A/N: Well, here's another chapter. Enjoy!
Reedfeather sat up and yawned. It was dawn, and she was still tired from going to the normal cats' "Gathering" a couple nights before. But that didn't mean she could sleep all day. It was time to train Sunnypaw.
The red-and-yellow dragon cat walked out of the den and stretched her wings in the early morning light, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her wings. Then she looked around for any sign of her apprentice. But Sunnypaw was nowhere to be seen.
Reedfeather sighed. Sunnypaw had to still be asleep. She walked over to the bush where the apprentices slept and called for Sunnypaw. A few seconds later the yellow apprentice stumbled out sleepily. She mumbled something unintelligible.
"Get something to eat. We're going to train today," Reedfeather told Sunnypaw. Sunnypaw mumbled again and headed in the general direction of the prey-pile. Reedfeather followed.
When Reedfeather got to the pile, she noted that although they still had plenty of prey, they had less prey than usual. She decided she'd have to hunt with Sunnypaw. Reedfeather started eating a squirrel, then looked up when Skystar sat next to her and started to eat a thrush.
"Hello, Skystar," Reedfeather said politely.
"Hello, Reedfeather," Skystar replied. "What are you and Sunnypaw going to do today?"
"I was thinking I'd take her hunting," Reedfeather told the gray leader.
"Well, that's a coincidence," Skystar said. "I'm taking Stormpaw hunting, too."
"I have an idea," Reedfeather said.
"What is it?" Skystar asked.
"We could have a hunting competition," Reedfeather explained. "That way, we can assess our apprentices' hunting skills, and the Dragonwings have more prey."
"That's a great idea!" Skystar exclaimed. "Let's do it."
After all four cats had finished eating, Skystar led them to a clearing in the forest and sat down. Reedfeather sat next to her.
"What are we going to do?" Stormpaw asked.
"We're going to have a hunting competition," Reedfeather explained.
Sunnypaw interrupted, too curious to wait. She seemed to have woken up by now. "A competition?"
"Yes, a competition," Reedfeather answered, then continued. "You two will go in different directions, and catch as much prey as possible. Skystar and I will be watching you and assessing your skills, so do the best you can. The one who catches the most prey, wins."
"When do we start?" Stormpaw asked.
"Now."
Both apprentices immediately took off in different directions. Reedfeather followed Sunnypaw, using illusion to hide herself. She noticed that as soon as Sunnypaw saw there was no prey in the air at that moment, she descended back down into the trees. Reedfeather smiled. Many apprentices, and even some full-fledged fliers, stayed in the air until they found airborne prey, even though there was much more prey on the ground. Reedfeather followed Sunnypaw to the ground, then released her illusion, hiding herself in the undergrowth instead. She could have maintained the illusion, but it took less energy to simply hide.
Sunnypaw dropped into a crouch. She must have found some prey. Reedfeather followed her gaze to a rabbit nibbling on a plant. She held her breath. Rabbits were very hard to catch, because of their wonderful hearing. Sunnypaw crept towards the rabbit slowly and silently, and then, when she was only a wing's width away, leaped. She landed squarely on the rabbit. A perfect kill.
The rest of the assessment went very similarly, with only one missed catch. Reedfeather emerged from the bushes, surprising Sunnypaw quite a bit, and helped her carry her prey back to the clearing. Sunnypaw had caught, in addition to the rabbit, a squirrel, a vole, and three mice.
When the two she-cats got back to the clearing, Skystar and Stormpaw were already waiting for them, with a small pile of prey at their feet. Reedfeather set down Sunnypaw's prey, then noted that the two piles were about the same size. Skystar walked from one pile to the other, counting the prey. Soon she walked back to the center of the clearing to announce the winner.
"Sunnypaw wins," she announced, "by a mouse."
Sunnypaw squeaked excitedly. "Do I get a prize?"
Skystar considered that for a moment. "You can have first pick of the prey-pile when we get home."
The four cats picked up the prey and started home, flying slower than normal from the weight of all the prey. Reedfeather was proud of her apprentice. In a couple moon-turns, when she was ready, Sunnypaw would be a great flier.
Reedfeather realized just then that being a mentor was the best thing that had happened to her in her whole life.
A/N: So, just some random filler because I wanted to write some normal interaction between cats without weird stuff happening. Part 9 will be longer coming than the previous 8 chapters, because although I have written both chapter 9 and chapter 10, chapter 9 got lost before I could post it on my website, .com. Part 10 is posted on there, although if you check it out there, you'll skip over something really important (it actually gets a plot! *gasps*) so it's probably better to just wait the probably very short time until chapter 9 is rewritten. Read, review, and stay awesome!