This story is for LeafClan's Sinking Challenge! I hope you all like it!
Palepaw had always been the batter apprentice. Cinderpaw had always known this. His sister was everything a WindClan cat should be. She was fast, good at catching rabbits and excelled at battling. Cinderpaw was not. He was clumsy, found himself tripping and freezing up at the most inopportune moments. He didn't have enough stamina to chase rabbits to the gorge like his sister did. He kept thinking all these things as the two apprentices began their warrior assessment. "We are going to see how the two of you do in battle against Hawkfur and Ravenfrost," Grasswhisker, Cinderpaw's mentor said. "After battling the two of you are going to go hunting. If you manage to do well enough in both, the two of you will be made warriors by sunset."
Palepaw looked at her brother, excitement bubbling her in pale blue eyes. "Warriors, Cinderpaw. We're almost warriors!"
Cinderpaw looked at his feet, not having confidence they can take on the challenge. "Warriors, sure."
She gave him a look and shoved him with her shoulder as they walked to where they would be assessed in battle. Cinderpaw felt apprehensive as he noticed Hawkfur and Ravenfrost looking at them. Grasswhisker noticed the apprentice's nervousness. "Don't worry, Cinderpaw," Grasswhisker said, "you're ready for this."
Cinderpaw nodded and sat on the sideline as Palepaw and Hawkfur prepared to battle. When they started Hawkfur launched himself at the small she-cat, who gracefully dodged to the side and launched herself under him. She tripped him up then ran off, before circling back and landing another hit on Hawkfur. The warrior never caught up to the apprentice, though Cinderpaw could tell Hawkfur was going easy of Palepaw. He only hoped Ravenfrost would do the same for him. When the battle ended, Palepaw went to where her brother stood, panting heavily, but obviously satisfied with her assessment.
"Cinderpaw, you're up," Grasswhisker said. Cinderpaw got up, giving one last look at his cream colored sister, before walking up to Ravenfrost, noticing he was larger than the older black tom.
When the battle started Ravenfrost launched himself at Cinderpaw, who didn't dodge, like Palepaw had done, but instead used his strength and knocked the tom down when he reached Cinderpaw. He then pinned the black tom down, noticing Ravenfrost stopped struggling. Cinderpaw knew he hadn't used enough strength to cause any actual harm to Ravenfrost. Instead he stayed put until Grasswhisker called the battle over. "Great job, both of you." Cinderpaw felt relief at the praise, knowing if he passed the hunting part of his exam, he would be a warrior. "Catch as much prey as you can before sunset. I'll be watching, as well as Silentbreeze." Silentbreeze was Palepaw's mentor, an incredibly talented warrior, but lost his ability to speak after a battle when Cinderpaw and Palepaw were kits. He had trained Palepaw extraordinarily well.
Palepaw ran off immediately, catching scent of a rabbit by the RiverClan territory. Cinderpaw ran off after her. Where there was one rabbit, there were many.
Cinderpaw saw Palepaw had quickly made a pile of rabbit before Cinderpaw was even able to catch his first, when he heard a scream. "Help!" Cinderpaw recognized Palepaw's voice. "Help, please!" He ran to where the sound was coming from, the river. Palepaw had fallen in and was gripping onto a rock, slipping.
"Hold on!" Cinderpaw leaped into the water, knowing the falls were just downstream. He would never forgive himself if his sister died without him trying to help. The icy water clawed at Cinderpaw's fur and he could feel himself sinking. He hated the feeling of water, and he found it hard to fight after a few moments. He swam over to Palepaw and grabbed her fur in his scruff. Cinderpaw was afraid he was going to drown with Palepaw when he felt teeth in his scruff. He was dragged to the bank on the WindClan border by a RiverClan cat Cinderpaw didn't recognize. The cat was a perfect copy of Cinderpaw, a dark gray tabby with amber eyes, dark fur surrounding the face. "Are you two alright?"
Grasswhisker ran up to the tom and gave a gracious nod. "Nightmask, thank you. These two were finishing their warrior assessments."
The tom nodded and looked at the two apprentice's with Cinderpaw's eyes. "Well wouldn't want them to lose them, now would we? Good luck, you two." The tom swam back to his territory and the WindClan warriors collected Palepaw's prey.
At sunset Eaglestar called a WindClan meeting, granting the two apprentices warrior names. "I call upon our ancestors to look down on these apprentices. These two apprentices have trained hard in the ways of WindClan, learning every tradition and skill a WindClan warrior must possess. I command you to make them warriors in return. Palepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and traditions of WindClan, even at the cost of you life?"
Palepaw nodded. "I do."
"Then from this day forward you shall be known as Paleflower."
The Clan cheered Paleflower's name.
"Cinderpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and traditions of WindClan, even at the cost of you life?"
Cinderpaw nodded. "I do."
"Then from this day forward, you shall be known as Cinderface."
Cinderface looked at the now rising moon as the Clan cheered his new name. Still, he could not help but wonder about the RiverClan cat, Nightmask, who had rescued him and his sister.
Well that's it for this one-shot, but if another challenge comes up where I can write about Nightmask, I totally will!
Lots of Love
-Juliet (Mosspaw of LeafClan)