Bring Honor To Us All [p]

[Squirrelbite]

Squirrelpaw nodded, her eyes narrowed as she followed him to the Sky Tree. She hoped that she would be able to live up to her namesake when it came to climbing skills, though there was only one way to find out. The ruddy apprentice unsheathed her claws and jumped, easily scaling the base of the tree until she was seeing eye to eye with her mentor. "How high do you want me to go?"

[Beechroot]

"As high as you would like." Beechroot blinked at her, then gazed down at the ground. His tail flicked in thought. "But remember, you must come down." He could have easily just jumped down from the branch, but Squirrelpaw would not have that option if she chose to go higher. He returned to the trunk of the tree and slowly put one paw after the other, but backwards.

The warrior calmly made it to the bottom without any slip-ups. "Like that."

[Squirrelbite]

"No problem." Squirrelpaw turned and began climbing, with ease at first, but had to get much more careful as she got higher. Soon, she cautiously tested each branch before shifting her weight onto it, and made sure to stay near the base of the tree.

Looking down at Beechroot, she saw that he was very, very small, and she didn't feel like risking it to go higher, so she started scaling down. It was much trickier than she thought it would be, and took longer than climbing up, but eventually, Squirrelpaw agilely leaped back onto the ground.

[Beechroot]

Beechroot brightened when she made it back to the ground. "Very good. You live up to your name." He winked at her in jest. He had been named after a previous leader whom he had never met. The tom paused at the thought of Beechstar, blankly staring at the ground for a few moments.

He shook his head and smiled down at his apprentice. "Alright, we've got some basics down. How about I show you our borders?" Before she could even answer, he began walking away.

[Squirrelbite]

Squirrelpaw suppressed the pride she felt as Beechroot complimented her, just nodding her head evenly. It wasn't that much of an accomplishment, anyways, all she'd done was climb a tree.

Her gold eyes narrowed, she nodded her head, obligingly padding after him. "Okay," The red she-cat flicked her tail. "What border are we going to first?" 

[Beechroot]

"Fireclan." Beechroot responded and was silent for most of the walk. The trees began to thin and he stopped when it was almost purely grass. "This is it." He sat down and scented the other clan. He scowled at the thought of Fireclan's disastrous ways. "Remember this scent. Fireclan likes to cause trouble."

He turned and looked at her. "Never, under any circumstance, cross this border. Especially when chasing prey. If it crosses over, it is their prey. I don't want you to get in a fight with one of those Fireclan fox hearts over a rabbit."

[Squirrelbite]

Squirrelpaw didn't know much about the clans other than the basics, and she wondered what FireClan had done to make Beechroot so wary of them. Secretly, she hoped that one day she'd catch a FireClan cat trespassing, and be able to show off her skills by chasing them off.

"Okay, I wasn't planning on it." She responded casually, her eyes scanning the border one last time to make sure she'd remember it.

[Beechroot]

"Good." Was Beechroot's only response. He rose back to his feet and flicked his tail, beckoning her to follow. "Okay, now the Iceclan border." The warrior didn't mind Iceclan, they mostly stayed out of Treeclan's business.

What he did mind was how cold it became when one would approach their territory. Beechroot knew it was because of the mountain, but he didn't understand how they lived in it. His short pelt was not fit for it.

The journey to the Iceclan border was much farther. Even Beechroot's paws began to ache. "Same with this clan. Recognize their scent." This time he stood a little closer to Squirrelpaw, hoping she didn't notice he was shivering.

[Squirrelbite]

FireClan smelled like grass and empty air, a strong contrast to TreeClan's scent of undergrowth and earth. It was impossible to miss, and Squirrelpaw would not be crossing the border by accident any time soon.

She followed him to the IceClan border, which looked so harsh that Squirrelpaw wouldn't want to cross over if she had to, it was so cold and treacherous. Cats were not meant to live on a mountain, and she wondered how any of them survived.

"Okay." Squirrelpaw nodded, flicking an ear.

[Beechroot]

Beechroot stared into Iceclan's territory, wondering if they were having troubles like Treeclan was. He guessed it would be discussed at the gathering. "Alright, that's enough for today." His paws were aching from all of the walking they had done.

"When we get back to camp, I want you to bring prey to the elders and queens. Make sure their nests are clean." He suddenly thought of his old friend, Koisplash, who had passed away a few moons ago. He sighed. Only one elder remained. It was a shame that the younger cats of Treeclan had so few older cats to get advise from. "Then the rest of the day is up to you. If you see Crystalbird around, ask if you can join a border patrol. I think you'll like possibly encountering cats from other clans."

(sorry this took so long!)

[Squirrelbite]

Squirrelpaw followed him back to camp, her long legs aching after walking such a long distance. She knew that she would get used to it, though, and the tired feeling was highly preferable to sitting around camp and doing nothing. 

"Okay." Squirrelpaw would take care of the elders and queens, but she had absolutely no intentions of talking to Crystalbird. She would rather go out hunting by herself than spend any time with that failure of a deputy.

((okay, so this is my first treeclan cat, and i was checking the ceremony sign-ups, and i don't see an assessment as a requirement.. is that not a thing, so can i just request a ceremony now?))