Curlkit's Apprentice Ceremony

Another day another apprentice for Riverclan. Good they needed it. It seemed too many were claimed this leaf-bare and it was taking a toll on those remaining. These apprentices were a new hope for the clan.

She jumped up on the branch and called out. "Let all cats old enough to swim gather beneath the Willow Branch for a clan meeting!"

Curlkit padded outside the nursery to the meeting. Today she was going to be an apprentice an the little she-kits tail was trying to sweep from side to side in excitement. She sat down and looked up.

Applepaw watched as Stormbringer called another ceremony. He wondered who’s apprentice ceremony it is. He looked towards the nursery, seeing a kit with a fluffy, curled tail. Curlkit. It must be her ceremony. It was good that cats were getting old enough to be apprenticed. The clan was running low on eligible mentors, and obviously they had just lost another one, Torrentstar. Once the older apprentices became warriors, and then some of them had kits, and the kits became apprentices, it would even out. As long as the next leaf-bare wasn’t as bad as this one. It seemed StarClan had decided to throw so much trade gray and hardship on them the last few moons.

"Another kit has reached the age of six moons and is ready to join the apprentices." The new deputy said. Her Amber eyes looking over the crowd. "Curlkit please come forward." Once the young cat moved forward, Stormbringer spoke again. "Curlkit from this moment on, until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Curlpaw. Your mentor will be Honeytongue. I hope she passes all her kindness and bravery on to you." With that the warrior jumped down to end the ceremony and congratulate the new apprentice.

Honeytongue sat among the crowd of cats, gaze bright and alert as she watched Stormbringer preform the apprentice ceremony. It was almost strange how much better she had been feeling despite her father's death, finding pleasure in the small things. It still hurt, she couldn't deny that and some days were still hard but she felt more like herself than she did the moon before his death. Her ears perked at the sound of her name being called, pushing to her feet as she turned to look at her new apprentice. it was a surprise but...She felt more certain about being able to handle this when she had been given Driftingpaw and things had turned out just fine for him. She smiled softly, dipping her head towards Stormbringer as she stepped to meet Curlpaw half-way. "We'll start your training soon, I promise," she hummed as she leaned down to touch noses with her.

Curlpaw touched noses with honeytongue and then headed towards the apprentice den for her first night as an apprentice.