After a short time has passed, Bluestar relieves Firepaw of his care duties and returns him to training with the other apprentices. Firepaw joins a hunting assessment with Graypaw and Ravenpaw wherein each apprentice must bring back as much prey as possible within an assigned area. Tigerclaw will be watching them and evaluating their skills. Firepaw’s assigned hunting grounds take him straight to his old Twolegplace (neighborhood), where he runs into his old friend, Smudge. Firepaw feels disgusted when he notices how soft and lazy his old friend is, and how easily Smudge yields when Firepaw at first mistakenly attacks him. Firepaw feels lucky to have escaped the fate of kittypet life for himself. Smudge asks Firepaw if living in the wild is as good as Firepaw thought it would be, and Firepaw, after reflecting on both the positives and negatives of his experience, responds that he knows who he is now (128).

Graypaw, Ravenpaw, and Firepaw all excel in their hunting assessment. At camp, the kits from the nursery watch the apprentices in awe as they return laden with prey, making Firepaw glow with pride.