Quietstream led Silverpaw over to the apprentices' den, which was on the other side of the camp.

"It's not too crowded in there," Quietstream said, "and if you really want to you can come sleep in the medicine den with me."

"I think I'll be okay, but thanks!" Silverpaw told the medicine cat, still bouncing with excitement.

Quietstream stopped in front of the den.

"Well, here we are. I have to go check on Spruceclaw now, but I hope you have fun on your first day as an apprentice!"

"Thanks, Quietstream!"

The she-cat nodded her head and left. Silverpaw turned around to face the den and inhaled.

My first step to being an apprentice: claiming a nest in the apprentices' den.

Silverpaw stepped forward and saw the other three apprentices, Lightpaw, Cherrypaw, and Fishpaw, standing in the den with a new piece of moss.

"Congratulations! You're an apprentice!" Cherrypaw exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Silverpaw smiled.

They all stayed to welcome me!

"We went out and got you a new piece of moss," Fishpaw said, "for your nest."

"Thanks," Silverpaw replied shyly.

Silverpaw didn't really know them; they only shared a den for a moon before the three became apprentices and she was too young to play.

The eldest, Lightpaw, stepped forward and told her, "Our mentors have planned to hold a hunting session after yours shows up the territory."

"That sounds like fun!"

Lightpaw nodded, and pushed forward a feather. It was a small yet gorgeous blue feather with touches of black and white.

"It's pretty!" Silverpaw exclaimed.

"It's from a blue warbler I caught yesterday. We all keep a feather with us in our nest. Fishpaw has a quail's, Cherrypaw has a thrush's, and I keep a merlin's. I thought you should have one too."

Silverpaw places her paw over top of the feather to keep it from blowing away.

"I'll keep it in my nest forever!"

"We'll see you later! We have to go hunt for more moss for the elders," Cherrypaw announced.

"See you later!" Silverpaw called.

After they had left, she turned back to the moss.

Where should I put it?...

Silverpaw spotted an empty space, the back right corner of the den.

Just like in the nursery!

Silverpaw dragged the moss to the corner and laid down on it. The scent wasn't the same, and it didn't feel the same either.

"I'll get used to it either way," Silverpaw signed aloud.

Suddenly, a hazel-brown head poked through the various brambles and leaves making up the entrance to the den. The cat's beautiful yellow-green eyes met Silverpaw and she realized who it was.

"Hazelstar," Silverpaw dipped her head respectfully as Hazelstar entered the den.

The leader inhaled and sighed with a smile.

"I remember when I first set foot in the apprentices' den," she reminisced. "My sister and I were the only apprentices at the time, so we played the game of 'who could take up the most room.'"

Hazelstar laughed.

"I couldn't imagine being the only apprentice. It'd be so lonely, for me at least," Silverpaw said.

"Oh, yes. I forgot that Maplekit died soon after birth."

Maplekit was Silverpaw's sister who died soon after Rookfur gave birth to her. Rookfur only had two kits, so Silverpaw was the only one left.

"Speaking of family," Hazelstar spoke, "I wanted to tell you something. Everyone in RainClan knows Icytail was a traitor..."

Silverpaw tensed at the sound of her father's name.

"...but I don't think you are like him. You take much more after your mother and I hope it remains that way. That being said, there are some cats who think you are another Icytail. So if any of them give you trouble, I want you to know to come and tell me or Duskheart and we'll take care of it. You can always come and talk with me if you need to."

Silverpaw smiled at the kindness of RainClan's leader. She dipped her head again and replied, "Thank you, Hazelstar."

"Now, I must be off and you have a training session to get to."

Hazelstar withdrew herself from the apprentices' den and returned to her own den and Silverpaw stood up.

Another head poked through the brambles, this time a speckled gray tom's.

"Silverpaw?" he called.

"I'm here," Silverpaw replied.

"Hi! I'm Cherrypaw's mentor, Rainwing. Nightwing's going to meet us at the river-hollow once he's done with the patrol, but we need to get started."

Silverpaw nodded, though the name "river-hollow" gave her the thought she was going to be swimming, and Silverpaw hated swimming.

Quietly, Silverpaw followed Rainwing to the river-hollow. It was just out of the camp and was cut in half by a river that formed from a brook that run outside of the nursery. The hollow was a small clearing in the middle of a thick cluster of birch trees. A river, originating as a small brook that ran past the nursery, flower through the hollow. The river-hollow wasn't far from the camp and by the time they arrived it was about sunhigh.

"Welcome, Silverpaw!" a white-and-dark-ginger tom shouted as Rainwing and Silverpaw entered the hollow.

"Good to see you too, Ripplefur," Rainwing retorted.

Silverpaw saw Lightpaw, Cherrypaw, Fishpaw, and three mentors, but Nightwing was nowhere in sight.

"So, Silverpaw, you want to hunt like a true RainClan warrior?" Rainwing asked.

Silverpaw exhaled and firmly stated, "Yes."

"Alright then. Ripplefur, why don't you show our new apprentice how to hunt?"

Ripplefur smiled, some arrogance showing in his gait. Silverpaw wasn't sure how she felt about Ripplefur yet.

"Silverpaw, you are about to learn one of the most important skills a warrior should know: hunting!" Ripplefur rambled on.

Silverpaw had to fight an eye roll.

"Now, you must be thinking, 'But Ripplefur, hunting on land must be so easy compared to hunting in the water!' I can tell you from experience—"

"Ripplefur!" Rainwing called. "Get on with it already!"

Ripplefur rolled his eyes and said, "First lesson!"

Silverpaw glanced behind the white-and-dark-ginger warrior and found Lightpaw, very embarrassed about his mentor's behavior. Silverpaw bit back a laugh.

"Drop into a hunting crouch, Silverpaw, and we shall perfect it!"

Silverpaw slowly, and awkwardly, crouched down. A few giggles came from Cherrypaw and Silverpaw immediately knew she was doing something wrong.

"Okay, well," Ripplefur started, "first of all, put you backside down because you definitely scare away prey hunting like that. You need to keep your body low, but not low enough that you're dragging yourself on the floor."

Silverpaw made the adjustment and felt less gawky than before.

"Now, stick your tail straight out and keep it still."

Silverpaw did as he said and Ripplefur fixed her tail position.

"It's important to keep it still so you don't disturbed any plants around you and scare off prey."

Silverpaw forced her tail to stop swishing back and forth.

"Now, you just need to fix you paws. Back paws need to be ready to leap and front paws ready to pounce!"

Silverpaw finally felt like she was ready to hunt a whole flock of thrushes and some mice too.

"You'll need to practice that multiple times, so you can get the hang of it. Second less—!"

Ripplefur was cut off by a yowl from coming from the forest. A shadowy cat leaped out from the trees, charging towards the apprentices to attack and...

...tripped and fell.

As the warrior lay defeated, the older cats burst into laughter. Silverpaw approached the startled apprentices and discovered the shadowy warrior was no one other than her mentor, Nightwing.

"Nightwing, what were you doing?" Fishpaw asked.

"Your mentors and I wanted to test your battle skills, but I guess I was defeated before the battle began!" Nightwing answered.

The apprentices looked at each other and laughed.

Rainwing walked over, still chuckling over the failed plot, and told Fishpaw, Cherrypaw, and Lightpaw that they would have to have a battle training session now. The three left, leaving just Nightwing and Silverpaw in the river-hollow.

"Well, I guess I'll have to teach you how to hunt in the river," Nightwing said.

Silverpaw's mind imagined her standing in the water, dropping into a hunting crouch and swimming after fish.

Nightwing walked over to the river and caught a fish with precision and elegance, despite his clumsiness earlier.

"How did you do that?" Silverpaw asked. "How do you catch a fish without being totally soaked?"

"It's a lot easier than you think."

Nightwing bent down and laid his boxful against the river's edge.

"You lay like this so your reflection can't be seen in the water," he whispered. "Whatever you do, don't let the fish see a reflection or they won't come."

Silverpaw copied Nightwing and watched him again.

"Now, you wait for a fish and hook your paw into the water to scoop the fish onto the river's edge."

Nightwing did just as he said to do and brought up a silver-scaled fish. Sinking his teeth into the fish, it lay still.

Silverpaw nodded and waited for her own fish. It felt like she was waiting forever, and finally a fish swam by. She attempted to hook her paw into the water, and instead ended up in the river.

Silverpaw began flailing around trying to get herself out of the water.

"Silverpaw, try standing up," Nightwing suggested.

Silverpaw stopped wriggling and stood up. Her head was above the water, however the rest of her body was underneath it. She scrambled into the bank and shook all the water off of her pelt.

"I hate swimming," she grumbled.

"Rookfur told me you didn't learn to swim."

"I don't like it."

"We can work on that later. For now, why don't you try fishing again?"

Silverpaw nodded, but before she laid back down she laughed at her epic fail. Nightwing smiled and joined in.