Willowpelt padded after Firestar, her paws twitching as she imagined a hunt. It was leaf-bare, and the clan needed to be fed. Whitestorm's and her son, Sootpaw, would be coming along with herself, Firestar, Ashfur, and Thornclaw for a hunting patrol. "I wonder what we'll find," Firestar remarked.

"Not much, that's for sure," Ashfur returned. "It's leaf-bare."

Firestar shrugged. "Sootpaw," he mewed, turning to the young apprentice. "What do you smell?"

Willowpelt watched as her dark gray son opened his jaws to sniff the air. His answer was prompt as he replied to the clan leader, though Willowpelt knew Sootpaw well enough to be able to tell that he was a little nervous to speak directly to the clan leader. "The Thunderpath... and a Twoleg with its dog." He sniffed again. "And vole."

"How long ago do you think the Twoleg and its dog were?" Willowpelt prompted.

Sootpaw opened his jaws again. Willowpelt purred as she realized how determined he was to get these answers right, especially because he was in front of Firestar. "I think... yesterday?" His voice came out as a question. Firestar narrowed his eyes, then nodded.

"I think so, too," the ginger tom confirmed. "Well done, Sootpaw." As Sootpaw puffed out his chest, Willowpelt let out a purr of pride and happiness for her son. The ThunderClan leader's eyes gleamed. "Come on, let's renew the scent markers while we're here."

"Good idea," Thornclaw mewed. "It saves some work for other patrols."

Willowpelt padded ahead, bounding over to the border. Suddenly, she caught a whiff of something strangely familiar, yet not the Twolegplace or the bordering clan. Still, for a few heartbeats, she was unable to put a name to the scent. Then, with a pang of horror, she realized. "Badger!" she warned the four toms. Ashfur sniffed the air, and nodded.

Firestar's green eyes betrayed worry. "That's not good."

"We certainly don't want one on our territory," Willowpelt agreed. Especially not to come for Whitestorm or my kits. "Come on! Let's check whether it's here to settle in the forest, or if it's just passing through!" Thornclaw nodded and padded after her.

Soon enough, the patrol reached where its scent was strongest: Snakerocks. Sootpaw let out a whimper. "Are badgers really dangerous?"

"They'd kill you easily," Firestar confirmed, his voice grim. "Let's split up. Willowpelt, you and Ashfur check around that tall, flat boulder over there." He flicked his tail to what was almost an low, overhanging slab of rock. "Thornclaw, Sootpaw, and I will check down here."

Willowpelt nodded and flicked her tail, beckoning for Ashfur to follow. The light gray tom rose to his paws and padded after her. Willowpelt eyed the slab of rock jutting out above them, mentally measuring how high she had to jump. Bunching her muscles, she sprang upward, but her leap fell a little short, and she was forced to haul herself up after her forepaws fastened on the rock. Ashfur leaped after her, clambering onto the rock.

"Ashfur!" Willowpelt called, sniffing. "There's a scent here!" She padded over to the area where Snakerocks led out of the territory.

Ashfur looked hesitant. "I don't know if we should follow it..."

He was cut off by a huge lumbering sound, and Willowpelt gasped in horror as a huge black and white shape stalked over to them. Badger! That was not the worst part, however. It was that, while Firestar and Thornclaw had scrambled to safety, Sootpaw was still left in the open space, cowering as the badger's huge paws loomed above him, ready to slam down on the dark gray apprentice.

Willowpelt's eyes widened. I can't lose Sootpaw! She heard Firestar's yowl. "Sootpaw! Move!"

Ashfur leaped to his paws and sprang toward the badger, but she stopped him. "No. Wait. This is for me to do." The stars were clear in her head, shining, calling her toward them, as she dove forward, knocking her son out of the way. She let out a scream as she felt the badger's paws drive into her back, and pain enveloped her as she heard a crunch. Then, everything went black.

oO0Oo

Willowpelt awoke in a mellow landscape, the sun bright on the grass. She glimpsed so many of the cats she had once lost: Bluestar, Swiftbreeze, Adderfang, Redtail, Patchpelt, Spottedleaf, Leopardfoot... and so many more of her deceased clanmates. I can rejoin you... finally.

"I'm dead, right?" she asked, hardly daring to pose the question.

Her sister, Spottedleaf, dipped her head, and Willowpelt purred, breathing in her sweet scent. "Well done. You gave your life for a clanmate."

Her mother, Swiftbreeze, padded forward to nuzzle her daughter. "Swiftbreeze!" she heard herself cry out. "I've missed you so much!" Her mother didn't reply, just pressed against her, the warmth of her fur spreading to Willowpelt. Redtail nodded, his eyes gleaming in admiration as he touched noses with her, and her other littermates, Leopardfoot and Patchpelt, dipped their heads to her, their gazes filled with affection. Her father, Adderfang, let out a purr as he met her strikingly blue gaze.

"You have done well in your lifetime." All the voices she had known and loved were combined into one. "But it was your time to join us, and you did so heroically, saving the life of a clanmate."

Willowpelt padded toward the group of StarClan cats, feeling a part of them. She stared at her light gray fur, and received the signal that she truly was a StarClan cat: her fur was glittering with stars. "Spottedleaf!" she mewed. She had always been close to her medicine cat sister, who had died under Clawface's claws.

Spottedleaf's eyes were dark, however. "What you did to come and join us simply delayed the future. Fate is inevitable, Willowpelt, just remember that."

oO0Oo

Willowpelt was staring intently into a pool of stars, watching ThunderClan from above. Her gray pelt was sleek and smooth as she proudly watched Firestar leap up onto the Highledge to call a clan meeting to make her kits warriors, at least, Rainpaw and Sootpaw. Sorrelpaw had injured herself, and thus had to wait for her moment. "Rainpaw, Sootpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code, even at the cost of your life?"

Her heart warmed as she heard her kits speak. "I do," Sootpaw mewed.

Rainpaw nodded. "I do."

"Then by the power of StarClan, I give you your warrior names. Sootpaw, from this moment onward, you will be known as Sootfur. StarClan honors your determination and courage, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan." Willowpelt's eyes glowed as she watched her son lick Firestar's shoulder and step back. "Rainpaw, you will be known as Rainwhisker. StarClan honors your loyalty and bravery, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan." She let out a purr as she saw her other son lick Firestar's shoulder in respect.

She whisked around her daughter, who was in the medicine den, and looked up at her in surprise. "Willowpelt?"

"Yes, Sorrelpaw." Willowpelt waved her tail, though she realized that Sorrelpaw probably couldn't see her. "I want to tell you that your turn is not far off, now."

oO0Oo

"Sorrelpaw, from this moment onward you will be known as Sorreltail. StarClan honors your determination and loyalty, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan." Willowpelt watched proudly as her daughter padded forward and licked Firestar's shoulder before stepping back to the side.

I only wish I was there with her, to enjoy this moment, Willowpelt thought, gazing at her kits.

A shadow fell over her. "Are you watching Sorrelpaw's warrior ceremony?"

"Whitestorm!" Willowpelt mewed, purring. Her mate had joined StarClan a while back. "Yes. She's Sorreltail, now."

Whitestorm nodded, his eyes dark. "She had a hard path before becoming a warrior."

"I just hope the three of them won't have to join us anytime soon," Willowpelt remarked. "A great danger is coming to the clans. I hope that the chosen four return in time with the solution to the danger."

oO0Oo

Willowpelt watched, horrified, as badgers tore into the camp. Midnight's warning came too late! she realized, her tail lashing in her worry and frustration. The clans had moved to the lake territories, but now it seemed as though the lake posed more danger than the forest. Badgers!

She padded over to the pool and looked down, her heart alive with worry. Where's Sorreltail?

Her question was answered by Cinderpelt's anxious wail. "Sorreltail's kitting!"

"What, now?" a cat snapped, most likely Brambleclaw.

"Yes, now!" the gray medicine cat mewed, her blue eyes glazed with frustration. Lowering her voice, she muttered, "I wish Leafpool was here to help." The lithe, pale brown tabby she-cat had vanished from the clans to be with her mate, Crowfeather of WindClan.

Willowpelt spotted Rainwhisker easily, fighting off a badger with Cloudtail. She gasped as her son crumpled to the ground, his leg bent at an awkward angle. She felt Whitestorm beside her, but barely turned her head to greet her mate. Whitestorm laid his tail on her shoulder. "It's not his time... yet. His leg is hurt, nothing more."

Where's Sootfur? She gasped as she watched Sootfur left alone to fight a badger, that was about to slam its paws down on his head. "Sootfur!" she yowled, though she knew he couldn't hear her from the clans. Her blue eyes filled with tears as her dark gray son let out a heart-piercing cry as he fell to the ground, heaving a final breath before his eyes closed. "Sootfur!" she mewed, watching as her son raced from the top of a golden hill down to her.

Suddenly, Spottedleaf's words rung in her ears. Fate is inevitable, Willowpelt, just remember that.

Sootfur had been destined to die under a badger's claws. Willowpelt had just delayed his death when he had been an apprentice, but he had died now, the way he had always been fated to die. "Sootfur, you had always been fated to die because of a badger, and I just delayed your death," Willowpelt mewed.

"Thank you." Sootfur dipped his head to his mother.

Willowpelt sighed before responding, and her words rung with a greater wisdom. "Your fate was unavoidable."