"Climb up the mountain, get one of the rocks, and come back down. That's all you have to do. Easy enough, right? You have from dawn to dusk to do it." Wolflungs explained, standing on one of the lower ledges on the base of the biggest mountain.

"Dawn to dusk?" Rockpaw scoffed. "That'll take me an hour. Why do we need to climb up a mountain for our warrior assessment anyway?"

At this, Wolflungs chuckled and replied, "Well, firstly, no cat that I can remember has ever scaled this mountain and back in an hour, especially not an apprentice. And secondly, it'll test your endurance, wits, navigation, speed and power, all in one. That's what the perfect AirClan warrior strives for. To have the all the skills of our WindClan ancestors!"

Rockpaw straightened himself and promised, "Then I'll be the quickest one to do that, I swear I will. I'll climb up the mountain, bring back the rock and- Wait... What rock?"

Wolflungs laughed again and answered, "Many, many, many generations ago, when the new Clans had started to settle into their territories, the WindClan settlers had started to think of new ways to bring the ancient Clan traditions here. They thought that it would be too easy to take an apprentice to the MoonRock and just hunt for their assessment, so they decided to use their new territory. The first leader of AirClan, Thistlestar, decided that to pass their warriors assessment, ready apprentices would have to climb the highest mountain in all the territory, bring back something from the top to prove they did it and return to the ground. So he himself climbed the mountain and, when he reached its peak, carved a special symbol into every small rock and loose pebble he could find on there. Legend has it, that the marked rocks will never run out, because he comes down from StarClan every year to carve more rocks.

"After he did that, he returned to the ground. All this took him from dawn to dusk, so he made that part of the rules. Every apprentice from then on, has to show one of the rocks to their mentor, bury the rock deep in the forest, and then they received their warrior names. It is also said that the leader receives an omen from StarClan, specifically Thistlestar, the day before the assessment is to take place. This omen is said to show the leader that the apprentices are ready, and what their warrior names should be. Any questions?" Wolflungs finished with a friendly flick of his charcoal-striped tail.

Rockpaw dug his claws into the damp, dewy grass and looked up at the towering mountain, repressing his fear and nervousness. To scatter the worried 'what if's' in his head, he asked, "What other rules did Thistlestar make for this assessment?"

He saw Treepaw straighten her back next to him, and Skunkpaw's ears and tail quivering on his other side. The pre-dawn light gave a strong enough glow, for Rockpaw to see the immediate area around him, before it blurred back into shadows. Wolflungs turned his head towards the eastern horizon, lifting his muzzle and smelling the air.

"Almost time," he murmured. He turned to the three apprentices and began quickly, "Another one of the rules he added, was that the apprentices have to awake an hour before dawn, which is a nightmare if your assessment was mid-Greenleaf, and hunt down a hare as a group. Then, when you've caught it, you share it between you. This is to test your hunting and collaboration skills, as well as planning ahead and communication. But, of course, you already know this." He nodded at the small mound of freshly-dug-up soil.

Rockpaw nodded, glancing over to where they had buried the bones of the hare. "Anything else we should know about? Like shortcuts or the best route up?" He asked innocently, trying to sound plain curious.

"Oh, no you don't." a familiar voice snapped from behind Rockpaw.
He turned around, eyes wide and ears pricked.

A grey tabby appeared out of the shadows of the pines and stepped into the open patch of ground beside the mountain. His orange eyes gleamed in the weak gold light and his tail was held high in the air.

"Mousefoot!" Rockpaw exclaimed, bouncing up to stand on his feet. He started to step forward, but Wolflung's meow interrupted him.

"It's time. The sun's about to come up."

Rockpaw turned to glare at the horizon and his paw twitched forward.

Mousefoot shook his head, his stripes starting to stand out in the growing light. "We'll have time for the pleasantries later," he meowed, "For now," he took a step forward, his back legs shaking slightly, "Go get that rock." He smiled and nodded.

Rockpaw felt an unusual feeling in his stomach. It wasn't just the butterflies squirming around in there, it was joy. Warm and pure. He nodded back and turned back to Wolflungs.

"Wait!" yet another voice sounded behind him.

Rockpaw turned sharply to see Blossompaw pushing through a patch of ferns and burst into the clearing. She rushed up to her siblings, panting and coughing.

"Blossompaw! I thought I told you to stay in camp. We need to stock up on aloe vera gel-" Crystalwing scolded.

"I know, I know." Blossompaw whispered, "I'll go back in a moment."

Crystalwing shook her head and lashed her tail, glancing up at the horizon.

Blossompaw took a step forward to stand directly in front of Rockpaw. "Good luck." She murmured, touching her head to his. She dodged around him and did the same to Treepaw, before quickly nodding at Skunkpaw and disappearing into the undergrowth, Crystalwing glaring after her.

Rockpaw, wide-eyed, looked after her, feeling a warm feeling spread slowly through his chest. He smiled weakly and turned to stand a tail-length from the start of the rock. Treepaw stood on his right, Skunkpaw on his left. Wolflungs hovered on a ledge to their side, keeping his vivid yellow eyes on the horizon.

"And..." he lifted his tail into the air. "Go!"

As one, Rockpaw and his denmates leaped for the first shelf of rock.

Mousefoot called after him, "Remember to conserve your energy! Don't use it all up at once!"

Flamepelt, for the first time this morning, meowed loudly, "Good luck, 'paws!"

"Remember - you're not allowed to help each other!" Wolflungs repeated for the hundredth time today.

Rockpaw pushed off with his hind legs and leaped for the next ledge, scrabbling with his front claws to get a firm grip. A few more jumps and he reached a strip of flat rock that circled around for this half of the mountain. Treepaw and Skunkpaw crouched either side of him, Skunkpaw panting and his tail tip twitching.

"So..." Treepaw began. "I guess, goodbye?"

"Yeah, see you." Rockpaw meowed.

"Good luck, guys." Skunkpaw mewed.

Rockpaw went straight forward, while Treepaw took a hollow path to the right, and Skunkpaw followed a grassy lane that wound left. In a few heartbeats, they were gone from view. Rockpaw pushed off and clawed his way up onto a wide shelf. All around him on the mountain, small cliffs jutted out, some short and narrow, others long and tall. He chose a jagged ridge on his left and stepped onto it.

He turned around and breathed in sharply. The dawn light seeped onto the rolling forest of dark green under him. Glowing oranges and pinks bled into the green and greys. Each drop of silvery dew was illuminated to a small, glistening drop of gold, sparkling the trees and the fields with warm yellow specks. From this height, the fields and forests under him looked like they were scattered with fireflies. The gentle morning breeze stirred up the grass and needles, like waves on the lake, sloshing and flowing serenely.

A sudden rush of blue-grey obscured his vision. He tripped back, knocking against the wall of the mountain. Rockpaw got up hurriedly and looked around. A sparrowhawk circled around and landed on a tree not far from the mountain, seemingly watching him with one large amber eye. Rockpaw scoffed and stepped up onto another ledge.

If you keep dawdling like this at every tail-length, you'll never get there first. Rockpaw scalded himself.

He picked up his pace. Rockpaw jumped from ledge to ledge, clawing up every rocky slope and stone ridge that stood in his path. With every tree-length, it grew a slight bit colder, and the wind grew stronger. He barely paused for breath or to see which way to go, only stopping when he met a dead end to navigate himself out of it.

It was an hour or so before sunhigh, when Rockpaw finally looked up to the sky, surprise and delight filling him from ears to tail.

I'm almost there! Just a few more fox-lengths and I'll complete my assessment! He exclaimed silently, a grin curling up his muzzle.

He reached up to grab a small ledge and heaved himself up onto a large platform. Next, he bunched his muscles in his hindquarters and leaped onto a narrow strip of stone. From there, he pulled himself up a steep expanse of rock, using the small, jutting-out ridges to help him. After a few more mouse-lengths, the rock tipped forward and Rockpaw saw the tip of the mountain, butterflies returning to his stomach. He wrapped his front paws around the rocky spike above him and dragged his body onto it.

Silvery rock spread out in front of him, forming a long, wide stretch of greys and greens, before the mountain's peak reached out to the blue sky. He opened his mouth to let the air reach his scent glands. All he could smell was the chilly but soothing mountain breeze, along with the scent of soil and grass. So Skunkpaw and Treepaw hadn't been here yet.

Rockpaw's paws itched, and he felt glee overwhelm him. He rushed forward, nuzzling through long tufts of grass, before he found a flat pebble in no more than a few heartbeats. On it's side, two rough, jagged, wiggly lines were carved, forming the shape of the blowing wind. A few, evenly-spaced dots formed a circle around them, and the wind seems to blow a bit harder. Rockpaw picked up the pebble in his mouth, adjusting it so he could breathe clearly with his nose. The pebble's hard surface scraped uncomfortably against his teeth and tongue.

He followed his scent trail back to the edge of the overhang of rocks and looked down.

With suddenly shaking legs, he gazed down at the seemingly endless expanse of grey. He gulped and slowly started to scale down the rocks.

Word Count: 1796