Chapter Text
Petalkit tipped her head back to look up at Darkstar’s position on the rock. The leader’s black pelt stood out starkly against the gloomy, overcast sky. Slowly, RiverClan cats emerged from the dens, joining the already growing crowd in the camp’s clearing. One by one they settled down, glancing at each other as if to question the reason for being summoned.
“Cats of RiverClan,” Darkstar began. “Today is a very important day for one young cat.”
Petalkit suddenly realized what was happening.
Darkstar is going to make me an apprentice!
She shuffled on her paws, looking from side to side, and wondering if she was in the right place.
“Stand still, for StarClan’s sake,” Echosnout hissed in her ear. The medicine cat must have crept up behind her, and now sat next to Petalkit as Darkstar addressed the clan. Instinctually the RiverClan cats left an open space around the rock, the old and sacred ceremony second nature to all of them.
“Petalkit, step forward,” Darkstar instructed. Petalkit padded into the center of the clearing, feeling all the clans’ eyes on her. She stole a few looks around. Some cats, like Splashfoot, Milkfur, and Rainfall, seemed pleased. Others, like Perchpaw, Appledusk, and Birdsong, wore expressions of contempt. Petalkit felt a needle of anger, and regretted looking. She turned back to Darkstar quickly, swishing her tail.
“This is an overdue ceremony, for the correct mentor has been unavailable to teach young Petalkit before now,” Darkstar continued. “Petalkit, RiverClan admires your patience.”
“I bet she liked getting to laze about in the nursery while the rest of us did all the real work,” Petalkit heard Birdsong grumble.
Just ignore her! Petalkit told herself hotly.
“Petalkit,” Darkstar mewed. “You have far surpassed six moons of age, and it is time for you to become an apprentice. From this moment on, you will be known as Petalpaw.”
Petalpaw couldn’t help it; she felt butterflies in her belly from hearing her new name. She puffed her chest out in pride, standing up as tall as she could. Darkstar swiveled her head, gazing across camp.
“Reedshine!” She called towards the nursery. Cats looked back in surprise, and then slowly began to part, so the dark ginger queen could amble through the crowd. Eeltail sat beside her, sweeping her long, striped tail around the kits to keep them from chasing after their mother. Reedshine padded over through the thin carpet of snow, finally settling beside Petalpaw.
“Reedshine, your kits have been weaned, and you are now capable of taking on an apprentice,” Darkstar nodded. “I trained you as best I could, and you are a clever, resilient cat. I trust you to pass your knowledge and insight onto young Petalpaw.”
Reedshine and Petalpaw turned to face each other. Petalpaw stuck her muzzle out, but before she could touch noses with her mentor, a voice cried out from the crowd.
“A queen can’t be a mentor!” it was Perchpaw. “She’s going to neglect her kits! And she’s already keeping their father away from them, too!”
Petalpaw whipped her head to glare at the dark tabby. Darkstar did the same, fixing her son with a harsh glare.
“Perchpaw, be quiet,” she mewed sternly. “This is a sacred ceremony.”
“Perchpaw’s right,” piped up the elder Sloefur. “Back in my day, queens watched their kits. It’s their job. What is RiverClan coming to?”
Sloefur’s fellow elders, Blackbee and Icewhisker, nodded in agreement. Petalpaw swished her tail in anger, trying to will the dissenting cats into silence.
“You are free to… discuss… once the ceremony ends,” Darkstar retorted to the elder sharply. “Lest we upset StarClan with our heresy.”
At the threat of StarClan’s wrath, Sloefur fell silent, though Petalpaw could still hear some cats grumbling. She did her best to block them out, turning back to Reedshine and touching noses with her.
“Petalpaw! Petalpaw!”
Shouting the loudest were Echosnout and Eeltail, with Reedshine and Darkstar both joining in eventually. It wasn’t as joyous as Perchpaw’s ceremony, though; Some of the shouts sounded uncertain, and Petalpaw could hear murmurs of uncertainty underneath the cheers.
Whatever, she thought bitterly. It doesn’t matter what any of them think anyways.
“Congratulations,” Darkstar mewed, hopping down from the rock. Her words were filled with a warmth the serious leader seldom showed. “I wish you two the best of luck on this journey.”
Darkstar bent forward and rested her muzzle on Petalpaw’s head, before turning and making her way back to her den through the dispersing crowd. Amidst the members of RiverClan returning to their duties, one cat did not move. The broad, dark tabby form of Perchpaw stood across the clearing, his glare flitting between Petalpaw and Darkstar. Petalpaw felt a savage stab of satisfaction at the clear jealousy in his eyes.
Serves him right!
“PETALKIT!!!! Oops, I mean PETALPAW!!!!” Shykit bounced up to Petalpaw, wriggling in place where she stood. “Me, Applekit, and Willowkit have something to show you!!”
Petalpaw raised an eyebrow, but allowed her little sister to lead her towards the nursery, where Reedshine had already returned to Applekit and Willowkit. Applekit sat low to the ground, nervously pressing herself against her gray littermate. Eeltail departed the nursery for a quick bite from the fresh-kill pile, nodding to Reedshine as she left.
“The kits have been working on it all morning,” Reedshine purred.
“Except me!” Shykit mewed. “It was my job to distract you!! Did I do a good job?”
“Yeah, sure,” Petalpaw flicked her tail over Shykit’s ear. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Shykit made a pouty face at Petalpaw, before quickly brightening again, zipping past Reedshine and her other sisters into the nursery, nearly bowling little Applekit over.
“Shykit, careful!” Reedshine scolded gently, before pulling back the curtain and beckoning Petalpaw inside. The light brown apprentice ducked her head, padding into the dark den. At her paws was… a matted, lopsided, loosely-woven nest.
“Um,” Petalpaw asked. “What is it?”
“It’s your nest for the apprentice den!” Shykit mewed proudly. Willowkit and Applekit toddled over next to her, the three of them blinking expectantly at Petalpaw.
“Looks a bit familiar, doesn’t it?” Reedshine wrinkled her nose in amusem*nt. Petalpaw whisked her tail, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“I guess any kit of yours needs to know how to weave a good nest,” Petalpaw retorted.
“Lets bring it to the apprentice’s den!” Shykit bounced.
“Can we go in there?” Willowkit’s eyes went wide.
“I don’t want to leave the nursery again!” Applekit mewed. “It’s too scary!”
“Ok, I’ll take it then!” Shykit didn’t wait for any cat to give her permission. She grabbed the shabby nest with her tiny teeth, and began dragging it out of the nursery. Petalpaw was surprised that it mostly held together. Reedshine nudged Petalpaw lightly.
“Do you like it?” she asked. Petalpaw blinked, as Reedshine flicked her eyes back towards Applekit and Willowkit. They were still watching her.
“Oh!” Petalpaw mewed. “Um, yes, it’s wonderful. Thank you, kits.”
“Hooray!” Willowkit cheered.
“It’s not as good as Reedshine’s nest…” Applekit mumbled. “The one Petalpaw made for her…”
“Reedshine wove most of it,” Petalpaw assured her awkwardly. “It looked a bit like the one you and Willowkit made before she fixed my lousy weaving.”
“You think our weaving is lousy?” Applekit wailed.
“No, no! I-” Petalpaw’s pelt prickled anxiously.
“Hush, Applekit,” Reedshine wrapped her bushy tail around the tiny kit. “You did a great job!”
“HEY!”
A loud shout from outside the den stopped all four cats in their tracks. Perchpaw, of all cats, stuck his wide head into the nursery entrance.
“One of your puny little minnows is in the apprentice’s den!” He spat angrily, glaring at Petalpaw in particular. She pulled back her teeth in a snarl.
“Afraid she’s going to knock over your dumb rock pile?” Petalpaw snapped.
Perchpaw opened his mouth to retort and Reedshine sighed, interrupting the two apprentices before they could launch into a full-blown quarrel.
“I’m sorry, Perchpaw,” she mewed. “Shykit’s a little overeager. I’ll come get her.”
Reedshine nudged Petalpaw again.
“Come on, Petalpaw,” she purred. “Let’s get a look at your new den!”
It occurred to Petalpaw she’d never actually been inside the apprentice’s den before. None of the apprentices of RiverClan so far were very nice to her, so she steered clear of it. Today, however, Reedshine led her through the light dusting of snow on the ground, sharp cold pricking her paws where particularly thick patches lay. The warriors cleared out as much snow as they could each morning, but in the brief time spent in the nursery, the gray sky had opened up once more. Petalpaw and Reedshine followed a trail through the ground, left behind by Shykit dragging the nest to the apprentice’s den.
“-And stay out!” Perchpaw growled. The large tabby apprentice stood in the entrance to the nursery, roughly shoving Shykit forward. The little dark ginger kit scrambled forward as fast as she could, but she was still a bit clumsy on her paws, and couldn’t keep up with the pace Perchpaw shoved her at. Petalpaw flattened her ears, rushing forward towards Perchpaw and Shykit.
“Stop shoving her, you frog-brain!” Petalpaw snapped, shouldering into Perchpaw to knock him away from Shykit. He stumbled a bit, eyes wide with surprise, before glaring at Petalpaw.
“She shouldn’t be in the apprentice’s den!” he shot back. “You sent her here, didn’t you?”
Petalpaw rolled her eyes.
“Stop overreacting, Perchpaw,” she mewed. “Shykit was just bringing the nest she made for me.”
“Oh, that was a nest?” Perchpaw snorted. “It looked like a wad of hairballs to me.”
Petalpaw noticed Shykit. The little kit was uncharacteristically silent, her pelt bushed out in fear and her eyes wide.
“Oh, Shykit!” Reedshine finally caught up. “Are you okay? Were you bothering Perchpaw?”
“N-no!” Shykit’s voice wobbled. “I was just looking around!”
“She was messing everything up!” Perchpaw growled. “It’s lucky I got her out before she knocked down all the shells in the wall.”
“Shykit,” Reedshine mewed to the little kit. She kept her voice gentle, clearly not wanting to frighten Shykit more than she already was. “You did a good job bringing Petalpaw’s nest over. But you shouldn’t have stayed in the apprentice’s den longer than you needed to, okay?”
Eyes wide, Shykit nodded, buring her face into her mother’s pelt. Reedshine bent down and murmured something into her ear, before giving her daughter a few comforting licks.
“I’m sorry, Perchpaw,” Reedshine dipped her head to him. “I’ll keep a closer eye on Shykit.”
“You better!” Perchpaw snapped. Petalpaw felt her hackles rising at his hostility.
He has no right to talk to a senior warrior like that!
“Petalpaw, go in and make yourself comfortable,” Reedshine mewed. “I’m going to get the kits settled with Eeltail, and then we can go for training!”
Petalpaw felt a spark of excitement, and quickly shoved past Perchpaw into the apprentices’ den. It was cozy inside; not as big as the nursery, with a much lower roof. It wasn’t quite so stuffy, either; the walls were thinner, since there were no newborn kits to keep warm here. Currently, only two nests sat in the dark space. The messy, disaster of a nest that Petalpaw’s younger sisters wove her, and another, only marginally more well-woven nest. Petalpaw wrinkled her nose.
It’s like Perchpaw made it himself!
She paused, giving the thought more consideration.
Well, it’s not like Darkstar or Appledusk seem like the nest-weaving type…
Petalpaw walked over to his nest, sniffing it. Unsurprisingly, Perchpaw’s scent was the only she could detect on it, with a few traces of Shykit.
“Hey!” Perchpaw suddenly materialized next to her. She didn’t even hear him enter the den. “That’s my nest, in case you couldn’t tell.”
“No, I couldn’t,” Petalpaw bit back. Perchpaw lashed his fluffy tail, but Petalpaw ignored him, getting a better look around the den as her eyes adjusted. The walls were almost entirely covered in shells of varying sizes and shapes; woven into the reeds. Some looked new, while others were old and dull, the reeds holding them in place growing frail and thin.
“They’re woven in by all the apprentices who came before us, ever since the great Riverstar founded our clan. It’s part of our training, to dive and collect a shell, to show we’ve mastered the water,” Perchpaw explained, following her gaze. Then, his tone turned smug. “I suspect you won’t be adding one, drypaw.”
Red-hot anger flared in Petalpaw’s belly, and she thought of the Apple Snail shell Reedshine found in the river, what felt like an eternity ago.
“My shell is gonna be better than any of the stupid shells on this wall,” Petalpaw snapped. “Have you added one yet? Or are you still stuck on rocks, like a toddling little kit?”
It was Perchpaw’s turn to seethe. He pulled back his lips, baring his teeth angrily.
“I don’t collect rocks anymore!” He snapped defensively. “And my shell is already up there, because I’m a real RiverClan cat, unlike you!”
He turned and stomped out of the den, making sure to whip Petalpaw in the face with his tail as he went. Petalpaw gave a half-hearted hiss as he went, then turned back to sniffing around the den. There really wasn’t much in it; just the nests, and, sure enough, Perchpaw’s rock pile was nowhere to be found.
She frowned. The sunrise after his ceremony, Perchpaw spent all day moving the rocks from the nursery to the apprentices’ den. She remembered, because he woke her up about seven times doing it. He’d even refused help from Troutclaw, insistent he do it all himself, so nobody messed up the special arrangement he had. Surely he didn’t part with it, especially after how much he refused to shut up about it?
Petalpaw nosed out of the den, and circled around it a few times. She cast a gaze across camp, but Perchpaw’s rock pile could have vanished into thin air. When she retreated to the den, though, she noticed an odd lump in Perchpaw’s nest. The reeds were so poorly woven and the moss so messy she could’ve easily missed it, but when she nosed the moss to the side, she found a single rock; the one Perchpaw found at The Shallows and said was “really cool”, when the two of them were kits.
“Petalpaw!”
Petalpaw jerked away from Perchpaw’s nest, embarrassed that a cat may have seen her. Luckily, though, it was just Reedshine, poking her head into the den.
“You ready for our first day of training?” Reedshine beamed. Petalpaw shifted on her paws, hastily shuffling away from Perchpaw’s nest. She merely nodded, following her mentor out of the den.
Reedshine led Petalpaw through the snowy camp, towards the entrance. For the first time in moons, Petalpaw stepped out of RiverClan’s camp, and into the harsh leafbare chill. The breeze carried the sharp scent of frost, but underneath was the now-familiar fishy tang of RiverClan. The path leading to and from camp had many sets of pawprints pressed into the snow, some starting to fill in from the newly fallen flakes.
“Our first item of training is a tour of the territory,” Reedshine mewed, settling into a trot. Petalpaw padded alongside her, keeping up much easier than all the times before, when she’d followed Reedshine to The Shallows as a kit. She had to occasionally shake out her short pelt, to dislodge snowflakes from it.
“That doesn’t really sound like training,” Petalpaw noted.
“You can’t do much if you don’t know where you are,” Reedshine replied back.
“I’ve been to the river!” Petalpaw protested.
“There’s more to our territory than the river!” Reedshine purred in amusem*nt. The two cats came upon a fork in the well-worn path. Normally, when heading to The Shallows, they would turn left. However, this time, Reedshine went right. Petalpaw followed after her, and soon the reeds grew thicker, shielding them from the dust of snowflakes. Petalpaw parted her jaws and scented prey; a water vole. It smelled fresher than usual, though. Petalpaw’s interest must have shown on her face, because Reedshine gave another amused purr.
“You’ll find prey smells much warmer when it’s still alive,” she mewed. “No hunting yet, though. We’re almost to the Beech Copse!”
As she spoke, Reedshine and Petalpaw crested a small hill, looking down into a hollow. The edges of the hollow were lined with beech trees that towered overhead, their bare, pale branches reaching out and entangling together.
“Looks like Perchpaw and Appledusk haven’t been here yet today,” Reedshine mewed, looking down into the dip in the earth. A shallow layer of snow lay over the ground, with great drifts of it piled up against the gently sloping walls of the hollow. Petalpaw guessed that the snow would be cleared down to the ground if any apprentices were training here.
“This is the Beech Copse,” Reedshine explained. “During greenleaf, the leaves of the beech trees provide excellent cover from the sun, and it’s a short walk from the river. I suspect you’ll get a very good view of it tomorrow, when we start our actual training.”
“While I’m shoving all the snow out of it, you mean?” Petalpaw asked wryly.
“Yes, precisely,” Reedshine flicked her tail over Petalpaw’s back. “Come along now, the territory is large, and I’d like to see all of it before the day’s end.”
Reedshine led Petalpaw away from the Beech Copse, and slowly the soft, damp soil grew rockier and the ground sloped upwards. Reedshine navigated the narrowing path with the expertise of a seasoned RiverClan warrior, but Petalpaw found herself occasionally stumbling on jagged rocks sticking out of the ground. Soon enough, the soil disappeared almost entirely, and the two cats were walking along the edge of a craggy, rocky gorge. Across the gash in the ground, gently rolling hills blanketed in snow extended as far as the eye could see. Cold, crisp wind whipped through her whiskers, and Petalpaw crept forward a few tail-lengths, lowering her belly to the ground. She peered over the edge, her stomach dropping as she gazed down into the gorge. The river thundered over the side of the gorge, crashing down fox-lengths below, rushing through the jagged rocks in a foaming, whirling mass. The waterfall sent up a fine mist of cold river droplets. A few of the droplets landed on Petalpaw’s nose and she scrambled backwards, her heart pounding against her ribcage, her whole body trembling.
“Petalpaw!” Reedshine was at her side in an instant. “Are you okay?”
“Where are we?” Petalpaw asked, trying to regain her breath.
“This is the gorge,” Reedshine mewed. “I should have warned you. Be very careful here, for even the most experienced warriors can’t survive a fall from this height. Across is the moorland, WindClan’s territory.”
Feeling her stomach tighten even more, Petalpaw nodded. She clenched her eyes shut, willing the earth to stop moving beneath her paws.
“We don’t need to spend long here,” Reedshine nudged Petalpaw gently with her nose. “We continue downhill, until the gorge flattens back into the river.”
Still, Petalpaw kept her face buried in her paws. The upside of spending so much time in camp was that she didn’t have to go near the river so often in the past moons. The downside?
“Stupid, stupid brain!” Petalpaw moaned. She still wasn’t over her thing with water, it seemed. She’d almost forgotten about it. The roar of the waterfall made her feel queasy.
“Come on, Petalpaw,” Reedshine nudged her again, worry sounding in her mew. “Let’s continue on, to somewhere less precarious.”
Continuing wasn’t easy. The path was narrow, and slippery with water and frost. Petalpaw felt sick to her stomach, and she didn’t unclench her jaw until the downwards path began to flatten out, and the ground beneath her paws turned back to pebbles and soil. Reedshine led her away from the river’s edge, and back into the foliage. The thick reeds blocked the sound of the river flowing by, and Petalpaw’s mind finally began to ease.
“Are you okay?” Reedshine asked again.
“Mmmphh,” Petalpaw groaned. Her belly was beginning to loosen up, and she didn’t feel so shaky. But the spray from the gorge soaked her belly fur, and she felt thoroughly miserable as the leafbare chill began to eat through her pelt.
“Do you want to go back to camp?” Reedshine asked. Petalpaw shook her head.
“No,” she grunted. “Just… just give me a minute.”
Petalpaw continued hunching over, her breaths coming uneven and rattly. Slowly, though, she felt her heart return to normal, her muscles unwind. Taking a deep breath, she raised herself up off the ground, tipping her head upwards to let the cold air flow over her whiskers again.
“Feel any better?” Reedshine asked. The dark ginger queen sat only a pace or two away, her plumy tail wrapped over her paws. The worry was evident in her eyes as she gazed at Petalpaw, who felt embarrassment prickle hotly under her pelt.
“Yeah,” Petalpaw muttered. “That was stupid.”
“It’s alright,” Reedshine purred. “We’re going to work on it, remember?”
“I can’t imagine it ever being better than that,” Petalpaw replied grimly.
“Well, the last time you got wet from the river you tried to swim back to ThunderClan and almost drowned,” Reedshine pointed out. “This seems a little better.”
“Hm,” Petalpaw stopped to consider Reedshine’s point. “I guess you’re right.”
The two cats sat in silence for a while, allowing Petalpaw to fully recover. Once she finally felt steady on her paws again, the apprentice stood up, shaking the droplets from her pelt.
“Ready to get moving again?” Reedshine asked.
“Yeah,” Petalpaw mewed. “Let’s not waste any more daylight.”
