Sleepily, Clawpaw stretched. Her littermate's nests were empty. Awake already? They don't understand how nice sleeping is. She padded out of the apprentice's den. The training was fun, but sometimes sleeping was just so refreshing. Sighing, she padded out into the clearing. Doveripple, Riverecho, Leafpaw, and Lavapaw were nowhere to be seen. Raincall, her mentor, was looking at her, annoyed.
"Why have you always been sleeping past dawn?" Raincall mewed sternly.
"Because sleeping is nice," Clawpaw answered wistfully.
"Well, at least you didn't sleep all day again," Raincall recalled from the previous day, "Your littermates went night hunting last night while you were sleeping the whole day, and they caught a minnow each."
"I can catch a minnow," Clawpaw felt her anger rising.
Her littermates always got praised, while she was blamed for sleeping longer than her littermates did. Leafpaw and Lavapaw teased her about it, but they were kinder about it than Raincall. I wish I had a different mentor. Maybe then I would like to train more. But she knew that wouldn't happen.
"Then catch a minnow," Raincall snapped, leading the way out of camp and toward the river. Clawpaw reluctantly followed, her tail trailing against the ground. The path to the river was narrow, winding through dense undergrowth and tall grasses. The morning sun filtered through the canopy of trees, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor. Birds chirped in the distance.
The trail was well-worn, the air cool and damp. Clawpaw's whiskers twitched as she brushed against the reeds. As they walked, Clawpaw's mind wandered. She couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy thinking about her littermates, who always seemed to be praised. Raincall's sternness only deepened her anger and frustration. Her mentor walked briskly ahead, tail held high, a silent reminder of her torment.
They passed a cluster of fern fronds, their leaves brushing softly against Clawpaw's sides. She took a deep breath, trying to shake off her annoyance. The forest around them was waking up, the rustling of leaves and the occasional scurry of small animals adding to the symphony of sounds.
The path eventually widened, opening up into the edge of Sunningrocks
Raincall turned to face Clawpaw, her expression stern but determined. "Let's see if you can manage to focus here," she mewed, her voice carrying a mix of challenge and expectation. Clawpaw shifted her body into a fishing position and waited for a fish to pass by. Clawpaw was almost about to fall asleep when a group of minnows finally came swimming toward her.
"Why haven't you caught anything yet?" Raincall mewed, annoyed.
The fish immediately swam away, scared by Raincall's voice. Annoyance surged beneath her pelt. Why does Raincall always have to mess everything up?
"I was just about to catch one! But you scared it away, and I haven't seen another fish," Clawpaw mewed, becoming more annoyed with her mentor.
"Let's do some battle training because you clearly can't fish" Raincall mewed brusquely, not even bothering to apologize.
"Okay," Clawpaw sighed. This is going to be a long day.
Raincall led the way toward the battle training clearing by the river.
"Okay, let's try the front paw slap down," Raincall decided, wading into the shallow part of the river.
"Okay," Clawpaw sighed.
Stepping into the river, she reared and slapped her front paws onto the water, soaking Raincall. Ha! You deserve that!
"You could have done better than that," Raincall commented annoyingly, "you need to be faster. When you rear up, it gives your enemy time to strike at you before you can splash water at them."
Clawpaw could barely hold herself from saying 'WELL, THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU?' or 'IF IT WAS SO TERRIBLE THEN WHY DID YOU GET SOAKED?', but she knew if she yelled at her mentor it wouldn't do her any good, so she didn't respond.
"Okay, let's try that again," Raincall mewed.
Clawpaw reared even faster this time, and then slammed down onto the water towards and splashed Raincall.
"That was better," Raincall mewed.
Better! Humph! That was great! Resentment swelled up inside her. Raincall was being unfair. How could you just call that better?
"Okay, now we can try the underwater leg sweep," Raincall mewed.
Getting into position, Clawpaw swung a hind paw, knocking into Raincall. Raincall, not noticing it, fell flat on his face. Ha! He deserved that!
Raincall got up, looking annoyed and embarrassed and shook off some water, then scolded Clawpaw about smashing his face flat.
"I thought that was what I was supposed to do," Clawpaw complained.
"What you're supposed to do is to respect your mentor. You will be caring for the elders for the rest of your apprenticeship," Raincall snapped. And that was it.