A I R P A W
Her paws were tingling with excitement. She couldn’t believe her luck!
Hailgaze had prepped her and Wolfkit for their apprentice ceremony, spending extra time in the morning to get their pelts all clean and smoothed down as much as possible, fixing their posture, reminding them of their manners, etc. Dayfall had been there as well to congratulate them on the beginning of their warrior lives. Airkit held a sort of warmness for her older brother- his golden fur reminded her of her mother’s. As much as she wished that Tinyflame could have been there for them too, she was incredibly grateful that the rest of her family were present.
When it was finally time for them to become apprenticed, the little beige molly waited with highly anticipated excitement for her turn. Her sister had gone before her, so she had to wait an extra amount of time before she knew who her mentor would be. The last thing she expected was to be apprenticed under Desertstar herself!
Airpaw had always looked up to the golden warrior. She admired her beauty and strength and how gracefully she led WindClan. One day, she wanted to be a warrior just as incredible as her father and her mentor. With Desertstar’s guidance, she hoped that day wouldn’t be far away.
She wanted to run out to the moors and scream at the top of her lungs, “Watch out, world! Here I come!” And she would have, if it wasn’t undignified and kittish behavior. She was six moons now, she couldn’t act like a kit anymore. So, instead, she puffed up her chest with pride and looked up to her new mentor with glowing blue eyes. “What are we doing first?”
Once the cheering crowd around them had dissipated, she looked down at her newly made apprentice and smiled at the genuine curiosity behind Airpaw’s question. She continued to look at her, noting the excitement in the young cat’s glittering eyes, and for a brief moment she was reminded of Tinyflame. Yet, before the bittersweet memories of her late friend had a chance to settle over her, she cleared her throat. “As your first day of being an apprentice, I thought I’d get you out of camp and show you around the territories today,” she told her, still smiling. The golden leader then rose with casual elegance to lead them out of camp, pausing every now-and-then to glance behind her and make sure that Airpaw was still following. Not only were apprentices prone to running off out of eagerness, Desertstar’s legs were admittedly very long and she didn’t want to accidentally leave her behind.
The pair walked along a dirt trail, weaving around the shrubbery that lined its path. The grass felt soft and cool beneath her pads, and the wind was warm and carried the freshness of unfurling flowers. “This is the moorland,” the leader told her, breathing in the fresh air before speaking on the history of their clan in an attempt to make the experience more interesting, “The other clans live in forests, with tall trees and dense pines, but our territory is out in the open, where we can run as fast as the wind and see our enemies coming from miles away— and some even say that our ancestors chose to live directly under the sky to be closest with Starclan.”
Art by Tori