The next moon Acornpaw worked hard in his training. He was determined to become a warrior as soon as possible, because, as he believed, the sooner the better.
By the time he was a complete, solid seven and a half moons, Acornpaw had already mastered the hunting crouch and two battle moves. Pebblefur was a great mentor, although at times the brown apprentice still pondered of an alternation of Thornpad being his trainer.
However, something was still incomplete- and that was Acornpaw catching his first rabbit. It was what every young cat dreamed of, and Cloverpaw and Gorsepaw telling him their proud story of killing rabbit twins made Acornpaw feel even worse.
So, when Feathertickle assigned Acornpaw, the newly-named Fastpaw, and their mentors Pebblefur and Swiftsprint, on a patrol, Acornpaw decided to take charge.
***
Dead leaves crunched under Acornpaw’s paws as he and his Clanmates made their way around the moor.
Pebblefur was growling in annoyance. “These dumb leaves blow over from ThunderClan territory, and it’s not even leaf-fall,” he muttered angrily. “Oh, ThunderClan! I hate them.”
Swiftsprint wrinkled his black nose in distaste of the rival Clan.
Acornpaw tried not to look at Fastpaw after the warriors’ short, silent conversation ended. Ever since his apprenticeship, Acornpaw and Fastpaw weren’t exactly close anymore.
But now that Fastkit was Fastpaw and Acornpaw’s older denmates would be warriors any day now, Acornpaw knew that’d he’d have to befriend Fastpaw, Littlepaw, Tinypaw, and Smallpaw sometime.
“Hey,” Fastpaw jumped into the discussion sooner than Acornpaw expected he would.
“Hi,” he quietly answered.
Fastpaw pursued. “Catch a rabbit yet?” the gray tom asked.
Acornpaw stiffened. How dare he inquire an older apprentice of their hunting successions? “No,” he mumbled.
The gray apprentice raised his pale eyebrows. “Really?” he questioned again. “Wow. You’re pretty experienced, Acornpaw. I thought you’d get one by now.”
This made the brown tom feel sick. “Yeah.....” Acornpaw swiftly concluded the chat by catching up to his mentor and Swiftsprint, who were talking faintly, as if their enemy was listening for their battle plans.
“.... and he’s focused on hunting down his first rabbit,” Pebblefur was meowing as Acornpaw pulled up. “preferably a small one.”
Swiftsprint only nodded, and Acornpaw was starting to get the impression that the black tomcat didn’t speak much.
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