Brookkit is born into ThunderClan in late winter, and nearly starves. Yet she manages to pull through and become one of ThunderClan's best apprentices. As tensions increase between ThunderClan and RiverClan, and signs of a group of mysterious cats a...
"No Brookpaw, you were too slow. Come on, Amberpaw's picking up on this quicker than you are, and you have three and a half more moons of training." Emberheart's cold words seemed at home piercing the icy air.
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Only the deputy would make them climb trees in this weather. It was awful out. The cold penetrated even Brookpaw's pelt, and the howling wind whipped snow into their eyes and ears. Thankfully she wasn't having them climb too high, as that would have been too dangerous, but it was still challenging.
Brookpaw was having trouble giving herself some momentum before jumping up the tree. As soon as she'd try to jump, her back paws would slip on the icy snow, even if she had her claws out, and she'd become unbalanced, which prevented her from making a nice, clean jump up the tree.
Once again she tried, but failed for the fifth time. Emberheart's patience was already wearing thin, and the last thing Brookpaw wanted to do was test it again.
"Try spreading your back paws out a little bit," Amberpaw yowled above the wind, "and dig your claws in like you're already doing!"
Brookpaw nodded and backed away from the tree to try again. This time she did as Amberpaw had instructed and spread her toes on her back paws out as she launched herself up the tree. Doing this helped keep her balanced, and allowed her to get the momentum she needed.
Her friend smiled at her from below, though Brookpaw could barely see it through the blowing snow.
"There you go," Emberheart meowed. "Now climb up a little ways, then we'll call it a day!"
Slowly Brookpaw inched her way up the nearly frozen bark. It hurt her claws, but the possibility of going back to camp and getting out of this freezing weather motivated her to keep going. Soon she'd made it about eight tail-lengths up.
"That's good Brookpaw! You can come down!"
Relieved, the silver tabby was tempted just to jump down. But the fear of getting carried away by the freezing wind kept her from doing so. Instead she carefully inched down the trunk, wincing as her claws hurt more with each movement. I hope I never really have to do this in an emergency situation, she thought, trying to avoid biting her tongue as her teeth chattered.
At last she made it to the ground. Thanking StarClan, she looked to Emberheart. "Can we go home now?"
---
Later that day, Brookpaw found herself curled up in the apprentices den, thinking about the vision Hawkstar had had at the last gathering. He'd told them about it a few days later, probably after counseling with Aspenglow about it. It had been a dark vision, one filled with bloodshed and the howls of furious cats. Hawkstar had taken it as warning—a warning of what might become if ThunderClan wasn't prepared for any possible attacks.
