in the wind and rain [c]

Thalia made use of a lifetime of training as she slipped silently into the apprentice's den, careful not to disturb those who were still fast asleep. Knowing what sort of training awaited them when they woke, it was best to let them enjoy their rest. Gently, she nudged the apprentice that had been trusted to her.

Rainpaw.

Shira and Foxspark's daughter.

(Was that irony, or was it poetic? Coincidence, or something inescapable?)

It was late, or maybe it was early - what was right, and what wasn't? She wasn't sure. Her eyes glittered in the darkness as she pushed aside her lingering worries. This wasn't a tragedy, even if she was uncertain of everything she was doing, and so there was no point in dwelling on her anxieties.

In truth, there was very little to worry her now - she was settling comfortably into ShadowClan, as much as she still felt like an outsider. She was starting to think that feeling never really went away, only growing fainter with time. She wasn't a warrior, exactly - they might call her as one, and she wouldn't protest, but she wouldn't take that title for herself - but she was ShadowClan by choice.

She had never been an apprentice, had never undertaken the ceremonies of a warrior; but she had been subject to another tradition. Once Asylum, she would always be Asylum; once a Nightstriker, she would always be. The scar on her face and the pelt that rested on her shoulders were marks of a past she couldn't escape.

Still, they trusted her with this, and she was determined to do right by them. That was what she had promised, beyond her own more understated goals; that she would lend her aid to ShadowClan in whatever ways she could.

"Sorry to wake you," she spoke quietly. It felt strange to whisper. "Are you ready?"

Rainpaw squinted as a figure nudged her into consciousness. Thalia, she thought. This name had become familiar after yesterday's ceremony, as she turned it over and over in her head. She knew little about the warrior, but the striking fox pelt draped around her pale shoulders and the scar marking her face told of a different time. A past entwined with those of her parents, but now a future that would walk beside her own.

"Sorry to wake you," Thalia apologized. Her voice was soft and anxious, Rainpaw noted. "I'm ready." She matched her mentor's hushed tone. Slipping silently out of the apprentice den, she followed Thalia towards the camp entrance. She wasn't quite sure what to expect from this first day of training, but her impression was that Thalia would be gentle with her, at least for now.

"I'm not entirely sure how this is supposed to go," Thalia admitted, once there was more than a few tail-lengths of distance between them and the camp. The weight of her fox pelt was a small comfort, working as it always had to ease her anxiety. "I don't want to disappoint anyone, and especially not you... So I thought you should know that, before we start. I was so surprised when she called my name... Ah, I'm hardly a warrior at all. I still can't think of myself that way."

She turned to face her apprentice once again, more than a little curious about just what sort of cat she was. Would she be quiet, like her father? Hard to read, like her mother? Something a little like both of them, or nothing like them at all? "Still... I promised I'd do my best, and I will. Where do you think we should start?"