have underneath the moonless night. Silverpaw both dreaded and looked forward to her Sky Dream.
"Silverpaw." Goldenfrost's calm mew shook her out of her thoughts. Twitching her tail, she dropped into a crouch, making an enormous leap and grabbing the branch with her claws, pulling herself up.
"Good. Next time, try giving yourself a running start. It'll give you more of a lift." He advised, "You don't want to end up plummeting back into the ground or breaking a claw because of a short jump."
Turning away, he leapt up into a higher branch, leading her through the forest on the branches of the trees, their paws never touching ground. A rush of exhilaration flowed through her paws. Up here in the trees, she felt strong and powerful, looking down on the forest below her. Was this what Starclan felt like? Suddenly, Goldenfrost's tail pressed against her chest, stopping her. She realized that they had come to the edge of their territory and they were standing in the high branches of a tree overlooking the lake. The sun was just beginning to set over the horizon, making the lake look almost red. She had always thought their territory was large, especially after from patrolling from one end to the other. But up here, she was struck at how small their territory truly was in the world. From their perch, she could almost see all the way across the lake. To her right were the tall pines of Shadowclan territory, to her left, the treeless moors of Windclan. A breeze ran through her fur, making the leaves around her rustle.
"Take a good look." Goldenfrost murmured, his voice soft on the breeze. "Thunderclan is just one small part of a bigger world. Out there are cats that have never heard of the warrior code, cats so far that you could walk for the rest of your life and never find. We are only on this earth for a short time, before we go walk the skies with our ancestors."
Silverpaw was quiet, sinking in his words, her fur ruffling out.
"Don't waste that time. Never forget that though the world may be bigger than we can even imagine, that we are never small or insignificant."
Silverpaw turned her eyes on her mentor, blinking. "Do you really believe that?" She asked after a long moment.
"If you believe hard enough, anything is possible." He said simply, leaping down the branches until his paws hit the forest floor with a soft thump. Silverpaw remained up in the tree a moment longer, taking in the sight, before following her mentor.