Rosewood had been watching Golem for a while even before she'd started training with him. When she'd eventually worked up the courage to go right up close to him, she'd been happily surprised when he offered to train her and even more surprised when she'd agreed. A few of the other cats in ForestClan had offered to train her in one form or another. Her father, Burningnight, taught her how to take care of herself and how to dream walk. He said that it was important to check up in with the lives of the living. He even told her about her loner family, but she didn't dream walk with them. She would watch them, sometimes, but she didn't want to intrude. She had only been old enough to be given a name and after that... she had died.
She'd woken up on the border of a glowing golden field and a dark forest. She didn't know where to go. She didn't smell her mother anywhere. It had been Burningnight that had come to the border and retrieved her. StarClan, he'd said, was no place for an innocent kitten. They only cared about Clan cats, not about the lives of the innocent that they shunned from their group. Rosewood became aware that many loners believed in ForestClan: where she lived. Golem, as she learned his name eventually, was one of them. She didn't let the other ForestClan cats train her, but when Golem had offered during her times dreamwalking with him... She'd said yes without knowing why.
He was a stern teacher. He pushed her even though she was small. He didn't baby her or think less of her because of her stubby legs or round stomach. She was confident that she was gonna get stronger under his training!
Even if she didn't grow, Golem certainly did! Every time she saw him he was getting bigger and bigger, until he was nearly as large as Burningnight! One day, she commented on how he was growing all the time, but she never was going to. They never really spoke much about it and he always frowned when she brought it up. Eventually, he'd asked her why and she fidgeted. Didn't he know? The conversation that followed was uncomfortable. She thought he'd not want to train her anymore now that he knew she wasn't alive. Instead, he just disappeared altogether. He must've woken up in his surprise, she'd realized and hoped she would see him the following day.
When she did, he approached her first.
"You're dead." He said. She nodded. He frowned.
"You're not going to grow any bigger." He said. She nodded again. The frown grew bigger. Then he said. "But you've grown stronger. And I will continue to train you until you no longer need it."
And so their lessons continued. Every night their lessons continued and every night they grew closer. Rosewood never knew her sibling, Soda, but she imagined that if she had grown to know her, she would've felt a similar kinship to what she felt to Golem as the two of them grew stronger together.
(WC: 520)