[the siege]

iv. chapter four

"Adderpaw! Maybe listening next time will help!" Barkfur snapped, bringing the apprentice back to reality.

Adderpaw shrunk back guiltily. She's right. Maybe if I spent more time listening, I wouldn't have to imagine hunting and fighting and being a great warrior.

It had been five moons of apprenticeship so far and Adderpaw was starting to think that she just wasn't cut out for it. She was constantly making a fool of herself whenever her mentor tried to teach her something.

Her mentor sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Adderpaw. It's only your first moon of training, maybe I shouldn't be treating you so harshly," then Barkfur lightened, joking, "I'm used to certain circumstances of trying to train Swayingfern. Now she was a cat in need of scolding,"

Adderpaw could hear a muffled "Hey!" from the bracken further on and stifled a laugh. Her sister's mentor was a bit cloud-headed.

Barkfur chuckled and began walking towards the noise. "Come on, Adderpaw. If you want to learn how to battle our enemies, then you should come with me. The apprentices are having a training session in the mossy clearing."

Adderpaw's eyes lit up and she stopped slouching. Yes! Battle training!
She sped towards the mossy clearing where her fellow apprentices were waiting for her and Barkfur. Snakepaw and Shrrompaw had recently reached the age of six moons and had become apprentices, so Adderpaw was looking around for the younger apprentices.

She could make out Fishpaw and Frogpaw sharing tongues where the canopy of trees broke to let a shaft of sunlight onto the grass. Her sister, Cherrypaw, was showing Fernpaw and Mintpaw the new hunting technique that she had learned and when Snakepaw saw her, he commented that she was doing it all wrong and that she was standing backwards.

Adderpaw laughed and the other apprentices stopped what they were doing to bound over to their friend. Frogpaw brushed against her and mewed, "There's a Gathering tonight and I overheard Mosspelt and Flutteringleaf saying that they were going to bring some of the apprentices tonight!"

Adderpaw purred and exclaimed, "That's great!"

"Yeah, hopefully you can go! It would be fun for us to go together, but I think the warriors were talking about taking you, Mintpaw, and Cherrypaw to your first Gathering!"

Adderpaw leaned back, surprised. Although she should've expected it, she wasn't thinking about the Gathering and how it was going to be her first one. Her heart thumped with excitement and she leapt in the air, bounding around with a fresh wave of joy.

Then, curious, she asked, "Hey, where's Shroompaw?"

Mintpaw answered for her, saying that Rabbitear had told her to go out and fetch some herbs for him. Adderpaw felt sorry for the young apprentice—she had to miss out on training to collect herbs for the sarcastic medicine cat.

Adderpaw figured that she could teach the little she-cat some of the moves that they had learned that day to make her feel better.

Once the tactics session had ceased to nothing but playful training, Barkfur pulled her aside right before she was going to attack Fishpaw from behind, her eyes twinkling.

"Guess what?" Barkfur stifled a grin. "You and your littermates are going to the Gathering tonight!"

Even though she had already received this information prior to this conversation, that rumour had been nothing but that—a rumour. Now that she was receiving the confirmed news, Adderpaw was feeling much more certain about where she stood as an apprentice. She must be doing something right if she and her siblings were deemed worthy of attending a Gathering!