Ferns crackled and blew in the breeze. Sunlight dappled the rocky earth below, while tall gray pines grew above. Crunchy leaves covered the dirt, and multicoloured flowers grew in the newleaf light. The cat smelled the breezy, tangy air, scenting for prey. A rustling in the bushes brought the cat's pale bright yellow gaze towards it. A small brown striped chipmunk was rustling through a grand oak tree, searching for nuts. The cat tasted the air, and made sure the wind was blowing towards her. Slowly, carefully making sure she did not accidentally crunch any leaves, the cat crept closer. And closer.
And closer.
Suddenly, in a whirlwind of dark fur and leaves and dirt, the cat sprung onto the chipmunk, wrestling it to the ground, and killing it with a clean bite to the neck.
"I killed a chipmunk!" Starlingpaw crowed. Her friend Foxpaw leaped out of the bushes behind her and swatted at her. She'd been watching Starlingpaw's hunt from behind.
"Good job! But I caught a robin!" Foxpaw mewed teasingly. She tackled Starlingpaw and grinned at her from above.
"Darkfeather complimented you, ya know." she mewed loftily. Starlingpaw shoved her friend off and sat up straight.
"Really? Did she say it was a good catch? Did she say I'm the best apprentice she's ever had?" Foxpaw laughed and swatted at her again, her claws sheathed.
"You're also the only apprentice she's ever had, silly furball." She ducked and dodged Starlingpaw's swipe. They tussled for some time, rolling around the earthy clearing and play-fighting. Until, that is the border patrol came in and saw Starlingpaw and Foxpaw wrestling.
Alderbranch, Foxpaw's mentor yelled at them.
"Hey! Foxpaw and Starlingpaw! You're supposed to be hunting, not fighting like Lightningkit and Badgerkit!" Starlingpaw and Foxpaw sat up, looked at each other, and started giggling. Foxpaw's russet coat was brown from the dirt, and Starlingpaw was brown from dirt as well, with little leaves sticking out of her fluffy dark fur. Foxpaw padded up to her mentor and spoke up to her sweetly, her glittering amber eyes round and innocent.
"But Alderbranch, Badgerkit and Lightningkit aren't really kits, not necessarily." Starlingpaw nodded in agreement.
When she and Foxpaw had been kits of one moon, Lightningkit and Badgerkit had been born. They had all been very close friends, and the two younger kits had been very sad when Foxpaw and Starlingpaw had turned six moons and left to become apprentices.
Flowerleaf sighed, and Darkfeather just rolled her yellow eyes and meowed,
"Come on, you crazy apprentices, let's get back to camp." Foxpaw and Starlingpaw reluctantly followed the patrol back to the StormClan camp. Starlingpaw suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, Fox, what did Darkfeather say about me?" Foxpaw took a second, then remembered.
"Oh, yeah, um, she said that you, uh, are a little, um, stubborn? Just sometimes though..." She trailed off and glanced to the side, obviously thinking she'd hurt her feelings. Starlingpaw shoved her playfully.
"What else is new? Look at you! You don't have the right to say that to me!" Foxpaw growled, and fluffed out her reddish-orange fur.
"Don't make me slash you again!"
The two apprentices laughed and play-fought all the way to the thorny StormClan barrier, ducked in, and got ready for an evening of fun.
•••
upon reaching the StormClan camp, the small group of cats each patted over to the fresh-kill pile and deposited their prey onto the pile.
As Starlingpaw groomed herself, she saw her sister approaching out of the corner of her eye.
"Heya Starling!" her sister meowed, her fluffy black tail swishing lightly in the breeze. "How was your assessment?" she tilted her head to the side curiously.
Starlingpaw blinked and stared up at her sister with bright eyes.
"It went pretty well," she mewed proudly, her tail held high and a bright smile forming on her face. "I caught a chipmunk."
Shadepaw giggled and narrowed her forest green eyes playfully at her sister. "Oh, really? Did you now?" she meowed in a joking tone.
The sable she-cat frowned and cuffed her sister on the head with a forepaw.
"Oh shut up," Starlingpaw said playfully, removing her paw from her sister's head.