Rainkit's Apprentice Ceremony

"ShadowClan! Gather in the shadow of the Jaggedrock." Murkystrike's voice rose above the sounds of normal clan life. Firepaw and Webpaw had been named not long before, and now it was Rainkit's turn. She waited patiently while the clan gathered beneath her, pale green eyes seeking out the kit that was to be apprenticed today. Hopefully the mentor she had in mind would be a good fit for the young cat.

Firepaw was not going to miss her sibling's apprenticeship, so much so that she was the first out of the apprentice den to settle into her spot in the growing circle. She could not wait for her siblings all to join her and Webpaw in the apprentice den.

Rainkit joined her eager sister, Firepaw, as she took her place beneath the Jaggedrock. Firepaw and Webpaw had been named only a few sunrises earlier, and now it was her turn. She wasn't sure how to feel about this development. As exciting as it would be to finally have a place among the apprentices and be able to join her Clan's ranks at Gatherings, Rainkit wasn't particularly looking forward to learning how to fight. She had quickly grown tired of scuffling with her siblings and other kits in the nursery. She shrugged these thoughts away as Murkystrike's pale eyes found her among her Clanmates. I am going to be a warrior, she thought. I will make my place.

When a sufficient number of her Clanmates had gathered, Murkystrike shifted her weight slightly. "ShadowClan, I've gathered you all here today to witness the naming of another new apprentice. Rainkit, please step forward." Murkystrike waited for the kit to make her way towards the front of the crowd before continuing, tail tip flicking. She was growing more confident, but there was still a part of her that cringed at the number of eyes on her.

"Rainkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and are ready to become an apprentice. Until the day you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Rainpaw. Thalia will be your mentor. She is intelligent and passionate, and I trust that she will share those passions with you through your training."

In the time it had taken her to feel truly at home amidst ShadowClan, Thalia had found that she liked witnessing ceremonies. They marked the passage of time and coming of age, and they brought to her mind fond memories. Bittersweet ones, now, but - well, there was at least no bloodshed in the naming ceremonies of the forest clans. The memory of the sting across her cheek, and the pride she had felt to receive it; she knew it was for the best that most of the cats around her now would never know what it was like, and still couldn't help but miss it.

But the ceremonies served as a reminder that the past was gone and that this was her present. The future was as uncertain as ever, but she wasn't afraid of that anymore. She was ShadowClan, and for all that she wasn't much of a warrior - still rather awkward and overly apologetic, all too aware of her own shortcomings - they had accepted her more or less as she was.

So lost in nostalgia, she almost missed her own name; but hearing it spoken by the clan's deputy was more than enough to stop her thoughts in their tracks. "Me?" she asked, sure that her confusion was evident on her face, swiftly giving way to anxiety. She was supposed to teach this new apprentice? It was a thing warriors did, and she supposed that she was - technically, in some sense, though she'd never taken the name for herself; preferring to be known simply as a ShadowClan cat and to let everyone else draw their own conclusions - a warrior. But she wasn't really, was she?

She hadn't raised a paw in so much as self-defense since that fateful night at Fourtrees, and now she was expected to mentor an apprentice?

It wasn't like she could refuse; despite how everything in her mind seemed to be screaming at her to protest - to say that she wasn't ready for something like that, that she was barely a warrior (or better yet, admit that she wasn't one at all, that the only label she had ever taken was the one she would keep regardless of how her allegiances shifted), that any apprentice deserved far better than she could offer. This was a sign of trust - of acceptance, in the most direct way - and it was a task she had been given, presumably for a reason.

"Okay, Rainpaw," she managed, stepping forward to touch noses with her new apprentice. "Let's both do our best!"

This is tradition, isn't it? Am I doing it right?