a warrior cats rewrite (2024)

For RiverClan, a clan full of cats who prioritize comfort, luxury, and prosperity, the time of an apprentice’s assessment is perhaps one of the most exhilarating moments for any individual cat. Any RiverClan cat who has crossed paths with an opposing border patrol has heard the accusations — they are lazy, vain, and all too assured for cats who rarely lift a paw — and in some sense, a RiverClan apprentice’s assessment has been designed to challenge such conceptions.

The water is a vital part of any RiverClan cat’s life. Nearly from birth, kittens are trained to adapt to the process of staying afloat, their skills refined as they age. Often, a RiverClan cat will be capable of a basic paddle even before they are given their apprentice name. Because of this, the vast majority of RiverClan assessments are tethered to swimming.

Any apprentice who faces a typical training period will be encouraged to attempt their assessment at twelve moons of age, though not every cat immediately makes haste for their chance to become a warrior. Still, most will at least try to pass their assessment at twelve moons, though it is not uncommon for RiverClan apprentices to fail in their first attempt.

After all, the task set out in front of them is monumental. To pass their assessment, a RiverClan apprentice must swim against the current for the entire length of the river. Though they are permitted to slow their pace, they may not stop at any point. It takes endurance, strength, and strong swimming skills to be able to make it to the end of the river, at which point they must complete one final task. To drag any fish from the depths once they climb to the bank of the water is the final feat a RiverClan apprentice must complete, be it a minnow or a trout. Often exhausted from the process of swimming, RiverClan cats may falter at this final step.

Still, RiverClan is a clan made to swim, and they take their assessment very seriously, practicing thoroughly for it. Throughout the seasons of newleaf, greenleaf, and even the first moon or so of leaf-fall, apprentices will set about this assessment with determination. Few cats are at true risk due to a RiverClan cat’s instincts to always stay afloat, though danger is introduced in two forms. First, if the river swells, and second, if an apprentice must be assessed in the coldest moons of the year.

Of course, no cat may swim when the water is covered in a sheet of ice. Rather than avoid assessing apprentices during this time altogether, RiverClan hosts a rather bold challenge for those who come of age when snow coats the ground. To pass a leafbare assessment, an apprentice must follow the same path they would in a warmer time, though they walk along the river rather than swimming it. Still, they do not stay safely on the banks. Instead, they are expected to tread carefully atop the ice that coats the water.

If the ice cracks a touch, the assessment instantly concludes. Many apprentices will request to be held back from warriorhood if they coincidentally hit twelve moons of age during leafbare, though brave cats may take on the challenge, and any cat who passes their assessment during such a season will be regarded by the clan as a truly capable warrior.

Should an apprentice tackle their assessment during the season of ice and frost, a rescue team must accompany them. The clause that any ice cracking or shifting concludes the assessment has, after all, not saved the occasional apprentice from accidentally splashing in to frigid water. Frequently, the healer attends the rescue team, close by in case the worst occurs. Leafbare assessments are a rarity, though, as apprentices again will often avoid them, and prospective parents usually attempt to avoid having litters that will be fated for their assessment to fall during such an unfortunate time of the year.

When a RiverClan apprentice passes their assessment, they will first be gifted either a stone, which is most common, or sometimes a shell that has been carefully carved and engraved with decorations unique to that individual cat. The engravings may be done by any significant figure in the apprentice’s life, though often the duty is taken by mentors, parents, or close friends. This gift will be kept for a lifetime by a RiverClan cat, frequently nestled into their den alongside their nest, valued highly and meant to represent the progress made during their moons of training.

Once the gift has been provided, RiverClan apprentices are named by their leader, and as soon as a name has been given, the clan gathers round with heaps of water soaked moss which they then shake and splatter the newly named warrior with. If the warrior has any close friends or kin, it is somewhat of a tradition for them to later assist the new warrior in grooming their pelt clear and dry of the sprinkling of water as an exchange of intimacy and trust.