Ferretspring

Ferretkit was born to Minkrunner and Snowtail. Being an only kit meant he got plenty of love and attention from both parties. His kithood was relatively uneventful, little happened to either motivate or disuade him from becoming an apprentice. Stories about starclan.. Fated prophetic cats... Those who's eyes shone with the knoweldge of a thousand lifetimes. All of these were fantastical in nature, cats filled to the brim with stars, granting lucky leaders 9 lives... But that's all it was to him. He understood their need to respect and honour those who died. Those who watched their paths from above. As he grew, he understood more about how they weren't stories.. just unseen realities. But... This posed a question to the mind of the young Ferretkit. Starclan always.. had such important jobs to do. As did those who spoke for starclan.. or were blessed by starclan. He didn't want that. He didn't think he'd ever be ready for the entire sky's worth of ancestors to put on him such expectations once he became an apprentice.. let alone a warrior.

Nonetheless, he would sit and listen to his parents stories for hours. He loved the time he'd gotten to spend with them both. Minkrunner was the one who taught him how to be respectful of the stars chosen few, and to be wary of those who didn't follow their light. She'd always let him curl up in her fur, which was honestly much more aligned with what he wanted than the starlit path talk. Still.. he knew she just wanted the best for him. As for Snowtail, Ferretpaw adored spending time with his father. Snowtail played hide and seek often with him as a kit, and instilled a sense of wonder for the world around him. Snowtail often felt like his only hope to never grow up.

The warriors he'd seen around camp always seemed so busy. The leaders never had time for much idle chat, and none of the warriors ever seemed to have any fun. The other apprentices seemed to actually enjoy their training sessions, but that was it. To Ferretkit, there was no fun to be found with growing up. He decided he'd have to be extra patient with the older apprentices and warriors. He'd show them how to relax and have fun again! He'd show them all how to enjoy the supposed 'starlit' path their clan was so keen on.

At the time of becoming an apprentice, he strode up to meet his mentor Fennelspring with joy and a mission. He'd make everyone believe that sometimes having your head in the clouds isn't so bad. After all, the view must be great from up there.

What happened though was anything but. Over the course of his apprenticeship, one thing became clear. Something was wrong with him. Ferretpaw gradually lost his ability to sleep peacefully. He could never understand why his dreams continued to be walked alongside cats he didn't know. Maybe it was just his overactive imagination... but they always offered him the things he wanted. He didn't want to grow up, and they told him he didn't have to. No, when the darkforest came to Ferretpaw.. They didn't have to disguise themselves or lie about who they were. He didn't even ask. He was young and naive, and they promised him that he would be able to impress those in his clan without having to work so hard.

A cat by the name of sootstep took the role as Ferretpaw's dark forest mentor, and all of the overnight training left him tired during the day. He did his best to keep up with Fennelspring too.. but Ferretpaw could never find anything to relate with him on. It took every ounce of energy from Ferret to get the older warrior to even consider playing with him or doing anything fun. Was it really so wrong to just want to enjoy time spent together? Why was every warrior in Gladeclan so focused on being the best? Sootstep never made him feel like that. Sootstep took interest in the games Ferret wanted to play. They found new ways together to make training fun, and over time he found his eyesight getting better too.

Ferretpaw never new he'd been moon-scarred. He assumed every cats vision developed as well as his was. From the early morning training before the sun had risen.. to the dusk and nightfall sessions.. He never struggled. Fennelspring probably figured it out long before he did.

Towards the end of his apprenticeship, Ferretpaw had just about enough of the entire thing. His growing dread of growing up kept resurfacing, and the fear of taking a warrior name made his training all but halt. He kept up his duties, but starting slacking off when it came to camp maintenance. I mean... If every cat could see as well as he could, then what was the point? They could just see the danger coming, right? Someone else could come patch the area if it was such a huge deal.

Funny how that works, isn't it. Funny how one small mistake can cost you everything.

Funny.

His mistake cost him his mother. Minkrunner was scaling the tree to get back into camp when she got attacked by an Owl. Usually owls don't go for such large prey, it saw her through the patches he'd failed to fix. She didn't see it coming, and with how quiet they can be.. She just didn't stand a chance. She was picked up and wrestled down to the ground. By the time other warriors had chased the owl off, she was barely hanging on.

They called it a freak accident. After all, how often do you see an owl go after a fully grown cat like that? There were whispers amongst the clan. His father was absolutely grief stricken. Ferret would never fully understand why this happened, but that was the price he paid for his moon-scarred powers. His father wouldn't look at him after that. He couldn't. Eventually, Ferretpaw woke up to his father gone. Snowtail had left, taking any semblence of comfort Ferretpaw had with him.

The remainder of his apprenticeship was dull. He kept his head down and did the job he was meant to do. He didn't ask to play anymore, he stuck to Fennelsprings side like glue. He'd abandoned his training with Sootstep, finding no solace in further slacking off. There was nothing he could do to fix this, other than grow up.

It took a long time for his old personality to start resurfacing. When the time came for his ceremony into a fully fledged crafter, we was reluctant. Still, out of respect for Fennelspring, he made the small request to take 'Spring' as his warrior name. He was the only cat that Ferret could still dream of making proud, and he'd spend the rest of his life trying.

Now, a few moons into his warriorhood, Ferretspring can always be seen doing extra checks on the camps support. He may still slink off for extra time in the sun once in a while, but you can always count on him to be doing nightly checks of every den support or wall. When he's not slacking off or hanging around in the middle of the night, you can often find him playing around with some of the kits to give their mothers a break. Sometimes he wonders if the leader would let him switch ranks... but ultimately, he has a job to do here.