Book 9 - Chapter 4

 "Apprentices, I haven't forgotten about you. The other leaders and I have decided though that while the warriors' competition was a fighting competition the apprentices competition is a hunting one. 2 warriors will go along and they will watch the apprentice and they will also follow the apprentice, but they will not give help in any way." said Sparrowstar. "Mentors will not go with their apprentices. Instead the apprentices will have to work together in the pairs that I put them in. They will work together as a team and they will try to hunt as much prey as they can before night falls. They will not kill a whole family of mice if they come upon them. We need prey to live, but we need to keep the stocks plentiful." said Cedarstar. "Blossomfur and Rivera, you will go with Mintpaw and Blackpaw. Whiteclaw and Dragonwhisker will go with Foxpaw and Pinkpaw. Your time starts now." The groups darted away. Foxpaw and Pinkpaw turned towards the moor, while Mintpaw and Blackpaw raced towards the woods. Later that day both groups had done fairly well. "Fishclan now is the time that the apprentices will see who caught the most prey. Mintpaw and Blackpaw you are our winners. Sorry, Pinkpaw and Foxpaw there will always be next time. Warriors do you have anything to say about the pairing?" asked Troutstar. Rivera stepped forward. "Both apprentices hunted well, Mintpaw brought down some squirrels and she remembered to step lightly when hunting mice, while Blackpaw was able to leap through the trees to catch birds, a skill that it took me a very long time to master myself." Blossomfur nodded, "although they work together well as individuals if they ever had to take part in a mass hunting patrol or in partners for a single hunting patrol both cats would probably be unsure of themselves, for never once did they try t o work as a team they never paired up to take down something that might have a better chance of getting away." She said. Cedarstar turned to the other warriors. Dragonwhisker said, "Foxpaw did well helping Pinkpaw learn the routine, of a hunting patrol, and he positioned her well so they could hunt down some rabbits." Whiteclaw nodded then said, "Foxpaw however always asked Pinkpaw if she wanted to go out and work together to hunt something down, never once did he suggest that they try to hunt alone. He looked like he didn't want to hunt alone, and when he tried to he made some minor mistakes that should have been corrected." Whiteclaw stepped back. "Fishclan both pairs of apprentices have hunted well and we shall sleep with full bellies tonight. We honor each of our apprentices." said Berrystar.