"Bearpaw, from this day forth your warrior name shall be Bearfrost. RiverClan honors your courage, bravery, and vigilance." Rainstar placed his muzzle on Bearfrost's head, and Bearfrost licked his leader's shoulder in return.
I'm a warrior now! Bearfrost couldn't help but think.
"Bearfrost!"
"Bearfrost!"
"Bearfrost!" The crowd of cats chanted his name.
"It's time some new apprentices were made as well." Rainstar beckoned Pearlkit, Dewkit, Patchkit, and Gorsekit from where they were sitting at the back of the crowd. They happily bounced over to their leader, while their mother, Littlerose, desperately groomed their heads and pelts as they ran. Dewkit was feebly scrambling up the Wetrock, and Littlerose had to pull her gently down by the scruff.
"Perlkit, Dewkit, Gorsekit, and Patchkit. You have reached the age of six moons, and now it is time you three become apprentices." Rainstar nodded at Dewkit, indicating for her to step forward. "Dewkit, from this moment until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Dewpaw. Your mentor shall be Pinefoot."
Pinefoot rested her muzzle on Dewpaw's head for a moment, then stepped back.
"Patchkit, from this point until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Patchpaw. Your mentor is Spiderstrike." Patchpaw hurried forward, and Spiderstrike touched his muzzle on Patchpaw's head, as Pinefoot had done with Dewpaw. The new apprentice looked proud to have a deputy as his mentor.
"Gorsekit, from now on until you are made a warrior, you will be known as Gorsepaw. Your mentor will be Pigeonwing." Gorsepaw ran over towards his new mentor, and bumped noses with him.
This is just like when I was made into an apprentice. Bearfrost thought wistfully. Ivorytooth was being made into a warrior, and Shiningblaze, Ploomshine and I were the ones being made into apprentices.
"And finally, Perlkit." Perlkit stepped forward at the sound of her name. "From this moment until you are made a warrior, you will be known as Pinkpaw for your unusual eye color. Your mentor will be Peachblossom." Peachblossom placed her muzzle on Pinkpaw's head, and the new apprentice shuttered. Gasps and whispers erupted from the crowd of cats tail-lengths in front of the new apprentice.
"But I don't want to be Pinkpaw! I want to be Perlpaw." Pinkpaw protested.
"Yes, I think naming her that name because she's different isn't right!" Littlerose put in. "Perlpaw is a beautiful name. Pinkpaw is…" Littlerose trailed off, her face full of disgust.
"I know it might not seem like the best name right now, but it suits her." Rainstar reasoned.
"I will not let this happen to my kit!" Littlerose leaped forward and wrapped her tail around her daughter. "Her name will be Perlpaw!" Littlerose bared her teeth at Rainstar. The gray leader bowed his head towards Littlerose, and took a small step forward. "If you truly want your kit to be named Perlpaw, it shall be so." Rainstar lifted his head towards the setting new-leaf sun, and said the ritual words to make a kit into an apprentice.
He doesn't even look like he believes what he's saying. Bearfrost thought in disgust. I wonder why StarClan ever let him become a leader.
Bearfrost, Dewpaw, Perlpaw, Spiderstrike, and Pinefoot walked quietly by the riverside, stopping every so often to check a scent.
It had been half a moon since the three kits had been made into apprentices, and Dewpaw wasn't doing too well.
"I think I smell ShadowClan scent!" Dewpaw rushed over to them from a thicket of bushes she was sniffing. Spiderstrike trotted over to a shrub and gave it a hesitant sniff. "That's rabbit scent mixed with a tiny bit of ShadowClan scent. It must've run across the ShadowClan border to our territory. Nothing to worry about."
Dewpaw looked moody for the rest of the time patrolling, and Bearfrost felt sympathy for her.
It's not her fault. She's only been an apprentice for half a moon. She's just learned what ShadowClan scent smells like.
"Hey, Dewpaw." Let's hunt." Pinefoot's mew broke the silence as they neared the camp. "Anyone want to come with?" The black she-cat motioned with her tail for Dewpaw to follow her.
"I'll come." Bearfrost offered. He was the only cat in the patrol without an apprentice to train, so he thought he could spare some time with Dewpaw and Pinefoot.
Dewpaw perked up at the thought of Bearfrost tagging along, and she dashed towards the river; her long, golden-colored fur gleaming in the sunlight. Bearfrost streaked after her, again feeling like an apprentice on his first journey out of the camp.
Pinefoot pulled up behind Bearfrost a few moments after he had reached Dewpaw. The three of them crouched down by the river, sure to spread out along the bank. Bearfrost watched Dewpaw, as she adjusted her stance so her shadow wouldn't cross over the water. She then curled her tail neatly, and waited for a fish to swim past. She suddenly stuck a paw in the water, but too slow to catch a blind tadpole.
Bearfrost heard her hiss in frustration, and he walked over to help her.
"You should try and dip your paw in right when you see the fish approaching. Then it just swims right into your paws."
Dewpaw looked gratefully up at him, and turned her concentration back to her work. Bearfrost watched her try again, and once again she had no luck.
"Try to trap the fish. Use both your paws to corner a fish. Here- I'll show you."
Bearfrost demonstrated the technique, and let the new apprentice try for herself. Again, she was too slow, and she forgot to position herself so her shadow wasn't casting a dark image of herself over the water. Bearfrost, and Pinefoot sighed.
"Let's try battle moves. Bearfrost, if you wouldn't mind helping…" Pinefoot looked exasperated.
Surely an apprentice couldn't be that bad?
"Alright. I can spare some time."
Pinefoot nodded, and Dewpaw looked happy again. They traveled towards the training area, and Pinefoot sat her apprentice down in the middle of the hollow. Bearfrost bounded over to the far side of the small clearing.
"Now, I want you to think of Bearfrost as a huge, scary, ShadowClan warrior. How would you attack him?" Pinefoot gestured for Bearfrost to look menacing, and he let out a low growl.
"Uh, first I would try to get out of his sight." Dewpaw looked Bearfrost up and down to see how easy it would be to get around him.
"Then… I would attack from behind."
"How will you get behind him without him knowing?" Pinefoot's inquiry made Dewpaw look downcast again. "I don't know…" Bearfrost let his growl fade, and padded up to the two she-cats.
"Do you mind if I share a tactic?" Bearfrost suggested. Dewpaw looked hopefully up at him. "Yes please!"
"What if you try stalking me in the undergrowth over there? It would be harder for me to see you, so you could sneak up on me, and you would get good stalking practice for hunting land prey."
Dewpaw immediately rushed into the forest, not looking back to see if Bearfrost was following.
"Woah! Slow down!" Bearfrost called after her, as he ran to catch up.
"I thought the point of this training exercise was so you don't know where I am!" A faint voice replied, which Bearfrost took to be Dewpaw's.
"Alright, fine. I'll wait right here." Bearfrost stopped next to a large thicket of bushes, and sat down.
What seemed like moons passed, and Bearfrost could see the sun starting to sink down into the mountains beyond.
It was sunhigh when we started this exercise. Where is Dewpaw? Bearfrost began to shiver, as the night cold set in. He decided to get up and start walking back to camp. As he walked, Bearfrost noticed the fresh scent of Dewpaw, leading towards the camp.
That fuzz-brain! How could Pinefoot let her go back to camp without finishing her training session?
Bearfrost arrived in the camp to find Dewpaw, Perlpaw, Gorsepaw, and Patchpaw all sharing prey together by the apprentices' den. Immediately Dewpaw spotted Bearfrost and looked down at her paws.
Bearfrost stormed over to her, and glared at the other apprentices, indicating that they should leave.
"I-I'm sorry Bearfrost. I got lost and…" Dewpaw trailed away in the middle of her apology.
"You should've called for me!" Bearfrost scolded her. "Did you tell Pinefoot that you couldn't find me? Couldn't you scent me?" Bearfrost didn't give Dewpaw a chance to speak as he continued. "Where is Pinefoot now? I need to tell her what a stupid thing you did!"
"Sh-She's over by the medicine den. She stepped on a nasty thorn. That's why I didn't ask her to help me find you, and why I came back to camp early." Dewpaw hung her head even lower, as Bearfrost stalked away towards the medicine den. He entered the hollow enclosed by bushes, and Bearfrost could taste the pungent scent of herbs drifting from the medicine storage.
"Pinefoot? Are you in here? I need to speak with you about Dewpaw."
An answering mew came from the back of the den. "I'm over here. I just stepped on a thorn, and Maplefern said that I should see her in case of infection and-"
"I know what happend." Bearfrost cut off the black she-cat. "But I need to tell you about what happened with Dewpaw during our training session."
Pinefoot perked her ears. "What happened? Is she injured?
Bearfrost sighed. "You know how I was testing Dewpaw on how well she could track?"
Pinefoot nodded. "She ran off into the undergrowth while you found a spot to sit and wait for her to track you."
"Right. Well, she couldn't even pick up my scent. She tried looking for me for only a moment, and gave up and went to camp after you stepped on that thorn."
Pinefoot shook her head and sighed. "I don't think she'll ever make a good warrior."
Bearfrost heard a small gasp from the edge of the den, and he poked his head out to see Dewpaw's tail disappearing out of the camp.
I should just let her go. I would be devastated if I heard Rainstar say that I wouldn't make a good warrior. Bearfrost withdrew from the entrance and settled back down next to Pinefoot. He noticed that one of her hind paws was wrapped in cobweb; he could see some green dock leaves sticking out from underneath the thick layer of padding.
"It looks bad." Bearfrost commented.
"I walked straight into a thornbush," Pinefoot admitted. "and a huge thorn got me right in the middle of my pad."
Then, Maplefern stepped in, and asked Pinefoot if she could check her wound. Pinefoot let her take the cobweb wrapping and dock off her paw, and Bearfrost saw that her paw was red and puffy.
"Mouse-dung. Pinefoot, your paw is infected. You can't leave the medicine den until I say so." The gentle medicine cat told Pinefoot.
"I guess you'll have to miss the Gathering." Bearfrost told Pinefoot. There was a Gathering the next night, and it would be the first Bearfrost would go to since he was made a warrior.
Rainstar and Spiderstrike led the patrol of warriors, elders, and apprentices down towards the large fallen tree leading towards the island of which held the Gathering every moon. The four new apprentices were bouncing about like kits their first time out of the nursery.
Well, they're only seven moons old. And I bet a moon of patrols that I was like that my first time at a Gathering.
Rainstar and his deputy reached the edge of the clearing, and halted. They tasted the air, and Spiderstrike told the rest of the cats, "All the Clans are at the Gathering except for us. Apprentices, remember this. Don't share too much information, but be polite. Listen to what the other Clans have to say, for it might help us later in a battle."
"So… we spy on the other Clans?" Patchpaw asked innocently. Rainstar eyed him, and nodded. The RiverClan leader flicked his tail, and the RiverClan cats flooded into the main clearing.
Spiderstrike took his place at one of the roots of the huge oak tree that the leaders sit in, and Rainstar immediately jumped up onto the uppermost branch.
Bearfrost could tell that cats were staring at Perlpaw.
No wonder. It's not every day that a cat like her is born.
"Welcome, cats of all Clans!" A voice sounded from the tree. It was Aspenstar, the elderly leader of ThunderClan. "May I be the first to report?" Aspenstar asked the other leaders. When they all nodded, he continued. "ThunderClan has been doing well this new-leaf. We have more kits, and the prey is running well."
"Except for when RiverClan cats steal it all!" A loud voice shouted from the crowd.
"Sinkingstone is right! We've had barely enough prey to feed us thanks to RiverClan cats!" Greenstorm, the ThunderClan deputy, yowled.
"How dare you accuse us of stealing prey! Not a single RiverClan warrior has set paw on your territory." Spiderstrike defended his Clan. Rainstar nodded in agreement.
"RiverClan has also stolen from us!" A shadowClan tom shouted over the din of noise. Marshstar's booming voice rang out along with other mews of outrage from the crowd.
"We have detected RiverClan scent on our territory! ShadowClan has not enough prey to feed our kits and elders!"
"WindClan has also seen traces of RiverClan too." Kestrelstar called.
"How could RiverClan scent get over to your border? We would've had to swim across the lake to reach your territory!" Rainstar called in outrage. Then, he told the other leaders, "And why would RiverClan cats want to eat your prey? The lake is full of fish, and we would have no reason to steal from you! I assure all the Clans that RiverClan has not taken a pawful of prey, or moved a kittenstep over your border!" The RiverClan cats moved to sit apart from the other Clan cats, and more shouts of outrage erupted from the crowd of angry felines.
"Silence!" Marshstar quieted the caterwauling, and stepped up to face Rainstar. "I believe the Clans all agree that RiverClan cats are mangey, fish-faced, prey stealers!"
Calls of agreement rang from three of the four Clans, as RiverClan sat in stunned silence.
"Fine. If you will not accept us here, we will fight for our honor." Rainstar spat into the ShadowClan leader's face.
"You really think RiverClan could win a battle against three other Clans?" Aspenstar taunted Rainstar.
Rainstar must be trying very hard not to break the Gathering truce. Bearfrost thought to himself. I would have trouble keeping my temper.
Rainstar bared his sharp, white teeth. "RiverClan will fight for our honor, and we will win."