Chapter 15 - Training Two
A Few Days Later…
Mintpaw, good, almost there. Try to grab Blossompaw’s back harder, so she can’t drop and roll you off.” Fallenwings said, observing the new apprentices fighting. Seeing as they goofing around, Blossompaw declared she was a badger, while Mintpaw pretending to be a super-warrior, he added, “Why don’t you try it on me. Pretend I’m an attacking rogue.”
“OK!” Blossompaw chirped, leaping onto Fallenwings' back with a surprising amount of strength. Her back legs, claws unsheathed, pummeled his fur for a second before Mintpaw came in and tried to knock his paws out from under him. He fell, but only because Blossompaw had half fallen off him, losing her balance, and Mintpaw was still half-hearted touching his paws in an attempt to make him fall.
“I’LL GET YOU ROGUE!” Blossomkit yowled, falling off intireles. She rushed to Mintkit’s side and both of them began poking his paws to make him fall over.
Fallenwings sighed, sitting down. The two apprentices stopped.
“Was that good?” Mintpaw asked, cluelessly.
“Did you sit down because we beat you?!” Blossompaw asked.
Fallenwings shook his head, whiskers twitching with amusement. “No, I’m sorry to say that… Welllll… That was pretty bad.” He looked at Blossompaw’s crestfallen face, and Mintpaw’s curious one. The two fluffy barely six moon old kits, seemed even more like kits in that moment. Will they be ready for the war? Am I just not a good enough teacher? Fallenwings wondered.
He was jerked out of his thoughts at the slightly harsh meow of Moonflame.
“Come to camp, Honeykit, Lemonkit, and Canarykit are becoming apprentices.” Moonflame declared, as he emerged from the shadows of the trees, “Battle training can wait.”
Blossompaw’s jaw dropped and she ran off, not waiting for Fallenwings, Mintpaw, or even her mentor, Moonflame.
Mintpaw ran after her.
“Kits… Well apprentices now.” Fallenwings grumbled, before he and Moonflame shared a knowing glance. Moonflame had mentored many cats.
“Fallenwings?” He nervously asked as they padded back to cmap.
“Yes?” Fallenwings replied, unsure as Moonflame seemed nervous.
“CanyouhelpmePinknoseishavingmykits” Moonflame quickly blurted. “What do I do? Will she die? Will I be a good father? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”
Fallenwings stared at Moonflame, the deputy. The deputy who wasasking for his help.
“You’ll be a good father. You're already worrying. That means you care, right?”
Moonflame nodded.
“Good. You’ll know what to do then.” Fallenwings answered. “All you can do is wait, worry, and try to help. Worrying might worry Pinknose and helping too much might annoy her. So I would just wait, don’t fret too much about it.”
“Ok.” Moonflame meowed, seeming slightly more calm. “We better run then, if we want to see the ceremony”
Fallenwings bolted to camp, Moonflame at his side. When he thought about it, he remembered Pinknose was a little bigger lately. More kits is good. But there's going to be a battle soon, so will they be put in danger? Fallenwings wondered. He shook the thought out of his head. New apprentices are good, he told himself.
Back at the clan, they had just made it. Mintpaw and Blossompaw were sitting next to Echonight and Silentstar was already up on the High Branch. Fallenwings took his spot next to Echonight as Moonflame sat next to Pinknose. He looked up at Silentstar as she began talking.
“Honeykit, Lemonkit, Canarykit!” Silentstar called.
The three kits stepped forward, away from Hivestorm, pelts clean from being washed.
“Honeykit, until you earn your warrior name you are now called Honeypaw! Your mentor will be Pinknos-”Silentstar declared.
“Wait!” Pinknose yowled. “I am moving to the nursery.” she glanced at Moonflame.
“Then so be it.” Silentstar meowed, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. “Gingerstorm, You will mentor Honeypaw. Pass on your skills of courage and humor to your new apprentice.”
Honeypaw looked for Gingerstorm in the crowd. Upon finding him, he padded over and they touched noses, pride in the two cats' eyes.
“Lemonkit. You will be called Lemonpaw until you earn your warrior name. Brairsun will be your mentor. Brairsun, pass on your teachings from Foxclaw to Lemonpaw”
Lemonpaw beamed, and Brairsun padded over to touch noses.
“Canarykit. From now until you earn your warrior name, you will be called Canarypaw. Archtail will be your mentor for these moons. May he pass on his skills of fighting and bravery to you.”
Canarypaw nervously scrambled over to his new mentor, as Archtail at the same time proudly walked over. They touched noses quickly.
As soon as this was down, the clan burst out cheering.
“HONEYPAW! LEMONPAW! CANARYPAW!” The cats yowled into the slightly
crisp late greenleaf breeze.
“Honeypaw! Lemonpaw! Canarypaw!” Fallenwings hollered as loud as he could. But inside he wondered if new untrained cats were going to help with the battle, or hurt it.