Once again, a total failure to update. Well, I'll call this my first PULL entry. Sorry, person that made PULL up. I'm terrible with deadlines.
"Come on! Get pretty! You have to look presentable if you want to be apprenticed today!" Dappletail meowed.
Spottedkit bolted up from her sleep. She wondered where she was for a moment. The scent of individual herbs and berries didn't immediately hit the roof of her mouth, and Spottedkit panicked for a moment. Why wasn't she in the medicine den? Then she remembered: Featherwhisker had released her from the medicine den the previous night, and she was back in the nursery.
"Oh, right! I can't wait!" Spottedkit mewed excitedly, and began to lick herself vigorously. She wanted her pelt to shine like a StarClan cat when she became an apprentice!
The moment she finished cleaning herself, Spottedkit leapt up, pelting outside to tell Willowpaw.
"Willowpaw! Willowpaw!" Spottedkit squealed, pelting around the camp faster than a WindClan rabbit. She noticed that her Clanmates backed off whenever she went anywhere, but today, it didn't matter. She would be an apprentice today, and of all cats, she hoped her mentor would be Tigerclaw.
"Yes, Spottedkit?" her sister asked calmly. Willowpaw had been in the middle of chewing on a small thrush, Spottedkit could see, as Willowpaw had feathers lining her maw.
"I'll be an apprentice today!" Spottedkit mewed excitedly.
"Congratulations!" Willowpaw had time to mew before Sunstar began his call.
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!" Sunstar called, his voice ringing out across the ThunderClan camp.
"Yes! That's me!" Spottedkit whispered eagerly to Willowpaw, and other ThunderClan cats knew as well, because the expression on her Clanmates faces showed that they were slightly fearful of what Spottedkit could do as an apprentice.
Spottedkit pranced over to take a seat right in front of the Highrock, curling her tail around her paws as she waited eagerly for her Clanmates to gather. Slowly, the whole of ThunderClan gathered around the Highrock for Spottedkit, to see her become an apprentice. And once the last of the Clan had gathered, Sunstar began to speak.
"There is great pride in seeing a kit become an apprentice, and today we may feel that pride," Sunstar announced. "It is Spottedkit's turn to become an apprentice. From this day until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Spottedpaw. Tigerclaw, you will be her mentor."
Spottedpaw cheered inwardly. Tigerclaw would be her mentor, just the cat she had hoped for. She watched in admiration as Tigerclaw padded forward to touch noses with her. When he reached the front, Spottedpaw jumped up eagerly to touch noses with her mentor.
"Yay for Spottedpaw!" Willowpaw was the only one to cheer. The rest of the Clan joined in halfheartedly, the hint of a fear-scent lingering in the wind. As the lukewarm cheers died down, Sunstar flicked his tail to dismiss his Clan. As the cats dispersed, Spottedpaw jumped up eagerly.
"Please can we explore the territories?" Spottedkit begged.
"Of course," Tigerclaw murmured, and began to pad towards the gorse entrance to the camp, Spottedpaw following him out.
They padded through the forest quietly, Spottedpaw now carrying herself with an air of confidence. As she looked around, Spottedpaw noticed the same bushes and the same trees as she had passed before, as she ran to Sunningrocks to help Thistleclaw. And then Spottedpaw realized that Tigerclaw was taking Spottedpaw to Sunningrocks, the place his mentor had died.
"It- it's barely been a moon," Spottedpaw murmured kindly. "You don't have to go back."
"I know," Tigerclaw murmured back, his eyes beginning to study the ground before him. "But you're my apprentice now, so I have to be a good mentor."
"It's okay," Spottedpaw replied. Tigerclaw nodded, and turned around to head in a different direction, the one he had explained would lead to ShadowClan.
They padded on, and soon Spottedpaw began to ask herself how long the two would have to walk until they reached the border. She was about to ask Tigerclaw when he spoke in a whisper to her.
"He would have been an amazing mentor, you know," Tigerclaw told her, and Spottedpaw knew he meant Thistleclaw. "He wasn't soft like Bluefur is, and all I hope is that I can follow in his footsteps and train you as he would have, Spottedpaw."
"What's that smell?" Spottedpaw asked suddenly, a pungent odor hitting the roof of her mouth.
"That's the Thunderpath, the awful-smelling strip between us and ShadowClan."
"Oh...wait, what's that other smell?" Spottedpaw asked her mentor. "Blood!"
"Let's go!" Tigerclaw ordered and ran forward to join the battle.
Tigerclaw leapt immediately into the heart of the fight, but Spottedpaw stayed at the fringes to assess the situation. The heart of the battle was nothing more than three cats in a fight, but those cats were also losing a lot of blood. Blood... What kept a cat alive was just being mercilessly spilled over a small skirmish with no obvious reason to it. Who knew how much blood these cats would lose, and would the medicine cats be able to heal such wounds? And what of the battle scars, a permanent part of a cat's physical appearance?
"I have to get out of here," Spottedpaw murmured to herself, and ran off, back to the safety of ThunderClan territory.
All of a sudden, a cat leapt on her back. Spottedpaw whirled around and raked her claws across whatever she could feel, which was the cat's nose. All too late, Spottedpaw realized that the cat she had hurt was Tigerclaw. And Spottedpaw knew one thing: she would never be a warrior.