Moonstar's Tale

Home with a Star

Moonkit followed Redear through an entrance and into a clearing. "This is the camp. Keep close, we're almost to Saberstar", Redear told the cream and brown kit.
Moonkit nodded and made sure that she was close to him as they padded across the camp. A lightish brown tom came out of a crack in a rock. That must be his den, Moonkit thought.
The tom spotted Redear and Moonkit and asked, "Who is this, Redear? Why have you brought her here?"
Redear answered with a single word: "Starlight"
Saberstar understood and quickly told the two cats to cone inside of his den.
"So. You are Moonkit?", Saberstar asked once they were all inside.
Moonkit nodded.
"Then... where's your mother? Where's Starlight?", he asked.
"I'm sorry, but she didn't come with me...", Moonkit answered sadly.
"Oh....I see. Well...I-I don't blame you. Starlight must have been in a rush", Saberstar decided.
Redear sat there quietly.
Moonkit took this opening to announce something, "Well, I-I was told to tell you that I-mom told me to tell you that I'm six moons old. I turned that age two days ago..."
Saberstar got back to his senses and spoke more clearly, "Well, then, we shall have your apprentice ceremony right away", he announced with pride.
Redear understood and brought Moonkit into the clearing, only to sit in front of the den they were just in.
Moonkit was about to ask why they were sitting down when Saberstar came out of his den and called to his Clan, "All cats old enough to catch their own prey, join here beneath the Meeting Boulder for a Clan meeting!". All of the Clan, except for kits and queens who just sat in front of their dens, came towards the leader's den, or Meeting Boulder as Saberstar had called it, and sat down to hear their leader out.
"Today is a very special day,", he started, "the day of which my kit, Moonkit, has returned! And she has told me that she turned six moons old two days ago. That means that she has become of the age to be an apprentice!", the crowd of cats cheered as Saberstar had stated the last few lines.
Saberstar motioned with his tail for Moonkit to come forward. She was confused, but did as she was told and stood in front of him.
"Moonkit, you have become of the age to be an apprentice! You shall be trained in the ways of a warrior and our noble Warrior Code,", he started, "and so from this day forward, until you have earned your warrior name, you shall be known as Moonpaw!"
"Moonpaw! Moonpaw! Moonpaw!", the crowd of cats cheered Moonpaw's new name with as much pride as she was containing in her body.
Saberstar waited for cheers to die down before turning to Redear and announcing, "Redear, you shall be mentor to Moonpaw. I trust that you will teach her your cunning, sly, and quick thinking skills", Redear merely bowed his head to his leader's decision. The white and red cat then turned to Moonpaw, his amber eyes at first expecting, then softening to understanding once he saw the confusion hidden in Moonpaw's sea blue eyes.
"Touch your nose to mine", he explained in a hushed whisper.
Moonpaw did as explained and stretched up to touch noses with her new mentor.
After that was done, Saberstar called the Clan meeting to an end and Redear told Moonpaw to follow him into the forest for a tour of the territory.
The newly made apprentice had already gotten a bit of knowledge on the forest, but she was still amazed at all the territories of the forest. "Wow! This is amazing!", Moonpaw exclaimed. Redear nodded and replied, chuckling a little bit, "Yes. The forest does hold four Clans". "I guess you're right about that...", Moonpaw trailed off of her sentence as she looked around at her surroundings some more.
"Hurry up. We're nearly at the border", Redear told her.
Moonpaw scurried on the forest floor and managed to catch up with her mentor. As Redear had told her, the two reached the border soon after.
"This is the border with CloudClan", Redear explained,"They're not much of a threat to us. In fact, we seem to be in some kind of unspoken alliance with them. It's been like that for a long as I can remember. Anyways, get a good whiff of their scent, you'll need to remember it", he instructed the young she-cat.
Moonpaw did as told and took in a big breath, trying to remember the scent of the allied Clan. Precautions, she told herself.
Once she had memorized the scent of CloudClan's moorlands, she nodded to Redear and they set off towards another border. This time with a pine forest.
"This is the border with SnowClan. Now this Clan is the complete opposite of CloudClan and us, they would much rather fight and cause damage than try reasoning things out to keep our strength up. They're a treacherous bunch, I'll tell you that. Their scent is one you have to remember no matter what, you never know when they might try a sneak attack and try to destroy the Clan," he told her.
"Right. CloudClan good, SnowClan bad, right?" she asked.
"Yup. Now go ahead and take as long as you need to remember their scent," he instructed.
She nodded and took a good two minutes to remember the new scent of pines.
Next they came across a large and twisted tree, "I can't show you the LeafClan border because we don't have one with them, but you can figure out their scent when you go to the next gathering. For now, I'll just say that they tend to stay rather neutral when it comes to being good or bad. They don't attack very much, but they will. Anyways, you see this tree here? It's called the Storm Tree, and we use it to train apprentices to climb trees. I'd show you the place where we practice moves, but it's getting kinda late so I think we should head back now," Redear explained.
Moonpaw nodded, scenting a slight burning smell coming off of the tree and noticing that the top looked like it had been burned off. Then it clicked, it must of been hit by lightning in a storm long ago. She then realized that Redear had begun to leave without her and she scrambled to catch up with him.
They reached the camp soon after and he showed her to the apprentice's den, where she found an unoccupied bed of moss and rested for the remainder of the day.