Lionkit's Apprentice Ceremony

Ashstorm was proud that day as she came towards the Tallbranch.  This was the day that her kit was finally becoming an apprentice.  She was excited for him, but made sure to tell him nothing about it.  She wanted him to have the fun experience of being surprised like every other kit was.  She could not wait to see his excitement.  Well, she hoped he was excited at least, like most other kits were.  She climbed the tree and looked out at the camp.

"Let all cats old enough to climb a tree gather for a clan meeting!"  She called out to all of them, waiting for the two cats she had in mind to show up.

Lionkit had grown into an impressive cat the last few moons, his stature and fur quickly growing out to properly account for his name-sake. A name he was quite proud of, to be quite honest. The last few days the tom had suspected his apprenticeship would be soon, but had no idea when it was. Ashstorm was so tight lipped about it, just returning his endless prodding with a smile and secrets. Finally, he heard a call stop the rock and his heart raced. Was this his time? Giving a few quick licks of grooming to straighten his fur just in case, Lionkit entered with his head held high and made his way to the front of the crowd.

Hollypaw padded out of the apprentice den at the call, curious. She had been able to climb trees for a while (because she is strong and nimble, obviously!) even if she... didn’t... climb them. But, that was only because she hadn’t tried...

It was something Dawnfeather had wanted to teach her.

Hollypaw pushed the emotion away, with more practice than she’d like. But everything was fine! And it would be! In an effort to distract herself from thoughts about her missing sister, she bounded forward to join cats beneath the tallbranch. The dark-furred molly nearly bumped into a cat as she did — mousebrain! — but before she could hiss at them, the young tom was already rushing past her.

Hmmph! He was large enough to be an apprentice, but Hollypaw knew all the stupid faces in her den now (unfortunately), and that wasn’t one of them.

Oh, Hollypaw thought, lashing her tail, looking up at Ashstorm — who looked unusually happy. She knew what this was. Well. At least he had a good reason for being in a rush. She supposed she could forgive him, Hollypaw decided, settling down to watch.

Once she spotted her young son in the crowd, as well as the mentor that she chose, she waited a moment and then called, "Lionkit, please step forward!"  She waited as he stepped up and then nodded.

"Lionkit, you have reached the age of six moons, meaning that you are ready to become an apprentice.  From today until the day the day that you finish your training and receive your warrior name, you will be known as Lionpaw." Her eyes flicked towards the mentor that she had chosen.  She had thought about this quite a bit, and she determined that she made a good decision.  "Your mentor will be Primroselight.  She is a kind and tough cat who is a great mentor."

With that, Ashstorm hopped off of the tallbranch and walked over to her kit.  "Congratulations!" She exclaimed, and then sunk back to allow Lionpaw to be congratulated by his friends and meet his mentor.

Primroselight hadn't fallen out of good terms with Ashstorm, but her sister's new place as deputy had certainly meant they had drifted slightly. She was yet to properly meet her nephew, Lionkit. But now was as good a time as any to get to know him. To her surprise, she was named as his mentor, despite the fact she was already training Hailpaw. In hindsight, it made sense; Hailpaw wasweld into his training, and the clan was short on warriors.

Or maybe they just had an unusually large amount of apprentices.

Either way, Primroselight greeted Lionpaw with a friendly touch of her nose, softly saying, "We start training as soon as you are ready Lionpaw, I'm sure you'll make Ashstorm very proud." The deputy wasn't her first younger sibling to have kits (Copperfox and Ravenclaw had beat her to it), but it still reminded her that they weren't still the little, over-excited kits her and Beechface had once nearly tripped over.

Lionkit, no, Lionpaw's face beamed as his adopted mother called his name. As Primroselight was called, he was not disappointed, nor overly enthused. He had really hoped for Bloodstar as a mentor, however even he had to admit that was very unrealistic. He didn't know much about Primroselight, hadn't necessarily heard glory stories about her in the nursery, but that didn't mean anything to the upmost extent. He also knew that his mentor wasn't the only one to teach him, if he felt he needed more. But in the end, he trusted his mother and knew she would only pick the best for him so he would accept this match with no complaints and enthusiasm. Holding his head even higher, Lionpaw met his new mentor and touched noses per the custom. "Can we start fighting right now? I want to be the best warrior in SkyClan and battles never wait!" His eyes shown with enthusiasm and then darted to the entrance and back to his mentor.

Wait — this Lionpaw gets mom?! It jolted Hollypaw to attention, as her mother — who already had an apprentice! — was called. The way Primroselight looked at the tom and mewed something also cemented something in Hollypaw’s mind. He was family, too? Whose kit was he?

And did this mean she had to put up with him? Granted, he seemed like he would be fun to wrestle with (he was pretty big, for a newbie)... But how could he be so lucky. Hollypaw pouted, resisting a glare. Hollypaw liked Ravenclaw — the dark-furred warrior was highly competent and of course Hollypaw was becoming an impressive warrior under her — but... she wanted mom to train her.

It was with a little more drag to her paws that Hollypaw followed the crowd to greet her new denmate, who was mewing something to Hollypaw’s mother.

“Congratulations, Lionpaw, she mewed, maybe a tad unenthusiastically — the tom seemed excited, but not over the moon like he should be, with her own mother as a mentor. (Some cats would kill for that, though she supposed grudgingly he didn’t know any better — he was new and obviously in need of guidance.) Then she remembered her mom was right there, so she added, a bit less like she was biting into crowfood, “I can show you the apprentice’s den, if you want.”