A weed amongst flowers

Chapter 1

"May all cats old enough to hunt for themselves, gather here beneath high rock!" Lynxstar called out, Moonleap knew what it was about. Turtlefoot and Duckwing's kits were becoming apprentices today. She watched her friend, Hawkflight pad out into the clearing.

Hawkflight had been dropping hints for a while now that she had wanted an apprentice. Lynxstar wasn't oblivious, Moonleap knew she was picking up on them. Hawkflight was confident that one of these kits were going to be made her apprentice.

"Don't get your hopes up Hawkflight. There's warriors with a lot more skill and experience than you." Moonleap said, bounding to catch up with her friend. Hawkflight twitched her tail.

"Weaselstripe can't mentor every apprentice." Hawkflight responded. Weaselstripe was the oldest warrior in ThunderClan, he had mentored a lot of apprentices in his life. In fact he had mentored Lynxstar herself.

Moonleap sat beside Hawkflight at the front of the crowd. Hawkflight was trying not to look too excited, but she wasn't that good at it.

"Today we have 4 new apprentices, Owlkit, Quailkit, Batkit, and Ferretkit come forward." Lynxstar said, her voice loud and clear across the camp. Duckwing and Turtlefoot proudly ushered their kits forward and took their place in the crowd.

Lynxstar smiled down at the kits, who looked anxious. They were quite big now, not fully grown but too big for the nursery. They'd be getting the apprentice den to themselves. Moonleap envied them, it was quite crowded in the warriors den.

"Owlkit, you show a kindness that will benefit you greatly." Lynxstar said. "It's no secret you've been hanging around the medicine den."

The cats of ThunderClan laughed quietly, Owlkit looked at her paws. "Do not be ashamed young one, medicine cats are just as important as warriors. We wouldn't survive without them." Lynxstar wrapped her tail around her paws. "Cloudpelt step forward."

Cloudpelt stepped forward happily, the former medicine cat Tawnyclaw had retired 10 moons ago. Moonleap knew Cloudpelt had been hoping for an apprentice.

"Owlkit, until you are made a full medicine cat, you will be known as Owlpaw. May starclan guide your paws, and bless you with their wisdom." Owlpaw rose and touched noses with Cloudpelt, then sat back down beside her siblings.

"Quailkit step forward." Lynxstar stated, shivering slightly from the cold. Batkit nudged her encouragingly, and she padded forward. "Quailkit from this day forward until you become a warrior, you will be known as  Quailpaw. Your mentor will be Weaselstripe."

"Told ya he'd be mentoring one of them." Frostspeckle, Moonleap's sister mewed quietly. Hawkflight twitched her tail.

"There's 2 other kits, I'm sure Lynxstar will let me mentor one of them." Hawkflight said, watching Quailpaw and Weaselstripe touch noses.

"I mean, it's no secret Duckwing requested for Weaselstripe to be one of her kit's apprentices." Moonleap said, watching as Batkit was called forward.

"From this day forward, until you become a warrior you will be known as Batpaw. Your mentor will be Wolfclaw." Lynxstar said, Batpaw padded up to Wolfclaw, his chest puffed out and his head raised.

"Last one, you think she'll make Hawkflight a mentor?" Moonleap asked Frostspeckle. Frostspeckle looked at Hawkflight, who was looking up at Lynxstar, excitement in her eyes.

"And last but not least, Ferretkit. From this day forward until you become a warrior, you will be known as Ferretpaw." Hawkflight's tail was twitching with excitement. "Your mentor has made it no secret she wanted an apprentice, you will be apprenticed to Hawkflight!"

"Yes!" Hawkflight exclaimed, standing up. Several warriors turned to look at her, Hawkflight quickly regained her usual composure. "Um, I mean, thank you for this honor Lynxstar."

Hawkflight excitedly walked forward and touched noses with Ferretpaw. Moonleap watched her happily, she wasn't quite ready for an apprentice yet, but she felt good for her friend.

Ferretpaw looked just as excited as Hawkflight. "They'll make a good pair." Frostspeckle mewed to Moonleap.

"Yeah but they'll be talking my ear off." Moonleap responded. Frostspeckle chuckled. The ThunderClan cats called the new apprentices names. Hawkflight and Ferretpaw came over to them.

"Well I'm going to be joining the other mentors to show the new apprentices around the territory." Hawkflight said, her tail raised proudly. Moonleap got up and nudged Hawkflight with her nose.

"I'm proud of you, you earned this." Moonleap mewed. The crowd was beginning to disperse, cats were getting back on with their day.

"Hawkflight, you coming?" Weaselstripe called from the entrance. "We're all waiting for you."

"Oh! Yes I am!" Hawkflight called back embarrassed. "Come on Ferretpaw!"

Moonleap watched the two of them bound across the camp. Weaselstripe rested his tail on Hawkflight's shoulders reassuringly, and the cats left. Moonleap shook her head.

"So you think you're gonna be next?" Frostspeckle asked. Moonleap looked at her sister and shook her head.

"I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility right now." Moonleap swished her tail. The sun was now high in the sky, despite that the cold wind whipped wildly. Moonleap heard Stoatfang call Frostspeckle's name.

"I gotta go, I told Stoatfang I'd help him reinforce the nursery with new moss." Frostspeckle mewed.

"No, you're fine. I'll probably just going to join the hunting patrol anyways." Moonleap responded.

"Well you should stay away from the WindClan border then, the dawn patrol smelled a fox there." Frostspeckle flicked her ears as Stoatfang called her name again. Moonleap nodded.

"Well you better go then before Stoatfang gets too irritated." Moonleap chuckled and padded towards the camp entrance where the patrol waited.

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Sorry if it was kind of bad