Only Dimkit failed to show, which wasn’t too bad of a turnout if Fadingsun had to say so himself. Hopefully the kit would show up at the next meeting; if not, he’d have to track the child down and see what was going on. What fun that would be…
“Ravenkit, Branchkit, and Mousekit,” he began, smiling down at each kit in turn. For as awkward as interacting with children often felt, he knew that this was a special moment for each. It was a special moment for him, too; these were the first kits he was naming as apprentices. Hopefully many more would follow.
“From this moment on, until you receive your warrior names, you’ll be known as Ravenpaw, Branchpaw, and Mousepaw. Ravenpaw, you’ll be training with Marigoldleap. Now that she’s returning to warrior duties, I think it’s a perfect time for her to take on an apprentice. Branchpaw, Fallenwish will be your mentor. Fallenwish is a dedicated and loyal warrior, and I think the two of you will work fine together.
“Finally: Mousepaw, your mentor is going to be Duskleaf. I trust that all three of you will put the right amount of effort into your training, and that in turn your mentors will show you the same amount of dedication.”
Fadingsun paused for a moment to allow any chants the Clan wished to convey upon the three newly-minted ‘paws. After that, his gaze and tone hardened a bit.
“I want to be clear that going forward, expectations will be stricter for both apprentices and mentors. There are several apprentices in this Clan who are due or overdue for their warrior ceremonies. Going forward, any apprentice who isn’t warrior-ready by the age of 16 moons or the end of their ninth moon of training will have their place in this Clan re-evaluated, whichever comes first. If you’re an apprentice at or near one of those milestones, I suggest you put your head down and get to work.
“Likewise, mentors are going to be held accountable for their apprentice’s training going forward. If any mentor goes a moon or more without doing anything to train their apprentice, they will more than likely get their apprentice re-assigned. While apprentices are free and encouraged to seek training from others, mentors exist for a reason. I’m not going to have mentors sitting on their ass not doing anything to train their apprentices. To those of you who have been slacking, you have until next moon to fix it or your apprentice is getting re-assigned. If it’s an issue with motivation on your apprentice’s part, come speak to me as soon as possible.”
He knew these requirements were a fair bit stricter than what Larkstar and Birdsnow had enforced, but RiverClan had a history of problems with apprentices finishing training and it needed to end. There was no reason, except under extreme circumstances, for an apprentice to dawdle excessively with their training.
With that said, there wasn’t anything left to cover for this meeting. A wave of tiredness suddenly swamped him; his instinct was to go back to the warriors’ den, but he immediately realized that wouldn’t be his home any longer.
His tone suddenly strained, he said, “This meeting is dismissed. If anyone has further questions or concerns, you can meet me in the leader’s den.” With that, he leapt off the Floodstone and retreated into his new den.
[ Exceptions for the new apprentice/mentor rules will be made on a case-by-case basis, and generally only for specific IC/OOC circumstances. Time in training will be tracked by IRL months passed, based on either the date of an apprentice ceremony or the date a cat was submitted to the allegiances. Those apprentices who are already at the aforementioned milestones (16 moons of age or nine months in training) will be given a two month grace period to wrap training up and complete a final assessment. After that, if they are still not warrior-ready Fading will re-evaluate their place in the Clan. Any questions may be directed to me via VM or DM! ]