EchoRaine's Cry

Chapter two

EchoKit awoke to the sound of a clan meeting being called, he realized he was going to be late to his own apprentice ceremony, DoveWind, a she-cat who was recently discovered to be pregnant had moved into the nursery finally, she lifted her head to see EchoKit scrambling to get ready. The light gray she-cat stood up from her nest and padded over to the kit lightly grooming his messy fur "there you go, now hurry along, you're to be an apprentice soon" EchoKit gave a small purr "thanks DoveWind! " he mewed before darting out of the nursery and to the clan meeting, he made it just in time. "Ah there you are EchoKit" RainStem purred from the deputy rock, he was proud of his son. "Now, for what everyone is waiting for, the apprenticing of a new apprentice, EchoKit, please step forward" the Kit stepped forward looking up at his leader, "You have had a rough kitthood, with the loss of you mother... You're sure to make a fine warrior, EchoKit from this moment until you're warrior ceremony you will be EchoPaw, and I will Mentor you myself. " OtterStar hopped off the high Rock to touch noses with his apprentice, EchoPaw was disappointed that he wasn't going to be medicine cat clearly. And MoonLeap looked disappointed that OtterStar hadn't reconsidered. The meeting was dismissed, and a Brown and white tom trotted over "hello! I'm HawkPaw! I'm sorta new to this clan thing... But I can show you the apprentices den! You can pick our your nest as well! It's just us so well have the whole den to ourselves! " EchoPaw looked back to MoonLeap who had disappeared into his den, he wanted to run over and ask why he wasn't chosen to be a medicine cat, but HawkPaw was beckoning him, so he padded after HawkPaw and they entered the apprentice den "Here we are! My nest is over there, it's full of feathers, here I'll get some feathers for your nest as well" he trotted over to his nest picking through it to gather a mouthful of feathers, "where do you want your nest? " he spoke through a mouth of feathers. "Uhh... Overe here" EchoPaw picked out a nest real quick, it wasn't too close to HawkPaw's but it wasn't far from it either, HawkPaw dropped the feathers into EchoPaw's nest and he spreaded them around "there you go! " he purred slightly.
     The next morning EchoPaw was woken up by the sound of his mentors voice "EchoPaw.... EchoPaw wake up! " EchoPaw sat up in his nest, it wasn't even sunrise yet, just a bit before that "You must learn to be ahead of everything. Rise earlier for. Training, and speaking of training I'm talking you and HawkPaw out to patrol the territory, wake him up will you, and then meet my by the thorn barrier. " With that OtterStar turned and stalked out of the den, his dark colored pelt was barely noticeable in the morning darkness. EchoPaw stood up, stretching out, his haunches wobbled slightly as he stretched, Once done stretching he turned to HawkPaw, nudging him with his forepaw. "HawkPaw OtterStar is taking us out on a patrol, we get to see the territory! " HawkPaw heard patrol and jumped up "patrol! Let's go! " the white brown tom was extremely excited about this, his mentor had been, and still is RainStem, but RainStem was busy with the clan, so OtterStar would usually take him out. HawkPaw slightly brushed against EchoPaw as the young apprentice left the den, EchoPaw soon followed, HawkPaw was going to get something to eat of the fresh kill pile, as he was about to pick up a vole he heard OtterStar speak "HawkPaw, apprentices must catch prey before they take prey. " HawkPaw froze where he was, looking over to OtterStar, he looked disappointed, but backed off from the fresh kill pile. OtterStar's whiskers twitched in amusement "don't worry, we'll have time to hunt, but for now let's be off. I expect both of you to keep up. " EchoPaw was grooming himself, he licked one of his forepaws before rubbing it across his head, that was about the time when OtterStar Said they'd be off, he stood up and Followed after his Mentor, he wasn't very happy about being a warrior, and he was staring at the medicine cat den as he walked out of camp, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going but thankfully HawkPaw was paying attention, and steered EchoPaw away from the thorn barrier he was about to run into. OtterStar was moving at a fast pace, moving gracefully through the forest, weaving in between trees and over fallen trees. He stopped at a juniper berry bush, looking back to the two young apprentices "This Juniper berry Bush marks our border with ReedClan. ReedClan has been our only allie since the great storm of fire that took PineClan. GoldenStar is a fair leader, however trespassing on his territory will not be taken lightly, not by him, nor myself. " HawkPaw looked exited as if he knew this story "MintyFang told me about the Storm of fire! she said that a cat the color of fire brought upon a storm of spinning wind and fire! MintyFang also said this cat jumped through a wall of fire! " OtterStar stared at the young apprentice, waiting till he was done interrupting, but EchoPaw butted into the conversation "That's impossible, how could a cat create spinning fire, not to mention jump through fire, they must have gotten burned or something! " OtterStar sighed softly "It is true. This.... Cat. She jumped through fire without hesitation I was a young warrior then, but I remember how she jumped through the fire, fearlessly, and did not receive a single burn. " Just as OtterStar finished speaking  cats could be heard approaching, "Hello there OtterStar. " a cat with a deep new spoke, OtterStar turned to see GoldenStar, with a patrol of two cats and a apprentice "Hello GoldenStar, I was just showing these young apprentices our border, and letting them know that trespassing will not be taken lightly" the dark brown tom dipped his head slightly in greetings to the Golden tom. EchoPaw looked at OtterStar, and then GoldenStar, he wondered what GoldenStar was doing out here, it really wasn't everyday that the clan leader themselves would leave the clan for a patrol, not unless something was going on. "Is that so?" GoldenStar looked to the young apprentices, the large golden tom seemed to be observing them. GoldenStar gatherd that HawkPaw seemed to be new to clan life, not only from his scent, but from the way he acted, he acted as if he'd never seen the forest before, granted HawkPaw always was like this. GoldenStar also gathered that EchoPaw was very intelligent when it came to reading a situation, it seemed the apprentice had already figured out something was wrong. "GoldenStar, May I ask, what brings you out here? " A cat from GoldenStar's patrol was about to say something, but GoldenStar raised his tail slightly to silence them "Of course OtterStar, I've actually come to discuss an issue with you, it's about.... " the tom leaned close enough to OtterStar to tell him, and no one else, OtterStar seemed a bit shocked but nodded "Of course... We'll go back to DuskClan camp and we can discuss this in private in my den. " he turned to the two apprentices who looked confused "Sorry you two, but we must go back to camp, I can-" GoldenStar spoke up "No need OtterStar, continue to show these two around, we'll return and Sun-high" the golden tom turned to his patrol, signaling to them to head back to their own camp, the small apprentice with GoldenStar's patrol watched EchoPaw and HawkPaw for as long as they could. OtterStar looked back to the apprentices "We'll then, let's head to the former PineClan border shall we? " HawkPaw jumped up in excitement "yeah! " EchoPaw nodded a bit, be had to admit exploring the territory was fun, OtterStar headed deeper into the forest, away from ReedClan's border "Despite PineClan being gone, we still honor their borders, as does ReedClan, we do this in hopes the fallen clan might return. " EchoPaw was listening as he trotted after OtterStar, HawkPaw had stopped and dropped down Into a sloppy crouch, stalking something, he pounced and surprisingly caught a small mouse, despite his sloppy form "OtterStar, look! " the dark brown tom looked over at HawkPaw purred happily "Good catch HawkPaw, Your form needs work though I could hear you from all the way over here." HawkPaw was beaming at the praise, EchoPaw smiled a little bit though he was jealous that HawkPaw was able to catch something, OtterStar continued to walk "HawkPaw leave that there, but cover it up with some earth, we'll pick it up on our way back." HawkPaw nodded and dropped the Mouse, scraping some earth over the prey to hide it's scent. OtterStar was pretty far ahead now, HawkPaw and EchoPaw looked at each other for a moment "that was a good catch HawkPaw" EchoPaw spoke softly, HawkPaw smiled "thanks! " hawkPaw was purring loudly, EchoPaw looked over only to notice OtterStar was practically gone. He turned to follow the direction OtterStar went "Come on HawkPaw! Or we might get left behind" EchoPaw started to run towards OtterStar's direction, hawkPaw followed after quickly, and the two apprentices caught up with OtterStar pretty quickly, OtterStar looked over at them "Good, you've caught up, we've got a while to go, our territory is pretty large, so we'll stop by the river on our way. " OtterStar picked up the pace a bit, EchoPaw and HawkPaw were still keeping up. EchoPaw stumbled over a branch that was lying on the ground, he fell on his face with a soft thud, HawkPaw snorted at this, trying his best to not laugh at EchoPaw. EchoPaw felt his pelt get hot with embarrassment, he got up giving his chest a couple licks "don't laugh ya furball!" He sounded more embarrassed than angry "ok, ok I'm sorry for laughing" HawkPaw purred, slightly flicking his tail. EchoPaw shook the dust off his face before quickly running after OtterStar, the sun had risen just a bit over the horizon, and they reached the stream, HawkPaw Groomed himself as OtterStar gave EchoPaw some hunting training "Now EchoPaw, try the hunter crouch that I showed you. " EchoPaw crouched down low, he kept his body low to the ground, but just high enough to keep it off the ground, his tail swished slightly, but he quickly straightened it out and kept it from swaying. "Good" OtterStar circled EchoPaw, using his tail to check EchoPaw's stance, he noticed EchoPaw's footing was off a little "Keep your hind paws close, bunch your leg muscles that way when you pounce you have better force and control of your distance, Now. Pounce on that leaf, quickly before it gets away" EchoPaw watched OtterStar, and listened to his critique, the young apprentice looked to the Leaf before he pounced, he he great control of his distance, but he didn't have such good control over landing, his forepaws slid out from under him as he landed and he fell on his face again, HawkPaw could he heard laughing, EchoPaw looked up quickly, before he crouched again, his hindquarters wobbled slightly side to side as he sprang forward onto hawkPaw, his claws were sheathed, as he batted at HawkPaw's ears, he caught the brown and white tom off guard, and HawkPaw was knocked down, the tom reacted quickly though, using his strength to knock EchoPaw off, HawkPaw stood back up on his hind legs, he raised one of his paws, the other stuck off to the side as a distraction, EchoPaw looked up at HawkPaw, no knowing which paw to follow, He crouched ducked back as HawkPaw batted at him, Not giving HawkPaw any time to react EchoPaw quickly sprang forward and tackled HawkPaw, The brown apprentice fell back but quickly used his hind legs to force EchoPaw off, EchoPaw stumbled back, his ears went back in frustration, and his tail was swishing, HawkPaw smirked slightly "I may be new to clan life, but I can still fight" he purred, he was only talking to talk, he didn't mean any of it to be a threat, EchoPaw was about to pounce on HawkPaw again when the brown and white tom turned tail and ran, EchoPaw looked confused till he saw HawkPaw look behind him at EchoPaw "Hey! Get back here! " EchoPaw shouted as he chased after HawkPaw, The two apprentices play fought for a while, EchoPaw couldn't catch HawkPaw, he was too fast and HawkPaw kept changing directions just as he got close enough. He thought about how to catch HawkPaw before he noticed a pattern, HawkPaw would turn left whenever EchoPaw got within a fox-length, and Right when he got close a second time, so as EchoPaw chased after HawkPaw he got within the fox-length just as he thought HawkPaw turned left, and EchoPaw was ready, he turned his front paws quickly, letting his hind paws slid far enough behind him before he sprang forward, he landed directly on HawkPaw, the two apprentices went tumbling into a bush, both of them were laughing as EchoPaw announced his victory. OtterStar watched all of this unfold, he seemed very impressed with EchoPaw's judgement of the situation, not to mention how he found the pattern "Good job EchoPaw, that was pretty impressive how you judged your opponents tactic and found the pattern. " EchoPaw and HawkPaw both popped out of the bush, EchoPaw's eyes we're almost glittering, he enjoyed the praise, and was beaming that he made his leader proud, HawkPaw padded up to the river and drank some water before shaking out his pelt, leaves and small twigs fell out of his fur, EchoPaw soon padded up to the river to drink some water as well. "Once you two are done drinking if your hungry hunt yourselves some prey, we'll be leaving shortly.