The Five Giants - Book 1

Chapter 7 - Maple

I woke up with a start. I looked around me, unaware of this unfamiliar place. It took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out that I was sleeping with Thrushkit and his family.

Probably because I always sleep by myself. It's such a weird feeling to be warm.

I yawned, got up, and stretched out my body, bones making popping noises every once and awhile. For once, I didn't wake up dead tired in the morning. And I slept amazingly well.

This was normal for Moon, Thrushkit, Frostkit, and Goldenkit, and probably a lot of other cats in this clan. Some of them even sleep with mates, so the warmth is doubled...

Wait a second, Thrushkit's apprentice ceremony was supposed to be yesterday! And mine is today! That means we're becoming apprentices together!

I smiled to myself, now excited for the day ahead of me. I'd be sure to get my last few play-times in, because my mother can't touch me when I become and apprentice.

Well, technically she still can, but one day, I'll be old enough to fight back. Which is exciting.

Yay me.

But then again, she'd still be able to physically touch me... which is annoying, because that's an invasion of my personal space...

"Good morning Maplekit!" Goldenkit had woken up, and was sitting next to her mother.

I smiled at her and returned the greeting. "Good morning! Are you excited for today?" Goldenkit looked confused, so I elaborated, "Today we become apprentices!"

Her face lit up with excitement and realization. "Oh yeah, that's right!" She started prancing around, bumping into her siblings every now and again.

Frostkit awoke drowsily. "Huh? Maplekit, what's going-MMPHH!" And then her face was shoved into the ground by Goldenkit.

"Goldenkit! That hurt!" Frostkit held her face in her paws. When she looked up at me, she didn't have any blood on her face, but there was dirt smeared everywhere.

Goldenkit stopped her prancing and finally decided to check up on her sister. "Oops, sorry Frostkit! Didn't mean to."

All of this commotion had woken up Thrushkit and Sandtail, who still looked drowsy. "Good morning kits. Are you excited?" We all nodded quickly. "Good. Thrushkit, Goldenkit, Frostkit, I had all of your apprenticeships delayed so you could all become apprentices together. I hope that was okay with you."

Goldenkit, being the brave one, had to speak up. "Well, you kind of killed yesterday's fun, but that's alright! Now we get to explore the territory together!"

She was right, but I don't know if all of us were going to.

I looked over to where Moonkit was just waking up. I had a feeling Nightwing was going to get some sort of special mentor for him.

Moonkit stood up, and padded over to us. He was significantly bigger than me, around Thrushkit's height. "What did I miss?"

Goldenkit, the only one still unaware of my rivalry with Moonkit, responded, "We're becoming apprentices today!"

"Oh, really?" Everyone nodded. "That's nice. I already know who my mentor is." 

Knowing Nightwing, she probably had some sort of connection to Lynxstar, so she'd probably request that she mentored him. She'd probably have some sort of special request for me as well. Maybe she requested I get trained by an elder or something.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Highrock for a clan meeting!" Lynxstar's voice rang out, calling all cats to the center of the clearing.