"Gingerclaw watch me!"
"No! Gingerclaw watch me!"
Gingerclaw looked down at his two youngest kits and chuckled. "How much energy do
you guys have? It seems like it's never ending."
"It is!" Rosekit complained. "As soon as I try to take a nap, they want to play another
game. Even Fernwillow is at her wits end!"
Petalkit and Thistlekit emerged slowly from the nursery to the clearing where all the
other cats were. "I want to be an apprentice!" Petalkit yowled. "I'm more than six moons
old and Stripestar won't let me."
Pigeonwing padded up behind her kit. "That's because you and your brother are always
getting into trouble. You would have been an apprentice a moon ago if you hadn't left
camp and tried to cross the Thunderpath so you could attack Thunderclan. Then when
Stripestar tried to bring you back you called him a rotten piece of fox dung. That's no
way to treat your leader, even if he is your father."
"Yeah, but why didn't I get my apprentice name?" Thistlekit whined. "I didn't do
anything!"
"Yes you did!" Petalkit screeched. "It was your idea to go attack Thunderclan! You just
didn't want to get in trouble so you came back and told on me!" She looked like she was
about to pounce on her brother, but her mother wrapped her tail around Petalkit and
pulled her back. Gingerclaw really hoped his kits weren't as bad as those two. They were
seven moons and still in the nursery, as well Rosekit. Rosekit was always sucked into
their escapades and she was punished for them too. She wasn't allowed to be an
apprentice until she proved she was going to be a contributing member of Shadowclan.
She didn't seem to care though; she just liked to relax in the nursery.
"We want to be apprentices too!" Thornkit meowed. She bounded towards her father,
closely followed by Bramblekit. When she stopped suddenly he crashed into her and that
started a scuffle.
"Stop it!" Fernwillow hissed. "You two need to act your age. In two moons you're going
to be apprentices unless you act like your sister and Petalkit and Thistlekit, in which case
you'll never be apprentices. Darkfur slowly approached the cats and kits. "Stripestar said
it's time to make these three apprentices, they're too lazy."
That entirely ruined Fernwillow's speech and the blind she-cat angrily clawed at the
ground. Darkfur looked around apologetically at Fernwillow, Gingerclaw, and
Pigeonwing. Pigeonwing started cleaning her kits hastily. "I don't want you to look bad
when you become apprentices." She explained between licks, ignoring her kits' mews of
protest. Stripestar called a clan meeting and when all the other cats had joined the ones
already there he began. "Today we have three kits that need to be made apprentices. They
have been wreaking havoc on our clan for a while, so they could use some discipline.
Rosekit, Thistlekit, and Petalkit please come up to me."
The three kits all raced each other up to their leader.
"Do you three promise to listen to your mentors until you are warriors, when you will
follow the warrior code?"
They all nodded excitedly.
"Then I will make you apprentices. Your new names are Rosepaw, Thistlepaw, and
Petalpaw. Rosepaw, your mentor will be Featherfur."
The two touched noses gently and padded into the crowd of cats.
"Thistlepaw, your mentor will be Gingerclaw, and Petalpaw, your mentor will be
Gorsewhisker. Gingerclaw, I hope you will pass on all you learned from Gorsewhisker.
Gorsewhisker, Gingerclaw was a pretty mischevious apprentice, he was even worse than
Petalpaw. I hope you tame her like you tamed him."
Petalpaw and Thistlepaw touched noses with their mentors and stared in amazement at
Gingerclaw. "Wow! You were worse than me?" Petalpaw meowed excitedly.
Gingerclaw dipped his head in embarrassment. "Yes, I was way worse than you."
"What did you do?"
Gingerclaw's ears were flat to his head. "Well, I always took prey before I hunted and I
never took the ticks off of the elders. I also gave the elders old and wet moss, and the
worse thing I did was that I met a Windclan cat every couple of nights."
Rosepaw gasped, she thought that Gingerclaw was going to give her away. Gingerclaw
licked her on the head to show that he knew what she was thinking. Petalpaw was
running in circles she was so excited. "Gingerclaw! You have to tell Thistlepaw
everything and then he can tell me!"
"I don't think I want to give you any ideas." Thistlepaw meowed to his sister.
Gingerclaw's whiskers twitched in amusement and he breathed a sigh of relief. He was so
happy he had Thistlepaw instead of Petalpaw, she was such a handful.