// chapter 8 //

                                    

                                          
    For the first time in her apprenticeship, Skypaw woke to find she had denmates. She was the first one to wake that morning – surprising, seeing as it was the other apprentices' first day and she would have assumed they would be excited to start their training. But the new apprentices slept on, curled up in their nests like gull eggs still waiting to hatch.
                          
    Skypaw picked her way past them and found Dunerunner already waiting for her in the centre of the main cave. His eyes were amused when she met them.
                          
    "I'm just as surprised as you are," she said before he could comment.
                          
    The cream tom flicked his tail over her ear. "If they're sleeping in already then StarClan knows what they'll be doing two moons into their apprenticeships."
                          
    Skypaw purred, thinking back to two moons prior when she herself had been only in her second moon of training.Her entire apprenticeship had become a blur, passing too quickly for her to take notice. Perhaps she had been hunting her first seagulls, or maybe learning how to fight with a partner during battle.
                          
    She was snapped out of her thoughts by her mentor's teasing mew. "About time!"
                          
    Specklepaw, still blinking the sleep out of her eyes, growled softly. Behind her, Windpaw rolled his eyes and Birchpaw shuffled his paws at his siblings' behaviour. Flypaw at least had the good grace to look sheepish as the four of them arrived late.
                          
    "There they are!" Flamestrike said as he limped towards them, Beetlefang at his side. "We were just planning out your day for you."
                          
    Beetlefang surveyed the four new apprentices – not coldly, but not with the utmost warmth either. "We have a schedule to keep up with if you want to be warriors! Now, let's get out of here."
                          
    The ginger tom and the black she-cat scooted their apprentices out the cave entrance just as Shardtooth and Cobaltwing appeared to find Flypaw and Windpaw. If Skypaw was thinking correctly, they would be taking them on a tour of the territory to learn about all the places and prey SeaClan had to offer. As she watched them leaving, slightly envious of their easy day, Dunerunner nudged her shoulder.
                          
    "Think we can join them? It'll be a nice break from all the training we've been doing."
                          
    The grey and white she-cat perked up immediately and bounded after the others.
                          
    "Nice day for a walk, wouldn't you say?" Shardtooth asked as mentor and apprentice padded up.
                          
    "Precisely why we're going to join you, if you don't mind," Dunerunner replied, and the SeaClan deputy nodded.
                          
    "We've just set them the task of finding a way up the cliff," Cobaltwing explained. "We'll see how observant they are."
                          
    Skypaw narrowed her eyes, wondering how the two brand new apprentices would fare. They had never been outside of SeaClan camp before, let along climbed their way up the steep rocks to the plateau above. Watching them, she nearly snorted with laughter – Windpaw trotted with his head and tail held equally high, scanning the sky as if birds would come to lift him up the rock face, while Flypaw kept his head and body low to the ground, hunting for the way up as if it were prey.
                          
    The rest of the patrol followed the two apprentices without comment, though Skypaw itched to correct their posture. How would they ever find the way up if they weren't even looking at the cliff face? This whole path smelled of SeaClan, they would never find the ledges by scent alone.
                          
    When they reached the ledges, the rest of the patrol stopped while the two clueless apprentices wandered onward, too caught up in their task to notice they were being left behind. Eventually, after Windpaw and Flypaw had moved another few foxlengths away, Cobaltwing cleared his throat loudly.