{The Great Apprentice Wars Begin}

Slatepaw was sleeping soundly when a familiar yowl from somewhere in reality ruptured his slumber and sent him into a drowsy state. The voice continued, and Slatepaw flicked his ear backwards and opened his eyes slightly when he heard his name being called, he then-- Wait, did she just say yesterday? YESTERDAY??? Slatepaw sprang to his paws in panic. His eyes wide, scanning the apprentices den like a frightened piece of prey.

The slate-colored tom made a dash for the exit of the apprentices cave and made a dead-stop in the middle of the camp, looking around in panic and confusion, his head still fuzzy and dazed from sleep. All his clan mates still seemed to be going about their regular routines, Slatepaw paused and narrowed his eyes slightly, allowing himself to relax a little and letting the fur on the back of his neck return to a more comfortable angle.

Slatepaw sniffed the air a bit for the scent of his mentor and padded over to the scraps of feathers left behind from a freshly eaten sparrow. He lifted his head just in time to see Windchill's tail disappear from view as she left the camp.

A slight smirk made its way onto Slatepaw's face as he realized what had just happened, and boy did he fall for it! Oh boy did he want to get her back for that one. Slatepaw's stomach growled in protest at the idea, however he had already dropped into a hunting crouch and was sneaking towards the camp exit, quick on his paws, glancing sideways at the alternate and more dangerous route down from the clan camp, he didn't think twice before making a break for it. He was gonna get to Broken Birch before Windchill if it was the last thing he did!

Singewhisker sat and huffed, her anger starting to rise and her blood starting to boil. She was tired of this unnecessary waiting, they should have been here ages ago, they could be out training right now however instead, the warrior was sitting here and doing nothing, nothing productive what so ever. This was a was of valuable time, and the worst part was that the she-cat couldn't do a thing about it.

She soon spotted Windchill making her way over towards the broken tree, and Singewhisker couldn't be more relieved. Any more waiting and she would have sworn that she would start picking out each hair on her body one by one. She frowned at Windchill's sarcastic comment. The brown cat couldn't expect better from that mangy hair ball. "Any more smart remarks like that and you'll have a mouse bone in your face." She let out a soft purr of amusement as she sprung to her feet, a mischievous look plastered on her face. "Then they'll probably have to change your name to Boneface. Haha, it would be hilarious." She settled herself back down, pulling her excitement under control as she gave her chest a few quick licks. It was hard to keep clean when you had so much fur, Windchill didn't know just how lucky she was.

"So where are the apprentices? Did you come here alone just to smite me mouse-brain?" Singewhisker asked with a small smirk on her face, once she was done with her grooming. She would have thought that Windchill would have brought the apprentices along but they were no where to be seen. Was she trying to get on the aggressive she-cat's nerves? The warrior stood back up and then stretched, flexing her claws with a small yawn. "I hope you've been training your apprentice well. What was it? Slatepaw or something?" She gave her paw a few quick licks, running it over her ears. "Me and Mudpaw don't mess around, you'll be lucky to keep up with us." She said in a challenging tone. There was noting better than out-doing Windchill of course, she was going to have fun with all of this.

Singewhisker kept her eyes peeled and her senses awake as she looked around for the other two cats. What was Windchill playing at? Did she like to keep the she-cat waiting? Either way, soon they would be out and they would be testing their apprentices skills, and Singewhisker was counting on Mudpaw to make an impression.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, ladies.” Slatepaw said, slightly muffled as if he had something in his mouth , he dropped a really tiny excuse for a piece of pray at his paws and then nudged it forwards a bit. “I got a little distracted on the way here.”

In all reality, Slatepaw had tripped over something on his way down to the broken birch since he took that alternate route, and by the time he showed up Windchill had already made it there before him, he was stuck for an idea as to how to one-up his mentor from that previous event when just as luck would have it, his ears were graced with the lovely sound of a chittering mouse. Obviously he wasn't going to let that one get away too easy, and figured it was a perfect excuse for his tardy and a nice way to impress his clan mates as well.

Thanks to the skills Windchill had taught him previously, the rodent didn't stand a chance.

“I think fighting sounds like a fantastic idea,” Slatepaw said in response to the previous conversation that he had overheard while bringing his catch to the two warriors. “Since I've already proven myself superior in the hunting category there's obviously only one other way to show you how great of a warrior I'll grow up to be.” Slatepaw puffed out his chest a little bit and waited for a response from his mentor and her friend.

Singewhisker rolled her eyes at Windchill. "I suppose it is a little to early for me to come up with any witty remarks. Wait until I wake up a little, then I'll insult you to your heart's content." She huffed, noticing that the apprentices were finally arriving, only Slatepaw at first. The she-cat frowned a little, Mudpaw was already showing her up. "An understanding? You'll need a little more than that I'm afraid. You can't expect an apprentice of mine to be lacking when it comes to battle." She let out a soft murrow of amusement, having faith in her apprentice, even though they might not be as close as Windchill and Slatepaw were.

The warrior raised an eyebrow at Statepaw as he made his entrance. Ladies?. She was going to make a comment on that but then she decided to keep her muzzle shut. She didn't seem to impressed with Slatepaw, a little to full of himself for her taste but she did admire the fact that he had a good sense of pride. "A warrior cannot excel in everything. Being good at hunting is a great skill, however knowing your limits is also a great skill." She gave her chest a few more licks, only rising her head back up to notice that Mudpaw was finally arriving. Of all the cats that had to be keeping them waiting, it had to be Mudpaw that arrived last. Singewhisker wasn't impressed.

The chocolate coloured she-cat made a low growl at her apprentice. "Where were you? You know I don't like to be kept waiting. She flicked her tail over onto Mudpaw's shoulder. I sincerely doubt you will be a great warrior Slatepaw. Singewhisker narrowed her eyes at the comment made by her apprentice. She wasn't happy with it at all. Boasting about one's skills was one thing, but telling another cat that they were not going to be a good warrior was low even for Singewhisker. "All of you apprentices are going to grow into great warriors. I will hear no further comments like that one Mudpaw. Try to wake up a little earlier. The more time we have, the more training we can do."

She rose to her feet and then flicked her tail, deliberately getting it in Windchill's face. "Well are we going to go yet or not? We're still wasting time, we can yowl about how amazing we are on our way there." She quickly started to trot down the trail that led away from the RaggedClan camp, not even looking back to see if the other three cat's were following her. She was anxious to see how well Mudpaw would do in this training session. She was itching to teach her apprentice how to battle, how to crush your enemy in battle. It was Singewhisker's strong point after all, she loved a good fight.

Slatepaw did as he was told and quickly dropped off the mouse at the freshkill pile back in camp. He promptly returned, and the warriors then departed to actually get some training done.
Picking his way down the narrow slope carefully, he followed behind Windchill. Once they were down the hardest part and Winchill advanced to take the lead of the group, Slatepaw fell back a little and took the opportunity to speak with Mudpaw for a little bit before their official training session began.
“Hey, Mudpaw.” Slatepaw said, allowing himself to fall into her pawsteps so they were walking side-by-side. “I just want to say that however this fighting thing goes today, I'm not gonna have hard feelings about it after its over." He said, "Not that I'm trying to mean anything by that, I just wanna let you know that I can get really focused on what I'm doing, and I might come off rude sometimes but I don't usually mean the stuff I say.” Slatepaw laughed a little bit and glanced up at their mentors wondering if they were listening to the conversation or not. “Anyways, good luck....” He paused for a second before adding a snarky comment, “'Cause you'll need it.”

It wasn't too long after that they arrived at Dune Hollow, Windchill stood on the hill and started explaining how the training was going to work, Slatepaw trotted down to the small hill to hear the rest of the plan.

Slatepaw smiled a bit and sent a sideways glance towards Mudpaw once he heard they'd be fighting each other not once, but twice! Before quickly snapping his attention back to Windchill, whiskers twitching in anticipation for the battle. “Got it.” Slatepaw nodded once Windchill was finished speaking. He didn't hesitate, padding to the middle of the hollow trying to hide his excitement. He flicked his ears back flat against his head and smiled a bit, “So, how're we gonna do this, some sort of stare-down to see who makes the first move?” Slatepaw lowered his body to the ground a bit and flexed his claws in the dirt, knowing he wasn't allowed to use his claws in the long run, but it helped him ready himself for the ongoing battle. “Or shall I be a gentletom and allow the she-cat the first strike.”

(ahh I'm so sorry for the late reply! School has really made me loose my muse for things)

Singewhisker seated herself down next to Windchill once they arrived at the Dune hollow. She was also curious to know how Mudpaw would perform, she hadn't exactly done any or much battle training with the young cat yet, so it was hard to tell just how much she might know about battle. Her tail twitched with anticipation. "Sounds like a plan Windchill." She muttered, listening to her ideas for the days work. If Mudpaw lost this battle here, she was definitely going to go hard on her with teachings.

The RaggedClaner examined the two apprentices, especially Slatepaw. Slatepaw was new to her, she knew less about him than she did about Mudpaw, so it was only natural for her to be curious. She wondered how much he knew about battle? It seemed as if they both had a pretty good chance of winning, but she could only pick up that much from observation. The odds could easily be much different, however she let her hope rest on the fact that Mudpaw had a good chance of winning. Singewhisker licked her lips and then gave Windchill a small nudge. "Hey, if Mudpaw wins the the second battle, you have to be nice to me for a quarter-moon." She whispered and then chuckled a little at the thought of it.