Ruby's Apprentice Ceremony

A soon as Sunhigh arrived, Blizzardstar leaped onto the Highrock, heart pounding quickly on her chest and an unusually serious expression. This wasn’t a normal apprentice ceremony and she had decided to take a rather big risk...she just hoped she hadn't committed a huge mistake “All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather under the Highrock for a clan meeting!”.

Ruby made her way over - it was sunhigh, and so she assumed whatever this meeting was about was what Blizzardstar had wanted. She had spent the time since her meeting with the leader grooming herself, and her fur was very nearly back to its original appearance - fluffy, and vibrant red. She stood out here, and she knew it, but she still did her best to not do so too much - to no real avail. Her amber eyes fixed on the leader, waiting for her next words.

Specklefang padded coolly out of the warrior's den, her eyes flicking around camp before turning to look up at Blizzardstar. Pressing her maw together she padded over swiftly before settling down. She had heard that Blizzardstar was welcoming in a kittypet, disgust made her lips curl but she was swift to hide it. Looking over to the startlingly red she-cat her green eyes narrowed, her tail wrapping around her paws. She hoped that she didn't have to train this, thin, weak kitten.

It took several seconds for the white leader to find her voice again before continuing. Dear StarClan, this was getting on her nerves, and not only the fact that she was apprenticing a kittypet…but also wo was she choosing as a mentor and the path that this young cat would need to walk "As some of you may know, we have a newcomer with us…this newcomer asked to be part of the clan despite her origins. I have decided to give her the chance to prove herself worthy of walking between us as an equal” Her eyes almost immediately fell on Ruby as she was done speaking "Ruby, step forward”.

Ruby stepped forward with as much grace as she could manage. She couldn't quite keep the excitement out of her eyes as she did so, though she did her best to keep still. She didn't want to shake - or rather, she couldn't. She did want to, knowing that she was being watched by the entirety of ThunderClan. But that was the exact reason she couldn't, wasn't it?

Blizzardstar took a deep breath “Ruby, you have asked to join us and by doing so you have accepted to leave your old life behind. You will follow our ways, respect and embrace our traditions as if they had been always part of your life, live the life of a warrior and not the soft life of a kittypet that you had until this day. To begin this process, and before the whole clan, I give you a new name, a name that you will have until the day you prove to the clan and to our ancestors that you deserve to be called a warrior, Emberpaw” For the first time she didn’t follow the usual words using during a ceremony, but, as said before, this wasn’t a normal ceremony to begin with “Your mentor will be Specklefang. I will watch you two closely” With that she jumped off the Highrock, dismissing the clan.

Her choice to make Specklefang Emberpaw’s mentor hadn’t been done at random. It was both a punishment and a test. For Emberpaw, it would be a test to see how she would deal with a cat whose hatred for outsiders could only be compared with her fiery temper and how strict she was with her apprentices, a test of her determination to become a warrior. And for Specklefang, well, she knew it would be a somewhat good punishment by forcing her to take care and train one of those she so firmly believed that didn’t belong to a clan, almost if not to the point of being degrading. But also it would be a test to see how she would deal with this situation, if she had enough self-control or if she was the dangerous cat that some of her clanmates thought she was. She was going to watch them closely, if anything went wrong she would intervene before Emberpaw could be harmed, and consider said test a failure…