Warriors: The Prophecy of Fire

Chapter Two

It had been nearly five moons since Hawthornekit had crashed into Nightpaw. She and her littermates had grown, they were no longer tiny little kits but they were the size of an apprentice. Instead of kit fuzz, their coats were thick and shiny. They were out in the field, romping around, pouncing on each other and running away, again and again and again. Nightpaw was also bigger now, he was around the same size as Sunpelt, one of the largest cats in the clan. 

"Hawthornekit, Silverkit, Brushkit!" Reedheart called out. They raced over to the anxious queen.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You're apprentice ceremony is today and you look like this!" She said, pointing at them with her tail. Come here!" She said, and started licking their fur, smoothing out the tangles and getting out any leaves or grass that had gotten stuck in there.

"All cats old enough to swim gather beneath High Tree for a Clan meeting!"

A/N: This is just what I'm calling it cause I have no idea what they have. Let me know if you know what it is. Sorry for the interruption. 

The clan heads towards the tree, sitting beneath it. 

"Today, we have the honor of making three new apprentices. Brushkit, Silverkit, Hawthornekit, step forward please." They all walk to the foot of the tree. "Brushkit, you are now 6 moons old and are old enough to become an apprentice. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Brushpaw. Breezecloud will be your mentor. Breezecloud, please pass on your patience and fierceness down to your new apprentice." When he said her name, Breezecloud had walked forward. She touched noses with Brushpaw and they sit, waiting. "Hawthornekit, you are now 6 moons old and old enough to become an apprentice. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Hawthornepaw. Lakeclaw will be your mentor. Lakeclaw, please pass on your wisdom and skill down to your new apprentice." They touched noses and sat. "Last but not least, Silverkit, you are now 6 moons old and are old enough to become an apprentice. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you shall be known as Silverpaw. Lilypelt, you are now old enough to take on your first apprentice. Pass on your agility and bravery to your new apprentice." They touch noses and the Clan begins to call out.

"Brushpaw! Hawthornepaw! Silverpaw!" Hawthornepaw ducks her head, embarrassed, but Brushpaw stands up tall, his head held high and proud. Silverpaw just sits there, listening to her new name, but Hawthornepaw can see the pride in her eyes. Nightpaw walks up to Hawthornepaw.

"Hey, congratulations!" 

Hawthornepaw looks up, "Thanks!"

"The apprentice den will be sort of full now, huh?" He says, his voice full of amusement.

"Yeah," Hawthornepaw says, mrowing with laughter. 

"Hawthornepaw!" a voice calls out. She turns around to see Lakeclaw ushering her with her tail. "It's time to go on your tour of the territory!" Lakeclaw says excitedly. "Let's go!" She walks with Hawthornepaw out of the camp to the right, where they walk up to the stream. " This is the stream. Let's hop over it." Lakeclaw bunches her legs and leaps over the water. Hawthornepaw follows suit, landing perfectly on the other side. "Good job!"

"Thanks," she replies sheepishly. They walk further down until they reach the horseplace. 

"This is our border with WindClan. Let's mark it." They mark the border and Lakeclaw leads Hawthornepaw down to the lake. "So, this is the lake. ThunderClan territory is on the other side. We used to own Sunningrocks but it's too much work to keep fighting over them so we just stay on this side of the lake and they stay on theirs. They walk to the right along the lake and Lakeclaw leads her to a smelly dark surface. "This," she said, "is the Thunderpath. There are bigger ones in other territories but that doesn't make this one any less dangerous. When monsters are on it they don't stop for anything, many cats have died here." Hawthornepaw gulps. "Don't worry," Lakeclaw assures her. "As long as you don't do anything furbrained you should be fine." She nods and Lakeclaw looks up at the sky. It's way past sun-high and it's getting dark, the sun is setting. "Let's start heading back." Hawthornepaw follows Lakeclaw as she is lead back to camp. She shares a fish with Nightpaw and heads to the apprentice den, sleeping in her freshly made nest for the first time.

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Hawthornepaw woke up the next morning and saw the apprentices surrounding her, at first she was confused but then she remembered that she was an apprentice now. Excited, she hopped out of her nest and padded out to the camp, looking for Lakeclaw. She found her and bolted over to her.

"Lakeclaw! Can we go on the morning patrol?" Lakeclaw looks at her, amused.

"Sure, Pebblestar just told me to organize it anyway. Go get your littermates and Nightpaw. I'll get Hawkheart,  Lilypelt, Breezecloud, and Dawnsky." Hawthornepaw nods and races off to the apprentice den again. She grabs them and they all come out, excited.

"Let's go." Lakeclaw says, and the patrol follows her. They check the borders and mark them where the scent is getting weak. They get back soon and Lakeclaw turns to Hawthornepaw. "You want to do some hunting?" Hawthornepaw's eyes shine with excitement.

"Yes!" She says and they head over to the stream. 

"Ok, remember, wait over the water and then reach in and snag them with your claws." Hawthornepaw's eyes narrow with concentration and she splashes in her paws, but she misses and pulls back her paw, dissapointed.

"Try again, you can do this," Lakeclaw says. Narrowing her eyes once again, she reaches her paw in and pulls it back out, her claws dug into a huge silver fish. "Wow! Good job! Try again!" Hawthornepaw goes again and again, Lakeclaw not letting her leave until she was fluent in it, ending up with six fish in total.  "Great job! Bury those here and we'll come back later." She buries the fish and follows Lakeclaw. As they walk Lakeclaw starts talking. "We all know that our Clan is known for eating fish, plus, it tastes amazing. But we also know that we can't eat fish year round. During leaf-bear, the lake and stream are frozen, so we have to hunt other animals, like squirrels or mice. I know that they don't taste as good, but their food and that's what counts. I want you to practice that today, ok?" Hawthornepaw nods. "Do you smell anything?" She sniffs and catches the scent of a squirrel in the tree above them. 

"Yeah, there's a squirrel up there," Hawthornepaw hisses.

"That's going to be difficult. Do you want to try for something else?" Lakeclaw asks, her voice full of worry.

"I'm good, I promise," Hawthornepaw replies. She grips her claws to the trunk and starts climbing. She reaches the bottom branches and they shake and she freezes, but then they slow and she keeps going up, getting to the top of the tree. She stalks out the the edge of the branch, where the squirrel is, and crouches, her tail tucked, and she pounces. She miscalculates and instead of landing on the edge of the branch, where the squirrel is, she goes to the side and misses the branch, falling through all of the other branches and landing on the ground with a sickening crunch. 

"Hawthornepaw!" Lakeclaw cries out, but her voice is faint, like it's on the other side of the forest. Her vision starts darkening and then it blacks out and she passes out.