Twigkit squirmed as Ferncloud groomed her fur.
"Sit still, would you? Your squirming isn't helping me groom you." Ferncloud's tongue rasped against her body again as Twigkit tried to sit still.
When she was finished being groomed, Bramblestar leaped onto the Highledge and smoothed a cowlick on his chest before calling for a Clan meeting.
As cats poured out from the dens, Twigkit and her brother waited anxiously for the meeting to start. Today they turned six moons old, and they'd become apprentices.
"This is a proud day for ThunderClan. By naming apprentices, we show that our Clan will survive and remain strong. Sootkit, please step forward." Sootkit pranced forward to stand beneath the Highledge, staring up at his leader.
"From now until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Sootpaw. Foxleap, you will mentor Sootpaw. I know you will pass on your strength and bravery to your apprentice and teach him the skills that will make him a brave warrior of ThunderClan." Foxleap nodded and touched noses with Sootpaw.
"Twigkit, please step forward." The Clan cats all turned to look at her and she felt her cheeks getting hot in the beginning of a blush. She walked through the mass of cats until she stood before Bramblestar.
"From now until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Twigpaw. Cloudtail, you are ready for an apprentice, so you will mentor Twigpaw. I know you will pass on your patience and rationality to your apprentice and teach her the skills she will need to become a brave warrior of ThunderClan." Cloudtail nodded as Foxleap had done and touched noses with Twigpaw.
Bramblestar finished the meeting with a few reassurances about the journey to SandClan. The whole Clan had been fretting over it since they found out that the Clan leaders would be going so that they could lead their Clans differently. Twigpaw recalled the day they'd been told who was going.
"But you can't send Rosepetal! She's one of the youngest warriors in the Clan! Surely you could send a more experienced warrior? What if she gets hurt?" Daisy had fretted over her kit the day she found out.
"She's a brave warrior; she'll be fine," Bramblestar soothed her. "This Journey isn't a hard one, according to Ravenpaw." Daisy hissed.
"You can't send my kit into the unknown based only on one cat's opinion about the journey!"
"Daisy, it's what Clan cats do. We do things like this to improve our Clan," Cloudtail sounded irritated by her behavior.
"I don't care! You are not sending Rosepetal away!"
"Daisy, quit being unreasonable! Rosepetal promised to uphold the warrior code, and this is part of her duty! Have you asked her what she wants to do," Spiderleg snarled.
"No. Rosepetal, do you want to go, or not?"
"I want to serve my Clan, so yes."
The arguments had gone on for a while, but all Twigkit could remember was that one situation. Daisy had been very stubborn and irritable lately, but everyone knew it was because she and Spiderleg weren't getting along very well lately, so they had some sympathy for her.
"I've talked with the other Clan leaders, and we've decided to wait a moon or so before we leave so that we can train the cats going on the journey for whatever harsh conditions they may face." Bramblestar's announcement snapped Twigpaw out of her memories.
"I've also decided to send all of the current apprentices. Since they'll be learning new techniques on the journey, it will be a good experience for them, and they'll be doing their training while they stay with SandClan." The four apprentices looked at each other in excitement.
"But that means that there is no time for Twigpaw and Sootpaw to get a tour around the territory. The cats going on the journey need to follow me out into the forest to start training." He leaped down and made his way across the clearing as cats dispersed to where they were going. Several went back into dens to rest, and many went out to hunt, but most of the cats in the clearing grouped together and followed Bramblestar out into the forest.
When they made it to the training hollow, the leader turned around and faced the cats.
"Ravenpaw described that in SandClan's territory, there isn't much water, so we need to prepare for that. That means, that from now until we leave, our water will be limited. We will each have a puddle of water in the forest, and that puddle will have to last us the whole day." Bramblestar dug a hole in the ground. "Everyone's hole should be about this big."
The cats began to dig their holes, so Twigpaw and her brother dug their holes, too. They had theirs right next to each other.
"Let's go gather some water to fill these with." Bramblestar led the way to the lake and they soaked wads of moss and carried them back to the training hollow. They did this several times before the puddles were full.
"Everyone will need to refill these every day until we leave." The cats nodded, and some looked weary about the water restrictions.
"Ravenpaw also told me that it's very hot. We really have no way to prepare for this except not to cool off when we overheat. If we do that in SandClan territory, we'll waste our much needed water. Everyone will just have to tough out the heat or take shelter in the shade," Bramblestar meowed sternly.
Several yowls of protest arose, but when the leader explained that they might die of thirst if they weren't careful, the cats settled down. Twigkit looked at her brother warily, and he leaned in to whisper something in her ear.
"I'm not feeling so sure about this." Sootpaw's mew sounded shaky, as if he was about to cry.
"We'll be okay. Bramblestar won't let us die." Sootpaw didn't look reassured, but at least he didn't look like he was about to cry anymore.
"So, I've also heard that the prey is very hard to catch, so we all need to refine our skills. Everyone, break up into groups of three. Ravenpaw also told me that SandClan hunts in groups." Twigpaw stuck by her brother and waited for someone to approach them. The first cat to approach them was Bramblestar.
"Twigpaw, I'd like to train you alone. Sootpaw, can you go group up with another group?" Sootpaw nodded and bounded away, leaving Bramblestar and Twigpaw alone.
"I think you might be better off training one on one with me. I've been thinking about new hunting techniques that will work for you, and I think I have a couple worked out." He led her farther into the forest and stopped about halfway to the lake.
"Most cats use the hunter's crouch, but I'm not sure if that will work for you. Try it." Bramblestar dropped into the hunter's crouch, and so did Twigpaw.
There was no problem with her crouch except that it was hard for her to keep her balance. The first time she tried it, her tail was whirling in giant circles to keep her from falling over, and Bramblestar told her to keep her tail still and low to the ground. She tried it, but fell over instantly.
"Well, crouches are going to be difficult for you. Perhaps if you just try walking very slowly, it would suffice for hunting. Your fur should help you blend in." Twigpaw spotted a mouse scuffling among the roots of a tree, and she tried the technique.
She moved slowly and silently through the undergrowth, and when she was close enough to catch it, she wondered how she'd trap it.
Perhaps she could slam her front paw onto it's back and hope she paralyzed it.
She pushed off with her back legs, and slammed her forepaw as hard as she could onto the prey's back. Her move was successful, but not only had she broken the mouse's back, but she had also flattened it's body. There was no way any cat could eat it now.
"That was a smart idea you had, but maybe you could hit your next target less hard." Bramblestar's voice startled her, and she turned around, embarrassed.
"I know. I just didn't know how hard to hit it, so I hit it as hard as I could." He nodded in understanding.
"We'll work on it. Come on, let me show you some hunting techniques Ravenpaw taught me that SandClan uses."
As he showed her some moves, she smelled something that she'd never smelled before. She turned her head towards it and saw a pair of green eyes looking at her from behind a bush across the border with ShadowClan.
Just as she was going to tell Bramblestar, the eyes blinked, and she decided not to say anything. There was something about that gaze that calmed her.
And then the eyes were gone.