Into the River

Into the River Chapter 1

Rainystar's mew rang across the camp, "Let all cats old enough to swim gather to hear my words!"

As the RiverClan cats gathered to hear Rainystar's words, a small rabbit hopped into the clearing, catching the attention of the kits. The rabbit paused for a moment, looking around at them before continuing on its way, disappearing into the undergrowth. Leafkit wondered what it was doing here. She forgot all about the rabbit when Streamripple started grooming her.

When she finished, she moved on to Lavakit. Clawkit came next, although she was less cooperative than her sisters.

"Stop wriggling! You need to look nice for your apprentice ceremony," Streamripple mewed annoyedly.

When Streamripple was finished grooming them, Rainystar called them to the Highstump, "Leafkit, Lavakit, and Clawkit, you have reached the age of six moons," Rainystar began, "and are ready to be apprenticed. Leafkit, from this day on, until you have your warrior name, you will be known as Leafpaw. Your mentor will be Doveripple. I hope Doveripple will pass down all she knows to you."

"Doveripple, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You have received excellent training from Rainheart and shown yourself to be quick and agile. You will mentor Leafpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know,"

Leafpaw was brimming with excitement. She padded forward and touched noses with Doveripple. Doveripple looked at her kindly, and she sat beside her as her littermates got their names.

Rainystar called Lavakit forward, "Lavakit, from this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Lavapaw. Your mentor will be Riverecho. I hope she will pass down all she knows to you,"

"Riverecho, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You have received excellent training from Hawkstream and shown yourself to be brave and skillful. You will be the mentor of Lavapaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know," meowed Rainystar.

Lavapaw touched noses with Riverecho, beaming with pride.

And Rainystar called Clawkit, "Clawkit, from this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Clawpaw. Your mentor will be Raincall."

"Raincall, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You have received excellent training from Stormripple and shown yourself to be brave and skillful. You will be the mentor of Clawpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know," Rainystar finished.

Clawpaw touched noses with Raincall grumpily.

The next day, Leafpaw awoke. It was her first day of training! She padded out of the apprentice's den and into the camp. It was still the first light, so she washed and waited for Doveripple. At dawn, Doveripple padded out of the warrior's den.

"You woke up early!" Doveripple exclaimed.

"Yes, I did," Leafpaw agreed.

"Go and wake up your littermates. Then we'll go out to tour the territory," Doveripple said.

"Okay," Leafpaw mewed.

Poking her head into the apprentice's den, she did what she usually did since they were kits.

"DAWN!" she yowled. "AND IT'S OUR FIRST DAY OF BEING AN APPRENTICE. GET UP YOU SLEEPY FURBALLS!"

"I'm up!" Lavapaw replied, quickly leaping to her paws.

"Why must you scream so loudly and wake me up?" Clawpaw mewed, annoyed.

"I already told you," Leafpaw retorted, "Let's go, we're going to tour the territory together unless you're going to sleep all day, of course."

"Alright, I'm coming," Clawpaw mewed, still annoyed.

She padded back out of the den with Lavapaw and a sleepy Clawpaw, still blinking sleep out of her eyes and coming as slowly as possible out of her nest.

"What took you so long?" Doveripple asked.

"They were being sleepy furballs," Leafpaw replied.

"Hey! I wasn't! Clawpaw was being a sleepy furball! Not me!" said Lavapaw, pretending to be offended.

"Yeah, okay, Clawpaw was being a sleepy furball," Leafpaw corrected herself.

"I was not!" Clawpaw protested.

"Were too!" Lavapaw teased.

"Stop arguing and let's go," Doveripple mewed sternly.

Riverecho and Raincall came out, and they raced out of camp.

"This is the river," mewed Raincall, indicating a large amount of water rushing by them.

"Will we learn how to swim and fish here?" Leafpaw asked eagerly.

"Not today," Doveripple answered, "But someday we will."

They raced ahead again until the mentors stopped.

"This is the ShadowClan border, take a sniff" Riverecho mewed.

"It smells icky," Clawpaw complained.

"Stop complaining," Raincall told her sternly.

Riverecho turned around, towards WindClan, as Leafpaw later found out. They raced toward the WindClan border and Leafpaw sniffed deeply, it smelled like moor and rabbits as the elders had said. Suddenly a rabbit ran past and Leafpaw got a good look at it. It had strong hind legs, long ears, and brown fur.

"It's cute!" Leafpaw exclaimed.

"I know, right?" agreed Lavapaw.

"Yeah, it is," Clawpaw agreed.

"Finally you agreed on something!" Doveripple mewed, exasperated, "Never mind that, let's go back to camp, and you can have some fresh kill."

The thought of fresh kill made Leafpaw's stomach feel empty because she hadn't eaten anything that day.

After they returned, they ate some fresh kill and went into the apprentices' den for some sleep. When Leafpaw awoke at noon later, she let her littermates sleep. She must have dozed off, because, the next morning, Leafpaw woke at first light. Again. Stretching, she padded out into the camp. She decided to wake her mentor. Padding into the warrior's den she slipped silently past Icewind and Stormfrost, when she reached Doveripple she prodded her.

"Doveripple," Leafpaw hissed.

Doveripple got up immediately alert, signaling with her tail for them to go out into the camp.

"Hi," she mewed, "up early, as usual, I see."

"Yeah," Leafpaw replied, unsure what else to say.

"We can go out a bit early," Doveripple decided.

"Where?" Leafpaw asked.

"We're going to head toward the river to practice fishing," Doveripple mewed.

They bounded out of the camp through the reed tunnel and raced towards the river.