RiverClan clearing

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

A large silver she-cat sat outside of her den in the clearing. Faint gray stripes could be seen on her thick, ungroomed fur, and her tail rested at her side. Her ears swiveled around as she observed her rather quiet camp. Things recently had been normal and uneventful, and she was grateful for it. Greenleaf was the time for relaxing and taking in the good weather, not worrying about prey or issues between Clans. She was in a good mood as long as nothing was going wrong.

There wasn't much activity in the camp. One or two cats hovered by the fresh-kill pile, eating. A few cats were out of camp, but she doubted there were any patrols at the moment. She wondered if the deputy had arranged any patrols for the day. It certainly didn't seem like it.

A movement by the apprentices' den caught Willowstar's eye. A small cat appeared from it, and she recognized him as Graypaw, the youngest apprentice. She hadn't spoked to his mentor recently, but she expected his training was off to a good start. She had picked Puddlepelt to be his mentor for a reason. "Graypaw, do you know where Puddlepelt is?" She called across the clearing to him.

Graypaw glanced over at the leader and shook his head. "No. Do you?"

"I think she may be by the Twoleg bridge." Willowstar guessed.

Graypaw nodded slowly, his eyes half closed out of sleepiness. "Okay." He took a second to shake out his fur and wake himself up, then headed for the exit of camp. After leaping easily over the small stream that bordered camp, he disappeared into the forest.

[Yoko]

The grey and white tom stuck his tired head from the warrior's den. He blinked his amber eyes a few times, getting used to the light. Then he closed them and stretched his jaws in a wide yawn. Slowly, he slid from the warriors den, which was practically empty now. Where had every cat gone? He looked around the clearing, everything appeared quite content. There were a few cats eating, but that appeared to be all. Suddenly, he focused in on two cats, Willowstar and Graypaw. Shellclaw wrinkled his brow. Where was Puddlepelt? Shouldn't she be with her apprentice?

Padding over swiftly, Shellclaw halted a tail length away from his leader and the young apprentice. "Good Morning, Willowstar, Graypaw," he mewed. "Have either of you seen Puddlepelt?"

At that moment, however, he spotted Puddlepelt just outside the camp entrance with Spottedfur and Cloverpaw. A returning patrol perhaps?

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

Graypaw stopped just outside the camp's entrance, having nearly ran into the three cats coming toward camp. "Oh, sorry." He said, slightly embarrassed that he hadn't noticed they were right there before. At least he wouldn't have to go all the way to the Twoleg bridge to look for his mentor. "Willowstar just sent me to look for you." He told Puddlepelt, looking up at her.

Willowstar nodded a greeting to Shellclaw. She was about to tell him how she sent Graypaw to find Puddlepelt, but realized she would have spoken too soon. Puddlepelt, Spottedfur, and Cloverpaw had just reached camp. "There she is," Willowstar meowed, watching Graypaw speak to Puddlepelt. "She's probably been out for most of the morning."

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

Spottedfur allowed his features to arrange themselves into a slight smile as Puddlepelt trailed off, leaving her sentence unfinished. Every breath the she-cat took, every whisker she twitched was noticed and analyzed by the spotted tom. He remained close to her at they arrived in camp and her apprentice greeted them. Understanding your Clanmate better could only be a good thing, and so Spottedfur intended to figure out as much as he could before their training session was over today.

"I've taught Cloverpaw the basics of that move," the black and white tom answered Puddlepelt, subtly encouraging her to continue her thought. "Learning to use the move with another apprentice would be good for Cloverpaw. It might improve her understanding of the motions involved." Now that Graypaw had found them (at least Puddlepelt's apprentice wanted to train), the group could proceed to the training grounds. Spottedpaw continued to think, with his mind focused both on training and on Puddlepelt. Both were conundrums to be figured-out, but the training required more immediate attention. Understanding the beautiful white and grey she-cat could wait until later.

[Yoko]

She was facing forward again, unable to keep the small smile off her face, and nodding slightly to let him know she was listening.

"That's great. They're about the same size, so there won't be a problem with their practicing on each other. But," Puddlepelt mewed. "This will be Graypaw's first time learning it. So I'll have to take a few moment's to explain."


Shellclaw glanced from Puddlepelt to Spottedfur. His amber eyes flashing from one to the other. If there was a patrol, why was there only one apprentice with them? And they were walking a bit too closely.

Putting on a big grin, Shellclaw padded up to his twin sister.

"It's about time you got back. From what I've heard, you were gone the whole morning. And you even forgot to wake me up."

Puddlepelt giggled and padded around him. "I didn't forget, Shellclaw. I tried and gave up when you rolled over and snored loud enough to wake Starclan."

She was before Willowstar before her brother could respond. Dipping her head she mewed, "Good Morning, Willowstar. Graypaw, I expect you're well rested? We have training to do and Spottedfur has kindly offered for you and Cloverpaw to train together.

[☆ Y e l l o w ☆]

Willowstar nodded slightly to Puddlepelt. "Glad to see you're here, Puddlepelt. I had just sent Graypaw to look for you." She hadn't needed to, however, since it looked like she had been heading back to camp anyway.

Graypaw trotted alongside Puddlepelt, his eyes wide and eager. "Really?" He asked, looking over at Cloverpaw. He smiled a little. "Sounds like fun. Hey, where's Pebblepaw?" The young apprentice directed his second question at Cloverpaw. The two she-cats were close friends and were usually together. Graypaw was surprised she wasn't around.

[Amber]

Cloverpaw had followed silently behind her mentor. She wasn't one to keep quiet too often, but the she-cat was somewhat lost, not having Pebblepaw to talk to. She sighed and her eyes drifted to the medicine cat's den, where she caught sight of Ivypaw ushering their curious little sister, Hollykit, back in the den. The past few days Hollykit had began to move around a little more, which was overly exciting for Cloverpaw. The hard work Ivypaw was doing on Hollykit was working.

The orange apprentice had barely even heard Graypaw as the tom began talking to her. Her thoughts were elsewhere, on what her sisters were doing.

"Hmm? Oh, Pebblepaw went hunting when we came back to get you." she said. "I guess that means we get to train together. Don't expect me to go easy on you."

[. s p o r e l e t t ♪]

While Puddlepelt immediately padded off to greet Shellclaw and Willowstar, Spottedfur remained a few paces behind and observed the two apprentices. Cloverpaw and Graypaw had already stuck-up a conversation, which Spottedfur listened mildly to while he waited for Puddlepelt to finish-up her conversation with Willowstar. "Good morning, Graypaw, Greetings Willowstar," Spottedfur meowed smoothly to the apprentice and leader. "Hello to you as well, Shellclaw." Not particularly a friendly cat, Spottedfur decided to greet everyone involved to meet the usual standards of politeness. Then he was silent, content to listen and watch until the current business was resolved and they could be on their way to the training area.

[Yoko]

Puddlepelt glanced at Spottedfur. He was being polite, not quite chatty. He had the right idea though. They had work to do. Smiling she mewed.

"We're all set then? We should be on our way. Good-bye, Willowstar."

She was just turning to go to the entrance, when Shellclaw padded in front of her.

"Mind if I tag along?" Shellclaw mewed casually.

Puddlepelt laughed as she tried to get past him. "You don't have an apprentice."

"Well, why don't you take Mistflower and Pebblepaw too?"

Puddlepelt shook her head. "I'm sure Mistflower has plans for her apprentice today."

"What about Slatepaw?"

Puddlepelt looked at him oddly for a moment. Then she shook her head with a small smile. "Enough games, brother. We must not waste all day."

She brushed by Spotterfur gently as she passed by him and the apprentices and out the entrance.