Chapter Four: Battle Training

The apprentices awoke when it was sunrise. They assembled with their mentors, and went into the dark forest. Bramble followed Ashtail as he gave a tour of the camp. They finally started to train.

“Do you know how to unsheathe your claws, yet?” asked Ashtail. Bramble shook his head.  Ashtail showed him how to do it, after many tries he succeeded. Ashtail showed him moves like claw and bite. Bramble felt bad for Ashtail because Bramble had to do the moves on him. Ashtail finished teaching the basics to him. “It is lunch now, follow me,” said Ashtail, jerking his head. They walked past some hills and a cliff to the lunch area. Roxy and Thrash were the only ones there at the moment. Thrash and Ashtail started talking. Ashtail would laugh at some of Thrash’s jokes as he bit into his deer leg.

“How is training?” asked Bramble, breaking the silence between him and Roxy. She looked up and snorted, “ It was fine, I learned some new moves.” Bramble and Roxy then talked about fighting moves and cool techniques( this surprised him because Roxy was mean all the time ). Bramble looked down from the cliff and saw a group of apprentices walking back to the hills. Kollin was there so Roxy and Bramble joined the group of apprentices. “What is this?” asked Roxy, sneering.

"It is battle training. It is basically a competition of who is the best fighter out of the apprentices,” answered another apprentice. 

The apprentice jerked his head to a female cat with pale white fur and sparkling sky blue eyes ( must have been Aurora’s kit ) “That is Sky. She is the champion of battle training for an entire week!” exclaimed the apprentice. They finally reached a flat area in the forest. There were circles, Bramble assumed it was where each animal stood before they fought. Sky and the apprentice walked to the circles and they stood in a circle.

“ No claws and no fangs, fight now!” yelled an apprentice standing in the middle of them. Sky did not hesitate for a second. She jumped up and kicked the apprentice in the back- making him fall to the ground. Sky then sat on him. “Sky is the winner! Bramble come up,” exclaimed the apprentice or judge. He was next to battle her? Bramble wobbled his way to the circle. Sky snorted slightly and got in a crouching position. “ No claws and no fangs, fight now!” exclaimed the apprentice.

Sky jumped in the air and tackled him to the floor. Bramble leapt up throwing Sky off him. Some of the apprentices clapped a bit.

“Sky will beat him anyway,” Bramble heard one of the apprentices whisper to another.

Sky shook off some dust on her pelt and charged at him. She body slammed him into a tree. Sky backed away and laughed a bit. Suddenly, a branch fell on her back. She fell to the ground, and Bramble stood on her. The apprentices applauded and the judge even looked happy.

“ Victory to Bramble!” exclaimed the crowd. The apprentices soon went back to their den for the night.

Sky sat by Bramble, she looked like she was mad at him. Roxy kept chatting to an older apprentice about training. Kollin was trying to get the attention of another apprentic. Bramble felt tired, so he rested his eyes and fell asleep.

Author's Note: So this is Bramble's first day of training! I added a music list because it is cool!