Emberkit tackled Silverkit and they fell out of the nursery. They hit the ground of the camp, which was the inside of a hollow pine tree, and continued play fighting like nothing happened. Two toms walked over, one was orange and black and the other was black with gray stripes, and the kits stopped playing at once. The toms let out a mrow of amusement in unison as they saw their kits.

"Sunshade!" Emberkit mewed happily as she padded over to her father.

"Nightstripe!" Silverkit chirped, padding over to sit in front of her father, too.

"Emberkit, shouldn't you be in the nursery with Rosefire?" Sunshade meowed sternly but not unkindly.

"And you, Silverkit, with Snowleaf?" Asked Nightstripe.

Both kits tilted their heads as one, as if they were littermates. Emberkit dug her claws into the wood of the tree and retracted them. "Should we? They told us to play outside the nursery so we wouldn't disturb Burningstrike."

"We were having fun. We'll be the best PineClan warriors ever!" Silverkit added. And with that, the kits went back to their play fight.

Emberkit was in the moment, battling with her best friend and denmate. While battling, their fathers' words turned into nonsense. Then, at the call of Thornbriar, the warriors headed out of the hollow and down to the forest to go on a huting patrol. Silverkit stopped fighting to watch the warriors leave. Emberkit pounced and the silver kit squealed. "No fair, Emberkit!" mrowing with amusement, Emberkit got off her denmate.

"How long do you think we have to wait before we're made apprentices?" Silverkit wondered. "I hope it will be soon."

Emberkit nodded. "So do I. Maybe it will be soon. We are nearing six moons."

Ambersky, a ginger tom, came out of the medicine cat's den. Is it half moon tonight? What about Crowstep? Surely Ambersky can't go to the Moonclearing with Crowstep's whitecough. Emberkit thought until Ambersky entered Honeystar's den. She could hear faint murmuring around the rest of the Clan, but she ignored it and strained her ears.

"The kits," Ambersky's mew was hushed and faint, "they are being watched by StarClan."

"We are all watched over by our warrior ancestors, Ambersky." Honeystar replied with a faint rasp in her mew. "They are no exception."

"Honeystar, I mean they are..." Ambersky's voice was drowned out by the returning hunting patrol.

"Mouse dung!" Emberkit hissed quietly.

Silverkit looked at her at the hiss. "What is it?"

Emberkit looked at Silverkit and then back to Honeystar's den, watching Ambersky leave. "I'll tell you tonight, at moonhigh. Meet me in our tree."

Silverkit nodded. "Okay. You'd better tell me!" She padded towards the nursery, a small hollow in one of the pine tree's sturdier and thicker branches.

The other dens were other branches, the knots giving away where thick branches were. Honeystar, when she was still Honeyleaf, had the idea of bringing wet moss and using cobweb to rot away niches into the thicker branches to make dens. One nursery, two apprentices' dens, one high leader's den, and some of the hollow trunk and long, hollowed out branch as the medicine cat's den. The warriors' den is an abandoned rabbit hole at the base of the tree. The camp wasn't crowded at all this way.

* * *

Their tree was a smaller, old pine tree that is growing near the camp, that no other cat has been to. It was almost dead though still standing. It could hold a cat's weight with easy.

Emberkit heard a noise while perched on the tree. "Silverkit?" She whispered into the night. Just the faintest sound of a breeze was the response.

"Here!" Silverkit leaped and landed silently next to Emberkit. "What happened earlier?"

Emberkit lowered her voice and moved her head closer to Silverkit's. "I heard Ambersky talking about us. To Honeystar, no less." She moved her head back to see Silverkit's response.

"How do you know? Did he say us by name?"

"Not exactly, but-"

"You need to stop jumping to conclusions then!"

"Wait!" Emberkit whispered fiercely. "He said 'The kits, they are being watched by StarClan.' And to prove it to Honeystar - she didn't think it was anything important since StarClan watches all Clan cats, either - he then said 'Honeystar, I think they are...' something. That's why I said mouse dung earlier. I didn't catch what else he said. We are the only kits he knows." She added.

Silverkit was silent for a few heartbeats. "True. But if StarClan is truly watching us for a special reason, we will know what we need to, when we need to."

"Honestly, you sound like you are going to be a medicine cat and not a warrior!" Emberkit teased.

"I will be a warrior! Not a medicine cat, Emberkit!" Silverkit hissed.

Emberkit rose a paw in defeat. "Let's get back to Rosefire, Snowleaf, and Burningstrike. If they find out we're missing, we'll delay our apprentice ceremony like Mosspaw did!" The two she-kits leaped their way back to the hollow silently and slipped back into the nursery.

* * *

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather around the Pineledge for a Clan meeting!" Honeystar yowled.

Cats came into the tree's hollow, whether from the warriors' den or the in-tree dens as Honeystar yowled the summons passed down from Clan leader to deputy. "We have a few kits who are old enough now to become PineClan apprentices. I am proud to say that our Clan has grown strong since we left the gorge, and that more kits are on the way." Honeystar's speech was interrupted by her coughing. Ambersky was about to head into his den for tansy when Honeystar continued.

Emberkit nudged Silverkit excitedly. "We'll be apprentices!" She whispered.

"Emberkit and Silverkit, come here."

The two kits padded beneath Pineledge and looked up at Honeystar, eagerness shining in their eyes.

"Emberkit and Silverkit. You each have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed."

Emberkit saw Honeystar look past her and Silverkit, and heard pawsteps. Blackwhisker, a ginger she-cat, and Graymask, a gray she-cat, stood side-by-side behind the two kits. Honeystar continued once the two she-cats sat down.

"From this day on, until you receive your warrior names, you shall be known as Emberpaw and Silverpaw. Emberpaw, your mentor will be Blackwhisker," Honeystar nodded to the ginger she-cat, "and Silverpaw, your mentor will be Graymask," Honeystar nodded to the gray she-cat. "Blackwhisker and Graymask, I hope you will pass down the skills and knowledge of the warrior code onto these two apprentices."

Emberpaw turned to face Blackwhisker to touch noses with her, but Honeystar wasn't finished. "Blackwhisker and Graymask, you both are ready to take on the responsibility of mentorship. You have received excellent training from Thornbriar and Crowstep respectively, and you, Blackwhisker, have proven yourself to be perceptive and clever, and you, Graymask, have proven yourself to be patient and quick. Blackwhisker, your apprentice is Emberpaw, and Graymask, your apprentice is Silverpaw. I expect you both to pass down all you know and the warrior code to them." There was a brief pause before the new apprentices were greeted by their Clanmates.

"Emberpaw! Silverpaw!"

Emberpaw noticed that Rosefire, Sunshade, Snowleaf, and Nightstripe were the loudest yowls she could distinguish. Then she heard Silverpaw join in with, "Emberpaw! Emberpaw!" The ginger apprentice joined in, now competing with Silverpaw in an unannounced competition. "Silverpaw! Silverpaw!"

Blackwhisker's tail suddenly was resting on Emberpaw's shoulders. "Forgetting something?" Emberpaw looked back at Silverpaw, but she was already touching noses with Graymask. Looking back at Blackwhisker, Emberpaw touched her nose to her new mentor's nose. "What are we going to do first?"

Blackwhisker thought for a few hearbeats. "Well, I suppose we should go over basic hunting stances. Graymask!" She called to the gray cat. "Want to take Silverpaw out for hunting practice with Emberpaw and I?" Graymask nodded. Blackwhisker looked back at her apprentice with a smile. "Hunting it is, then." She led the way over to the camp entrance and jumped down, their apprentices a heartbeat behind them. "This way."

Emberpaw looked at Silverpaw. "We're apprentices!"

Silverpaw's icy eyes shown. "I know! Now we'll be able to train and get out of the hollow and-"

"Are you coming or are you waiting for the start of leaf-bare?" Graymask called.

"Coming!" The apprentices answered in unison and ran after their mentors.

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Dangit why won't the chapter cover stay .-.