Badgerkit's Apprentice Ceremony

It had been a while. Minkstream's paws padded across the ground, a vague hint of misgiving, an odd twinge, in the pit of his stomach. The kit he was going to assign a mentor to today... He felt the corners of his mouth pull in a slight grimace. His granddaughter. Badgerkit. I should be happy with that. If only....

she didn't look so much like Dacedream.

It was all he could see, sometimes. His cousin, his friend, in her eyes. And despite how he tried to see past it, he couldn't get past the thorn in his heart - even if the little she-kit was a beautiful ball of fluff like all kits, it just.... Not to mention she clearly wasn't Thrushnose and Pinefrost's biological daughter, which begged the question of who her parents were..... He set his jaw, his paws hitting the ground more firmly and planting into the grass as he glanced up at the High Rock, his muscles bunching and throwing him lightly up onto its surface. Enough. This was a ceremony, like any other, and it was his grandkit who was going to be down there. He would be happy, he would be proud, and he would not let his memory try and catch him by the claws.

Said claws lightly ground against the rock as he forced the thoughts from his mind and glanced over the clearing, opening his maw. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the High Rock for a Clan meeting!"

Badgerkit’s arrival and Laurelkit’s disappearance had happened so close together that the new arrival had been overlooked in favor of the lost one. Now that things had settled—if it could truly be called that with a kit still missing—there had been questions. Thrushnose fielded some of them, blunt and uncompromising; Pinefrost’s answers were cleverer, but no more truthful. So far, their plan had gone without a hitch. Not a soul in the forest save for the two of them knew whose blood Badgerkit carried. Today’s ceremony was proof of that. Had Badgerkit been left at the border, her birth mother’s scent coating her pelt, would she have been given this chance? A kit was one thing, tiny and harmless—but would ThunderClan want her training beside them?

Having never been the pinnacle of neatness herself, and remembering how it felt to be washed so thoroughly she worried her fur might fall out, Thrushnose had only given Badgerkit the usual grooming. Still, something lightning-bright lit her up from within. The thrill of seeing the kit she and Pinefrost had cared for taking her first steps toward warriorhood. The fear of not being able to guard her, knowing whatever had taken Laurelkit might still be prowling on their territory. All of that, and…after Thrushnose’s struggle to adjust to nursery life, the idea of being a warrior again brought a surge of relief.

Her father’s voice filled the clearing. She’d heard the call too many times to count, yet today, her stomach leapt the tiniest bit. She gave Badgerkit a gentle nudge with her tail. “It’s almost time. Are you ready?” With that, she padded toward the Highrock, scanning the growing crowd for Pinefrost. No doubt he’d be beside them soon. She wondered if he felt the same—excited and nervous all at once.

Fidgeting at her mother's paws, Badgerkit peered out into the clearing. The few moons prior, spent in ThunderClan's camp under the watchful eye of Thrushnose and Pinefrost, had erased any of the faint, blurry memories the she-kit had of her life before ThunderClan. At six moons old, Badgerkit knew nothing but ThunderClan, her family, and today was her chance to prove her worth. The kit had been waiting for her apprentice ceremony since the day she knew what it meant. But the delicate dappled kitten was ready, now, to prove herself!

"I'm ready, Mama!" she squeaked, taking one leaping bound towards the clan meeting. That was as far as she went before she turned around, tail high, to make sure Thrushnose was following. Once Badger was sure she was, she bounced the rest of the way, shouldering through to the front and center of the gathered cats. This was for her, she knew that already, so no sense in being anywhere else. Her shimmering gaze traveled up to the Highrock, settling on Minkstream, and she chirped, "Hi, Grandpa!" before sitting politely and curling her fluffy tail around her paws.

There was nothing more fulfilling than watching their plan unfold, something Pinefrost and Thrushnose had spent days crafting together so beautifully. It was perfect in every sense of the word. Of course Badgerkit didn't share her parent's pelts, but not a single soul in ThunderClan could claim her. lineage, and no one would dare question it, lest they'd answer to Thrushnose's sound logic and Pinefrost's clever quips. As he watched his dearest friend, Thrushnose, and small daughter, Badgerkit, take towards the Highrock, Pinefrost smiled, knowing they'd won. Infiltrated and beautifully fooled, no one would ever discriminate their daughter, they'd never know of her true mother's crimes. Pinefrost took a seat next to Thrushnose, his pelt groomed to perfection. Badgerkit was given some leeway with her own mottled fur, something that reminded the clan of Dacedream - a queen lost in the Great Battle many moons ago. It was strange to have no grasp on the nostalgic picture the clan got from Badgerkit - but maybe that was for the best. Pinefrost had nothing to compare the she-cat to other than herself. Unbiased, Pinefrost and Thrushnose would ensure she'd see warriorhood.

The kit bounded out of the nursery ahead of Thrushnose, her dappled fur shining in the sun, kit-fluffy, her eyes bright, and he let a lop-sided smile onto his maw at her greeting. "Hey, kit," He said back, an amused purr in his voice, even as the memory of Dacedream both lit up his heart and drew a slow claw-scratch of grief to bleed through it. This little kit... she would never experience the end that Dace had - he would make sure she didn't.

A part of him wanted to make this informal, not bother with all the rigid words and stern looks. But, well, he had promised Nettlestar he wouldn't get ahead of himself.

Still, the stern looks he could do without.

A smile twitching at the corner of his maw, he set his attention on her and beckoned with his tail. "Badgerkit, step forward."

When she had, he took in a breath and continued. "Badge, you've reached the age of six moons and are ready to learn the ways of the Clan as an apprentice. From this moment until you earn your warrior name - " He let a quick flicker of a grin cross his maw "- which I'm sure'll be something suitably great to reflect your brave deeds - you will be known as Badgerpaw."

And now... the mentor. Oh, how he'd struggled with this. On the one paw, he had an urge to do it himself, to show her the ways of the Clan as Dace had shown him, to keep her safe. And on the other... It hurt, but he knew that was the exact reason why he couldn't. She needed someone who wouldn't look at her and see another cat that she wasn't, someone who hadn't known Dace at all, who could be her friend, her confidant, her mentor. As much as it hurt him to admit it, that wasn't him.

And so he steeled himself, opened his maw again, and flicking his glance towards the cat he'd chosen, spoke, "Your mentor will be Shrikesong." As the clearing broke into cheers, he added softly, "She'll train you well."

Adding his own cheers to the crowd's, he leapt off the rock and joined the throng of family and mentor around her, doing his best to ignore the twinge in his chest as he watched her bump noses with her new mentor. You can't protect everyone, or force them down the right path, mousebrain. You did it right, now forget your own rock-headedness and let her be her own cat.