Dandelionkit’s Apprentice Ceremony

This was the moment where it would really be official. Wildflower was sitting just beside the Tallrock, tail twitching agitatedly. The blind molly had the ceremony for her adopted daughter prepared, but doing it was another task entirely. She’d chosen a time in midmorning so patrols were out. At least not many cats would be there to see if she failed. Dandelionkit deserved to be an apprentice, and Wildflower was running out of excuses not to start the ceremony. Taking initiative is what a good deputy does. I’ve procrastinated for long enough. She stood up and scampered up the boulders until she was at the top of the Tallrock. Do I start it now? Wait for Dandelionkit to see me, then keep going - that’s what Olivestar did as a deputy. “Let all cats old enough to run the moor gather beneath the Tallrock for a Clan meeting.”

She was appreciative of the cool breeze from the elevated height. Leaf-fall mornings were crisp, and despite the drought, this one was cool. The drought was ending, anyway - a number of streams had begun to refill. Slow and shallow, but it was a water source. Maybe things would be normal. Dandelionkit deserved peace. The deaf she-kit would have the same hardships as Wildflower would have throughout apprenticeship. Dandelionkit could lip-read well and talk (sometimes slurred, but well enough). It’d be okay. They would get through it, as a mentor and apprentice, but also a mother and daughter.

Dandelionkit knew this day would come soon but she couldn’t have imagined how excited she’d be when it finally came. Her eyes had been stuck to Wildflower’s pelt for days. She wouldn’t hear her mum call the meeting, and she didn’t want to miss their ceremony. She was smoothing her soft short fur in hopeful anticipation again today when she looked up and saw Wildflower atop the Tall Rock. She stopped with her little pink tongue still out mid-lick. It was happening now!

Dandelionkit saw the traditional call form on Wildflower’s lips and jumped to her suddenly wobbly paws to join her clanmates. There weren’t many cats here, Wildflower had chosen a quiet moment, and Dandelionkit realised her mum must be nervous for both of them.  

Dandelionkit settled in the sandy hollow at the base of the rock, watching Wildflower carefully for what came next and trembling with anxious excitement. She was so proud to be her mum’s apprentice. She wanted to make her mum proud to be her mentor.

ooc: hi  sorry it took me so long! 

Already, Dandelionkit had grown to be so big, and her speech was readily improving. The little kit was deaf, but she would survive. A small, fluffy golden flower hung from her jaws and she gently placed it on the ground. A dandelion. With one foot, Softbreeze smashed her foot into the ground beside the flower, leaving a paw imprint, and she nodded to Dandelionkit, trying to tell her that her new name would be Dandelionpaw by the time the ceremony was over.

Communication required a bit of creativity for it to properly work; she'd found this out with Grousefrost, the senior, deaf warrior of WindClan. He was Goldengale's mate, Crowspirit's dad which made him kin. Smiling gently at the white kit, she looked to Wildflower, nodding gently as if to comfort her and Dande.

Dandelionkit, seeing the yellow flower between the white-and-brown tabby's teeth, had found her place beside Softbreeze.

She looked up expectantly at the cat who had taught her to speak, head titled and blue eyes round with curiosity, blue meeting blue. 

The last time Soft had had a dandelion flower was when she had taught Dandelion her WindClan name. Today, Dandelionkit knew, she would receive a new one. Excitement made her fur rise and time seemed to slow and stop as Softbreeze gently laid the flower in the sand and then smashed her paw down hard enough to make a print.

Dandelionkit examined the image. Dandelion. Paw. She knew those words and a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding deflated her chest with a tiny puff of a sigh. "Dandelionpaw," she mouthed to Softbreeze for confirmation, not daring to try saying the name aloud until the ceremony was finished.

Soft smiled gently at her and nodded up at Flower, and Dande felt the familiar warmth of being under the eyes of the two she-cats who had watched over her for as long as she could remember.

“Dandelionkit, please step forward,” Wildflower meowed, noting they scents of cats in the crowd. Queens, mainly, some elders, the odd warrior, but not many cats. Softbreeze was there too. She was as much a surrogate mother to Dandelionkit as Wildflower was, honestly. “ You’ve reached the age of six moons, and it’s your turn to be apprenticed. Until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Dandelionpaw.” Wildflower carefully enunciated her words so Dandelionpaw could better lip-read. “I will be your mentor.”

The speckled shorthair flicked her tail off of the ground and sprang off of the Tallrock. “Training will start sometime tomorrow,” Wildflower murmured, giving Dandelionpaw’s ear a motherly lick. “Get some sleep- it will likely be early.”