The next day, as Firepaw was waking up in the medicine cats den, Airpaw and Windpaw were just stirring. They yawned when Graypaw stuck his head in the apprentices den.
"Come on, sleepy heads! It's time to get up! You have training to do with the rest of us!"
Sandpaw and Dustpaw were just outside the entrance to the den, grooming.
"Honestly you two, you're just as bad as Firepaw. Sleeping in." Dustpaw shook his tabby head. "Tsk tsk."
Sandpaw nudged him, "Hey. Leave Firepaw out of this. He's not even here."
Dustpaw raised his head, "Exactly my point."
Sandpaw shook her pale ginger head, "You're impossible."
Airpaw and Windpaw emerged into the early morning breeze.
"So..." Airpaw looked around and spotted the mentors talking to a red-tailed cat under the Highrock, "What are we supposed to do now?"
Graypaw sat down, his long grey fur pooling around him on the ground, "Our mentors will be over in a second."
They made small talk until the mentors showed up behind them.
"Ready for your first day as an apprentice, Airpaw?"
She looked up at the tall, light tabby, "Yep."
"You too?"
Windpaw nodded to Mousefur.
"Okay. What we were planning to do was head over to the training hollow and have you guys see how much prey you could catch." A huge golden tom called Lionheart mewed in his deep voice. He was Graypaw's mentor.
Sandpaw's mentor, a big white haired tom named Whitestorm, asked them, "You guys clear?"
The experienced apprentices nodded and the newbies looked at each other.
Mousefur purred and nudged them, "Don't worry. We'll be watching you so you don't get lost. You just won't see us."
A little more relieved, they nodded.
"Dustpaw," Darkstripe, Firepaw's mentor, walked up to the group, "Redtail's going to stay behind so I've been sent to subsitute today."
The gray apprentice nodded to the dark tabby, "That's cool with me!"
They had just gotten past the bramble barrier of the camp, when a voice turned them around."Hey, where are you all off to?"
They all turned to see a dark ginger tom sitting, watching them from the other side of the barrier.
"Hunting. To see who can catch the most." Dustpaw mumbled embarrasedly, Sorry Firepaw...
Firepaw's eyes brightened, "Can I come?"
His clanmates shuffled their paws... they all liked Firepaw - except Longtail and, to some extent, his mentor Darkstripe - so almost no one wanted to tell him to sit around camp. "No. You hurt your paw, remember?" Typical Longtail... always doing the dirty deeds.
Firepaw twitched his ear, "So? It's better today."
"Oh really?" Longtail smirked, "Put your paw down."
Firepaw looked down at his red paw. The swelling was gone, but it was still pain-wracking. Longtail took his silence for admittance of his imcompetence.
"Exactly, stay here where you're needed, Firepaw." Longtail flicked his longtail in the air as he waited.
In the front of the line, Firepaw heard Airpaw snicker. Firepaw's eyes flicked to him in a quick deadly glance, before returning to Longtail. Then he turned his head to his mentor, "Darkstripe?"
Darkstripe shrugged and nodded back to the medicine cats den, "Go on, Firepaw. Might as well start getting better sooner than later."
Firepaw's jaw dropped in astonishment, "What?"
The dark tabby narrowed his gaze, "Go back to Spottedleaf."
Firepaw glared up at his mentor and they stayed locked like that until Firepaw looked away into the distance, "Fine." He got up, avoiding placing his paw on the ground, and walked away. His tail tip twitching in anger. They watched him go with a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs. Poor Firepaw, he just wants to train...
Windpaw's eyes followed him until he was out of sight. There was just somthing about him that made her vaguely curious. Then, as if he could hear her thoughts, he whipped his tail and she heard, just barely though because of the sound of some many paw steps padding away into the trees, him hiss through his teeth at her again. Gasping in outrage, she spun on her heel and followed them through the trees.
Firepaw burst into the medicine cats den in a near fume. How dare they send me back like I'm incapable of catching prey with all four paws on the ground! I gotta teach them a thing or two on fighting with only three paws. I'll kick their hinds!
Spottedleaf looked up at the angry handsome ginger tom, "What's wroung?"
The amber-eyed she-cat looked him in his green eyes.
"Nothing."
She smiled, "You can tell me."
He looked up at her, heistated, then smiled back, "No. I really can't."