Chapter 9 a "paw" finally

The day I become an apprentice and join Honeypaw with her training, learning how to hunt and fight, and get out of this crowded nursery was today. I couldn't wait!

Ever since Mistkit, Cherrykit, and Midnight joined our Clan, the kits have been waking me up in the middle of the night by their pushing and shoving. It's been really annoying, especially when I'm in the middle of training with Pebblelight.

That day, I opened my eyes to see the sun had not risen yet, but Mistkit and Cherrykit were already out of the den. I almost woke up Frostlight (she was expecting Brackenstorm's kits). When I stepped out, I heard Midnight's voice. "Both of you behave. This Clan has provided everything for our survival; they saved us, so you must become warriors and repay our debt. I've learned how to hunt and fight, and now its your turn." She spoke in worry, probably thinking the Clan won't accept them if they don't be good warriors. "Okay, sure thing," Cherrykit and Mistkit spoke in harmony, obviously excited for the ceremony. Midnight noticed me in the shadows.

"Hello Bluekit, are you excited?"

I giggled. "Haha, I guess you're right. I'm glad about leaving the nursery."

"Why, because you don't want to be with the babies?"

I shook my head. "Nope, it's just too crowded."

Midnight had a surprised look on her face, "Well, that tells me you don't know; the Nursery is going to be sectioned into two parts, a side for the younger and a side for the older."

I growled, and my fur started to bristle. "NO FAIR!"

I stormed back into the Nursery. The rest of the kits were up and running, either excited to become apprentices or excited for the kits who were going to become apprentices. I started to rant on and on, until, "Hey, Bluekit!"

I turned to see Mistkit. "Who do you think our mentors are going to be?"

I immediately remembered that Ambertail was assigned to me for inadvertently bullying me as a helpless kit, which I still don't remember being. "I don't know," I told her, forgetting what I was ranting about. I was suddenly in a light-hearted mood.

"Every cat old enough to catch their own prey gather below the Highledge for a Clan meeting."

"Yay, its finally time!" I exclaimed, heading towards the exit just like all the other kits. A paw stopped me from exiting.

"Grooming time!" I shook and tried to get free, while blurting out random excuses that didn't make sense. These included, "We're going to be late!", and, "I will not lose to the turtle!" My final request was, "For StarClan's sake, let me goooooooooooo!", and it worked.

Yay, Bluekit wins, once again! Hehehe.

The Clan meeting started, and the cats assembled quieted down. "Today five kits will be made apprentices. (cherrykit,mistkit,bluekit,silverkit,longkit). Sagewhisker, your great ability in camouflage has served us well, pass on your knowledge to cherrykit. Cherrykit, from now on you will be known as cherrypaw." They touched noses. "Mistkit you shall join your brother in becoming an apprentice. having said that, brackenstorm I wish for you to train young mistpaw here. Moving on, Poppytail you told me Longkit wishes to be your apprentice." Poppytail nodded "then you shall take her to the moonpool in a few days on halfmoon" Then he called the naming for Mistpaw and Longpaw. Silverkit or should I say Silverpaw got assigned with leafdawn. Finally my turn, "Bluekit, from this moment on, you will be known as bluepaw. Ambertail will be your mentor." Unlike the other warriors Ambertail seemed hesitant to touch my nose, so I ran up jumped and touched noses with her. The clan started to cheer. When I walked into the apprentice den, there was a lot of room even though there were a bunch of apprentices. I chose the nest closest to Honeypaw, but she seemed different, not same old Honeypaw. "Bluepaw, were going to border patrol on Windclan Border to check On the river." Ambertail walked in. I left the den, noticing Mosspaw annoying Applepaw and their mentors Scarletail tand Redstripe arguing about which of their apprentices is better. "Mosspaw and Applepaw, I wish you both to show a good example of what a good border patrol should look like, meaning Applepaw, no fooling around and mosspaw, stop with it with the moony eyes," that made everyone laugh, the way Ambertail said "moony eyes". Once we left camp I walked over to mosspaw and asked "How much longer will it be until...", but I go cut off by Applepaw.

"you are no apprentice if you can barely walk out of camp without being tired".

"I didn't say I was tired, I was going to ask when you're going to be made warriors," Applepaw seemed surprised and a silence passed between us. Anyways, being tired was the last thing on my mind. pebblelight and sandstorm taught me better, yet again they also taught me better than to mention it to some apprentices on border patrol. That reminds me, lately Pebblelight seems so... disturbed and she keeps mentioning the other three of the prophecy and how - "Bluekit, BLUEKIT!" Too late, I crashed into a tree.

"Pay attention! I've called over a bazillion times" Ambertail was scolding me as we were marking the windClan border by the river. Some Windclan apprentices on the other side of the border were laughing at me. "who you staring at?" Applepaw gave me a stern look and said "Ignore them." we walked down and it started to get muddy. Ambertail motioned us to be careful, but as bad luck came mosspaw slipped. Applepaw tried grabbed her by the scruff but ended up falling into the river instead. All I could do was watch in terror; no matter how good I became at swimming with Pebblelight and Sandstorm, I was terrified of dying in the water. But in spite my fear, I jumped in and heard the yelling of my friends behind me. I saw Applepaw's head bobbing back and forth. once I was less than a fox length away, I grabbed him by the scruff. I didn't care that the water was cold all i wanted was to save him, but he was as cold as snow in leafbare. Once I pulled him to shore I realized he was barely breathing.

"we have to get her to the medicine den" redstripe commented. Ambertail decided to carry Applepaw because of being the strongest. When we got back to camp, everyone was asking me why I was drenched and Applepaw was barely alive. Every Cat looked distraught especially mosspaw.

Later that day, Applepaw was pronounced dead, from lack of breathing and greencough, not a good combination. That night, I didn't sleep well. Mosspaw kept screeching in the middle of her sleep the moment I fell asleep, and when I wanted to see Pebblelight I instead saw starclan. Applepaw was there, I wanted to run up to him and apologize but when he noticed me he asked "Bluepaw, I ask you for a favor. Please promise to keep mosspaw safe please." I nodded, but I knew I would regret it. "I'M SO SORRY! ITS MY FAULT YOU'RE DEAD!" he just shook his head. "While death may kill and send you to starclan, you may only grow wiser and pebblelight gave me something to tell you. A fruit falls from a tree, and an animal from a fresh kill pile as something wild comes to eat it. those three thing you seek, and they hide in the shadows" I got the last part about shadow clan but what about the fruit, the animal, and the wild? Instead of being able to finish my dream Icepaw woke me up yelling "mosspaw's gone!" come on really I just promised Applepaw "OH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO SHE CAN'T BE GONE!"