My rivalry with Lionkit was only increasing as we grew closer and closer to becoming apprentices. We would always sleep with Springkit between us, we would eat opposite ends of fresh-kill, and we would always be on opposite sides when we had play-fights.

Today was the big day, the day we would become apprentices. Lionkit and myself both were very large. We were almost as tall as warriors, although our muscles weren't as developed. We also didn't have the skill that warriors have.

Springkit was average height for a kit, about as tall as Ravenpaw. She was more agile, and was much smarter than us.

At least I have the brains to recognize that. Unlike someone I know.

I was the only one of my family awake. Mouseclaw was sleeping with her newborn, Frostkit. Lionkit and Springkit were still curled up in the crevice of Riverflower's stomach.

I poked my head outside, temporarily blinded by the sunlight. There weren't many cats out and about. I saw a group of cats heading out for a patrol, and Kinkfur padding back over to the leaders den, just finished with sorting out patrols.

I turned back into the nursery to see everyone slowly waking up. Lionkit was the first on his paws, as per usual. He looked straight at me while he was stretching, and then padded over to me.

I feared the worst, but all he said was, "Decent day?"

I gave a silent sigh, and replied. "Yeah."

"Good, wanna play some mossball when the other finish waking up?"

Keeping my facade up, I excitedly replied, "Yeah! That sounds like fun."

Springkit rose from her paws, stretched, and then pawed at Riverflower. "Ma? Can we go outside and play?"

Riverflower blearily blinked her eyes open, shaking her head before turning to Springkit. "How about you wait a little while? Hailstar said that your ceremonies would be held rather early today."

Springkit lit up with excitement. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot that we had our apprentice ceremonies today!" She turned to us, "Guys! We have our apprentice ceremonies today!"

Lionkit and I responded in unison. "We know."

Springkit's face turned into a pout, "You guys ruin my fun." Then she turned back to Riverflower, "Ma, why did I have to get two brothers?"

Lionkit quietly whispered to me, "I feel like it's more of a case where we ended up with her." I snickered.

"I don't know, Springkit. I guess it's Starclan's decision."

"Then Starclan must be pretty stupid."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Everyone dead-paned.

"Springkit, I-Just-ugh. Springkit, Starclan has a reasoning for everything. If they wanted you to have to brothers, then there's probably a reason why. Maybe you can stop all their fighting or something."

"Or SOMETHING? What do you mean 'Or SOMETHING'?"

Riverflower was clearly still to tired to deal with this. "You know exactly what I meant. Now go outside and do something before I claw my eyes out."

Frostkit had apparently woken up, and was watching us as we had our feud. "Can we just play some mossball or something behind the nursery? I just woke up and I don't feel like listening to all of you."

Mouseclaw lifted her head behind Frostkit. "And I'm still waking up. Please just play outside."

I rolled my eyes and padded out, quickly followed by Lionkit, while Springkit and Frostkit were slow, talking amongst themselves.

The instant we were behind the nursery, out of view from everyone, Lionkit jumped on my back, surprising me, so I feebly fell over.

"Lionkit! W-What are you doing?"

"Better to take care of you know than later, Heron."  He unsheathed his claws, and got ready to strike me. The other paws were pinning me down, except for one that was cutting of my windpipe. All I could do was close my eyes, and hope for the best. Lionkit was technically older than me, and had spent more of his time fighting against trees than I had.

"Hey guys! What are you doing?" Frostkit and Springkit had appeared, and just in the nick of time. Before they could see anything, Lionkit quickly retracted his claws, and instead of slashing me, he just cuffed me on the head.

"Oh, nothing. We were play-fighting while we waited for you guys."

Yeah, that's what we were doing.

"Really? I thought we were playing Mossball?"

Lionkit responded again, "We still can if you all want to."

Oh, really.

"Sure! I'll grab a ball from our nest." With that, Springkit ran inside.

Frostkit turned and followed her, but not before giving one last confused look to Lion and myself.

When Frostkit was gone, Lion turned to me. "You were lucky this time, but next time, they won't be there to but in. And we both know I'm stronger than you. It'll be your demise."

I put up a scared face, giving him the assumed satisfaction of scaring me, but inside I was very calm.

Well, as calm as one can be when your brother threatens to kill you.

I knew that our side had the better chance of winning. We had beat them before in the previous life, but not without a bit of struggle. Plus, even if they've learnt new tricks while in the Dark Forest, we'd learnt some new ones in StarClan.

Also, Lion's bravery was because of his confidence in his strength. My bravery was just confidence in myself. So if I were to become stronger than him, he'd lose his bravery, as well as his confidence.

An easy win for us.

Go team.

Springkit and Frostkit quickly returned with the ball of moss. They were walking in a very awkward manner, each side-stepping as they passed each other the ball.

After Frostkit received it, she passed it to me, whereas I passed it to Lion, and so on.

As we would pass, we made remarks to each other such as: "That was a great pass" and "You're so bad at catching!"

Well, mainly just between my litter mates and myself. Frostkit was still a wee bit shy, so she barely spoke.

"All cats who are old enough to swim, please gather beneath the River Rock for a clan meeting!"

The yowl that was sent around the clearing made me jump, and I was way off in my pass to Lion. "Our apprentice ceremonies! Let's hurry!" Springkit ran away towards the clearing.

I trotted up, right in between Springkit and Lionkit. Springkit was shaking in excitement, and Lionkit was calm. Seeing as he's done this before, I'm not surprised.

I'll propose a truce, so long as you spread it to your friends. It wouldn't be satisfying to kill you as an apprentice.

I looked over to Lionkit in surprise. Maple had told me something about this in one of our shared dreams, yet it still caught me off guard.

"Springkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and are ready to become an apprentice. From this moment on, until you become a warrior, you will be known as Springpaw." Hailstar looked quickly around the clearing deciding on a suitable mentor. "Streamtail. You are ready for another apprentice. You trained Rosefrost well, and I hope you pass down the same skills to Springpaw." Streamtail made her way over to Springpaw, where they touched noses.

As the two made their way back into the crowd, the clan shouted, "Springpaw! Springpaw! Springpaw!"

Next, Hailstar turned to me. "Heronkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and are ready to become an apprentice. From this moment on, until you become a warrior, you will be known as Heronpaw." He took another quick look at the clan. "Mistheart, despite your young age, you've proven yourself over and over again. You will be Heronpaw's mentor. Please pass down all you know."

"I'll do my best, Hailstar." The serious-looking tom padded over to me, bent down, and touched his nose to mine.

"Heronpaw! Heronpaw! Heronpaw!" Mistheart and myself padded back into the crowd.

I closed my eyes, trying to think about how Mistheart would teach me. He was big, so he could teach me with strength, and as far as I knew, he was decently smart as well. This could help in the long run, especially in understanding someone like Maple.

Of course, doing this, I missed most of Lionkit's ceremony.

"Rosefrost, you will be Lionpaw's mentor. You have proven your strength many times, and I hope you pass that down."

Rosefrost responded with a smirk, and touched noses with Lionpaw.

"Lionpaw! Lionpaw! Lionpaw!"

Greypaw padded up to me. "Welcome to apprenticeship Heronpaw! I've already made a nest for you, and I hope we can become good friends!"

I smiled at the tom. The way his eye glinted reminded me of someone I had met in Starclan...

"Hey, Greypaw, I've got a game to play. I'm going to give you a warrior's name, and you're going to give me a bit of their backstory. Deal?"

"Yeah, sure! Can we go to our nests first?" I gave him a nod.

Once we had settled down, I started listing off a few names. He nailed pretty much all of them. I had loosened him up, so now was the time to strike. "What about the warrior Silverstream?"

"Oh, I know that one! She had saved someone from a river, where they exchanged glances. They went on to become lovers, and had two kits. Silverstream died, though."

It was barely noticeable, but there was small, tiny drop of water running down his face.

Bingo.

I actually don't know if cats know what bingo is, but it fits, so screw logic.

Thanks to @kiitsunestarz for bullying me through the last few hundred words.

T-T

Anyway, sorry for not updating in so long! I've gotten busy with high school, and never really had time. I had the day off today though.

I'm not gonna do a riddle today, or a question. Sorry.

No set date for the next chapter.

See you next time.

-Maple