The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter VI: Touring Around the Forest.

Amethyst:

Date: August 6, 2020.

The next day came in the blink of an eye and that morning marked day one of Juniper and Dandelion's apprentice training where we would go over the basics, and we would start off day one by touring around the forest to introduce them to what was waiting outside of the comfort of their home and the walls that surrounded them while they were still young cubs who had to stay with their mother until they were five months of age and ready to train for whatever position they chose on the day of their ceremony.
…
I made it to the training area beforehand and waited for all of the trainers lead, and co-leading animals of every position to make their way to the main area along with the rest of the apprentices as well. Then Juniper and Dandelion made their way to the rest of the apprentices, sat down with the rest of them and General ShrewTalon began: "All right, apprentices, welcome back to training. Today we have two new apprentices that will be joining us in training from here; their names are Juniper and Dandelion— Juniper will be training to become a fighter under OnyxFur while her sister, Dandelion, will be training to become a hunter under YarrowClaw but both will also be training with Amethyst as well. I expect each and every one of you to treat these two with respect. I do not want to see any of you picking on either of them just because of their parentage. By this point, we all know who their father is and what he did, but none of that matters as they are part of this Division regardless of who their parents are or where they came from in the first place. What matters is that they are a part of this Division whether any of you like it or not. I hope I am making myself clear here."

Replies of, "Yes, sir." and, "Yes, General ShrewTalon." Were shared by all of the apprentices. "Good. Now, for today's training exercises…" General ShrewTalon went on with the plans on what they were going to do that very same day and afterward, we began with showing Juniper and Dandelion around the forest.
…
"Where do the Diablos reside?" Dandelion asked during the tour. "They reside in the Southeast, the Northwest, and the Southwest parts of the woods." YarrowClaw answered. "All they want from us is the territory that we reside within even if it meant killing us to do just that. Their main leader, TIO, wants nothing but power and control over all of us, but thankfully, none of us have fallen for his any of his antics or tricks."

Dandelion: "That's almost half of the forest as a whole!"

OnyxFur: "When you put it that way, yes, it kinda is. But at least they haven't taken the Northeast, which is a good thing."

Dandelion: "What do you think the Southwest Forest looks like now?"

Amethyst: "Well, it's only been a year since the incident but I can assume that the place looks like a total wasteland; burnt from top to bottom, gloomy, bland, and lifeless. Even if we tried to take back what rightfully once belonged to the forest, it would result in a good portion of the animals getting killed as a result of it."

Dandelion: "Oh."

Amethyst: "But when you have thousands who are willing to fight even at the cost of their own lives in the midst of it all and one that will teach the both of you how to defend yourself, you'll be okay."

Dandelion: "Oh, okay."

We took them to the Golden Springs river, the place we hardly went to ever since the battle that day in June of 2019, one that costed the lives of several animals on that very same day and the day SilverHeart, Chief ArrowHeart and MistFur's mother, died after dealing with an unknown illness. Now it remained as an area that left nothing more than a bad memory of the past in which was shown by a dangerously rapid river that was once coated with the blood of the fallen but the river washed away the scarlett red that was in the river for only a brief moment. But I knew that the ground still carried the blood of those who were killed that faithful day in June. As we showed them the river, Juniper went on to ask me: "Amethyst, didn't you fall into the river?"

Amethyst: "I didn't fell into the river, I was dragged into the river by one of the Insolence Spies who went ahead to try and kill me since the other spies are somewhat hesitant to do it themselves and we continued fighting all while fighting against the current of the river; he kept on dragging me under the water while we fought and during the whole thing, I slit his throat moments before I passed out until I was rescued right afterward. And yes, you heard right: me, a fifteen-year-old, killed a man who was older than her while fighting in that same, dreadful river. I still remember doing so and how I had my first taste of a near death experience."

Dandelion: "That… wasn't the first time you nearly died?"

Amethyst: "No, that was the first time. The second time was during a dream when Milly was training in the underworld and we had to fight each other to see who was the strongest and she ended up winning and spared my life in the end and the third was when Sadie attacked me. All I can say is that she was going through a lot before the incident took place."

Dandelion: "It sounds like you've been through a lot."

Amethyst: "Yeah, I have. But I'm fine now. We're all good."

After talking for a bit, we continued on.
…
When we finished showing Juniper and Dandelion around the forest, we went back to the Division where the official first day of their training would begin from there when the next day came. As we were settling down, Juniper came up to me and asked: "I meant to ask you, Amethyst, how come you are our second trainer?"

Amethyst: "Well, Chief DoveFeather and Fierce pounce wanted me to be the second trainer to you and your sister because of all that happened with BlueTuft just over a week ago. I've been selected for this reason and also to help both of you so that way neither of you go down the same path he did. You're both in good paws though and I know for a fact God has plans. Big ones."

Juniper: "Oh, okay then."

Then she left from there and Dandelion followed behind her as they began to make their way to the Den of the Apprentices and go from there. I can tell it must be a lot for them but I will give them the time to process everything. I told myself as they went to the Den, knowing that from that day forward, their lives would change for the better after all that they had went through.