One moon later, Willowfrost had moved into the nursery with Brightcloud, Daisy and Ambercloud, who had had her kits the day before: two strong healthy toms, one looking like a copy of her and the other like Molewhisker, the father. They had named them Oakkit and Blazekit. Blazekit was named after Lionblaze, though no cat knew why, and Oakkit was named by Molewhisker, saying that he looked like the fallen oak tree.
Cloversplash and Foxleap had decided to wait until newleaf to have kits. Mostly because the nursery was already so full and it was leafbare after all, they didn't need more mouths to feed. The other reason was because she wanted to finish Firepaw's training. It was so close to the end of her apprenticeship, and she didn't want to catch her off guard by switching mentors because of her. When Willowfrost moved into the nursery, Moonpaw was apprenticed to Bumblestripe temporarily, but she spent a lot of her time with Jayfeather now. The whole clan guessed that she wanted to switch roles, but Moonpaw seemed oblivious to her own decision, as she never talked about it or seemed to even know about it. When she finally came to her senses one particularly cold afternoon, Bramblestar had held the ceremony right away.
"Cats of ThunderClan, as you know, I will not be around forever, so it is time I took on an apprentice. I have chosen a cat who has shown patience and kindness towards the weak and the sick. Your next medicine cat will be Moonpaw!" Jayfeather announced.
"Moonpaw, is it your wish to switch roles and accept the post of apprentice to Jayfeather?" Bramblestar asked the apprentice. She was an older apprentice, so switching would mean a twice as long apprenticeship, but Moonpaw didn't seem to care.
"It is." Moonpaw answered without a doubt.
"Then at the half-moon, you must travel to the Moonpool to be accepted by StarClan before the other medicine cats." Jayfeather continued.
"The good wishes of all the clan goes with you." Bramblestar meowed as he ended the ceremony. It ended with a loud yowling of her name. Moonpaw was pretty popular with the clan, and every cat knew that she would make a great medicine cat.
"Moonpaw, it is time we left for the moonpool, it is half-moon tonight." Jayfeather reminded her.
"Alright Jayfeather, I'm coming!" She answered as she scurried to catch up with her new mentor.
"Are you sure that you want to wait to have kits?" A voice creeped up behind her that made her jump.
"Foxleap! You scared me out of my fur!" She meowed to her mate.
"Nonsense. Nothing scares you, Cloversplash." He meowed.
Purring, she nuzzled into his fur. With him, she felt so safe, so loved. Then a voice creeped into the back of her mind. What about Pineheart? Would she have felt the same way with him, or even better? She found herself unable to answer that.
"Yes Foxleap, I'm sure. It's my duty to wait. But you won't have to wait long either." She promised, before leaving his side to beckon the apprentices to her.
"Firepaw, Redpaw, Coalpaw, Frostpaw! It's time for training. Me and Sandbreeze are bringing you to the training hollow, and Snowstorm and Dewfeather will meet us there. Hurry up, I don't want any slacking off!" Cloversplash meowed to the apprentices.
"Redpaw, even though your farther ahead in hunting than the others, I need you to beat Firepaw in battle training." Sandbreeze whispered to her apprentice, who nodded silently to her with a hard look of determination on his face.
It was harder than he thought to beat his siter though, as she was trained everyday in combat, a skill that Cloversplash enjoyed and loved to pass on to her apprentice.
Training went down pretty well that afternoon, only having to scold them once for a surprise attack on a passing Daisy, who had emerged to help fetch herbs with Leafpool.
"Honestly! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Daisy was practically your second mother, and this is how you repay her? Apologize, NOW! Snowstorm meowed angrily.
The apprentices, looking truly ashamed, apologized.
"It's okay. It looks like your training is really coming along nicely. You'll be warrirors in no time." Daisy meowed, brightening up the apprrentices.
"Daisy, watch me!" Firepaw meowed from across the clearing as she leaped and landed a perfect move Cloversplash had taught her the day before.
"No, watch me!" Coalpaw meowed, leaping into the air and landing squarely on Redpaw's shoulders.
"Hey, no fair." Redpaw meowed as he struggled out from his older brother's weight.
"You are all coming along great. Frostpaw, later on why don't you show me that one hunting trick you promised over a mouse?" Daisy offered.
"Okay!" Frostpaw answer enthusiastically.
When Daisy and Leafpool passed, Cloversplash and Sandbreeze returned to the clearing. "Okay, now I want each of you to pair up, and practice your defence and attack moves." Cloversplash ordered. Firepaw and Redpaw ended up together, and Coalpaw and Frostpaw paired up aswell. "
Right, Firepaw and Coalpaw, you will be the attackers first. Redpaw and Frostpaw will need to defend themselves and their own piece of bark." Sandbreeze ordered, clawing a fair amount of bark off a near rotting tree.
"The bark will symbolize your clan, the kits especially. If the attacker reached the bark, they've won, it's up to you to save the kits. And, go!" Cloversplash added, watching the young cats wrestle and snarl at each other. Redpaw managed to get a few good blows in on Firepaw, but she didn't seem the least bit daunted by it. Baring her teeth, Firepaw lept at her brother and pinned his shoulders down, which he soon threw her off and clawed his way through to the bark. Before he reached it though, Firepaw gathered all of her strength and sprang right onto Redpaw's back, digging her paws into his shoulders for balence. The weight was too much for Redpaw, as his legs crumpled underneath him as soon as she landed.
"Hey, no fair! You're supposed to be on defensive!" Redpaw complained, with a quick look to his mentor.
"That's right. Redpaw would've won if she had played by the rules." Sandbreeze agreed with a look at Cloversplash.
"But I was defending! I was defending the kits from the attacker!" Firepaw protested.
"Yes. And in battles, you don't play by the rules. It was very quick thinking, Firepaw, well done. You too Redpaw." Cloversplash meowed. Firepaw brightened up, but Redpaw sulked away and sat beside Coalpaw, who had won his match against Frostpaw.
"Well done Coalpaw, you'll make a great fighter. Frostpaw, you could've won too, it was a close one, good try." Snowstorm praised his apprentice. Cloversplash hadn't even seen him and Dewfeather arrive. They continued training until dusk, then returned to their nest tired out from training. Redpaw begun to talk to Firepaw again, but Cloversplash still saw some jealousy there. It was too bad really, because Sandbreeze seemed to be passing on her jealousy to her apprentice.