Garpaw’s Warrior Ceremony

It had only been a few sunrises since Wolfstar had become leader, but Minnowstream had given him the tip that her apprentice was ready to advance to the warrior position. He was nervous to mess up the ceremony, but he had seen enough that he would know what to do. Right?

Leaping up onto the branch he had called apprentice ceremonies from before, the Riverclan leader called out to the clan. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below the Willow Branch." waiting for the crowd, and Garpaw in particular to gather, he mentally went over what he would say next.

Willowshade slinked over to the gathering crowd of cats, stretching after having dozed on the warm sand in the late afternoon sun. It had only been a few days as deputy, and she had not yet had to do any ceremonies... she figured it was worth paying a bit of extra attention this time.

---

The borderline-rotund orange tabby apprentice emerged from the apprentice's den with a self-suffering groan, irritated at having his nap disturbed. Garpaw joined the growing crowd of cats begrudgingly, a yawn stretching his maw. "This better be over quick," he grumbled to himself.

Wolfstar spotted Garpaw as he joined the small crowd, and after giving the rest of the clan a few more moments to join, he began. He took a deep breath in, remembering the words he had practiced saying before. He needed to get this right. ” I, Wolfstar, leader of Riverclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. H has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in her turn. Garpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?”

He asked, looking at the larger tom. He was glad he hand’t messed that up, it would have been embarrassing in front of everyone.